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Nature 


LUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 


VOLUME CIII 


MARCH, ig19, to AUGUST, 1919 


“To the solid ground 
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.” —WorvswortH 


ondon 


MACMILLAN AND CO, LimitTeEp 
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 


ite. 
ee cs 
WAKES 
Be der: 
Sf 


Pe 


ie. 
vt. a 


ee 
i> Rigen 
SeAe Re 


NAME 


“ Atom,””” 104 
J. F.), elected Secretary of the Council 
fe rican Association, 37 

Analyses and Tests of Rigidly Connected Re- 
“C te Frames, 373 
J. Aloy, The Inversion of Saccharose 
_Tonisation of Water, 340 
e Laws of Flow of Liquids by- Drops 
Drops, 119 
. E.), Experiments with Clay in its 
es 


), ‘elected Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool 
; Medical Contributions to the Study 


PS 
Absorption Spectrum of the Nova, 19 
3 approved by the King first Minister 


. E.), and H. G. Becker, Determination 
Solution of Atmospheric Nitrogen and 
Water. Part ii., 298 

Labour and Scientific Research, 425 

e Masses of Binary Stars, 392 

_ Man’s Supreme Inheritance. Conscious 
Control in Relation to Human Evolu- 
. Second edition, 444 

e Spontaneous Inflammation of Mixtures 
her Vapour, 179 

), Proposed Presentation to, of his 


“Industrial Reconstruction and the Metric 


The Quantitative Study of Plankton, 239 
S.), appointed Lecturer in Natural Philo- 
University, 336; Optics and 


ee B.), and Prof. T. H. Laby, The Sensi- 
‘Photographic Plates to X-rays, 177 
A. J.), appointed Professor of Chemist 


vee. Strand, 278 3 

The Physiology of Industrial Organisa- 
the Re-employment of the Disabled. Trans- 
_B. Miall. Edited, etc., by Prof. A. F. 


Kent, 341 5 ; 
R.), Wheat-breeding in Argentina, 98 
(Miss Doris), awarded the Fream Memorial 


r. C, W.), Curious Markings on Chalk, 25 _ 
(Capt. W. A.), appointed Lecturer in Wireless 
hy at the Cardiff Marine Technical School, 172 
N.), and H. G. Carter, The Vegetation of 
an, 299 

J. E.), Process of Producing Palm-sugar in India, 
nt advances in Vaccine Therapy, 455 

..), The Welding of Glasses, 271 

M.) [obituary], 210 - 

. L.), and D. Hanson, Methods of Preparing 
ime ib Aluminium Alloys for Microscopic 
mina’ » 251 mare raat 

), Application to Eight Different Substances of the 


. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Formula which Expresses the Heat of Evaporation of a 
Liquid, 79; Direct determination of the Temperature 
exponent in the equation of state of Fluids, 280; The 
Saturated Vapour Pressures and Latent Heats ‘of 
Evaporation of Propyl Acetate at various tempera- 
tures, 379 

Armstrong (Dr. E. F.),. and Dr. T. P. Hilditch, The 
Catalytic Actions at Solid Surfaces, 337 

Armstrong (Prof. H. E.), Coal Conservation, 393 

Artini (Prof. E.), Le Rocce. Concetti e Nozioni di Petro- 
grafia, 304 

Ashcroft (E. A.), Some Chemically Reactive Alloys, 459 

Aston (Dr. F. W.), Distribution of Intensity along Positive- 
ray Parabolas of Atoms and Molecules of Hydrogen, 
297; Experiments with Perforated Electrodes on the 
nature of the discharge in gases at Low Pressure, 
398; Use of Neon Lamps in Technical Stroboscopic 
Work, 297 

Astor (Major), and others, The Ministry of Health Bill, 7 

Auld (Lt.-Col. S. J. M.), Awarded the U.S. Distinguished 
Service Medal, 409 

Austin (Major L. J.), Research on Wounds of War, 223 

Ayyar (T. V. R.), Habits and Life History of Pempheres 
affinis, Faust, 137 


‘Bacot (Mr.), Experiments on ridding the Troops of Lice, 


454 
Bailey (A.), The Water Birds of Louisiana, 192 
Baillie (Prof. J. B.), The Stereoscopic Character of Know- 


ledge, 239 

Bailly (O.), Action of Alkyl Iodides on Neutral Sodium 
Phosphate in Aqueous Solution, 119 

Bairstow (L.), Developments in Aviation in the War 
Period, 414; The Progress of Aviation in the War 
Period, 327 

Baker (Dr. E. A.), appointed Director of a School of 
Librarianship at University College, London, 439 

Baker (G. S.), Gift to University College, London, for a 
‘Prize in memory of Dr. Sarah N. Baker, 96 

Balfour (Prof. I. Bayley), presented with the Gold Medal 
of the Linnean Society, 268; W. W. Smith and W. G. 
Craib, The Flora of South-West China, 151 

Ball (H. S.), Work of the Miner on the Western Front, 


230 

Balls (Dr. W. L.), Existence of Daily Growth-rings in the 
Cell-wall of Cotton Hairs, 78 

Bancroft (C. K.), [obituary], 191 

Banerji (S.), The Vibrations of Elastic Shells partly filled 
with Liquid, 174 

Banta (A. M.), Sex and Sex Intergrades in Cladocera, 19 

Barbellion (W. N. P.), The Journal of a Disappointed 


Man, 363. — 

Barclay (Dr), and Dr. Smith, Determination of the Effi- 
ciency of the Turbo-alternator, 91 

Barcroft (J.), appointed Reader in Physiology in Cam- 
bridge University, 56 

Barlow (G. T.), [obituary], 172 


vi 


Index 


[ Nature, 
October.g, 1919 


Barnard (J. E.), appointed Lecturer 
King’s College, London, 47 

Barnard (Prof.), Dark Markings on the Sky, 34; The 
Gegenschein or Counterglow, 134 

Barnes (A. A.), Rainfall in England, 177 

Barnett (E. de Barry) Coal-tar Dyes and Intermediates, 
221 

Barrett (Sir J. W.), Research and Service, 404 - 

Barrett (S. A.), Rites performed by the Wintun Indians, 


35! 

Bartlett (Sir H. H.), acknowledged the donor to the 
University of London of money for the erection of a 
School of Architecture, etc.; further gift by, 96 

Barton (R. F.), Ifugao Law, 371 

Bateson (Prof. W.), Dr. Kammerer’s Testimony to the 
Inheritance of Acquired Characters, 344 

Bauer (Dr. L. A.), Proposed Magnetic ‘and Allied Observa- 
tions during the Total Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919, 
44; Selection by, of -Cape Palmas, Liberia, for 
Magnetic and Electric Observations in connection with 
the Solar Eclipse, 131; H. W. Fisk and S. J. Mauchly, 
Magnetic Observations taken during the Solar Eclipse 
of June 8, 1918, 193 

Baume (G.), and M. Robert, 

. Elastic Walls, 379 

Bawtree (A. E.), A new Colour Transparency Process for 
‘illustrating Scientific Lectures, 296 

Bayet (A.), and A. Slosse, Arsenical Poisoning in Indus- 
tries involving Coal and its Derivatives, 160 

Bayliss (Prof. W. M.), Injection of a Solution of Gum 
Arabic in Cases of Wound Shock, 136; Intravenous 
Injections in Cholera, 264; Intravenous Injection in 
Wound Shock, 122 

Becker (Dr. G. F.), [obituary], 250 

Beddard (Dr. 


in Microscopy at 


A Glass Manometer with 


450 

Beddard (Dr. F. E.), Three Foetal Sperm Whales, 140 

Beebe (W.), Jungle Peace, 22 

Béhal (A.), Isolation and Characterisation of Alcohols as 
Allophanates, 280 

Beit (O.), Gift to the Imperial College of Science, South 

Kensington, 258 

Bellingham and Stanley, Ltd., Refractometers, 146 

Bengough (Capt.), and Dr. Hudson, Fourth enot of the 
Corrosion Committee of the Institute of Metals, 152 

Benoist (L.), A Reaction and Method for the Estimation 
of Ozone, 119; New Porous Walls Filtering Unsym- 
metrically, 419 

Benedict (F. G.), W. R. Miles, ‘and Miss A. Johnson, 
Temperature of the Human Skin, 513 

Bennett (G. R.), appointed Principal of the Technical In- 
stitute, Newport, Mon., 218 

Bernard (Archbishop), appointed Provost of Trinity College, 
Dublin, 295 

Berry (E), A Standardisation of Digitalis Preparations, 455 

Bertrand (G.), High Toxic Power of Chloropicrin towards 
certain of the Lower Animals, 179; The Preservation 
of Fruit without the addition of Sugar, etc., 340; and 
Mme. M. Rosenblatt, Comparative Toxic Action of 
some Volatile Substances upon various Insects, 259 

Beveridge (Sir W. H.), appointed Director of the London 
School of Economics, 439 

Bews (Prof. Pad W.), The Grasses and Grasslands of South 
Africa, 62 

Bidder (Dr. G. P.), Gift to the Marine Biological Associa- 
tion, 1g! 

Biffen (Prof.), Demonstration of Wheat Material, 432 

Bigelow (Prof. F. H.), A Treatise on the Sun’s Radiation 
and other Solar Phenomena in continuation of the 
Meteorological Treatise on Atmospheric Circulation and 
Radiation, 1915, 261 

Bigourdan (G.), Co-ordinates and Instruments of the Ob- 
servatory for Navigation, 340; Reform of the Calendar, 
24; The Observatory of Le Monnier in the Rue Saint: 
Honoré, 159; Unification of Astronomical and. Civil 


Time, 339 
Biquard (R.), A Modification of the Fluorometric Method. 
the | 
Measurement of the Radiation inom Comes Bulbs, | | 
Brown (Prof. Adrian J.), [obituary article], 369 ry 


'.of Measuring X-rays,. and its Application to 


200 


“Bonnet (P.), 


A. P.), to deliver the Bradshaw Lecture, ’ 


._Brooks 


Birley (Dr. L.), to be the Goulstonian Lecturer of the 
Royal Cileg: of Physicians of London, 328 q 

Bishop (C. W.), The Horses- of Tang Tial-Teung and the — 
Antecedents of the Chinese Horse, 489 J 

Blackman (Miss W. S.), ‘The Rosary in Magic and Reli- | 
gion, 231 

Bledisloe (Lord), Agriculture Dependent ‘upon Science, 3135 
elected Chairman of the Governors of the Royal Agri- ~ 
cultural College, Cirencester, 267 yj 

Bloch (Mme. E.), Anatomical Modifications of Roots by 
Mechanical Action, 500 

von seples (Krupp), Co-operation and Profit-sharing, 

Bolt ‘(Prof. ), Coal Conservation, 393; and R. J. Sarjant, 
Researches on the Chemistry of Coal. Part I., 258 

Relations between the Otoceras Layer of 
Armenia and those of the Himalayas, 519 5 

Boon (Dr.), appointed to the Chair of Chemistry at Heriot- 
Watt College, Edinburgh, 198 $ 

Boring (Miss A. M.), and Prof, R. Pearl, The Presence or _ 
Absence of Interstitial Cells in the Testes of Male 
Birds, 332 

Borradaile “L. A.), A Manual of Elementary Zoology. 
Second edition, 83. 

Bose (Sir J. C:), Life Movements in Plants, 381 ; 

Boswell (Prof. P. G. H.), Sands :. considered Gestaety 
and Industrially, 490; The Passing of the eccciieiaey 
Potash Famine, 473 

Bourquelot (E.), and M. Bridel, Application of ‘toe Bio-. 
chemical Method to the Study of several Species of | 

.' Indigenous Orchids, 160; and H. Hérissey, A tion 
of the Biological Method’ to the Study of the Leaves of 
Hakea Laurina, 39 

Boutaric (A.), Application of the Gibbs-Helmholtz Equation 
to Monovariant Systems, 280 

Bowlby (Sir Anthony), Experimental Medicine and the Sick — 
and Wounded in the War, 354 

Bowman (Major), A Filter-passing Germ 136 

Boyd (Dr. F. D.), appointed Professor of Clinical | Medicine 
in Edinburgh University, 418 

Boyd (J.), Afforestation, 83. 

Boyd (W. E.), Conferment upon of the Dei af M.D. 

- by Glasgow University, 158 

Brabrook (Sir Edward W.), Elected President of the 
South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 1920, 314 - 

Bracher (Miss Rose), Behaviour of Euglena deses on mud, 


511 et 
Bradford (Sir J. Rose), to be the Lumleian Lecturer of the 
' Royal College of Physicians of London, 328; F. F. . 
Bashford, and J. A. Wilson, Acute Infective om 
neuritis, 150 
Braesco (P.), Precipitated Aiorsbéaik Silica, 18 
Bragg (Prof. W. H.), Transmitting and Picking oP Sounds — 
in Water, 393 
Bragg (W. L.), appointed Professor of Physics - ” ‘the 
University of Manchester, 317 
Brammall (A.), Andalusite (Chiastolite), 359 
Brander (A. . The Machinery of Government, 104 
Branner (Dr. C.), Purchase of Count de Montessus de 
Ballore’s ‘Scien blopical Library, and “Promeatetion. 
to Stanford University, 350 d 
Bravetta (Rear Admiral E.), L’ Insidia Sot fomiaeies e Bewie a} 
fu Debellata, etc., 504 a 
Bredow (H.), appointed Directorstiaeeed of the. German 
Imperial Postal Department, 88 : 
Breton (A. C.), Mexican Clay Heads, etc., found on the e | 
Site of Teotihuacan, 192 a 
Breuil (l’Abbé H.), Paintings in Spanish Caves, 210° - 
Brierley (W. B.), An Albino Mutant of Botrytis cinerea : 


Pers., 139: ‘‘ Orchid Spot,’’ 10° 
Bristol (Miss B. M.), awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholar- 
ship, 397 
Britten (S. E.), 
River Dee, 311 
Brock (Maior R. W.), 


Possibilities of the Exploitation of ae 


Geology of Palestine, 239 | 
Brodsky (G.). A new Polariser, 97 
Brooks (C. E. P.), The Secular Variation of Rainfall, ey Ae 
(F. T.), appointed a University. Lecturer in 3 
Botany at Cambridge University, 278 © é 


Index 


Vii 


(G. E.), The British Journal Photographic Almanac 
Photographer’s Daily Companion, 1919, 3 

(J. C.), The Cassiterite Deposits of Tavoy, 290 

; Rudmose), awarded the Cuthbert-Peek Grant 
the Royal Geographical Society, 52 

» (Dr. E. G.), to deliver the FitzPatrick Lectures, 


(E. T.), Gift to the Marine Biological Association, 


(Dr. C. H.), appointed Gardiner Professor of 
riology in Glasgow University, 439 
ir David), Analysis of Tetanus Cases occurring in 
_Home Military Hospitals, 454 

letti (F.), Revision of the Oriental Tipulidae, 269 
nner (Sir John T.), [death], 350; [obituary], 389 
at (C — D.), A Periodogram Analysis of the Green- 
_ wich Temperature Records, 338. ; 
n (Prof. G. H.), Supposed Effect of Sunlight on 
Wate: eee 125; Tables of Bordered Antilogarithms, 
etc. we e Folk Songs of the Teton Sioux, 515 
int (W. W.), Galileo, 23. 

her (W. A.), Ripple Marks in Sedimentary Rocks, 450 
r Pie Ge Ay wponea fe : I.-Lias, 310 
ster (Dr. G. A.), a t rofessor of Physiol 
Bristol » University, int ei ek 
(W. E.), and W. Cramer, A new Factor in the 

nism of Bacterial Infection, 17 

Occultation of Smal! Stars by Jupiter, 492; 
a 3 (D. ition of Stars by aie ii4. 
s (D.), conferment upon of the Degree of D.Sc. b 
‘Glasgow University, 158 ai eae 
rard (Col. Sir S. G.), The Theory of Isostatic Compen- 
of Inequalities in the Earth’s Crust, 351 
(Prof. J), [death], 267 
ual . le Fleming), War Wounds, sor 

n (Prof. E. F.), A new Method of Weighing Colloidal 


eS, 2 x 
CK. F,), Wasps, 245 ; 

b=) a> Sigg a Vaporisers and Distributing 
s used in Internal Combustion Engines. .Second 
(Dr. # J.). Tylenchus. augustus, 269 
Prof. G. M.), A Manual of Geometrical Crystall- 
aph “eA tigecany solely of those portions of the sub- 
_the* Identification of Minerals, 103 


LR gd the Corona, 


4 
. A), Poisoning of Fish by Road-washings, 


and. N. H. Kolkmeyer, Structure of White and 


ce and Salaries, 404 ee » 
les ig Diffusion of Light by the Molecules of the 


(Prof. O. W.), and Prof. W. L. Eikenberry, 
Ele: of General Science. Revised edition, 63 

an (Dr, W. T.), Marine Boring Animals 219 
michel (Prof.), Proposed Granting of State Degrees in 
Applied Science in France, 118 
ll (C. I. R.), Airship Construction, 134 

(Sir J.), appointed Vice-Chancellor of Dublin 


} 
nencs 


ersity, 318 

el (Dr. Norman R.), Electro-Atomic Phenomena in 

“Magnetic Field, 384 

(Alderman T.), [death], 51 

stru Pies S. F.), Air Navigation. Notes and 

‘amples, I 

= (Andrew), [obituary], 471; [obituary article], 507 
-), and P. sree Mechanism of the Toxic Action 


, 460 
ter (Dr. G.' D. Hale), Protozoal Parasites in 
ozoic Times, 46 
er (Frof. H. C. H.), The Metallography of Iron 
Iron-Carbon Alloys, 436 Rh the 
. H.), Memorial lecture on the late Lt.-Col. E. F. 
on, 432; The Post-Graduate Training of the 


Car 


rks Chemist, 58 Y F 
(Dr; N,), awarded’ 150i. ‘by the Department of 
¢€ ‘ ; 


Scientific and Industrial Research to continue research 
work in Birmingham University, 397 

Carus (Dr. P.), [obituary], 191 

Castellani (Prof.), Control of Malaria, 132 

Cathcart (Dr. E. P.), appointed Gardiner ‘Professor of 
Physiological Chemistry in Glasgow University, 439 

Cave (Capt. C. J. P.), and J. S. Dines, Further Measure- 
ments on the Rate of Ascent of Pilot-balloons, 259 

Cebrian de Besteifo (Mme, D,), and M. Michel-Durand, 
Influence of Lig t on the Absorption of Organic 
Material of the Soil by Plants, 79 

Césari (E. P.), The Maturation of the Sausage, 180 

Cesard (Prof. G.), Course of the Curve joining the points 
at which Molten, Iron-Carbon . Alloys commence to 
Solidify, 436 

Chalmers (T. W.), The Production and Treatment of Vege- 
table Oils, 41 

Chantemesse (Prof. A.), [obituary], 8. 

Chapman (A. Chaston), Plea for a National Institute of 
Industrial Biology, 511 

Chapman (F.), Girvanella and the Foraminifera, 4; New 
or Little-known Victorian Fossils in the National 
Museum. Part xxiv., 440 

Chapman (Dr. F. M.), The Distribution of Bird Life in. 
Colombia: a Contribution to a Biological Survey of 
South America, 462 : 

Chapman (J. E.), Share of “Colonies”? in the Treatment 
of Tuberculosis, 112 " 

Chapman (Dr. S.), appointed to the Second Chair of Mathe- 
matics in Manchester University, 458; Electrical Pheno- 
mena occurring at High Levels in the Atmosphere, 
311; The Lunar Atmospheric Tide, 272; The Lunar 
Tide in the Atmosphere, 185 

Charbonnier (H. J.), The Lustre of Some Feathers of 
Humming Birds, 32 : ey : 

Charlier (Dr. C. V. L), Distances and Configuration of 
Star Clusters, 73 : 

de Chardonnet (H.), An Application of the Eight-hour Day, 


319 
Charpy (G.), and G. Decorps, Conditions of Formation of 


Coke, 419 

Chatley (Dr. H.), The Order of the Planets, 10 

Chaudhuri (Prof. T. C.), Modern Chemistry and Chemical 
Industry of Starch and Cellulose (with Reference to 
India), 243 

Chavanne (G.), and L. J. Simon, Composition of soine 
Asiatic Petrols, 519: The Critical Solution Tempera- 
tures in Aniline of the Principal Hydrocarbons con- 
tained in Petrol, 339: Use of the Critical Solution Tem- 
perature (“‘T.C.D.’’) in Aniline for the Rapid Analysis 
of Petrol, 459 

Chéneveau (C.), and R. Audubert, Abscrption by Turbid 
Media, 119 

Cheshire (Prof. F. J.), The Polarisation of Light, 239 

Chick (Dr. H.), Experimental investigation en Scurvy, 454; 
E. M. Hume, R. F. Skelton and A. H. Smith, Preven- 
tion of Scurvy, 71; and M. Rhodes, Anti-scorbutics, 71 

Chinnery (Lt. E. W. P.), Reactions of Certain New Guinea 
Primitive People to Government Control, .199__. 

Chree (Dr. C.), Magnetic Storms of March 7-8 and August 
15-16, 1918, and their discussion, 97 ; New Procedure 
at American Magnetic Observatories, 54; The Magnetic 
Storm of August 11-12, 1919, 505 rel) 

Christy (M.), The Ancient Legend as to the Hedgehog 
carrying Fruit upon its Spines, 119 - 

Church (Sir W.), Work of the Imperial Cancer Research 
Fund during the War, 435 

Clark (Dr. A. J.), appointed Professor of Pharmacology at. 
University College, London, 358 

Clark (J. Edmund), and H. B. Adames, Report on the 
Observations for the Phenological Year, December, 
1917, to November, 1918, 259 ; 

Clarke (J. M.), Possible Derivation of the Lepadid 
Barnacles from the Phyllopods, 19 it 

Claude (C.), An Important Consequence of the Commercial 
Synthesis of Ammonia, 299 Pid 

Clay (H.), elected a Fellow of New College, Oxford, 479 . 

Clerc (L. P.); Calculations in Aerial Fhotography, 352; 
Use of Alcohol for the Rapid Drying of Gelatine Néga-, 
tives and Prints, 251 ee 

Clerk (Sir Dugald), Distribution of Heat, Light, and Motive 


Vill 


Index 


[ Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Power by Gas and Electricity, 233; Limits of Thermal 
ucincs ng Diesel and other Internal-combustion 


Eng 
Clibborn "(Lt 3831,), Plea for a British Standard niizrs- 


Clifford tsi? Hugh C.), appointed Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of Nigeria, 172 

Close (Sir C.), The Rainfall at pouciampton and London, 
1862~1918, 338 

Cluver (Capt. E. H.), appointed br diewer of Physiology at 
the South African School of Mines and Technology, 
serannesbeng 258 

Cochrane (A. J.), Principal Industries of the North- 
East pouty during the War, 395 

Cockerell (Prof. T. D. A.), Glossina and the Extinction of 
Tertiary Mammals, 265; The Oldest sigs ci 44 

Cocking (T, Peds 8 Kettle, and E. J. Chappel, The 
Examination of Eosins and Erythrosins, 455 

Cohen (R. Waley), Gift of British Oil Companies to endow 
a Chemical School at Cambridse, 218, 278 


Cole (Prof. G. A. J.), Aids in Practical Geology. Seventh 


' edition, 263 

Cole (S. W.), 
Edition, 504 

Colgan (N.), Tropical Drift Seeds on the Irish Atlantic 
Coasts, 219 


Practical Physiological Chemistry. Fifth 


Colin (H.), Utilisation of Glucose and Lzvulose by the | 


Higher Plants, 159; and Mile. A. Chandun, The Law 
of Action of Sucrase, 419, and O. Liévin, The Spon- 
taneous Oxidation of Complex Organic Compounds of 
Cobalt 499 

Collinge (Dr. W. E.). Plea for the Establishment of a 
Bureau of Economic Ornithology, 231; The Food of 
Wild Birds, Of Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect 
Larve, 404, 4 

Collins (W. H.), Rocks of the Onaping Map-area, 390 

Conn (Dr. H. W.), Agricultural Bacteriology. Third 
edition, revised by H. J. Conn, 30 

Constantine (the late H. R.), Co-ordination of Research in 
Works and Laboratories, 152 

ge etelageadl (Mr.), a New Method of Transmitting 
nergy, 93 

Conway (Sir,W. Martin), elected President of the Museums 
Association, 395 

Coover (Dr. J. E.), Experiments in Psychical Research at 
Leland Stanford Junior University, 135 

Cope (J. L.), to lead a New Expedition to the Antarctic, 


171 
Cornec (E.), The gga Study of the Ashes of 
. Marine Plants, 9 
nee "aes Ae Le); "The Magnetic Storm of August 11-12, 
483; The Spectrum of Nova Aquile,: 53 
Ste (J. M. and M. C.). Plant Genetics, 21 
ay (H.), A Method of Extracting Glucina from Beryl, 


Conpin® (H.), Absorption of Mineral Salts by the Root-tip, 
» &19; The Absorbing Power of the Root-tip, 99; The 
Place where Water is Absorbed by the Root, 299 
Coursey (P. R.), Simplified Inductance Calculations, with 

Special Reference to Thick Coils, 9 
Cousens (H.), awarded the Gold Medal of the Hyderabad 
Archeological Societv, <10 
Craib (W. G.), The Regional Spread of {Moisture in 
Deciduous-leaved Trees during the Kelling Season, 232 
Crawfurd (Dr. R.), to Deliver the Harveian Oration, 450 
Crewdson (Miss), appointed’ Demonstrator in Inorganic and 
Physical Chemistry at Bedford College for Women, 


479 

Crewe (the Marquess of), Address at the Opening of the 
British Scientific Products Exhibition, 374 

Crisp (Sir F.), [obituary], ror 

Crompton (Mr.), appointed Head of the Department of 
Organic Chemistry and Director of the Laboratories at 
Bedford College for Women, 479 

Crooke (Dr. W.), A Remarkable form of Headdress worn 
Py, Women of the Banjara Tribe, 310; Hut-burning in 
ndia, 32 

ered (sir William), [obituary article], 109; The Funeral 


° 
Crosby (ec. R.), and M. D. Leonard, Manual of Vegetable- 
garden Insects, 425 . 


Crowther (Dr. J. A.), Molecular Physics. Second edition, q 


303 
Crozier (W. J.), The Method of Progression in Polyclads, 19 
Cullis (Dr. Winifred), Acceptance of Membership of the 
Industrial Fatigue Research Board, 172 
cee (Dr. Brysson), Water-power Developments, 


Sit taghon (Archdeacon W.), [death], 289 

Cunnington (A.), Lighting of Railways, 53 

Curie (Mme.), appointed Professor of Radivlogges in “the 
Warsaw University, 517 

Curteis (W. S.), Cobar Stope-measurement Methods, 99 

Curtis (Prof. H. D.), The Spiral Nebula, 411 

Curtis (R. H.), [obituary], 250 


Dale (Dr.), gg Ae and Causation of Wound Shock, 136 

Dale (Dr. H. H.), The Croonian Lecture of the Royal 
Society to be delivered by, 230 

Dana (E. S.), and others, A Century of Science in America. 
With special reference to the “ American Journal of 
Science,’’ 1818-1918, 183 

Danne (J.), Kapa 69 ; {obituary], go. 

Darbishire (Dr. O. 
Bristol. University, 39 

Darling (C. R.), Electric Furnaces, 


235. 
Darnell- Smith (G. P.), Life History of EN ctricarta, 


McAlp. 

Das (B.), Ptthe eo ae of Lahore, 269 

Das-Gupta (H. C.), A Mammalian Fossil from icy aa 
(Kathiawar) ; The Panchet Reptile, 400 

Davidson (Sir J. Mackenzie), [obituary], 111 

Davie (Robert Chapman), [obituary article], 189 

Davies (G. M.), Petrological Notes on the Beds at Worms 
Heath (Surrey), 178 

Davis (W. G.), [obituary article], 508 — 

Davis (Prof. W. M.), awarded the Patron’s Medal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, 52 

Davison (Dr. C.), The Earthquake in the Midlands on 
Jan. 14, 1916, 473; The Experieeme Firing of Kea 
Explosives, 31 

Dawe (M. T.), A Journey in Colombia, 133 

Dawkins (Prof. W. Boyd), and others, The Direrearship of 
the Natural History Museum, 3 

Dawnay (Sir A. D.), Bequests by, 479 

De Booy (T.), Explorations in Venezuela, 511 

Debenham (F.), appointed University Lecturer in Survey- 
ing and Cartography in Cambridge University, 336; 
A new theory of Transportation by Ice: the raised 
Marine Muds of South Victoria Land (Antarctica), 319 

Deeley (R. M.), Temperature Distribution in a Cyclonic 
Depression, 72 

Delbet (Prof. P.), and N. Fiessinger, Biologie de la Plaie 
de Guerre, 501 


‘Dendy (Prof. A.), Effect of Air-tight Storage upon Grain 


Insects, 325; The Calcareous Sponges collected by the 
Australian Antarctic Expedition, 54; The Conservation 
of our Cereal Reserves, 55; and H. D.. Elkington, 
Effect of Air-tight Storage upon Grain Insects, 326 
Denning (W. F.), Wasps, 185 
Densmore (Dr. F.), Teton Sioux Music, 


535 
Depage (Dr. A.), and others, Ambulance de “ 1’Océan,” La 


Panne. Tome II., 

Desch (Prof. 
Metallurgy, 114 

Deslandres (H.), Constitution of the Atom and the Pro- 
perties of Band Spectra, 259; Observations relating to 
the Total Eclipse of the Sun on May 29, made at the 
Meudon Observatory, 330: Reform of the Calendar, 34 

Deterding (Mr.), gift towards a Chemical School at Cam- 
bridge, 218 

Dewar (Sir J.); presentation to, of the Franklin Medal, 


$09 
Dewev (Col. 


fasc.. 1, 223 


War, 317 
Diénert (F.). and F. Wandenbulcke, Action of Sodium 
Thiosulpleate upon Hypochlorites, 439 
Dixon (H. N.). Mosses from Deception Island, 319 
Dobbie (Sir J. J.), elected President of the Chemical Society, 


V. ), appointed Professor of Botany in 


SP FONE a ES RO AN I tal Sy i, marti Me Al eh 


: The Aims of a Glasgow School of | 


B.), Defence against Deadly. Gases used in — 


Index 


1X 


and Dr. J. J. Fox, Constitution of Sulphur 
Yapour, 3 

in (Dr. ‘), Presence of Formic Acid in the Stinging 
of the Nettle, 339 

(Miss Ethel M.), South African Microthyriacez, 


sar (Dr. L.), appointed Professor of Zoology in 
erpool University, 397; Mutation in Bacteria, 58 
Prof. C. L.), [obituary], 69 

. W. 7 appointed University Lecturer in Chemis- 


oer e University, 418 


appointed Head of the Electrical 
ane The Collection and Presentation of Public 


Department of Rutherford Technical’ Col- 


5 
eam Coombe Lecturer in Psychology 
in Edinburgh University, 158 

(Dr. J. L. E.), Indian Astronomical. Instruments, 
oa Brahe’s Original Observations, 134 

(Dr.), An extreme case of: Microcephaly, 460. 
mo nd Gg. soy F.), The Flora of a small Area in 


> 

(br). Prothése Fonctionelle des Blessés de 
a Physiologiques et Appareillage, 383 

ng Ole . A.), Our Knowledge of Other Minds, 

eon zy L. ). fae Bacillary Form of Dysentery, 137 

- H. Burnham, and A. H. Davis, 
a Nodes of the Electric Arc, 38. 

ow R.) The Cultivation of Sponges, 184, 230° 

we ae appointed Professor of Pathology in 
hy paged 379 

> G. Reboul, Utilisation of Measure- 

ents of is Velocity of Wind at different Altitudes for 


the Predicton of Barometric Variations, 179 
=e R. “ge Acoustic Experiments in connection with 


Whistles and Flutes, 
woody 


97 
(Prof. H.), Notes, Problems, 
Exercises in Mechanics, Sound, 
mechanics, and Hydraulics, 302 
sig (Lord), installed Chancellor of Durham Univer- 
’ 


r” A.), Life History of Iris pseudacorus, Linn., 
i F.) 5 eae Movement of the Earth’s Pole, 392 


Rubber, ee 

As. W.), L. Abel, M. Hounsfield, M. -Joll, appointed 

_ Demonstrators of Anatomy at the London (Royal Free 
pany School of Medicine for Women, 458 

r bi 


and Laboratory 
- Light, Thermo- 


1 and Day, Weact hs at Kuala Lumpur 
eparation and Vulcanisation of Plantation 


’s Periodic Comet, 453, 492 

(Prof. W. H.), Vector Diagrams of some Oscilla- 
Circuits used with Thermionic Tubes, 38; and F. 
. Jordan, A small Direct-current Motor using 
ermionic Tubes instead of Sliding Contacts, 38 


the Paris  pomapge of Sciences, 470; Report on the 
id : of Gravitation, 2; The Cepheid 


‘Lieut. A. 3. ), Siliceous Sinter from Lustleigh, Devon, 


(E. ), Comparison of Concentration Results, with 
al reference to the Cornish method of concentrat- 
g Cassiterite, 17 

hehe ph Biochemical Catalysts in Life and Indus- 
roteol . Translated by Prof. S.. Ce 
cott, cadlsted by C. S. Venable, 403 
; (Prof. D.), E ‘Goulandris, N. 
lakes in Greece, 1912-14, 473 
(W.), appointed Principal.,of the Technical Institute, 
thmines, Dublin, 358 

. P.), The Cultivation of Osiers and Willows, 


Bhag F.), The Climate of Gorizia, 310 
(E.), The - Mechanica! Transformation of 
Sidereat Time into Mean Time, 519 


Critikes, Earth- 


ton (Prof. A. S.), awarded the Pontécoulant Prize 


Esposito (M.), Early History of the Mariner’s Compass, 


35 

Etchells (E. F.), Mnemonic Notation for 
Formule, 2 

Etheridge (R.), The Dendroglyphs, or Carved Trees of 
New South Wales, 269 

Evans (Sir A.), Plea for the Creation of an Imperial 
British Institute of Archeology in Cairo, 32 

Evans (Miss Alwen M.), The Structure and Occurrence of 
Maxillulz in the Orders of Insects, 319 

Evans (Dr. C. Lovatt), resignation of the Chair of Experi- 
mental Physiology and Experimental Pharmacology at 
the Leeds Medical School; to engage in research work 
for the Medical Research Committee, 96 

Evans (E. V.), Manufacture of Intermediate Products 
in the Dyestuff Industry, 412 

Evans (H. A.), Highways and Byways in Northampton- 
shire mene Rutland, 103 

Evans (Dr. J. W.), Cole’s Aids in Practical Geology, 
Seventh Edition, 263; Globular Clusters, Cepheid Vari- 
ables and Radiation, 6. 

Evershed (J.), An Earth-effect on the Sun, 272; The Sun- 
spot Maximum, 291 


Engineering 


Fagan (C. E.), to be entitled Secretary of the Natural 
History Departments, British Museum, 89 
Farlow (Prof. W. G.), [obituary], 328; [obituary article], 


529 

Fay (Prof. H.), An Advanced Course 
Analysis, with Explanatory Notes, 362 

Fessenden (Prof. R. A.), Velocity of Electric Currents, 505 

Filippi (Cav. Filippo de), The Finger-print System in the 
Far East, 125 

Finch (Dr. J. E. M.), Bequest for the Endowment of a 
University for Leicester, 178 

Findlay (Prof. A.), appointed Professor of Chemistry in 
Aberdeen University, 397; Osmotic Pressure. Second 
edition, 322 

Firth (E.), F. W. Holden, and Dr. W. E. S..Turner, The 
Properties of British Fireclays suitable for Glassworks 
use. Part I., 419 

Fischer (Prof. E. ), [death], 408 ; [obituary article], 430 

Fischer (Prof. M. H.), and Dr. M. O. Hooker, Fats and 
Fatty Degeneration, 504 

Fisher (H. A. L.), Education in the Army, 313; The Func- 
tions of Government in Relation to Education, 78; The 
Organisation and Financial Position of the Universities 
of Oxford and Sees 397 

Flack (Dr. M.), and Dr..L.  Hill,. 
Physiology, 402 

Fleming (Prof. J. A.), The Principles of Electric-wave 
Telegraphy and Telephony. Fourth edition, 423 

Fleming (A. P. M.), Needs of Heads of Departments well 
educated in a general as well as in a technical sense, 


in Quantitative 


A - Text-book of 


Fletcher (Sir L.), retirement from the Directorship of the 
Natural History Museum, 6 

Fletcher (Prof. S. W.), The Strawberry in North America. 
History, Origin, Botany, and Breeding, 164 

Flexner (Dr. ng elected President of the American Asso- 
ciation, 3 

Flippance (F. + appointed Assistant Curator of the Botanic 
Gardens, Singapore, 309 

de Forcrand (R.) and F. Taboury, Stability of the Sul- 
phones formed by the Iodides of Sodium, Rubidium, 
and Czsium, 499; and F. Taboury, The Sulphones 
formed by Sodium, Rubidium, and Cesium Iodides, 


419 
Forster (Dr. M. O.), The Profession of Chemistry, 24 


Forsyth (J. A. Cairns), awarded the Jacksonian Prize for 


1918 of the eae College of Surgeons of England, 131 

Forsythe (W.:E.), The Disappearing-filament Type of 
Optical Pyrometer, a 

Forth UF. C.), [obituary], 5 

Fosse (R.), The formation a Cyanic Acid by the Oxidation 
of Organic Substances, 460 

Foulerton (Dr. J. )s bequest to the Royal Society for awards 
for research in Medicine, etc., 


Xx: saad 


[ Nature, 
Octoter 9, 1919 


Fox (P.), Measurements of Stellar Parallax at the Dear- 
born Observatory, 339 

Foye (W. G.), Geological Observations in Fiji, 270 

Se rahehics sak (Prof. A. P. N.), [obituary], 431 

Frankland (Prof. P. F.), F. Challenger and N. A. Nicholls, 
A new method of preparing Monomethylamine, 252 

Franklin (Capt. T. B.), The Cooling of the Soil at Night, 


2 

Franklin (Prof. W. S.), A Change of Emphasis in Meteor- 
ological Research, 211 

Fraser (Sir A.), [obituary], 8 

Frazer (Sir J. G.), and Rai Bahadur K. Ranga Achariyar, 
Customs of the Todas in connection with the Milk of 
their Sacred Dairies, 173 

ioe Ack W.), Modern Single-observer Range-finders, 

; The Unaided Eye, 159 

Friend® (Rev. H.), Luminous Worms, 446; Sparganophilus : 
A British Oligochet, 426 

Froggatt (W. W.), Notes on Australian -Sawflies (Fen- 
thredinidz), 19; The External Breathing Apparatus of 
the Larvze of some Muscoid Flies, 19 

Frost (Prof.), The Light of the Aurora andthe Auroral 
Line, 411 

Fryer (P. J.), and F. E. Weston, Technical Handbook of 
Oils, Fats and Waxes, Vol. II., “ Practical and 
Analytical,’’ 262 


Gallenkamp and Co.’s small Electric Furnaces, 492 
Gallardo (Dr. A.), The Ants of the Argentine, "269 
ays (J. J.), Rounding of Sand Grains by Solution, 


ep: af (L.), appointed Professor of Surgery in Birming- 

- ham University, 379 

Gardiner (C. I.), The Silurian Rocks of May Hill, 296 

Gardiner (Prof. J. Stanley), A Crocodile on Rotuma, 264 

Gardner (Dr. E. G.), appointed Professor of Italian at 
Manchester University, 518 

Gardner (Prof. W. M.), resignation of the egy 
of the Bradford Municipal Technical College, 295, 4 

Garnett (D. G.), Birds seen in the North-Eastern Atlantic 
and the English and St. George’s Channels, 113 

Garnett (Principal J. C. M.), An Educational ‘Chart, 318 

Gaster at ), Industrial Paahine, 437; Lighting in Factories, 
79; er Wheat, E. G. W. Souster, Industrial Light- 
ing, 

Gautier és 5, Influence of Fluorides on Vegetation, 299; 

and tt rela Action of Fluorides upon Vegeta- 

; am: 

Gauthier Gt. ), La Température en Chine et & quelques 
stations voisines d’aprés des observations quotidiennes, 

3 vols., 42 

Geddes (Sir A.), appointed Principal of McGill University, 
Montreal, 111; appointed President of the Board of 

Trade, 250 

’ Geddes (Sir Eric), appointment as Minister of Transport 

- ‘approved by 4 King, 489 

Gemmill (Dr. F.), The Develasiidnt of Asteroids, 150 

Gessard (C.), An Achromogenic Variety of the Pyocyanic 
Bacillus, 320 

Ghosh (J. ae Strong Electrolytes and Tonisation, 376 

Ghosh, (P.. N.), The colours of the Strie in Mica, and the 
Radiation from Laminar Diffracting Boundaries, 337 

Giacobini (M.), A new Comet, 514 

Gibson (Major G.), Major Bowman, and Capt. Codnad: 
The Etiology of Influenza, 90 

Gibson (Major H. G.), fobituary i 8 

‘Gibson (Miss M. M.), provision for a Scholarship for 
Medical Research by Women in memory of Mr. W. 
‘Gibson, 118 

Gilchrist (Dr. J. D. F.), Cnidonema capensis, 390; 
Luminosity and its origin in a South African Earth- 
worm, 423; The Post-puerulus stage of Jasus lalandii 
(Milne, Edw.), Ortmann, 139; The shells of schizo- 
derma spengleri, 

Giles (Dr. P.), 
University, 278 

‘Gilligan (Dr. A.), The Petrography of an, Millstone Grit 
Series of Yorkshire, 297 


460 
elected Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge 


Gilmore (G.), Globular Lightning, 284 — 
Giolitti (Prof. F.), awarded the Bessemer Medal of the 
Iron and Stee] Institute, 489 


Giuffrida-Ruggeri (Prof.), Analysis of the population of | 4 
Identity of the Mediter- — 
ranean Peoples who took part in the conflicts with — 


Abyssinia and Eritrea, 192; 


Egypt during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, 


Glasebesolc (Sir R.), Metrology in the Industries, 238 

Gleichen (Dr. A.). The Theory of Modern Optical Instru- 
ments. Translated by H. H. Emsley and W. Swaine. 
With an appendix on ‘‘ Rangefinders,’’ ror 

Godman (Dr. F. Du Cane), [obituary article], Bs proposed 
memorial to the late, 449 

Goethals (Major-Gen. G W.), awarded the John Fritz 
Medal, ag 

Golla (Dr. J. L.), to be the Croonian Lecturer of the 
Royal College of Physicians for 1921, 328 

ea, (W. H.), The Genesis of  Igneous-ore Bastes) 


Gookct (E. S.), Development of the pericardiaco-peritoneal 
canal in the dogfish, 231; elected members 
of the Société de Biologie ‘of Paris, 
associé of the Académie Royale des Sciences, ° “a 
Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 370 

Goodwin (H. B.), Graphical. Methods in Nautical 
Astronomy, 44 

Goring (Dr. Cc. ), [obituary], 269 

Grace (G.), Protective Coloration of Birds and iii 

Gravely (Dr. - H.), Revision of the Passalidze of ae 
World, 25 

Graveson Ue) y Joys of the Open-air, 263 

Gray (Prof. 
Motion. Theory and Applications, 121 

Gray (Dr. F. W.), Smith’s Electro-Analysis. 


363 ms 

Gray (Rev. Dr. H. B.), America at School and at Work, 

203 - 

Green (Lt. G.), Propagation of Sound in the Atmosphere, 
338 


Grean (W. G.), awarded the Elgar Scholarship of the 
Institution of Naval Architects, 489 

Greenfield (Prof. W. S.), [obituary], 489 

Greenhill (Sir G.), Geometrical and Mechanical Fit, 193; 
Gyroscopics, 121; The Directorship of the Natural 
History Museum, 24 

Greenwood (Capt. M.), Problems of Industrial Organisa- 
tion, 329; The ee of pire. 136; °C.* 
Hodson and A. Tebb, Report on the Metabolism 
of Female Munition Workers, 279; and C. M. Thomp- 
son, German and English War-time Diets, 132_ 

Gregory (Prof, J. W.), awarded the Victoria Medal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, 52 

Gregory (Sir Richard), elected a member of the Athenzeum 

hab; 231s 

Association. of the Royal College of Science, London, 
258; Scarcity of University-trained Scientific Workers 

for Industrial and other purposes, 274; .The 

Lesson to be learned from the British Scientific Pro- 
ducts Exhibition, 472 

Gregory (W. K.), and C. L. ee Studies in Comparative 
Myology and Osteology, 

Greig-Smith (Dr. R.), The Germicidal Activity of the 
Eucalyptus Oils, Part I., 420 

Grey (E. C.), conferment upon of the degree of D. Se. by 
the University of London, 96 

Grignard (V.), and G. Rivat, The addition compounds of 
Halogen Acids to Diphenylarsenic Acid, 479; and Ed. 


A.), A Treatise on Gyrostatics and Rotational - 
Sixth edition, 


elected President of the Old Students’ | 


Urbain, Preparation of Phosgene by means of Carbon — 


Sagas and oleum or ordinary Sulphuric Acid, 


Grinnell (J.), “H.C. Bryant, and T. I. Storer, The Game 
Birds of California, 281 

Groom (Prof. P.), Preservation of Timber in India, 81 

Gudgeon (C. W.), The Giblin Tin Lode of Tasmania, 18 

Guilbert (G.), Some examples of ‘‘ Cyclone Compression, ” 
159; Anomalies of the Meteorological Station of 
Skudesness (Norway), 


y), 79 
Guillaume (J.), Observations of the Sun made at the Lyoits 


Observatory during the ‘fourth quarter of 1918, 79; 


Index 


x1 


bservations of the Sun made at the Lyons Observa- 
during the first quarter of 1919, 459 
ey (J. I, Ornithological Notes from Norfolk for 
i8, 211; mominated President of the Wild Bird 
nvestigation Society, 289 
ithnick (P.), Photo-electric determinations of Stellar 
__ Ma initudes of Planets, 53 

j.), and L. J. Simon, Action of Dimethyl Sulphate 


Action of Heat on the Methylsulphates of the 
is and Alkaline Earths, 320 : 


s (W.), The Variables of the Long Period, 53 


¢ aH 


(M. H.), appointed County Mining Organiser for 


(Sir rt), Relations of Employers and 
ployed, 472; The Occlusion of Gases by Metals, 
and others, Patents in, Relation to Industry, 453 

M. ins, and D. Caldwell, Bacteria of the 
yphoid Group and the Causation of Disease in 


if .), Experiments with Two New Colour 
ieties of Rats, 432 
ne (Dr. J. S.), Acidosis, 162; The New Physiology, 
other | esses, 261; and others, Life and Finite 
vi¢ ity. Edited by Prof. H. Wildon Carr, 342 
(Lord), Acceptance of the Presidency of Birkbeck 
, aa The Forestry Bill, 431 
.), The Applications of Electrolysis in Chemical 
’ 


ry, 203 
. G, E.), elected a Foreign Associate of the Paris 
y of Sciences, 489; Sun-spots as Electric Vor- 
292; The Structure of the Solar Atmosphere, 426 
 S.), The Life of, Prof. F. Smitn, 150 
..), Asbestos in the Union of South Africa, 270 
.), A New Species or Form of Eucalyptus, 59 
.. F.), x Anorthic Metasilicate from Acid-steel 
ra ce : « 
(Prof. F. H.), [death], 69 
(C. K.), and C. E. G. Hawker, A Note on 
es: A Suet Emulsion for ig agp Ras 
eridian 


eridian Telescope, 79 ’ 
B.), Ancient Roman Chronology, 500 
oes i. J.), Sergestide Collected by the Siboga 


ditio n 51r . 
t (Dr. A. G. Vernon), [death], 510 
t (Viscount), The Re-opening of Museums and 
re 1es, 609 
Dr.), and others, Researches concerned with Food 


ms, 
(Miss M. E.), The William’ Gibson Research 
larship awarded to, 336 ; 
Clock Escapements, 15« 

argtave (J.), The Great War brings it Home. The 
_ Natural Reconstruction of an Unnatural Existence, 143 
arley (Dr. Vaughan), Resignation of the Chair of Patho- 
logic: emistry in the University of London, 96 

ar (Dr. S. F.), appointed director of the Natural His- 
or} m, 49; Cetacea Stranded on the British 
pasts during 1918, 237; Sub-Antarctic Whales and 
haling, 293; The directorship of the Natural History 


———— ee 31 
iris (J. A.), and F. G. Benedict, A Biometric Study ot 
Human Basal Metabolism, 19 

tris (Prof. D. Fraser), Science and Character-building, 


on (Dr.), Extent and Character of the Saline Lands 
the Madras Presidency ; Manures in Southern India, 


on (Lt.-Col. E. F.), A Memorial Lecture as a Tribute 
the late, 210 : 
isor {rie Heath), Gift to Oxford University, 318 

on (J. B.), and C. B. W. Anderson, The Extraneous 
Minerals in the Coral-limestones of Barbados, 399 


© 


on the Sulphates of the Alkalis and Alkaline Earths, 


Harrison (W. J.), Distribution of Electric Force. between 
two Electrodes, one of which is covered with Radié- 
active Matter, 58 

Hartley (C.), T. C. Merrill, and A. S. Rhoads, Seedling 
Diseases of Conifers, 354 

Hartridge (Dr. H.), appointed Demonstrator of Physiology 
in Cambridge University, 198; appointed University 
Lecturer in the Physiology of the Senses in Cambridge 
University, 56 

Hart-Smith (J.), Recent Discoveries in Inorganic Chemistry, 


322 : 

Harvey-Gibson (Prof.), and Miss E. Horsman, Anatomy of 
the Lower Dicotyledons, II., 18 

Harwood (L. M.), The late Sir Edward Stirling, 446 

Haslam (Prof.), appointed Lecturer in Applied Anatomy tn 
Birmingham University ; appointed Dean of the Faculty 
of Medicine of Birmiagham University, 279 

Hassé (Dr. H. R.), appointed Professor of Mathematics in 
Bristol University, 397 

Hatch (Dr. F. H.), Recent Iron-Ore Developments in’ the 
United Kingdom, 477 

Haviland (Miss M. D.), Bionomics of Aphis grossulariae, 
Kalt, and A. viburni, Shrank, 58; Life history and 
Bionomics of Myzus ribis, Linn. (red-currant Aphis), 18 

Hawk (Prof. P. B.), Practical Physiological Chemistry. 
Sixth edition, 462 

Hawken (R. W. H.), appointed to the Chair of Engineer- 
ing in the University of Queensland, 198 

Hayes (Dr. H. C.), Detection of Submarines, 317 

Hayward (Dr. F. H.), and A. Freeman, The Spiritual 
Foundations of Reconstruction: A Plea for New Educa- 
tional Methods, 143 

Haywood (W.), appointed Lecturer in Town-planhing in 
Birmingham University, 379 

Head (Dr. H.), Researches based on the Treatment of 
War Injuries, 413 

Heath (A. E.), The Scope of the Scientific Method, 97 

Hebert-Stevens (J.), and A. Larigaldie, Radio-telegraphy by 
Infra-red Radiation, 479 

Heller (E.), Leader of an African Expedition, 510 

Henderson (A.), appeal for Increase in the Exchequer Grants 
to Universities and University Colleges, 117 ; 

Henderson (Dr, G. G.), appointed Regius Professor of 
Chemistry in Glasgow University, 438; Catalysis in 
Industrial Chemistry, 281 

Hendrick (E.), Everyman’s Chemistry, 62 

Henry (Prof. A.), The Origin and History of the London 
Plane, Platanus acerifolia, 334; and Miss M. G. Flood, 
History of Larix eurolepis, 399; History of the London 
Plane, Platanus acerifolia, 38 

Henry (Miss M.), Some ‘Australian Fresh-water Copepoda 
and Ostracoda, 520 

Hepworth (Capt. M. W. C.), [obituary], 8 

Herdman (Prof. W. A.), Resignation of the Derby Chair 
of Natural History in Liverpool University: Record of 
his Work, 56; A. Scott, and Miss H. M. Lewis, The 
Marine Plankton around the South End of the Isle of 


Mah, 472 4 
d’Hérelle (F.), Réle of the Filterins Anti-bacterial Micro- 
organism in Typhoid Fever, 119 
Herman (C. L.), Carbolic Acid as a Fixative for Histological 
_ Preparations, 480 : 
Hernaman-Johnson (Dr.), Protective Measures in Diagnostic 
Work by Radiographers, 309 
Herring (Prof. P. T.), Weight of the Suprarenals of White 


Rats, 390 
Herfinghain (Sit W.), The Clinical Aspects of Influenza, 136 
Hesselman (H.), Composition of Forest Soils and the 
Formation of Humus, 176 
Hewitt (Dr, C. Gordon), The Canadian Government and 
the Proposed Hunting of Caribou with Aeroplanes, 244 
Hey (J. A.), Election of, to a Beit Fellowship, 439 
Hiidebrandsson (H. H.), The General Movements of the 
-Atmosphére, 11 f 
Hilger, Ltd. 
meters, 


(Adam), Optical Research, 236; Refracto- 

146; e Wave-length Spectrometer and 

_ Accessories, 31m 

Hill TA. V.), appointed University Lecturer in Physiology in 
_Cambridge sentrire G 56 

Hill (A. W.), approved for the Degree of D.Sc. by Cam- 
bridge University, 336 q 


Xil 


Index 


Nature. 
October 9, 1919 


Hill (G. H.), [death], « 

Hill (Prof. .L.), Atmaneifls Conditions which Affect Health, 
79; awarded the Baly Medal of the Royal College of 
Physicians, 450 

Hill (M. D.), Teeth of Sea-otter, 446 

Hird (W. B.), Electrical Ship Propulsion, 232 

Hirst (E. W.), Self and Neighbour: An Ethical Study, 361 

daory A (C. W.), A Volcanic Eruption of Donyo L’Engai, 


310 

Hocart (Capt. A. M.), Early Fijians, 279 

Hofer (Dr. B.), [obituary], 132 

Holmes (Dr. A.), The Pre-Cambrian and Associated Rocks 
of Mozambique, 490 

Holtedahl (O.), Relations of Land and Sea in the North 
Atlantic Region, 433 

Honda (Prof.), The Allotropic Forms of Iron, 436 

Honoré pa The French Steel and Iron Masters’ Associa- 
tion, 23 

Hope (Sir W. H. St. John), [obituary], 510 

Hopkinson (J.), Biers, 409 

Hopwood (Dr. F. L.), Submarine Acoustics, 467 

Horne (Dr. J.), The Endowment of Scientific and Industrial 
Research, 27 

Hospitalier et Roux, Formulaire de 1’Electricien et du 
Mécanicien. Vingt-neuviéme édition, G. Roux, 403 

Hostetter (J. C.), Growth of Crystals under Controlled 
Conditions, 512 

Hotedahl (O.), The “Tillite ’’ with Scratched Boulders in 
the eee District of Finmarken, 330 

Houston (Dr. R. A.), Tonisation and Radiation, 
X-ray Optics. Part I., 339 

Howard (B. F.), Terebene and its Pharmacopceia Standards, 


145; 


455 

Howard (H. Eliot), Behaviour of a Cuckoo, 426 

Howard (S.), Forest Research in Europe, 55 

Howell (Capt. G. C. L.), and the Writer of the Note, 

} National Fisheries, 84 

Hoyle (B.), Standard Tables and Equations in Radio- 
telegraphy, 144 

Hudson (W. H.), Far Away and Long Ago. A History of 
My Early Life, 22 

Humphreys (H. F.), appointed Lecturer on Dental Anatomy 
and Physiology, etc., in Birmingham, 3 97 

Hunter (J. de Graaff), The Earth’s Axes ced Triangulation, 


381 
Huntington (Prof. A. K.), The Title of Emeritus een 
. -Conferred upon, by the University of London, 
Hurry (Dr, J. B.), Gift to Increase the Value of the Michael 
Foster Research Studentship in Cambridge University, 


16 
Hutchins (D. E.), The ‘‘ Waipoua Kauri Forest,’’ 309 
Hutchinson (A.), Graphic Methods in Nautical Astronomy, 


.25 
Huxley (J. S.), elected a Fellow of New College, Oxford, 479 


Ilford, Ltd., ‘ Pihtherenhic Vision ’’ Colour-filters, 513 
Illing (Vv. C. $i Indications of Oil in Derbyshire, 265 


Imbeaux (Ed.), The Navigable Waterways of Alsace and 


' Lorraine, 259 

Imms (Dr. A. D.), Grain Pests and their Investigation, 325 

Inge (Dean), Platonism and Human Immortality, 297 

Inglis (C. E.), elected Professor of Mechanism and Applied 
Mechanics in Cambridge University, 75 

- Inglis. ae a:); ' Sermnurts 5 409 

‘Inglis (J. G.), Decimal Coinage and British Commerce, 113 

Innes (R. T. A.), Determination of Proper Motions, 194 

Toteyko ve J.), The Science of Labour and its Organisa- 
tion, 

see “(Gotiee), Progress in Practical Radio-telegraphy, 


Italy {King of), elected an Honorary Member of the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers, 192 

Ivens (Dr. W. G.), Dictionary and Grammar of the Lan- 
guage of Sa‘a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands, 102 


Jack (Col. E. M.), awarded the Founder’s Medal of the 
Royal Geographical Society, 52 

Jackson (Sir H.), The work of the Institute of Chemistry 
during the War, 7 


Jackson (J. W.), ‘* Shell-pockets ’? on Sand Dunes on the 
Wirral Coast, Cheshire: A new Middle Carboniferous - 
Nautiloid (Coelonautilus trapezoidalis), 18 

Jackson (S.), The Letter-winged Kite and Rats, 150 b 

Jacoby (Prof. H.), Navigation. Second edition. With a 
chapter on Compass Adjusting and a collection of — 
Miscellaneous Examples, 481 ¥ 

Jaggar (Prof. T. A.), approval of the appointment of, as — 
director of the work on Vulcanology at Kilauea, 131; — 
and A. Romberg, The Registration of Distant Earth- © 
quakes, 251 . 

James (M. C.), and L. E. Smith, Ship repairing, 395 

James (W. H. N.), appointed head of the Electrical — 
Engineering Department, Bradford Municipal Technical — 
College, 498 

Jauffret (A.), Determination of the Woods of. two species 
of Dalbergia from Madagascar, 159 

Jeans (J. H.), Cepheid Variables, 10; Globular Clusters, 
Cepheid Variables, and Radiation, 64; The Evolution of 
Binary Stars, 115; to deliver a lecture on ‘ The 
Quantum Theory and New Theories of Atomic Struc- 
ture ’’ to the Chemical Society, 131 

Jeffreys (Dr. H.), Relation between Wind and the Dis- 
tributing Pressure, 398; The Movement of the Earth’s 
Pole, 392 

Jenkinson (S. N.), Impressions of a recent tour of the 
German Glass Factories, 419 

Jennison (G.), A Chimpanzee in the Open Air in England, 
219 

ARs (A.), Some properties of the Acid Phosphates, 380 

John (W. J.), appointed Lecturer in Electrical Engineer- 
ing at the East London College, 198 

Johnston (Sir H. H.), A South African ‘Cibecelt 125 

Johnston (T. B.), appointed Professor of Anatomy at Guy’ s 
Hospital Medical School, 358 

Johnston (Prof. T. H.), and ’O. W. Tiegs, Pseudobonellia, 
a new echiuroid genus from the Great Barrier Reef, 
519 

Johnstone (Dr. J.), The Dietetic Value of Sprats, etc., 

2 ‘ 
jones, (A. E.), appointed Professor of Agriculture in the 
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 499 

Jones (A.. J.), Purified Ether and the Variations of Com- 
mercial Samples, 455 : 

Jones (B. M.), Elected to a junior fellowship at Emmanuel. 
College, Cambridge, 198 

os" ae F, Wood), fee a an Arris and Gale lecturer, 


Te (Dr. I. H.), Equilibrium and Vertigo. With an 
Analysis of Pathologic-Cases, by Dr. L. Fisher, 182 
Jones (Prof. O. T.), appointed Professor of Geology in the 

University of Manchester, 317 
Jones (W. M.), appointed Lecturer in Physics at the 
University College of North Wales, Bangor, 178 


Jorgensen (E.), The Norwegian Species of Euphrasia, 433 


Jost (Prof. L.), appointed Professor of Botany in Heidelberg 
University, 96 

Jourdain (P. E. B.), A-Proof that any Aggregate can be 
Well-ordered, 45; The Philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd 
R*ss*Il. With an appendix of Leading Passages from . 
certain other works, 303 

Julien (Dr. A. A.), [obituary], 268 


Kanthack (R.), Edited by Dr. J. N. Goldsmith, Tables of 
Refractive Indices. Vol. i., ‘‘ Essential Oils,” 43 
Kapp (Prof. G.), Impending Resignation of the Chair of 

Electrical Engineering in Birmingham University, 257- 


The 


-Kapteyn (Prof.), The Parallax of the Pleiades, 374 


Kaye (G. R.), Hindu Astronomical Deities, 
Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh, 1 
Kaye (Major G. W. C.), X-Rays and British Industry, 194 


500 ; 


Kona (Miss M. L.), appointed Lecturer in Anatomy and 
Head of the Anatomy Department of the London (Royal 
Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women, 458 

Keith (Prof. A.), Gustav Magnus:Retzius, 448; The Fune- : 
tions of the Internal Ear, 182 

Kenyon (Sir F. G.), Education : Secondary and University, 
286 


Index : 


xili 


7, 
r 9 bein) 
r. y), Congenital or Developmental Aphasia, 139 
of. J. Graham), ‘‘Camouflage’’ of Ships in War, 
Science and Education, 318 
), appointed Organic Chemist in the Department 
‘of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of the Medical Re- 
search Committee, 267; Resolution of Hyoscine into the 
Tevo-form and the dextro-form, 114 
(Prof. L. W.), [death], 510 
(W. J. Harding), awarded the Gill Memorial by the 
phical Society, 52 
R. L.), Cattle as a Factor in the Economic 


fi (Rev. J. 
Yevelopment of South Africa, 432 ; 

ey (J. P.), The Development of Forest Laws in 
wmerica; The Essentials of American Timber Law, 


aldy (Prof. A. W.), appointed Professor of Economics 
‘and Commerce in University College, Nottingham, 78 
ion (A. E.), Outlines of the Geology of Southern Nigeria, 
vith ial reference to the Tertiary Deposits, 399 

in (Major A.), and Dr. J. C. Mottram, Military Camou- 


g ( ); and R. Schmutz, Characterisation and Estima- 
tion of Carbon Oxychloride, 179; The Estimation of 
aces of kag Chloride in Air, 259 

tt (Dr. C. G.), Further Note on Earthquake Waves 
an Interior of the Earth, 18 © 

vles (F.), A Possible Case of Partial Sterilisation in 


Prof. R.), [obituary], 111 

iss M. L.), and Dr. O. Riddle, Brains of the 
ic” Pigeons, 437 

up bh H.), Excursions of the First Geological Con- 
ess in Denmark, 269 os 

evski (W.), and A. Vahram, The Suppression of 
aphylactic Shock, 
Dr. G. F.), The 


19 
Broducdon of Precious Stones for 
he year 1917, 326. , 


9ix (A.), The Leucitic Lavas of Trebizond and their 
‘ansform » 159; and A. de Gramont, Presence 
of Boron in some Natural Basic Silico-aluminates, 259 
(Prof. G. T.), The Secret of Personality: The 
roblem of Man’s Personal Life as Viewed in the Light 
f an Hy esis of Man’s Religious Faith, 303 
(T. P.), appointed Professor of Accounting and 
ethod in Edinburgh University, subject. to 
* approval of the ordinance for the new chair, 418 
(Prof. H.), The Halley Lecture on the Tides, 257 
nbert, Vlés, and de Watteville, An Opacimeter for use 
in Bacterial Estimations, 180 
mme (B. G.), awarded the Edison Medal of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers, 289 
mplugh (G. W.), Structure of the Weald and Analagous 
at ‘racts, 38; The admission of Women to the Fellowship 
of the ical Society, 
ander (Miss Kathleen F.), Maceration by Tryptic Diges- 
_ tion, 64; The Tryptic Digestion Process for Skeletonis- 


isiness 


lois (G.), A new Synthesis of Benzylidene-acetone, 320 
wir (I.), The Mechanism of the Surface Phenomena 


Flotation, 459 

(Sir J.), The Doppler effect in the Molecular 
ttering of Radiation, 165 

e (T. H. D.), A Bibliography of Indian Geology 
Physical Geography, with an Annotated Index of 
_ Minerals of Economic Value. 2 Parts, 223 

chi 


 progress-stages in cell-division, 330 


sc 514 

edoux-Lebard (R.), and A. Dauvillier, The Spectral Struc- 
_ ture of the J-rays, 119 

el F. S.), The Human Machine and Industrial 
cy, 261 


Lee of Fareham (Lord), appointment as President of the 
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries approved by the 
King, 489 

Leechman (D.), Efficient Invention, 213 

Lees (S.), appointed University Lecturer in Thermo- 
dynamics, 418; re-elected a fellow of St. John’s Col- 
lege, Cambridge, 498; Superposing of two cross-line 
screens at small angles, 178 : 

Leffmann (H.), Prof. S. P. Langley’s experiments in Avia- 


tion, 134 

Léger (L.), and E. Hesse, A new parasitic Coccidium of 
the Trout, 259 

Lehmer (D. N.), Jacobi’s extension of the continued Frac- 
tion yg 19 

Leishman (Sir W.), to be the Horace Dobell lecturer of 
the Royal College of Physicians of London, 328 

Lesley (J. W.), elected to a junior fellowship at Emmanuel 
College, Cambridge, 198 

Levaillant (R.), and L. J. Simon, Action of Chloro- 
sulphonic Acid on Methyl Hydrogen Sulphate, 480 

Léveillé (H.), [obituary], 191 

Lévine (J.), The Periodicity of Atmospheric Waves, 119 

Levinstein (Dr. H.), Connection between the German Dye 
Manufactures and the supply of Explosives and Poison 
Gases, 412 

Levy (L. E.), [obituary], 51 

Lewis (F.), A Visit to Kunadiyaparawitta Mountain, with 
a list of the Plants obtained and their Altitudinal Dis- 
tribution, 98 

Lewis (Prof. W. C. McC.), A System of Physical Chemis- 
try. Second edition. Three volumes, 161; Colloids 
and Chemical Industry, 454; Inorganic and Physical 
Chemistry, 322 

Lienhart (M.), The Possibility of Chicken-breeders obtain- 
ing at pleasure Male or Female chickens, 460 

Lindemann (Dr. F. A.), appointed Professor of experimental 
Philosophy in Oxford University, 178 

Lineham (W. J.), [obituary], 172 

Liveing (Dr. E.), [death], 111 

Liveing (Dr. R.), [death], 8 

Livens (G. H.), The Fundamental Formulations of Electro- 
dynamics, 398; The Theory of Electricity, 142 

Livingston (Prof. B. E.), Some Responsibilities of Botani- 
cal Science, 154 

Lockyer (Sir Norman), elected an Associate of the Académie 
Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de 
Belgique, 350; Notes on Stellar Classification, 484 

Lodge (Sir O.), awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal 
Society of Arts, 267; Impending retirement from the 
Principalship of Birmingham University, 16; presented 
with the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, 


289 

Loeb (Prof. Jacques), Forced Movements, Tropisins, and 
Animal Conduct, 163 

Logan (Lt.-Col. D.), Mine-gas Foisoning, 137 

Logie (Lt. J.), Tornadoes, 338. 

Loud (L. L.), The Ethnogeography and Archeology of the 
Wiyst Territory, 371 

Louis (Prof. H.), Coal in Thrace, 45; Mineral Production in 
Relation to the Peace Treaty, 205 

Love (Lt.-Col. A. G.), and Major C. B. Davenport, Com- 
parison of White and Black Troops in respect to inci- 
dence of Disease, 330 

Lowe (E. E.), The Control of Municipal Museums, 394 

Lowe (R. H.), Mother-right, 351 

Lowson, Text-book of Botany (Indian edition). Revised 
and adapted by Birbal Sahni and M. Willis. New and 
revised edition, 301 

Luce (S. B.), The Study of Greek Vase-painting, 472 

Luciani (Prof. L.), Translated by F. A. Welby. Human 
Physiology. Vol IV. ‘‘ The Sense-organs,”’ 61 

Luckiesh (M.), Influence of Temperature on the transmis- 
sion of a number of Commercial Coloured Glasses, 
352; Reduction of the Visibility of Aeroplanes, 290 

Lumiere and Seyewetz, Acidified Chromate replaced by a 
solution of Potassium Chlorochromate, 491 

Lunt (Dr. J.), The Spectrum of Nova Aquile, 53 

Lynch (R. I.), resignation of the curatorship of the Cam- 
bridge University Botanic Garden, 257 


X1V 


Lndex 


[ _ Nature, 
October 9, 191g, 


Lyon (Prof. T. L.), Soils and Fertilisers, 323 
Lyons (Col. H. G.), Meteorology during and after the 
War, 12 


Maanen, van (A.), Planetary Nebulz, 353; The Distances 
of Six Planetary Nebulz, 19 
peak ee Donald), The diversity of British Universi- 


Macalistes ‘prof. R. A.), An early story of Dar-Lughdach, 


472 

MacBride (Prof. E. W.), 
Characters, 225 

MacCurdy (Dr. J. T.), War Neuroses, 101 

Macdonald (Sir J. H. A.), [obituary], 209 

Macdonald (Prof. J. S.), Translated Sense and Senses, 61 

Macfadyen (Lt. W, A.), Electrolytic Iron Deposition, 178 

Macfie (Dr. J. W. Scott), presented with the Mary Kings- 
ley a of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medi- 
cine, 

Macgregor {Prof D.:H:); avpcinned Professor of Economics 
in the University of Manchester, 317 

Macgregor (Sir William), [obituary], 370 

Mackinder (H. J.), Democratic Ideals and Reality. A 
Study in the Politics of Reconstruction, 423 

Macleod (Prof. J.), The Quantitative Method in Biology, 


The Inheritance of Acquired 


MacMillan (D. B.), to lead an expedition to the Arctic 
Regions, 510 

Maddick (Major E, D,), moving Films illustrating the 
eg ig of the Kinema to the teaching of Anatomy, 


327 
Magnus (Sir Philip), The Forestry Bill, 
Maiden (J. H.), Notes on Eucalyptus, 
descriptions of new species 520 ~ 
Maignon (F.), Mechanism of the Action of Fats in the 
Utilisation and Assimilation of Albuminoids, 793 
Mechanism of the Action of Fats in the Utilisation 
and Assimilation of Albuminoids, 119 


449 
No. VII., with 


Mallock (A.), Diffusion of Light by Rain, Cloud, or Fog, 


398; Question Relating to Prime Numbers, 305 

Mann (Dr, H. H.), Variation in Flowers of Jasminum 
malabaricum, Wight, «139 

Mappin (G. E.), Can we Compete? Germany’s Assets in 
Finance, Trade, Education, Consular Training, etc. 
and a Proposed British War-cost Reduction Pro- 
gramme, 241 

Maquenne (L). and E. Demoussy, A very Sensitive Re- 
. action for Cop 99 

Marchal (P.), The Eaclation Cycle of the Woolly Aphis 
of the Apple-tree, 518 


Marett (Dr. R. R.), Current Modes of interpreting Folk- 


.. beliefs, 210 

Margerie (E.). awaraer the Cullum Geographical 

Medal of the American Geographical Society, 230 

Marr (C. K), bequest for educational purposes, 138 

Marr. (Col. R. A.J, Samples of Encysted Wood, 339 

Marriott (J. A. R.), to resign the secretaryship to the 
University Extension Delegacy, 498 

Marsden (Dr. F.), A Hot-water Process for the extraction 
of Indigo, 137 

Marshall (Prof. C. R.), some conditions influencing the 
Reaction-velocity of Sodium Nitrate on Blood; The 
Mode of Action of Metal Sols, 298; appointed to the 
Regius chair of Materia Medica in’ the University of 

+ Aberdeen, 218 

Marshall: (J.), An Analysis of an Plestron.trenateraace 

Hypothesis of Chemical Valency and Combination, 298 

Marston (R. B.), Sound of the explosion of a Munition 
Dump, 511 

Marti (M. aM A measurement of the Velocity of Soundaweves 
in Sea-water, 519; A method of sounding at sea from 
a Moving Vessel, 339 

Martin (E. A.), The Boulders. in the Rubble-drift of 
Brighton, 269 


de. 


Martin (L. C.), The Pitactumier of Night -Glasses, 251; 3 


Transparenev of Biotite to Infra-red Radiations, 97 


Martinet (J.), The Mobility. of the Hydrogen Atoms. in: 


Organic Molecules, 159 
Mascart (Prof. J.), A striking Cloud Phenomenon, 71% 


‘Millais (I. ot 


)The Winters of 1916-17, and 1917-18 in the neighbowts 
hood of Lyons, 433 


Mason- -Jones (A. J.), appointed Biologist to assist with = | 
experiments. on washings from tar-treated roads in con-. — 


nection with their alleged damage to fisheries, 389. 


Maxted (Dr. E. B.), Catalytic Hydrogenation and Reduc- 


tion, 281 
meee (Sir H.), The Supposed ‘‘ Fascination ’’ of Birds, 


Mares (Dr. A. G.), Grawth+rate of Samoan Coral a. * 


19; Report on the Department of Marine Biology of 
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916, 211 
McAdie (Prof.), The Freedom of the Skies, 491 
McAtee (W. L.), Food Habits of the Mallard Ducks of the 
United States, 113 
McCall (Sir J.), Science and Industry in Australia, 434 
McClelland (Prof. J. A.), Globular Lightning, 284; and P. 
_ J. Nolan, Nature of the Ions produced by Phosphorus, 


39 

M‘Clure (Canon E.), Coal in’ Thrace, 45, 8 

McCombie (Major H.), Pe to a fellowship at King’s. 
College, Cambridge, 


McDowall (Rev. S. A.), rotation and the Doctrine of the — 


Trinity, 103 
McHenry tA. ), "obituary 172 
McIntosh (Prof. C.), re-elected President of the Ray 
Society, 70; Sclertite Research at St. Andrews Uni- 
versity, 64; The Fisheries and the International Coun- 
ec tse 


355, 376 ie 
McLennan (Prof. J. C.), Science and Industry. in Canada, 


247; Science and its application to Marine Problems, 
395 

McMullen (A.-P.), appointed Adviser on Education to the 
Admiralty, 96 

McRae (W.), A new Fungus Disease of Hevea brasiliensis,, 


355 

Meakin (Dr.), appointed Professor of Therapeutics in Edin- 
burgh University, 418 

Meek (Prof. A.), Marine Research at St. Andrews, 104 

Meerwarth (Dr. A. M.), Andamanese and other objects in 
the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 511 

Melle (H. A.), Agricultural Grasses and their Culture, 33: 


Mendenhall (Major C. E.), appointed scientific attaché to 


the U.S. Legation in London, 8, 370 ; 

Mercer (R. G.), and others, Electric Furnaces, 235 

Merriam (Prof. C. Hart), elected President of the Minivan 
Society of Mammalogists, 329 

Merrill (P. W.), The Variables of Long Period, 53 

Merton (Dr. T. R.), and Prof. J. W. Nicholson, Dokcasity. 
Decrement in the Balmer series, 118 

Messel (L.), A Garden Flora: Trees and Flowers grown in, 
the gardens at Nymans, 1890-1915, notes by M. gis ii 
262 

Metcalf (Mr.), A new Comet, 514 

Metzger (H.), La Genése de ia Science des Cristaux, 184 

Michaud (F.), The Vapour-pressure of Liquids in thim 
Layers, 340 

Michaux (F.), Emissive theories and the DeREME yy izeeu 
principle, 99 

Mickle (Dr. W. J.), Bequest to London University, 16 

Middleton (Sir T. H.), appointed a Commissioner under 
i Development and Road Improvement Funds Acts, 


Miers: (Sir H.), Some features in the growth of crystals, 


239 

Mignonac (G:), The Synthesis of Ketimines by the beanety~ 
tic Method, <19 

Miles (Dr. W. R.), Effect -of Alcohol on Paycho-Physio- 
logical Functions, 151 

Mill (Dr. H. R.), retirement from the directorship of dis 
British Rainfall Organisation, the editorship of 
“British Rainfall,’’ and that of Symons’s accuse 
ological Magazine, 409 

Life of Frederick Courtenay Situs” 


D.S.O., 

Mills (W. H. eg appointed University Lecturer in Organic. 
Chemistry in Cambridge University, 418 

Mitchell (Dr. A. C.), Pulsations of the Vertical Component: 
of Terrestrial Magnetic Force, 339; .The Magnetic 
Storm of August, 11-12, 1919, 506 


saad) 


Index 


XV 


Moir (J. Reid), A remarkable piece of Carved Chalk, 9; 
_ Contents of the Tumuli on Martlesham Heath, ‘Suffolk 
250; Curious Markings on Chalk, 45; Flint Imple- 
‘ments from glacial gravel north of Ipswich, 359 
(Prof. J. W.), and Dr.:H. H. Janssonius, “Mikro- 
phie des s der auf Java vorkommenden 
Baimacten, im Auftrage des Kolonial-Ministeriums, 
iinfte Lief., 303 
(S. C.), appointed Lecturer in Electrical Engineer- 
g at the Devonport Technical School, 336 
gu (D. P.), Regeneration in Wheat, 219 
(Dr. G. T.), elected General Secretary of the Ameri- 
Association, 37; Gomontia lignicola, 71 
Gore (H.), appointed Assistant Director of Research by 
i an British Scientific Instrument Research Association, 
fot Norman) elected to the Standing Committee 
of the British Museum, 230 
> (R. L.), A characterisation of Jordan Regions by 
h no reference to their Boundaries, 19 
S. L.), The Flora of Australia, 360 
Nae R.), designated first secretary of the Ministry 
of Health, 88 
gan (Mrs. E.), bequest to Liverpool University for a 


Po 
WS | 4 
7 ink r 


ow I 
an 6 Alm ), Magnesite and Dolomite in Australia and 


4 


“a vz ’ 450 : 
Morison (Lt.-Col. Sir Theodore), Appointed Principal of 
_ Armstrong College, 459 __ 

wley (Prof. F.), elected President 
tical Society, 131 : 
(J.), The Shap Minor Intrusions, 473 
O.), The Study of Behaviour, 71 
-Col.), and others, War Neuroses, 136 

The Rede lecture on Science and War, 292; 
a , War Work of British Chemists, 92 
Moureu (Prof. C.), work of Sir William Ramsay; 
_ Helium in Fire-damp, etc., 412 

guet (A.), A Fluorometer, 459 

Ramsay), The Universities of India, 313 


ea oer J.), granted the title of Emeritus Professor 


of the American 


lechanical Engineering by Bristol University, 358 
rakam structure of Ferro-carbon-chromium Allows, 
HL), Determination of Temperatures reached in 
xplosive Reactions, 299 

ci (Mrs. A.), Customs connected with Death and 
urial among the Rumanians, 410 

u reclags -(R. A.), Survey of the Fauna of Lake Men- 
_ dota, 232 is 
Myers (Col. C, S.), elected a fellow of Gonville and Caius 
, Cambridge, 317; Improved Methods in an 
i Fe » 493; Present day ers of Psy- 


preg < beta special reference to Industry, Educatior, 
and s Breakdown, 101 


Nakamura (S. T.), Different forms of “Tsunamis,” 270 
h ), appointed a Commissioner under the De- 


9 t and Road Improvement Funds Acts, 250 
lewall (Prof.), Report of the Solar Physics Observatory 
_ at Cambridge, 434 : ; 
man (Sir G.), appointed Chief Medical Officer of the 
_ Ministry of Health, 409; elected a member of the 
_ Atheneum Club, 30 : t 
ewsholme (Sir A.), offered the Chair of Public Health at 
Johns Hopkins University, 138 
ead (Prof. R.), and Miss H. M, Duvall, The 
_ Aearids of stored Grain and Flour, 325 ; 
dot (P.), Tempering of Lead, Tin, and Thallium, 
9; and A. Reglade, Estimation of Zirconium, 18 _ 
as (T. C.), appointed assistant to the Woodwardian 
essor of Geology in Cambridge University, 336 
son (Prof. J. W.), Energy Distribution in Spectra, 


© (C.), and C. Lebailly, Hidden Experimental Infec- 


tions, 180 
SPA. #.), (Av Ster Atlas ‘and ‘Telescopic. Handbook 


Noyes (A.), The counter e.m.f, of Polarisation in Sulphuric 
Acid, 320 : 
Noyes (Prof. W. A.), Valency, 270 


Oddone (Prof.), The Earthquake in the Upper Tiber Valley, 
April 26, 1917, 71 ; 

Ogilvie (Dr. F. Grant), Report on 
Museums, 133 

Ogilvie (Mrs. M.), presentation to the Natural History 
Museum of Dr. M. Ogilvie’s British Bird-skins, 409 

oes (Lt.-Col. W. A. J.), The training of Engineers, 


the Sheffield City 


3°7 

Omori (Prof.), The Eruptions and Earthquakes of the 
Asama-Yama, 450 

Onslow (Hon. H.), The Colour of the Scales of Iridescent 
Insects in Transmitted Light, 84; Wild Birds and 
Distasteful Insect Larvee, 464 

Orrin (H. C.), X-ray demonstration of the Vascular sys- 
tem by Injections, 290 

Osborn (Prof. H. F.), The Origin and Evolution of Life on 
the Theory of Action, Reaction, and Interaction of 
Energy, 201 

Osborne (Miss Ethel E.), The Output of Women Workers 
in relation to Hours of work in Shell-making, 493 

Osler (Sir W.), Man’s Redemption of Man. Third edition, 
23; Presentation of a collection of essays on his 
seventieth birthday, 389; The Old Humanity and the 
New Science, 234 : 

Ostwald (Dr. W.), A Handbook of Colloid-Chemistry. The 
Recognition of Colloids, the Theory of Colloids, and 
their general Physico-Chemical Properties. Second 
English . edition, translated from the third German 
edition by Prof. M. H. Fischer, with notes added by 
.E. Hatschek, 401 

Owen (Prof. G.), appointed Professor of Physics in the 
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 499 

Oxley (Dr. A. E.), Influence of Molecular Constitution and 
Temperature on Magnetic Susceptibility, Part IV., 398 


Page (Capt. H. J.), appointed Research Chemist and 
Head of the Chemical Department at Wisley, 389 

Hes (Capt. V. W.), The A BC of Aviation., 243 

Paillot (A.), Parasitic Cocobacilli of the Caterpillar of 
Pieris brassice, 79 ; 

Panikkar (K. M.), The Nayars of Malabar, 450 

Parenty (H.), A Miniature Model of a Steam Recorder, 200 

Parker (Prof. G. H.), The elementary Nervous System, 


22 
Parsons (Lady), Women’s Work in Engineering and Ship- 
building during the War, 395 
Parsons (R. H.), Coal Consumption of Steam-power Plant, 


Partinptad (Capt. J. R.), appointed Professor of Chemistry 
at East London College, 96 
Pascoe (Lt. E. H.), The Early History of the Indus, 
Brahmaputra, and Ganges, 78 
Paterson (Prof. A. M), [obituary], 9 ao 
Paterson (C. C.), and N. Campbell, Some characteristics 
of the Spark Discharge and its effect in igniting Ex- 
plosive Mixtures, 118 : 
Patterson (Dr. S. W.), appointed Director of the Eliza Hall 
Institute of Research, Melbourne, 498 
Patterson (Dr. T. S.), appointed Gardiner Professor of 
Organic Chemistry in Glasgow University, 439 P 
Pattison (Prof. Pringle), impending resignation of the Chair 
of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh University, 


2 
Paul vs. H.), Boiler Chemistry and Feed-water Supplies, 


42t 
Peacock (D. H.), Joseph Priestley, 463 - a} 
Pearl (Prof Ry gm the the net reproductive ability 
of mated pairs of the Domestic Fowl, 332; The con- 
cept of Inbreeding, 333; The Sex-ratio in the Domestic 
Fowl, 332; and Miss A. M. Boring, Hermaphroditism 
in Poultry, 333; The Corpus Luteum in the Hen, 332; 
and S. W. Patterson, Milk Production changing with 


(Epoch 1920) for Students and Amateurs. New and 
enlarged edition, 283 


Age, 333 : 


xvi 


Index 


Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Pearn (Capt. O. P. N.),. Psychoses in the Expeditionary 
: Forces, 371 
Pearson (Prof. Karl), National Life. from the Standpoint 
of Science; The Function of Science in the Modern 
State, 112; The financial difficulties of the Galton 
Laboratory, 470 

Pearson (Miss L. K.), The Pungency of Synthetic Aromatic 
Ketones related to Zingerone, 455 

Pearson. (R. S.), The’ Indian pices Records. Vol. VI., 
Part IV.: ‘‘A Further Note on the Antiseptic Treat- 
ment of Timber, recording Results obtained from Past 
Experiments,’’ 81 

Peddie (Prof, W.), The Thermo-dynamics 
States, 299 

Pedersen (P, O.), Lichtenberg’s Dust Figures, 352 

Penard (Dr. E.), Folliculina boltoni, 
Flagellata from the vicinity of Geneva, 360 

Percival (Bishop), Senay 2 198 

Perkin (Prof. A. G.), and Dr. A. E. Everest, The Natural 
Organic Colouring Matters, 241 

' Perring (W. G.), awarded the Earl of Durham Prize of the 
Institution J Naval Architects, 489 

- Perrins (C. W. 
Oxford University, 318 

Peters (R. A.), appointed Senior Demonstrator of Bio- 
chemistry in Cambridge University, 37 

‘Petrie (Dr. J. M.), Occurrence of Methyl Lzvoinositol in 
an Australian poisonous plant, 59 

Phear (Lt. H. W.), elected a fellow of Gonville and 

‘ Caius College, Cambridge, 317 

Philip (A.), Calendar Reform and the Date of Easter, 264 

Philipps (L.), gift to University College, Aberystwyth, for 
a Plant-breeding Institute for Wales, 178 

Phillips (Rev. T. E. R.), Changes on Jupiter, 152 

Philpott (A.), on introduction of foreign Birds into New 
Zealand, 

Picard (E. B. Baillaud, and M. Ferrié, Project as to the 
. Determination of a Network of Longitudes and Lati- 
tudes all over the World, 339 

Pickering (Prof. E. C.), [obituary article], 28 

Pickering (Prof. W. H.), A Planet beyond Neptune, 514; 

The Origin of Nove, 153; The Parallax of the Orion 
' Nebula, 

Picon (M.), Action oe the Monosodium derivative of Acety- 
lene on some Halogen Esters of Secondary and Ter- 
tiary Alcohols, 200; Preparation of some true substi- 
tuted Acetylenes by means of the Monosodium derivative 
of Acetylene, 440 

Pierce (W. D.), Second Supplement to monograph on the 
Strepsiptera, 289 

Piers (H.), The Orthoptera of Nova Scotia, 289 

Pike (Capt. O. G.), Birdland’s Little People, 505 

Pilon (H.), Le Tube Coolidge. Sés Applications Scienti- 
fiques, Médicales et Industrielles, 224 

Pitt-Rivers (G.), Conscience and Fanaticism : An Essay in 
Moral Values, 342° 

Plant (M. F.), bequest to the Connecticut College for 
Women, 138 - 

Plaskett (Dr. J. S.), The Dominion of Canada’s 72-in. 
Telescope, 105 

Pocock (R. I.), External characters of existing Chevrotains 
(Tragulina), 17; Structural Characters by which the 
genera of Felidae may be distinguished from cack 
other, 140 

Poirson (E.), A Method of Secret Telephony, 499 

Poitevin and Graham, The Mineralogy of Black Lake Area, 

: Quebec, 372 

Poole (H. H.), Matter and Radiation. 8a 

Pope (Sir W. J.), Chemistry in the National Service, 214 

Porter (Prof. A. (W.), The Equation for the Chemical 
Equilibrium of Homogeneous Mixtures. Part I., 459 

Portevin and Garvin, The formation of Troostite at. Low 
Temperatures in Carbon Steels, etc., 179 

Portier (Prof. P.), Les Symbiotes, 482 

Posey (Dr. W. C.), Hvgiene of the Eye, 6 

Posnjak and Merwin, Natural Hydrated Ferric Oxides, 490 

Posternak (S.), Synthesis of the Hexaphosphate of Inosite 
and its Identity with the Phospho-organic reserve prin. 
ciple of Green Plants, 480; Two crystallised Salts of the 
phospho-organic reserve principle of Green Plants, 380 


of Unstable 


S. Kent, 219 ; Some 


D.), an aruged degree conferred upon, by 


Powell (H. J.), Glass-making before and during the War, 


352 
Poweu (R. F.), Visualisation of Features, 104 # 
Praeger (xX. li.), species of Sedum coilected in China by ~ 
L. H. Bailey 5 1917, 38 : 
Preumont (G. F. J.), Wolfram Miniog in Bolivia, 17 
Priem (Dr. F.), [obituary], 172 
Prince (Prof. &. #.), Lite in the Ocean: 
Recent Deep-sea Researches, 438 a 
Pringle (Dr. H.), appointed Protessor of Physiology in — 
trinity College, Vublin, 257; elected King’s Protessor 
of the Institutes of Medicine in the School of Physic in 
Ireland, 78 4 
Prior “al G. T.), The Meteorites Adare and Ensisheim, 
€ 


A Review of 


98 
Procter (Miss J 
sigillata, 38 
Pugh (Capt. W. T.), appointed Professor of Geology in theg : 
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 499 ee 
Punnett (Prof. 2 Experiments with Sweet Peas, 432 
Purefoy (Dr. R. D.), [death], 350 


J. B.), Skull and Affinities of Rana sub- ( 


Oninlan (Miss C. E.), Anatomy of the Lower Dicotyledons, ; 
IL., 18 
Quinton (Major J.), appointed Lecturer in a at 
King’s College, London, 479 ; 


Radcliffe (L. G. ), awarded the gold medal of the abound 

- of Dyers, 328 

Raman (Prof. C. V.), On the Mechanical Theory of the © 
Vibrations of Bowed Strings and of Musical Instru- 
ments of the Violin Family, with Experimental Veri- 
fication of the Results. Part I., 207; The Doppler 
Effect in the Molecular Scattering of Radiation, 165 

Rambaut (Dr. A. A.), The Visual Magnitudes of Nove: 


Aquilz, 5 
eee, Sie W. a) The Life and Letters of Joseph Black, 
+» 181 
Rankine (Dr. A.D.) The transmission of Speech by 
Light, 296 


Rastall (R. A. ), appointed University Lecturer in Econom 
Geology in Cambridge University, 336; The bssonil 
Composition of Oolitic Ironstones, 359 

Rateau (A.), The flow of Gas at very high Pressures, 18 

Rathbone (Miss M.), Specimens of Plants preserved by — 
submitting them to the action of Formalin Vapour, © 


98. 
Raunkiaer ic: ), Statistical Investigations on Plant Forma- 
tions, 33 : 
Rawling (S. O.), appointed Lecturer in. Chemistry at 
Robert Gordon’s Technical College, Aberdeen, 295 
Rawson (E.), appointed head of the Mechanical and Civil. 
ekg Department of the Portsmouth Municipal’ ® 4 
College, 4 i 
Ray (Sir bia. Chandra), Essays and Discourses, re 
Hag and the cultivation of the Physical Sciences, 4 


Ray SRRai Bahadur Joges Chandra), The Sugar Industry in ; 

Ancient India, 251 : 
Ray (S. H.), A Melanesian. Dictionary, 102 © im 
ee! (Lord), [death], 349; [obituary articles], 365, 366, Fr 


3 is 
Rayner (E. H.) ia of the degree of D.Sc. by Cam. 
bridge University, \e 
Reboul (G.), The otha of Luminescence accompany- t 
ing the Oxidation of Potassium and Sodium, 379 a 
Redwood (Sir Boverton), [obituary article], 287 
Reed (E. C.), Education for Genius, 518 : 
Reeves (E. A.), and others, A Transformation of the : 
Magnetic Dip Chart, 72 i\ 
Reeves (Pember), resignation of the directorship of the. 
London School of Economics, 278 i 
Regan (C. Tate), appointed eanepene or of Zoology Es 
at the Natural History Museum, 
Régnier (R.), The Bacterial Nodule of "he Poplar (Micro- — 
coccus populi), 460 


7 Ae v4 es} 


Index 


XVii 


. J.), The production of Industrial Alcohol, 330; 
: rE. Ralph, The System n-butyl Alcohol-acetone- 


7. 179 
: g (0. A.), Fungus diseases of Philippine Economic 


wit , 35 itficulties met with in the study of Storms 
a result of ie uncertainty of the time of the 
ations, 3 

ie); 


(Gustav Ma 448 

), The Physical Properties of Petrol Widaas, 99 
rg (J.), sag 239 

$ C. B.), [obituary], 210 

d: (Prof. T. W. , The Problem 6f Radio-active Lead, 
bea 93; and S. Boyer, Purification of Gallium by 
etc., 19; W. M. Craig, and J. Same- 
ag by Sublimation and the Analysis of 
de, 19; and W. C. Schumb, Refractive 
rand Solubilities of the Nitrates of Lead Isotopes, 


n (A. E.), appointed Professor of Architecture at 
College, London, 278 
‘dson (L. F.), Atmospheric Stirring measured by Pre- 
_ cipitation; Measurement of Water in Clouds, 57 
chet (C.), a3 Brodin, and Fr. Saint- Girons. Some 
_ Hemiatic Phenomena in Anaphylaxy and Antianaphy- 
_ laxy, 39; The Immunising Action of Sodium Chloride 
ain ono nage Injection, 439; and H. Cardot, 
Mutations in the formation of a new race of 
isms, 159; and G. Noizet, An Unsinkable 


t, | saab against Cold, 119 
-). Organic Chemistry. or Chemistry of 
Compounds. Vol. I., ‘‘ Chemistry. of the 


pou 
tic Series,” newly Translated and Revised by Dr. 
E. Spielmann. Second edition, 243 
5 (Dr. O.), An Egg of a Pigeon produced under the 
V influence of ‘‘ reproductive over-work’’ 437 ; 
Sex Reproduction, and Heredity in Pigeons, 436; and 
C. E. Anderson, Quinine and the reduction in the yolk 
size and total ‘size of eggs, 437; and J. A. Harris, 
re between Fat Content in the blood of Fowls 
and the total Egg records, 437; and V. K. La Mer, 
Postmortem formation of Melanin in the pipeeaness 
Retinas an Choroids of Embryo White Ring-do = 


‘ : $.), ee ae Chemistry, 281 
i (Dr. W. G.), Cephalodiscus from Adelie Land 
d Queen M 


ary Land, 54 
(Sir. W.), Ancestor Worship and the Chinese 


ma 1: 

iet (B. de a 5 J. v.d.), Coloration produced in Clay by 
i u roots of Pinus pinea, 460 

tighi (Pr (Prof. A. ‘A,) Blectro-Atomic Phenomena in the Magnetic 
# + age aa ne? pert Elettro-Atomici sotto 1’Azione 


5 ’ rdeath} ; 1905 [obituary], 231 
» Science re 


; onstruction, 296 
Se PST 
oe A R. ), Pecaii and Primitive Culture, 70 
Ay BE ‘A new Laboratory form of Fractionating 
and the Measurement of its Efficiency, 299 
: (Major C. G. D.), The Ledge on Bald Face, 22 
_ (Prof. H. F.), A Darwinian Statement of the 


» 463 — 

sor A) appointed Professor of Mechanical 
Bristol University, 358, 397 
J.), appointed Professor of et and 
Health in Birmingham University, 3 
n (J. B.), appointed Lecturer in Chemistry in the 
th African School of Mines, Johannesburg, 358 
(Miss M.), the Anaerobic Bacteria which infect 
Sal unds, 454 : 
rtso: tg ee seyerand Professor of Physiology 
in e University, 418 
in -), The Hydration, Soluble Residue, and In- 
soluble Residue in Cancer of the Liver, 320 
> (Dr. W.), Entomological Papers by, 2 

t.-Col. Sir -L.), Recent Resale: on Cholera, 
Watiantiac Enthusiasm and Official Apathy, 229 
as T.), appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in 

"Birmingham alvaesity, 379 


Rose (Sir T. K.), The Volatilisation of Gold, 98 

Rosenbaum (Mr.), Comet, 1915a@ (Mellish), 92 

Rosenhain- (Dr. W.), Some Phenomena of Pot Attack, 
297; and S. L. Archbutt, The Inter-Crystalline frac- 
ture of Metals under Prolonged Application of Stress, 


118 
Hhsghabiels (O.), A Preliminary Study of the Energy Ex- 
penditure and Food Requirements of Women Workers, 
279; the title of Assistant Professor of Physiology con- 
ferred upon, 479 
Ross (D. W.), H. Insley and A. A. Klein, Properties of 
Refractory Materials used in high-temperature furnaces, 


513 

Ross-Johnson (M.), and D. Woodman, appointed 
Demonstrators of Physiology at the London (Royal 
Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women, 458 

Roubertie (P.), and A. Nemirovsky, New Fluorescent 
screens for use in Radioscopy, 519 

Rouch (J.), The ascensional velocity of Pilot Balloons, 459 ; 
The Velocity of the Wind in the Stratosphere, 419 

Row (Mrs.), thanked for her donation to King’s College, 
London, for a scholarship, 358 

Row (R. W. H.), fobituary], 51 

Ruddiman (Prof. E. A.), Pharmacy, Theoretical and Prac- 
tical, including Arithmetic of Pharmacy, 83 

Ruedemann (R. he Phylogeny of the Acorn Nercuitne: 19° 

Ruhland (Dr. W.), appointed Professor of Botany in 
Tiibingen University, 96 

Runnstrém (J.), Movements and Physiology of Sea-urchin 
Larvee, 390 

Russell (Dr. A.), The Principles of Radio-communication, 
423 

Russell (B. )» Ph uae What they are and how they 
Mean, 4 

Russell (Dre B. J.), elected a foreign member of the Royal 
Swedish Academy of Agriculture, 111; Prof. J. J. T. 
Schlesing, 169; The Credibility of Long-continued 
Experiments, 324; The Development of Agricultural 
Research and Education in Great Britain, 227 

Rutherford (Sir E.), appointed Cavendish Professor of 
Experimental Physics in Cambridge University, 117; 
Collision of a-Particles with Light -Atoms, 415; elected 
to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, 198 

Ruttan (Prof. R. F.), elected President of the Royal Society 
of Canada, 438 


Sabatier (P.), A Mailhe, and G. Cxittinn, Action of finely 
divided Metals upon Pinene Vapour, 280; and A. 
Mailhe, The Catalytic formation of Alkyl Chlorides, 
479; and G. Gaudion, Catalytic Dehydrogenation by 
Nickel in presence of Hydrogen, 159 

Safford (W. E.), The Xochipalli, or Flower-paint of the 
Aztecs, 32 

Salter (C. ), awarded the President’s Premium of the In- 
stitution of Water Engineers, 471; The Relation of 
Rainfall to Configuration in the British Isles, 91 

Samaan (K.), An Experimental Study of Strophanthus, 
Kombé, Seeds, 455 

Sampson je ), yee of the Royal Observatory, Edin- 
burgh, 

dentauake (A.), The Oxidation Cycle of Nitric Oxide in 
Presence of Water, 39 

Sargent (F.), Observed changes on Jupiter, 134 

Saunders (Miss E. R.), The Genetics of Stocks, 432 

Sauvageau (C.), and L. Moreau, Marine Algz as food for 

orses, 419 
Sayles (R. W.), A Model of the Volcano Kilauea, Hawaii, 


Scasbotennn (E.), appointed Demonstrator in Pharmacology 
at the London (Royal Free Hospital), School of Medi- 
cine for Women, 458 

Schafer (Sir E. S.), The Position of Physiology in Medicine, 
I 

Pi a (A.), Observations of the Kopff Comet at 
Nice Observatory, 519 

Schimpf (Prof. H. W.), A Systematic Course of Qualita- 
tive Chemical Analysis of Inorganic and Organic Sub- 
stances, with Explanatory Notes. Third edition, 362; 
Essentials of Volumetric Analysis: An Introduction to 


xviii 


Index 


Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


the Subject, adapted to the needs of Students of Phar- 
maceutical Chemistry. Third edition, 362 
Schleesing (Prof. J. J. T.), [death], 8; [obituary article], 


169 
Schneider (E.), Address at Banquet of the Iron and Steel 
Institute, 209 
Schotte (Prof. G.), Figs ar of the Larch in Sweden, 176 
Schouten (Dr. W. J. A.), The Parallax of the Pleiades, 


374 

Schryyer (Prof. S. B.),. ra Introduction to the Study of 
Biological Chemistry, 4 

Schwarz (E. H. L.), The Paicsuate Desiccation of Africa, 


91 

Schweizer (K.), a Method of producing Glycerol, 252 

Seely (Major-Gen, J. E. B.), Research in Aviation, 312; 

_ Military Aviation, 48 

de Segundo (Ed. C.), How the Cotton Plant provides us 
with Foodstuffs. and other Commodities as well as 
with Clothing, 451; The Interdependence of the Cot- 
ton and the Cotton-seed Industries, 414; The Removal 
of the Residual Fibres from Cotton-seed and their value 
for Non-textile Purposes, 153 

Sellards, (Dr. A. Watson), The Principles of Acidosis and 

~ Clinical: Methods for its Study, 162 

Selous (Mrs.), presentation of Big-game trophies and Euro- 
pean Birds’ Eggs to the Natural History Museum, 


274 

Seward (Prof. A. C.), New Knowledge of a Puzzling Group 
of Gymnosperms, 115 

Shaiffer. (Dr.), Appointed Expert in Animal Husbandry 
to the Government of Mysore, 471 

Shand (A, F.), Emotion and Value, 140 

Shann (Capt. E. W.), Comparative Anatomy of the 
Shoulder-girdle and Pectoral Fin of Fishes, 18 

Shapley (Dr. H.), Distribution “of Globular Clusters and 
Spiral Nebule, 514; Globular Clusters, Cepheid Vari- 
ables, and Radiation, 25; The Age of the Stars, 284 

Shaw (Sir Napier), Introductory Meteorology, 123; Re- 
sumption of the administrative duties of the Director- 
ship of the Meteorological Office, 210; Meteorology : 
The Society and its Fellows, 475 

Sheldon (Prof. W. H:), Strife of Systems and Productive 
Duality: An Essay in Philosophy, 361 

Shelton (HL S.), The Syllogism and other Logical Forms, 


351 
Shcecwel {T.),..: 
Memoirs, 433 
Shinjo (S.), and Y. Watanabe, Celestial Systems, 153; 
Mass and Momentum of Stellar Systems, 474 
Sidgreaves (Father W.), [obituary article], 307 
Pere. (Miss), a fellowship founded as a memorial to, 


Martin Simpson and his Geological 


sine (F. B.), and R. K. Honaman, Insulating Materials 
-used in Sparking-plugs, 391 

pa ee ig ),, Beverages, 482; 
ley, 

Simpson we S.), The Sources of Industrial Potash in. 

Western Austrafia, 450 

Simpson (Prof. F. M.), the title of Emeritus. Professor con- 
ferred upon, by the University of Lendwn, 439 

Simpson (Dr. J. J.), appointed Keeper of Zoology in the 
National Museum of Wales, 289 

Simpson (J. W.), elected. President of the Royal Institute of 
British, Architects, 370 

Singer (Dr. C.), Roger Bacon (1214-94), 3 

Sivan (M. R. R.), Phosphatic Nodules of Trichinopoly and 
their availability as Manure, 137 

Skinner (H. D.), Moriori Vessels, 329 

Skinner (S.), and R. W. Burfitt, Temperature Coefficient 
of. Tensile Strength of Water, 38 

Slade (Dr. R. E.), appointed Director of Research by, the 
British Photographic Research Association, 132; Re- 
port on work in progress or contemplation by the 
British Photographic. Research Association, 434 

Sladen re ao L.), The Stinging Instinct in Bees and 
Wasps, 325 

Slaught (I (Prot H. E.), elected President of the Mathematical 
Association of America, 131 

Slessor (H. H.), The Nature of Being: An Essay, in Onto- 
logy, 342 


Peacock’s Joseph Priest- 


Slipher (Prof.), The Light of the Aurora and the ‘Auonitay 4 


Line, 411 
Small (Dr 


455 
Smallwood (Prof. W. M.), A Text-book of Biolog: ae si 
Students in General, Medical, and Technical Courses. 


J.), Triticum repens: 


Third edition, 202 


Smart (W._M.), appointed Chief Assistant at Camibetdge. . 


Observatory, 16 

Smiles (Dr. S.), appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry 
at Armstrong College, 458 

Smith (Prof. E. F.), Electro-analysis. Sixth edition, 363; 
and W. K. van Haagen, The Atomic Weights 
Boron and Fluorine, 347 

Smith (Prof. F.), The Life of the Rev. S. Hales, 7g 

Smith (Dr. F. J.), [obituary], 191 

Smith (G. Carlton), Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and Di- 


nitrotoluenes: their Manufacture and Properties, side 
Smith (Prof. G, Elliot), appointed an Arris and ve 
Lecturer, 350; appointed Professor of Ana 


University College, London, 278; elected President of 


the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 2105 


Significance of the Cerebral Cortex, 396; The Bird’s 

Brain, 118; The Primitive Nervous System, 322 
Smith (Dr. G, F. H. ), A Student’s Goniometer, 98 
ee a ), Forms assumed by the Pappus: in’ Composite, 


Smith "R, A.), Discovery of. Flint Implements from. Wic-. 2 


toria ‘West, South Africa, 410 
Smith (Dr. S. WwW. J.), elected to the Poynting Chair of 
Physics in Birmingham University, 198. 
Smith (T.), The Spacing of Glass-working. Tools, ¥59 
Smith (T. Alford), A Geography of America, 


444 
Smith (Watson), The Spontaneous Combustion of Hay- 


stacks, 491 

Smith (Lt.-Col. W. D.), foundation of a scholarship at the 
Madras Medical Me 517 

Smith (W. P.), and E. Jewett, An Introduction to the 
Study of sae 
Schools, 

Snow (A.), Caleutaton of Ovovlentions of Stars by the 
Moon, 1 

Soddy (Prof. “a ), elected to the Second Chair of Chemistry 
in Oxford University, 178; elected a foreign member 


of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, 328; Globular 


Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and Radiation, 43; Labour 
and the Higher Values, 447; New Wine into old 
Bottles, 308; Research and Service, 404; The Condi- 


. tions attached to Government Grants for: Svientific 


Research, 226 


Sollas (Prof., Ww. J.), Structure of Lysorophus as exposed by 


serial’ sections, 279; The Face of the Earth, 

Sollier (P.), Chartier, F. Rose, and Villandre, 'Traité 
Clinique de Neurologie de Guerre, 501 

Southall (Prof. J. P. C.), Mirrors, Prisms, -and Lenses. 
A Text-book of Geometrical Optics, 302 

Southern (R. W. A,), [death], 51 

Spencer (Dr.), appointed Head of the Department of In- 
organic and Physical Chemistry at Bedford College for 
Women, 479 

Spencer (Dr. G. L.), Manual de Fabricantes de Azucar de 
Cafia y Quimicos Azucareros. Traduccién Autorizada 
de ja 6a Edicién Inglesa, Dr. G. A. Cuadrado, 383 

Spencer (L. J.), Curvature in, Crystals, 98 


Speyer (E. R.), Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larve, 


445 
Spilsbury (B, H.), appointed Lecturer in Forensic Medicine” 


and Toxicology, at the London (Royal Free Hospital) 


School of Medicine for Women, 458 

Sprague (Dr. A. E.), appointed University Lecturer in 
Actuarial Science in Edinburgh. University, 

Squier (Major-Gen. G. O.), presentation to, of the Franklin. 
Medal, 309 


Squier (Gen: ), Trees as antennz in Radio-Telegraphy and 


Radio-telephony, 373 
Stamp (Dr. J. C:), ninletded the Guy Medal of the Royal 
Statistical Society, 309 


Stanley (Sir A.), resignation of the Presidency of the ~ 


Board of Trade, 250 
Stapleton (R. G.), appointed Professor of Agricultura 


A Commercial Rarity, ‘ 


f ty = a wi “ lll 2 “ * és 
a. oe. ee 


A ee Course in Science for High ‘i 


* 
; 


RR EN eer eer, Pee nee 


a 


rg, 1920] 


Lndex 


XIX 


ry College, Aberystwyth, 178 
g (Prof. E. H.), Report on the Food Conditions in 
many 471 
ty T. R. R.), Faith in Fetters, 224 
\s ¢ . J.), The American Astronomical Society, 325 ; 
E. Dershem, Magnitude of Nova Aquila, 474 

oN Cole External Parasites of the Dingo, 420; 


- Food of Ra 
f E p By nig ara , te different origin of the 
O species iving elephants, 380 
ee M.), [obituary], 231 
A.), and Dr. E. Voit, Applied Optics: The 
r of Optical Systems. Translated and 
ted by J. W. French. Vol. II., 401 
> (A. S.), and Major W. Bisset, presentation of 
é “minerals, rocks and fossils the Geology department 
: Edinburgh University, 7 
gy (E. H.), A Brilliant feat Display, 
(F.), The Educational Work at the  Salicbiney 
useum, 1916-19, 337 
t (Dr. A. W.), ‘appointed Professor of Chemistry in 
the Qi - ote of Belfast, 479; Recent Ad- 
vances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry. Third 


ee) [death], 69; [obituary article], 87 
_ appointed University Lecturer in Forestry in 


ridge University, 336 
Ir. Ma ‘ie C.), The Ingredients of Bituminous Coal, 
a fet ecical i 116 

Arrival with his party on the Alaskan 
Coast, 8 
xo ig Chemistry of Dendritic Growths in Paper, 


WwW. AL ), awarded the Murchison grant by the 

T acge hical Society, 52 

-), Bakerian lecture: A Study of the 
Sodium as excited by Fluorescence, 
attering of Light by Solid Substances, 37 

ot. M. ), The Earthquake in Eastern Bengal, etc., 

8, 1918, g1- 

. Archdeacon), awarded the Back grant by the 

1 Society, 52 

(Dr. W. A.), [obituary], Il 

nt (A), a with Drosophila melanogaster 


R 
ectr m1 
LL 


ir H. H > Fe okoned Professor of Clinical Surgery 
_ University, 41 
Send others, Museums as Educational In- 


Pro La Face de la Terre (Das Antlitz der 
. ; “Tome IIl., 4e Partie; Tables Générales de 
aE Tomes I., II., IIl., 502 

on (J. R.), Some Controversial Notes on the Diamond, 
299; The Study of the Diamond Macle, with a note on 
‘Internal Structure of Diamond, 480 

on (J. Oy Comet 1914¢ (Neujmin), 92 

: The Canadian Bark-beetles, 269 
(A. a Campbell), Wireless Telephony, 284, 304 

Address at the opening of the British 

atic Products Exhibition, 374; Science and Labour 


(Prof. x), ager article], 49 
en (N.), Variety of the Common Pine indigenous in 
-» iol Sweden, 176 


(F.), and M. Godchot, A new method for the 
srebukation of Bicyclic Ketones, 459 
| Ae J.), appointed Drake Professor of Physiology at 
University, 336 

tyre'(S. B.), The Formaldehyde process for estimating 
Bismuth, 455 

(B.), and U. Tanaka, Isolation of ‘‘ Robitin,’’ 132 
attersall (Dr. W. M.), elected Secretary of the Museums 
_ Association, 395 


345 
% err of the Plates of the Molars— 


t y and Director of the Plant-breeding Institute Taylor (F. H.), Australian Tabanide, No. 1V., 420; Con- 


tributions to a Knowledge of Australian Culicide, 


No. 4, 59 

Taylor (Dr. Griffith), An Orographical Map of Australia, 
251; The Australian Environment (especially as con- 
trolled by Rainfall), 447 

Teed (Major P. L.), The’ Chemistry and Manufacture of 
Hydrogen, ta 

Nope a (Dr. H. A.), The Casuarina Woods in Mauritius, 
29 

Thane “(sir G.), The title of Emeritus Professor conferred 
upon, by the University of London, 439 

Thoday (D.); Botany: A Text-book for Senior Students. 
Second edition, 301 

Thomas (Dr. C. J.), and Sir G, Newman, Health of 
School Children, 11 

Thomas (Dr. Ethel N.), appointed Keeper of Botany in 
the National Museum of Wales, 289° 

Thomas (J. W.), appointed Lecturer in the Electrical 
Engineering Department of the Birmingham Municipal 
Technical School, 458 

Thompson (Prof. D’ Arcy W.), Mean Sea-level, 493; 
Tropisms, 163 ; Whales landed at the Scottish Whaling 
Stations, 32 

Thompson (Dr. J. M’L.), The Stelar Anatomy of Platy- 
soma microphyllum, R.Br., 18 

Thompson (Prof. P.), Resignation of the position of Dean 
of the Faculty of Medicine of Birmingham University, 


379 
Thomson Oral Arthur), The Maturation of the Human 


ThGaiion tH 5 Mars, 212; Nova Aquile, 353 
Thomson (Dr. J. Allan), The Brachiopoda collected by the 
Australian Antarctic Expedition, 54 
Thomson (Sir J. J.), appointed a member of the Advisory 
Council to the Committee of the Privy Council for 
Scientific and Industrial Research, 230; Developments 
in Applied Science, etc., 312; elected Professor of 
Physics in Cambridge University, 418; elected to the 
Standing Committee of the British Museum, 230; 
‘resignation of the Cavendish Frofessorship of Experi- 
mental Physics in Cambridge University, 37; The Ideal 
of Science Teaching, 273 
Thomson (W.), appointed Principal of the Croydon Poly- 
technics, 257 
Thorpe (Sir T. E.), Some Recent Atomic Weight Deter- 
minations, 346; The Life-work of a Hindu Chemist, 1 
Tieghem (Prof. Ph. Van), Eléments de Botanique. Tome 
I., Botanique Générale’’?; Tome  II., ‘* Botanique 
Spéciale.’? Cinquiéme édition, remainée et augmen- 
-  tée par Prof. J. Costantin, 301 
Tilden (Sir W. A.), Absorption of Gases by Charcoal, 24; 
Chemistry in Reconstruction, 392 
Tilly (S. H.), Bos age Use of Patent Searches, 70 
Tillyard (Dr. R. J.), A Fossil Insect Wing belonging to the 
new order Paramecoptera, 519; Australian Megaloptera 
or Alder-flies, with descriptions of new genera and 
species, 59; Mesozoic Insects of Queensland. Part V., 
Mecoptera, 520; Morphology and Systematic position 
of the family Micropterygidze (sens. lat.). Introduc- 
tion and Part I.: The Wings, 420; Studies in Austra- 
lian Neuroptera. No. 6: The family Psychopside, 
58; Studies in Australian Neuroptera. No. 7: The life- 
history of Psychopsis om Guérin, 59; The Panor- 
poid Complex. Part II., 
du Toit (A. L. ), Zoning of a ** Karroo System ”’ 
Africa, 330 
Torday (E.), The Northern Babunda Tribe, 251 
Torii (R.), Les Ainou des Iles Kouriles, 432 
Tower (Dr. W. L.), The Mechanism of Evolution in Lep- 


of South 


tino-tarsa, 517 
Townsend (Prof. E. a [death], 191 
Travers (Dr. Teschorimenta with a Gas-fired Pot- 


furnace, so 

Trémont (Cc) New Methods for the Mechanical Testing of 
Metals, 518 

Triffitt (Miss), appointed Demonstrator in Organic Chemis- 
try at Bedford College for Women, 479 

Trow (Dr. A. H.), appointed Principal of the University 
College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, 336 


XX 


Index 


[ Nature, 
Octcbher 9, 1919 


Trowbridge (Col. A.), Work of the Sound-ranging Service 
of the A.E.F., 317 

True and Geise, the. Value of Greensand (Glauconite) de- 
posits as a source of the potassium required by grow- 
‘ing plants, 271 

Truffaut (G.),. and H. Colt, Army Gardens in France, 
Belgium, and Occupied German Territory, 343 

Truscott (S. J.), Slime Treatment on Cornish Frames: 
Supplements, 17 

Tulloch (Major W. J-), Distribution of the Serological 
types of B. tetani in Wounds of Men who received 
Prophylactic Inoculation, 17. 

Turner J.), appointed to the Chair of Textile Technology 
in the Manchester College of Technology, 37 

Turner (Dr. A. Logan), Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 


F.R.S., 341 

Turner (Sir William), K.C.B., F.R.S., Dr. 
Turner, 341 

Tutton (Dr. A. E. H.), Monoclinic Double Selenates of 
the Cobalt Group, 398; The Crystallographic and 
Physical Investigation of the Sulphates and Selenates, 


A. Logan 


452 
Tweedy it a; ), asked to deliver the Thomas Vicary Lec- 
ture, 
Twenhofel sty. H.), Chert in Kansas and Oklahoma, 433 
Tyndall (Dr. A. M.), appointed Professor of dedeaes in 
Bristol University, 397 


Unwin (E. E.), The reproduction of Asellus aquaticus, 319 
Urbain (Ed.), and C. Scal, The decomposition of Dielectric 
Liquids surrounding an Arc, 259 


Vanderstichele (Miss), appointed Demonstrator in Organic 
Chemistry at Bedford College for Women, 479 

Van Hise (Dr. C. R.), Proposal to erect a Geological 

Building in the University of Wisconsin as a memorial 

to, 499 

Nostrand’s Chemical Ansual’ 

Edited by Prof. J. C. Olsen. 

Matthias, 221 

Varley (Dr. W. M.), appointed Principal of the Brighton 
Municipal Technical College, 278 

Vayssiére ( P.), Some methods for the 
Crickets and their application, 519 

Vernon (Dr. H. M.), Dr. W. C. Sullivan, Capt. M. Green- 
wood, and N. B. Dreyer, Influence of Alcohol on 
Manual Work, etc., 511 

Vickers (A.), [obituary], 390 

Violle (H.), The Peroxydases in Milk, 519 

Viés (F.), The Absorption Spectra of the Hemoglobins from 
Annelids, 519; The Serial Constitution of Absorption 
Spectra, 319 

Vogel (Dr. Ph.), The Sign of the’Spread Hand, or Five- 
finger Token, in Pali Literature, 489 

Vournasos (A. C.), The Normal Nitrides of Nickel] and 
Cobalt, 259 


Van Fourth Issue, 1918, 


Assistant Editor, M. P. 


destruction of 


Wager (Dr. H.), The Colour-serise of Wasps, 58 

‘ Waite (E. R.), Feeding-habits of Nestling Bee- eaters, 4 

Walcott (R. H.), Origin of the Volcanic Tuff of Pejark 
Marsh, Victoria, 440 

Walden (A. E.) appointed Professor of Chemistry in the 
Wilson College, Bombay, 358 

Wales (Prince of), elected an honorary member of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers, 192; elected to the 
Standing Committee of the British Museum, 230; to 
be proposed for election to the Royal Society, 230 

Walker (Miss H.), appointed Lecturer in Physiology in 
Birmingham University, 379 

mdigers (Prof. J.), Inorganic Chemistry. Eleventh edition, 


3 
Walkom (Dr. A. B.), Jurassic Plants from Bexhill, near 
ver cand N.S.W., 420; The Mesozoic Floras of Queens- 
and, 450 
Wallace (Major-Gen. C.), and Major J. Fraser, Surgery 
at a Casualty Clearing Station, 282 


Waller (Dr. E.), ‘asco 108 

Wallis (T. E.), The Use of Lycopodium in Quanta 
Microscopy, 455 

Walter (A. J.), [obituary], 131 

Walter (Prof. H. E.), The Human Skeleton: An Interpre- 
tation, 383 

Wanach (B.), Ae eer of Latitude, 10 


Ward (Prof. W.), [obituary], 432 
Ward (H.), (dat 471 
Ward (Prof. R. De C.), Weather Controls over the Fight~ 


ing during the Autumn of 1918, 73 

Wardlaw (Dr. H. S. H.), Relation between the Fat- 
content and the electrical conductivity of Milk, 195 
The ea pee ae of Echidna aculeata, 

Warnes (A. R.), Coal-tar and some of its Products, 221 

Washington (Col. F. P.), [death], 51 | 

Waters (A. W.), Selenariade and other Bryozoa, 3 

Waters (H. J.), and Prof. J. D. Elliff, Agrostis tect. 
tory Exercises and Home Projects adapted to Secondary 
Schools, 124 

Watkins (A. ), Photography : Its Principles and Applications. 
Second edition, 461 

Watson peg G. N.), Question Relating to Prime ‘Num- 
bers, ; 

Watson We ‘Col. W.), [obituary article], 29 

Watt (James), Scheme at Birmingham for caebnadip the 
centenary of the death of, 217; Centenary Commemora- 
tion at Birmingham, 507 

Watts (F.), Echo Personalities: A Short Study of the Ci 
tributions of Abnormal Psychology towards the solution 
of some of the Problems of Normal Education, 382 

Watts (Rev. W. W.), Some Notes on Neurosoria pteroides, 


520 
Webb (W. M.), The Brent Valley Bird Sanctuary, 426 
Webster (Prof. A. G.), A grant to, by the Rumford Com- 
Fierce of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 


Wisderairs (E. B.), appointed Director of Research by the 
Electric Research Committee, 191 

Weighton (Dr. R. L.), 
Engineering at Armstrong College, 336 

Weir (Lord), Developments in Aircraft ‘Design and Appli- 
cation during the War, 395 

Weiss (Dr. E.), [obituary], 190 ~ 

West (Prof. G. S.), Gift of mosses, hepatics, and lichens 
to Birmingham University, 397; [obituary], 470 

Wherry (E. T.), and E. Q. Adams, Classification of 
Mimetic Crystals, 473° 

Whiddington (R.), appointed University Lecturer in Experi- 
mental Physics in Cambridge University, 418; The 
Self-oscillations of a Thermionic Valye, 2 

Whipple (F. J. W.), Absolute Scales of Preséans and Tem- 
perature, 296 

Whipple (R. S ), Electrical Methods of Measuring Body 
Temperatures; The Electro-Cardiograph, 133 ; 
Design of Optical Munitions of War, 475 

Whitaker (W.), The Section at Worms Heath (Surrey), 
with remarks on Tertiary Pebble-beds and on Clay- 
with-flints, 178; and Dr. J. C. Thresh, The Water 
Supply of Essex from Underground sources; the Rain- 
fall by Dr. H. R. Mill, 242 

White (E. G.), The Voice Beautiful in Speech and Song. A 
Consideration of the Capabilities of the Vocal Chords 
and their work in the Art of Tone Production, 124 

White (G. T.), appointed Head of the Engineering and 
Building Department of Goldsmiths’ College, 479 

White (Major N.), The Influenza Epidemic in India, 52 

White (S. A.), and A. M. Morgan, The food of Cormorants, 


150 
pi gta (B.), To deliver the Ingleby Lecture in 1920, 


397 
Whitehouse (Prof. R. H.), Indian Land Planarians, 211 
ee (C. T.), The Whiteness of the Daylight Moon, 


Whitnall (Capt. S. E.), appointed Professor of Beriiosd at. 
McGill University, 336 
Wiechmann (Dr. F, G.), [obituary], 210 
Wild (L. A.), Method of Measuring the Magnetic Hardness 
of Ferrous Metals, 459 
Wilde (Dr, H.), [death], 89; [obituary article], 129 
Wiley ne H. W.), Beverages and their Aduleation: 


Resignation of the Chair of 


The > 


Re: 
an! 


¢ 1 


Lndex 


XXxi 


- Origin, Composition, Manufacture, Natural, Artificial, 

_ Fermented, Distilled, Alkaloidal, and Fruit Juices, 482 

‘ilkinso Aegan eel N. ), Camouflage of Ships of War, 
_Dazzle-painting, of Ships, 395 

= late W. H.), The collection of lichens and 

d library of, presented to Birmingham Univer- 


na a Sudd Reservoir, 233 
C.), The Design and Inspection of 
Silaciticos of War, 475 

. O.),. The Economic Size of Concrete Ships, 


(Ss. H.), A new Process of Printing on Paper in 
Colours, 133 

. R. S.), and E. Hatschek, Surface Tension 
ace Energy and their Influence on Chemical 
Second edition, 23 

ee A Micro-voltameter, 298; appointed 
Electrical Meteorology in Cambridge Univer- 


face 


} 2 ot and Prof. E. F. Herroun, The Magnetic 

tie: herd of Magnetite, .399 

), Lord Gorell’s work, 313 

ii Mona), Acceptance of membership of the In- 
i on: Research Board, 172 

, Rocks of Timiskaming County, Quebec, 


ta Senior Lecturer in Physics at 


: OR whiter, A remarkable Dustfall 
n, Wisco a” 310 
(Lt.-Col. H. S. L.), British Survey Work 
stern Front, 173 
A Practical Handbook of British Birds. 


R), Hafsvtan, Geoidvtan och Landhéjn- 
ed Baltiska Hafvet och vid Nordsjin, 493 
-- H. M.), appointed Professor of Education 
University, 397 

2 Pe ag National Research Council of the 
; a inted Lecturer in Physical Chemis- 
J er College of Technology, 518 


Orson), appointed Demonstrator in Physics at. 


for Women, 479 
Grading aiegn 137 


Wood (Prof. R. W.), Uses of Invisible Light in Warfare, 


138 

Woodman (Miss), appointed Part-time Demonstrator in 
Physiology at Bedford College for Women, 479 

Woodward (Dr. A. Smith), elected President of the Linnean 
Society, 268; Presidential address to the South-Eastern 
Union of Scientific Societies, 314; The Dentition of the 
Petalodont Shark, Climaxodus, 319 

Woodward (Dr. H.), re-elected President of the Palzonto- 
. ya Society, 172 

Wordie, (J. M.), appointed re mae: of Petrology if 
Cambridge University, 3 

Wren (T. L.), appointed Reader i in Geometry at University 
College, London, 439 

Wright (Sir Almroth), The Lessons of the War and some 
new Prospects in the Field of Therapeutic Immunisa- 
tion, 112 


Wright (R.), Effect of some simple Electrolytes on the 


Temperature of Maximum Density of Water, 113 
Wright R. S.), Manufacture of the Snook Machine, 271; 
X-Rays and ee Industry, 2 
Wright (W. B.), The Palzozoic yu of North-Eastern 
mn with predictions as to concealed Coalfields, 
5 


Yamamoto (I.), Variation of Latitude, 10 

Yamanouchi, Iwashima, and Sakakami, 
Epidemic of 1918-19, 420 , 

Yeri (M.), and. T. Kaburaki, The Polyclad Turbellaria of 
the Japanese Coasts, 472 

Yorke (Dr. wie Ameebic Dysentery, 137 

Young (A.. W.), appointed Lecturer on Pure and Applied 
Ler aggxcsate at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, 


The Influenza 


ae (J.), Explosives, 414 - 

Young (Prof. W. H.), appointed Professor of Mathematics 
in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 499; 
The Area of Surfaces, 258 

Younger (Dr. and Mrs.), Gift to St. 


Andrews Univer- 
sity for-a Memorial Hall, 198 


Zilva (S. S.), and E. M. Wells, Dental Changes in the 
Teeth of the Guinea-pig produced by a Scorbutic Diet, 
17 


XXli 


Inaex 


[ Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


: TITLE 


Aberdeen : Robert Gordon’s Technical College, S. O. Rawl- 
ing appointed Lecturer in Chemistry at, 295; Univer- 
sity, Prof. A. Finlay appointed to the Chair of 
Chemistry in, 397; Prof. C. R. Marshall appointed 
Regius Professor of Materia Medica in, 218 

Abortion of Cattle, Contagious, 329 

Absorption : by Turbid Media, C. Chéneveau and R. Audu- 
bert, 119; of Gases by Charcoal, Sir W. A. Tilden, 24; 
Spectra, The Serial Constitution of, F, Vlés, 319; of 
the Hemoglobins from Annelids, F. Vlés, 519 

Abyssinia and Eritrea, Analysis of the Population of, Prof. 
Giuffrida-Ruggeri, 192 

Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux- 
Arts de Belgique: E. S. Goodrich elected an Associate 
of the, 370; Sir Norman Lockyer elected an Associate 
of the, 350 

Academy, The Royal, 188 

Acetylenes, Preparation of some true Substituted, by means 
of the Monosodium Derivative of Acetylene, M. Picon, 


ce) 

Acids Phosphates, Some Properties of the, A. Joannis, 380; 
«steel: Furnace Slags, An Anorthic Metasilicate from, 
A. F. Hallimond, 98 

Acidified Chromate replaced by a Solution of Potassium 
Chloro-chromate, Lumiere and Seyewetz, 491 

Acidosis: Dr. J. S. Haldane, 162; The Principles of, and 
Clinical Methods for its Study, Dr. A. W. Sellards, 162 

Acorn Barnacles, Phylogeny of the, R. Ruedemann, 19 

Acoustic Experiments in connection with Whistles and 
Flutes, Dr. R. Dunstan, 97 

Acoustics, Submarine, Dr. F. L. Hopwood, ‘467 

‘Acquired Characters: Dr. Kammerer’s Testimony to the 
Inheritance of, Prof. W. Bateson, 344; The Inheritance 
of, Prof. E: W. MacBride, 225 

Adelaide University, Dr. T. B. Robertson appointed Pro- 
fessor of Physiolo« in, 418 

Admiralty: A. P. McCullen appointed Adviser on Education, 
96; Tide-Tables, 331 

Aerial Photography, 115; Calculations in, L. P. Clerc, 352 

Aeronautical Research, The Air Force Estimates and, 
Gen. Seely, 48 

Aeronautics, Forthcoming Exhibition of, 510 

Aeroplanes: and Seaplanes, The Government Competition 
for, 510; Reduction of the Visibility of, Luckiesh, 290 

Afforestation, J. Boyd, 83 

Africa: East Central, A Scientific Expedition to, 208; The 
Progressive Desiccation of, E. H. L. Schwarz, gI 

Africa, Expedition to, under Leadership of E. Heller, 

Aggregate, A Proof that any, can be Well-ordered, P. E. 
Jourdain, 45 

Agricultural : Bacteriology, Dr. H. W. Conn. Third Edition 
revised by H. J. Conn, 304; Grasses and their Culture, 
H. A. Melle, 33; History Society, an, Established in 
Washington, 518; Laboratory. Exercises and Home Pro- 
‘jects Adapted to Secondary Schools, H. J. Waters and 
Prof. J. D. Elliff, 124; Policy, Forthcoming Appoint- 
ment of a Royal Commission on, 190; Research and 
Agricultural Education, The Government and, 218; 
Research and Education in Great Britain, The Develop- 
ment of, Dr. E. J. Russell, 227; in Madras, 137 

Agriculture : and Fisheties, Board of, Appointment of Lord 
Lee of Fareham as President of the, 489; Machines 
for, Appointment of a Departmental Committee of the 
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for the Testing, 
etc., of, 328 

Ainou, Les, des Iles Kouriles, R. Torii, 432 

Aircraft: Design and Application during the War, Develop- 
ments in, Lord Weir, 395; Production in the United 
States, A Committee Appointed on, 149 


INDEX. | z 


erv¥ 


Force Estimates, The, and Aeronautical Research, 
General Seely, 48; Navigation: Notes and Exam 
Instructor Capt. S. F. Card, 481; Routes, Civilian 
175; Proposed, 268 
Airship Construction, C. I. R. Campbell, 134. 

Airships, The Commercial Use of, 4 

Alcohol: -Acetone-Water, The "System n-butyl, Dr. J. 
Reilly and E. Ralph, 179; Effect of, on Psycho-Physiolo- 
gical Functions, Dr. W. R. Miles, 151; Industrial, 
Production of, in Ireland, Dr. J. Reilly, 330; Influence 
of, on Manual Work, etc., Dr. H. M. Vernon and . 
others, 511; Power, 469 3 Use of, for Rapid Drying of 
Gelatine Negatives and Prints, L.-P. Clerc, 251 

Alcohols as Allophanates, Isolation and Characterisation 
of, A. Béhal, 280. 

Alkyl : Chlorides, Catalytic Formation of, Starting with thie 
Primary Alcohols, P. Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 4 
Todides, 
Aqueous Solution, ’O. Bailly, 119 

Allied Red Cross Societies, Conference of the, 132 

Alloys, Some Chemically Reactive, E. A. Ashcroft, 459 

Aluminium: Alloys, Preparation of, for Miccsoenes Ex- 
amination, S, L. Archbutt and D, Hanson, 251 ; Solders, 
Tests on, 474 

Alsace and Lorraine, The Navigable Waterways of, Ed. 
Imbeaux, 259 

America: A Century of Science in, with Special ‘Reference 
to the “American Journal of Science,’’ 1818-1918, 
E. S. Dana and others, 183; -at School and at Work, 
Rev. Dr. H. B. Gray, 203; Mathematical Association 
of, Prof;. H. E. Slaught Elected President of the, 
131; The Geography of, T. Alford Smith, 

American: Association for the Advancement of cience, The 
71st Meeting of the, 36; Dr. S. Flexner elected Presi- 
dent of the, Dr. G. T. Moore elected General Secre- 

’ tary, and Prof. J. F. Abbott elected Secretary of the. 

Council of the, 37; Astronomical Society, The, Dr. J. 

Stebbins, 325; Astronomy, 394; Institute of Electrical — 
Engineers, The Edison Medal of the, Awarded to B. G. 
Lamme, 289; Magnetic Observatories, New Procedure 
at, Dr. C. Chree, 54; Mathematical Society, Prof. F. 
Morley Elected President of the, 131; Philosophical 
Society, Annual General Meeting of the, 317; Society 
of Mammalogists, Inauguration of the, 329; Timber 
Law, The Essentials of, J. P. Kinney, 321; Union 
of Scientific Federal Employees, Formation of an, 328 

Ammonia, Commercial Synthesis of, An Important Conse- 
quence of the, G. Claude, 299 

Amundsen Expedition, Relief Expedition, 308 


Air: 


‘| Anaphylactic Shock, Suppression of, W. Kopaczevski and A. 


Vahram, 519 
Ancestor Worship and the Chinese Drama, Sir W. Ridge- 


way, 231 

Andalusite (Chiastolite): Its Genesis, 
Inclusions, A. Brammall, 359 

Aniline of the Principal Hydrocarbons Contained in Petrol, 
The Critical Solution ‘Temperatures in, G.. Chavanne 
and L. J. Simon, 339 

Animals: (Anzsthetics) Bill, Second Reading of the, 190; 
The, Read a Second Time in the House of Lords, 370; 
Experiments on, Report for 1918 on, 510; The Use of, 
in Medical Research, 108 

Annual Report for 1917 of the Chief Medical Officer of 
the Board of Education, 11 

‘‘ Annuaire de 1’Observatoire Royal de Belgique,’’ 1915- 
1918, 234 

Anomalies of the Meteorological Station of Skudesness 
(Norway), G. Guilbert, 79 

Antarctic, Forthcoming New Expedition to the, 171 


Morphology, and 


Action of, on Neutral Sodium Phosphate n yy 


Index 


XXili 


AN citer isto) 
tax, Bill to Control the Importation of Goods Infected 
ith, Second Reading of the, 190 © 

thropometric and Kindred Data Collected by the Ministry 
National Service, Utilisation of, 408 

: tics, H. Chick and M. Rhodes, 71 
Congenital or Developmental, Dr. J. Kerr, 139 
of Lahore, The, Bachambar Das, 2 
Ee Rosdlaric, Kalt, and A. viburni,. Shrantk, Bionomics 
, Miss M. D. Haviland, 58 
y Grammar School, Bequest to, by Bishop Percival, 


Meteoric Display, The, 114 

A New American, 209; Forthcoming, 

be iad by by ‘D. B. MacMillan, 510 

tin ie, The hits of the, Dr. A. Gallardo, 269 

Seaplane-Carrying Ship, 233 

‘ote Society, British Psychological Society, and 

iad, ‘Association : Forthcoming Joint Session of the, 

a Joint a 3 of the ; The 1920 Meeting to be Held 

College Lt.-Col. Sir Theodore Morison Ap- 

tg od of, 439; Dr. S. Smiles Appointed 

0} rganic Chemistry at, $585 Notice of 

pari at, 218; Resignation of Dr. R. L 

the Chair of Engineering at, 336 

Ae France, Belgium, aa Occupied German 
ritory,, Truffaut and H. Colt, 343; Medical 

=partmen Sicatestion of a Director of Pathology 

nd a Director of Hygiene, 190; of Occupation, Educa- 

tion of A - Boys of the, 138; Educational Facilities 


adh ‘ 

i ing in Industries Involving Coal and its 
Derivatives, A. Bayet and A. Slosse, 160 
na-Yama, Eruptions and Earthquakes of the, Prof. 
Omori, 4 


in the Union of South Africa, A. L. Hall, 270 

1 , Reproduction of, E. E. Unwin, 319 
; cara of Some, G. Chavanne and 

cas. J. ‘Simon, 


Dulsiceve, The, 312; Vol. 
Section of the, 34 


. Weighton 


_ ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 


mets of the Jovian Family, Schorr’s Comet sce. 
Comet 1914c (Neujmin), J. Svardson, 92; Comet 
), Rosenbaum, 94; Kopff’s Periodic 
; Ebell, 453, 474, 492, 514; A New Comet, 
Mr. “Metcalf, um. grecoticl, 514 


Th “April Meteoric Display, 114; The April Meteors of 
Lael , 174; The Meteoric Shower of Halley’s Comet, 

_Jurie , 252; An Interesting Meteor, 291; 
t oi arxs ; The August Perseids, 453 


nu the Observatoire Royal ie Belgique,’”’ 1915, 

1936, 1937, 1918, 234; Reports of the French National 
tory, 1916-18, 252; The Mount Wilson Ob- 

servatory, 291; Report of the Solar Physics Observa- 
tory, Ca e, 434; Report of the Royal Observa- 
tory, Edinburgh, 453 

- 
Order ‘of the Planets, Dr. H. Chatley; 10; Photo- 
Determinations of Stellar Magnitudes of 
P. Guthnic, 53; Venus and Jupiter, 73; 
laoreet Changes on Jupiter, F. Sargent, 134; Draw- 
of (Mars, 134; Changes on Jupiter, Rev. T. E. R. 
ps, 152; Coming Conjunctions, 212; Mars. H. 
omson, 212; Jupiter, 234; The Lunar "Atmospheric 
Tide, Dr. S. "Chapman, 272; The Planets, 331; A 
t beyond Neptune, Prof. W. A. Pickering, 514 


-pheic Variables, J. H Jeans, 10; The Astrographic 
falogue, vol ii. of the Hyderabad Section, 34; Nova 


ii. of the Hydera- 


Atlantic Flight : 


Aquile, Rev. A. L. Cortie,. Dr. J. Lunt, Dr. A. A. 
Rambaut, 53; The Variables of Long Period, W, Gyl- 
lenberg, P. W. Merrill, 53; Star Clusters, Dr. 
C. V. L. Charlier, 73; The Cepheid Variables, Prof. 
A. S. Eddington, 92; ‘The Evolution of Binary Sys- 
tems, J. H. Jeans, 115; The Origin of Nove, Prof. 
W. H. Pickering, 153; Occultation of Stars by Venus, 
A. Burnet, 174; Determination of Proper Motions, 
ay vw, ‘Innes, 1943 Calculation of Occultations of 
Stars by the Moon, A. Snow, 194; Nova Aquilz, 1918, 
234; Nova Aquile, H. Thomson, 353; The Parallax of 
the Orion Nebula, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 353; Planet- 
ary Nebulz, van Maanen, 353; The Parallax of the 
Pleiades, Prof. Kapteyn, Dr. W. J. A. Schouten, 374; 
The Masses of any o Stars, Prof. Aitken, 392; The 
Spiral Nebulz, Prof. H. B. Curtis, 411; The Spectrum 
of Nova Aquilz, 435; Pee Ceti, 453; Magnitude of 
Nova Aquilze, Stebbins and Dershem, 474; Mass and 
Momentum of Stellar Systems, Shinjo and Watanabe, 
474; Occultation of Small Stars by Jupiter, A. 
Burnet, 492; Distribution of Globular Clusters and 
Spiral Nebulz, Dr. H. Shapley, 514 


Sun: 

The Solar Eclipse, 252; An Earth-efiect on the Sun, 
J. Evershed, 272; The Sun-spot Maximum, J. Ever- 
shed, 291; Sun-spots as Electric Vortices, Prof. Hale, 
292; The Solar Eclipse of May 29, 311; The Eclipse 
and Wireless Telegraphy, 374; Painting the Corona, 

H.R. Butler, 374; The Recent Solar Eclipse, 492 


Miscellaneous : 
Variation of Latitude, B. Wanach, I. Yamamoto, 10; 
Reform of the Calendar, G. Bigourdan, H. Des- 


landres, 34; Dark Markings on the Sky, Prof. Barnard, 
34; Unification of the Astronomical and Civil Day, 
115; the Gegenschein or Counterglow, Se, Barnard ; 
Tycho Brahe’s Original Observations, 5 a Ss 
Dreyer, 134; Celestial Systems, S. 'Shinjo and Y. 
Watanabe, 153; The Astographic Catalogue, 312; 
Admiralty Tide-tables, 331; The Movement of the 
Earth’s Pole, Sir F. Dyson, Dr. H. Jeffreys, 392; The 
Light of the Aurora and the Auroral Line, Prof. 
Slipher, 411; A World Survey, 434; A Magnetic Storm, 


492 


Astronomical : and Civil Day, Unification of the, 115 ; Time, 
Unification of, G. Bigourdan, 339; Observatories of Jai 
Singh, The, Gre: Kaye, 166 

Atheneum Club: R. A. Gregory elected a Member of the 
111; Sir G, Newman elected‘a Member of the, 30 

The, 130, 147, 149, 190, 226, 253, 267, 


288, 306; by ‘‘ R.34,”’ 349 

Atmosphere : General Movements of the, H. H. Hilde- 
brandsson, 119; The Lunar Tide in the, Dr. S. Chap- 
man, 18 

Atmospheric : Conditions which Affect Health, Prof. L. 


Hill, 79; Nitrogen and Oxygen, Determination of the 
Rate of Solution of, by Water, Part ii., Prof. W. E. 
Adeney and H. G. Becker, 298; Pollution, Fourth 
Report of the Advisory Committee on, 451; Stirring 
Measured by Precipitation, L. F. Richardson, 57% 
Waves, Periodicity of, J. Lévine, 119 

** Atom ’’: The, A. A.,*104; Constitution of the, and the 
Properties of Band Spectra, H. Deslandres, 259 

Atomic: Weight Determinations, Some Recent, Sir T. E. 
Thorpe, 346; Weights of Boron and Fluorine, The, 
E. F. Smith and W. K. van Haagen, 347 

August Perseids, The, 453 

Aurora : Light of the, and the Auroral Line, Prof. 
Slipher; Prof. Frost, 411 

Auroral eat igh A Brilliant, E. H. Stenning, 9 

Australia: An Orographical Map of, Dr. G. Taylor, 2513 
Science and Industry in, Sir J. McCall, 434; The 
Flora of, S. L. Moore, 3 

Australian: Antarctic Expedition, Reports of the, 54; Com- 
monwealth, Bulletins of the Advisory Council of Science 
and Industry for the, 310; Culicidz, Contributions to a 
Knowledge of, No. 4, F. H. Taylor, 59; Environment, 
The, (especially as Controlled by Rainfall), Dr. Grif- 
fith Taylor, 447; Freshwater Copepoda and Ostracoda, 


XXIV 


L[ndex 


Nature, 
Octoler 9, 1919 


Some, Miss M. Henry, 520; Megaloptera or Alder-flies, 
Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 59; Neuroptera, Studies in, No, 
6: The Family Psychopside, Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 58; 
No. 7: Life History of Psychopsis elegans, Guérin, 
Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 59; Rainfall, 447; A Remarkable, 
51; Sawflies (Fenthredinidz), W. W. Froggatt, 19; 
Tabanidez, No. iv., F. H. Taylor, 420 

Aviation : and Weather, 212; Developments in, in the War 
Period, L. Bairstow, 4143 Essays Relating to, The 
Shephard Prizes for, 510; in the War Period, The 
Progress of, L. Bairstow, 327; Prok pb. ie: Lang- 
ley’s Experiments in, H. Leffmann, 134; The A.B.C. 
of, Capt. V. W. Pagé, 243 


Bacon, ‘Roger (1214-94), Dr. C. Singer, 35 

Bacteria] Infection, A New Factor in the Mechanism of, 
W. E. Bullock and W. Cramer, 17 

Bakerian Lecture: A Study of the 
Sodium as Excited by isis og 
Strutt, 359 

Balkan Review, The, No. 1, 9 

Balloons, Pilot, Ascensional Velocity of, J. Rouch, 459 

Balmer Series, The Intensity Decrement. in the, Dr. T. 

W. Nicholson, 118 


Line-Spectrum of 
Hon.) Ras 


Merton and Prof. ip 


Baly Medal of. the Royal College of Physicians, The, 
Awarded to Dr. L. Hill, 450 
Banjara Tribe, A Remarkable Head-Dress of Women. 


of the; Dr. W. Crooke, 310 
Barbados, The Extraneous Minerals in the Coral-Lime- 
stones of, J. B. Harrison and C. B. W. Anderson, 


399 

Bee-Eaters, Feeding Habits of Nestling, E. R. Waite, 4 

Behaviour, The Study of, S. O. Most, 71 

Being, the Nature of, An Essay in Ontology, H. W. 
Slesser, 342 

Beit Fellowship for Scientific Research, Election of J. 

: A. Hey to a, 439 

Belfast, the Queen’s University of, Dr. A. W. Stewart 
Appointed Professor of Chemistry in, 479 

Belgium, Excursion to the Forests of, 513 

Benedick Galvanometer, Tests on a, to Determine the 
Cause of Variations in its Zero Reading, 391 

Bennettitales, Two Papers on the, Dr. M. C. Stopes, 116 

‘Benzylidene-Acetone, A New Synthesis of, G. Langlois, 


20 

Besse Medal of the Iron and Steel Institute Awarded 
to Prof. F. Giolitti, 489 

oe: C. Simmonds, 482 ; 

H. W. Wiley, 482 
Bhavanagar (Kathiswar), A Mammalian Fossil from, H. 
Das-Gupta, 400 

Binary Stars: The Masses of, Prof. Aitken, 392; 
The Evolution of, J. H. Jeans, 115 

Biochemical: Catalysts in Life and Industry, Proteolytic 
Enzymes, Prof. J. Effront, assisted by C. S. Venable, 
403; Method to the Study of Several Species of Indi- 
genous Orchids, Application of the, E. Bourquelot 
and M. Bridel, 160 

Biological Method, Experiments in, 202; Problems, 21 - 

Biology: A Text Book of, for Students in General, 
Medical, and Technical Courses, Prof. W. M. Small- 
wood, Third edition, 202 ; The Quantitative Method in, 
Prof. J. MacLeod, 202 


and Their Adulteration, Dr. 


Biotite, Transparency .of, to Infra-red Radiations, j PAD, By 
Martin, 97 é 
Bird-Life in Colombia, The Distribution of, By: F, M. 
Chapman, 462 
Birdland’s Little People, Capt. O. G. Pike, 505 
Bird’s Brain, The, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 118 
Birds: British, "A Practical Handbook of, Edited 
by F. Witherby. Part I., 323; Food of 
Australian, S. Jackson, S. A. White and A. 
Morgan, 150; Migratory, Convention for the 
Protection of, Between the United States and 
Canada, 133; Seen in the North-Eastern Atlantic, 


etc., from ‘August to October, 1917, D. G. Garnett, 
113; The Game, of California, J. Grinnell, H. C. 
Bryant, and T. I. Storer, 281; Wild, and Distasteful 
Insect’ Larve, Dr. W. E. Collinge, 404; Wild, The 
Food of, Dr. W. E. Collinge, 123 


Satie’ 


Birkbeck College, Acceptance by Lord Haldane of the 
Presidency. of, 117 

Birmingham : 
Oliver Lodge, 16; Dr. S. W. J. Smith Elected to the 


Poynting Chair of Physics in, 198; Provisional Scheme ~ 
for Celebrating the Centenary of ‘the Death of James | 
Watt, 217; Representation of the Non-Professorial — 
Members of the Teaching Staff on the faculties; Im- 
pending Resignation of Prof. G. Kapp, 257; Award of © 
Degrees, 378; Dr. J. Robertson Ape Professor of _ 


Hygiene and Public Health; Dr. J. S, Dunn, Professor 
of Pathology; L. Gamgee, Professor of Surgery ; Prof, 


Haslam, Lecturer in Applied Anatomy; Resignation of — 


Prof. P. Thompson as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine ; 
Prof. Haslam ye a Dean of the Faculty of 
Medicine, 379; W. Haywood Appointed Lecturer in 
Town-Planning; B. T. Rose, 


379; H. F. Humphreys Appointed Lecturer on Dental 


University, Impending Resignation of Sir — 


Demonstrator of 
Anatomy ; Miss H. Walker, Lecturer in Physiology, — 


Anatomy and Physiology, and Curator of the Odonto-— 
"age Museum; The angieliy Lecture to be Delivered — 


by B. Whitehouse ;. Miss M. Bristol Awarded an 
1851 Exhibition Scholarchis: Grant to Dr. N. Carter; 
Gifts of Lichens, etc., 397; Municipal Technical 
School, J. W. Thomas appointed Lecturer in the 
Electrical Engineering Department of the, 458 

Birthday Honours, The King’s, 470 

Bismuth, Applicability of the Formaldehyde. Process for 
Estimating, S. B. Tattentyre, 455 


Black, Joseph, The Life and. Letters of, M.D., Sir W..\5 


181 


msay, Dee 
Black Lake Area, Quebec, Mineralogy of, Poitevin and — 


Graham, 372 

Blessés de Guerre, Prothése Fonctionnelle des, Troubles 
Physiologiques et Appareillage, Dr. Ducroquet, 383 

Blink Microscope, The, -194 x 

Board: of Agriculture and Fisheries : 
holders, Nos. 
of Sir A. Stanley of the Presidency of ‘the; Sir A. 

‘ Geddes Appointed President of the, 250 

Body Temperatures, Electrical Methods of Measuring, R. 
S. Whipple, 133 

Bonn, 2nd Army Agricultural College at, 
the, 138 

Boron in some Natural Basic Silico-Aluminates, — Presence 
of, A. Lacroix and A. de Gramont, 259 

Botanical Science, Some Responsibilities of, 
Livingston, 154 

pages Eléments de, Prof. Ph. Van Tieghem, Tomes I. 

; Cina. édition, Prof. J. Costantin, 301 
Sokeny 3 ‘tae s Text-book of (Indian edition), ‘revised 


Guides to Small- 


and adapted by Birbal Sahni and M. Willis, new and — 
_D. Thoday, Second edition, 301; — 


revised edition, 301; 
Text-books of, 301 

Botrytis cinerea, Pers., An Albino Mutant of, W. B. 
Brierley, 139 

Bowed Instruments, Theory of, 207 

Brachiopoda Collected by the Australian Antarctic Ex- 
pedition, Dr. J. A. Thomson, 54 

Bracken Rhizomes as Food for Stock, 71 

Bradford Lape a Technical College : 
Prof. W. M. Gardner of the Principalship 
W. H.N. James Appointed Head of the Electrical 
Engineering Department of the, 498 

cones in the -Army, Measurement and Utilisation 


Pa Valley Bird Sanctuary, The, W. M. Webb, 426 

Brighton : Municipal College, Dr. W. M. Varley Appointed 
Principal of the, 278; The Boulders in the Rubble- 
Drift of, E. A. Martin, 269 

Bristol, Merchant Venturers’ 
to the Bristol Education Committee, 379 

Bristol University: Business Training at, 96; Major A. 
Robertson Appointed Professor. of Mechanical Engineer- 
ing, 358; Prof. J. Munro Granted the 
Emeritus Professor in Mechanical Engineering, 358; 


Prof. B.- E. 


Resignation by 
295, 4393 


a) re 


1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 283: of Trade, Resignation ~ 


“The Work of © 


Secondary School, Transfer ae 


Title of 


Dr. O. V. Darbishire Appointed Professor of Botany; 3 


Dr. H. M. Wodehouse, Professor of Education; Dr. 
H. R. Hassé, Professor of Mathematics ; Major A, 


Beaten Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr.-# 


a Tyndall, Professor of Physics; Dr. G. A. Buck- 


Nature, ] 
October 9, 1919. 


Lndex 


XXV 


master, Professor of Physiology, 397; Introduction of 
Sommercial Courses in the Faculty of Engineering of, 
: Association, Forthcoming Meeting of the, at 
nemouth, 30; Fuel Economy Committee, Re- 
ppointment of the, 52; Programme of the Educational 
ection of the, 238; The Forthcoming Meeting of the, 
248; The Bournemouth Meeting of the, 407; The, 
Pr Programmes of Sections, 435; The Bourne- 
mouth Meeting of the, 466; Bird-Skins, Dr. M. 
ie’s Collection of, Presented to the National 
story Museum, 409; Birds, A Practical Handbook of, 
edited by H. F. Witherby, Part I., 323; Chemical 
nufacturers, Association of, Third Annual Meeting 
390; Chemists, War Work of, Lord Moulton, 

, 92; Esperanto Congress, The Tenth, 318; 
ireclays Suitable for Glassworks use, Properties of, 
’ ,. F. W. Holden, and Dr. W. E. S. Turner, 
Part I., 419; Air Effort During the War, Synopsis of, 
715 1 Association, Forthcoming Clinical and 
entific Meeting of the, 32; Meeting of the, 136; 
useum, {The Prince of Wales, Sir J. J. Thomson and 
r Moore Elected to the Standing Com- 
mittee of the, 230; Optical Research, 236; Petroleum, 
306; Pharmaceutical Conference, a Memorial Lecture as 

: Tribute to the Memory of the late Lt.-Col. E. F. 
arrison, 210, 455; Photographic Research Associa- 
on, Issue of a Programme of Research; Dr. R. E. 
la vs Sprig Director of Research, 132; Report upon 
the Work in Progress or Contemplated by the, Dr. 
R. E. Slade, 424; Psychological Society, Changes in the 
Member and Scope of the, 7; Rainfall Organisa- 
tion, ete., Retirement of Dr. H. R. Mill, 409; School 
_ Athens, The Annual of the, No. xxii., Sessions 
pao 1917-18, 424; Science Guild, Forthcoming 
Meeting of the, 268; Annual Meeting of the, 
yeeches by Lord Sydenham and others, 312; British 
cientific ucts Exhibition, Descriptive Catalogue, 
‘Edited by Sir R. Gregory, 461; Scientific Instrument 
esearch Association, H. Moore Appointed Assistant 
Jirector of Research of the, 328; Scientific Products 
thibition, 7, 289, 333; Addresses by the Marquess 
‘Crewe and Lord Sydenham, 374; Lectures at the, 
414; Visit of the King and Queen to the, 408; 

t of R tatives of Hadfield’s, Ltd., to the, 
ches by Sir R. Hadfield and Sir R. Gregory, 472; 
rey Work on the Western Front, Lt.-Col. H. S. L. 


erbotham, 173 

“in Wounds of Men who Received Prophylactic 
oculation, Distribution of the Serological Types of, 

Major W. J. Tulloch, 17 


ian Game Birds 


rr 281 
se, Solar Physics Observatory, Sixth Annual 


.2D0 of the, 434 
idge University: Gifts by Dr. J. B. Hurry and 
another; W. M. Smart Appointed Chief Assistant at 
_ the Observatory, 16; Resignation of Sir J. J. Thom- 
son of the Cavendish Professorship of Experimental 
$ Beas Proposed New Professorship of Physics; R. A. 
Peters Bio- 
37; J. Barcroft Appointed Reader in 
A. V. Hill Appointed University Lecturer 
; Dr. Hartridge Appointed University 
in the Physiology of the Senses; Subject for 
Adams Prize for 1919-20, 56; C. E. Inglis Elected 
of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics, 78; 


Appointed Senior Demonstrator of 


College, 96; Sir. E. Rutherford Appointed Cavendish 
Professor of Experimental Physics; Sir J. J. Thomson 
to be Honorary Professor of Physics, 117; Sir E. 
‘Rutherford Elected to. a Fellowship at Trinity Col- 

e; Dr. H. Hartridge Raecinteds Demonstrator of 
Physiology; B. M. Jones and J. W. Lesley Elected 
to Junior Fellowships at Emmanuel College, 198; 


Major H. McCombie Elected to a Fellowship at King’s | 


Gift for a Chemical School, 218; The Financial Posi- | 


tion of, 229; Question of Financial Assistance from 
the Government; Gift by the Goldsmiths’ Company; 
Resignation of R. I. Lynch of the Curatorship of the 
University Botanic Gardens, 257; The Proposed Finan- 
cial Inquiry; Offer of the British Oil Companies for 
the School of Chemistry; F. T. Brooks Appointed a 
University Lecturer in Botany; Dr. P. Giles Elected 
Vice-Chancellor, 278; Exhibitions at Emmanuel College, 
295; Col, C. S. Myers and Lt. H. W. Phear Elected 
Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, 317; R. H. 
Rastall Appointed University Lecturer in Economic 
Geology ; H. Stone, University Lecturer in Forestry ; F. 
Debenham, University Lecturer in Surveying and 
Cartography; T. C. Nicholas Assistant to the Wood- 
wardian Professor of Geology, 336; J. M. Wordie 
Appointed Demonstrator of Petrology; A. W. Hill and 
E. H. Rayner Approved for the Degree of D.Sc., 336; 
C. T. R. Wilson Appointed Reader in Electrical 
Meteorology, 379; Sir J. J. Thomson Elected Professor 
of Physics; W. Dootson Alppointed University 
Lecturer in Chemistry: W. H. Mills, University 
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry; R. Whiddington, 
University Lecturer in Experimental Physics; S. Lees, 
University Lecturer in Thermodynamics, 418; S. Lees 
Re-elected a Fellow of St. John’s College, 408 - © 
Camouflage: Military, Major A. Klein. and Dr. J. C. 
Mottram, 364; of Ships in. War, Prof. J. Graham 
Kerr, 204; of Ships of War, Lt.-Commr. N, Wilkin- 
son, 305 
Canada: a Scientific Research Bureau to be Established in, 
89 ; The Royal Society of, Sessions on May 19-22, 437; 
Prof. R. F. Ruttan Elected President of the, 438 
Canada’s 72-in. Telescope, The Dominion of, Dr. J. S. 
Plaskett, 105 
Canadian: Arctic Expedition, Results of the, 7; Bark- 
beetles, J. M. Swaine, 269; Government, The, and the 
Proposed Hunting of Caribou with Aeroplanes, Dr. 
C. Gordon Hewitt, 244 beh ; 
Cancer of the Liver, The Hydration, Soluble Residue, and 
Insoluble Residue in, A. Robin, 320; Research Fund, 
Imperial, Report of the Work of the, during the War, 
Sir W. Church, 435 
Cape Town: University of, A Scheme for the Development 
of the, 458; University, Gift to, by the National Bank 
of South Africa, 198 
Carbolic Acid as a Fixative for Histological Preparations, 
C, L. Herman, ; 
Carbon Oxvchloride, The Characterisation and Estimation 
of, A. Kling and R. Schmutz, 179 
Carbonyl Chloride in Air, Estimation. of Traces of, A. 
Kling and R. Schmutz, 259 
Carburettors, Vaporisers, and Distributing . Valves used in 
Internal Combustion Engines, E. Butler. Second 
edition, 445 : 
Cardiff Marine Technical School, Capt. W. A. Andrews 
Appointed Lecturer in Wireless Telegraphy at the, 178 
Caribou, Protests Against the Proposed Slaughter of, 112 
Carnegie: Institution of Washington, Report of Depart- 
ment of Marine Biology of the, Dr. A. G. Mayor, 
211; Libraries and Educational Welfare, 253: United 
Kingdom Trust, Fifth Annual Report of the, 253 
Cass Technical Institute, Sir John, A. W. Young Ap- 
pointed Lecturer on Pure and Applied Mathematics at 
the, 218 
Cassiterite Deposits of Tavoy, The, J. C. Brown, 290 
Casuarina Woods in Mauritius, The, Dr. H. A. Tempany, 


290 
Catalysis in Industrial Chemistry, Prof. G. G. Henderson, 


281 . 

Catalytic: Actions at Solid Surfaces, Dr. E. F. Armstrong 
and «Dr. T. P. Hilditch, 337; Chemistry, Dr. S. 
Rideal, 281; Dehydrogenation by Nickel in Presencw 
of Hydrogen, P. Sabatier and G. Gaudion, 159; Hydre 
genation and Reduction, Dr. E. B. Maxted, 281 

Celestial Systems, Shinzo Shinjo and Yoshikatsu Watanabe, 


153 ; 
Cell-Division, Progress-Stages in, Dr. H. -H. Laughlin, 


330 
Cephalodiscus from Adelie Land and Queen Mary Land, 
Dr. W. G. Ridewood, 54 


= aa 


XXVi 


Lndex 


Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Cepheid Variables: J. H. Jeans, 10; Prof. A. S. Eddington, 


92 
Cereal Reserves, The Conservation of our, Prof. A. Dendy, 


55 
Cerebral Cortex, The Significance of the, Prof. G. Elliot 
Smith, 396 
Cetacea stranded on the British Coasts during 1918, Dr. 
S. F. Harmer, 237 
Chalk, A Remarkable Piece of Carved, J. Reid Moir, 9; 
Curious Markings on, Dr. C. W. Andrews, 25; J. Reid 
Moir, 45 
Channel Tunnel, The Proposed, 50 
Chemical: Age, No. 1, 373; Analysis of Inorganic and 
Organic Substances, Qualitative, A Systematic Course 
of, with Explanatory Notes, Prof. H. W. Schimpf, 
Third edition, 362; Analysis, Text-books of, 362; 
Annual, Van Nostrand’s, Fourth issue, 1918. Edited 
by Prof. J. C. Olsen; Assistant editor, M. P. Matthias, 
221; Industry, Society of, Forthcoming Annual Meet- 
ing of the, 150; Annual Meeting: of the, 412; Science 
and the State, 247; Service, A Suggested Government, 
34; Society, Extension of the Hours of Opening of the 
Library of the, 131; Sir J. J. Dobbie Elected Presi- 
dent of the, 89; Valency and Combination, An Analy- 
‘sis of an Electron-Transference Hypothesis of, J. 
Marshall, 298; Waste Products Committee, Report on 
the Investigations Carried out by the, 285 
Chemistry: Applied, 221, 421; Reports of the Progress of, 
Vol. III., 421; Biological, An Introduction to the Study 
of, Prof. S. B. Schryver, 43; Boiler, and Feed-Water 
Supplies, J. H. Paul, 421; Catalytic, 281; Colloquial, 
62; Everyman’s, E. Hendrick; 62; Inorganic, Prof, 
J. Walker. Eleventh edition, 283; Recent Discoveries 
in, J. Hart-Smith, 322; Inorganic and Physical, Prof. 
W. C. McC. Lewis, 322; in Reconstruction, Sir W. 
Tilden, 392; in the Nationa] Service, Sir W. J. Pope, 
214; Institute of, Work of the, During the War, 
Sir H. Jackson, 7; Inter-Allied Co-operation in, 187; 
Modern, and Chemical Industry of Starch and Cellu- 
lose (with reference to India), Prof. T. C. Chaud- 
huri, 243; Organic, or Chemistry of the Carbon Com- 
pounds, V. von, Richter. Vol. I., ‘*‘ Chemistry of the 
Aliphatic Series,’? Newly Translated and Revised by 
Dr. P. E. Spielmann. Second (revised) edition, 243; 
Physical, A System of, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis. 
Second edition. In three volumes, 161; Physical and 
. Inorganic, Recent Advances in, Dr. A, W. Stewart. 
Third edition, 322 ; Physiological, Practical, Prof. P. B. 
Hawk. Sixth edition, 462; The Profession of, Dr. 
M. O. Forster, 24; The Profession of, The Chemist 
and Druggist on, 50 
Chemists : British, War Work of, Lord Moulton and others, 
92; in Conference, 412 


" Chert in Kansas and Oklahoma, W. H, Twenhofel, 433 


Chevrotains (Tragulina), External Characters of Existing, 
R. I. Pocock, 17 


Chickens, Male or Female, Possibility of Chicken-Breeders 


obtaining at Pleasure, M. Lienhart, 460 
Children’s Newspaper, Nos. 2 and 3 of the, 114 
Chimpanzee, A, in the Open Air in England, G. Jennison, 


_ 219 

China, South-West Flora of, Prof. I. Bayley Balfour, W. W. 
Smith, and W. G. Craib, 151; Temperature in, 42 

Chinese Astronomical Instruments, Impending Return of 
the, by Germany, 51 

Chloropicrin, The High Toxic Power of, Toward Cer- 
tain of the Lower Animals, G. Bertrand, 179 

Chlorosulphonic Acid, Action of, on Methyl Hydrogen 
Suphate, R. Levaillant and L. J. Simon, 480 

Cholera, Recent Researches on, Lt.-Col. Sir L. Rogers, 


254 

Civil : 
31, 389: Service Estimates, Education and Science in 
the, 116 

Civilian Air Routes, 175 

Classical Association, Annual Meeting of the, 234 

Classics, The, in British Education, 387 

Clay in its Relation to Piles, Experiments with, A. S. E. 
Ackermann, 72 

Clays, Electrical Purification of, 516 


Coal : 


List Pensions Granted for the Year pari March 


Clifton Citines Bequest to, by Bishop Becolai; 198 
Climaxodus, The Dentition of, Dr, A. Smith Woodway 


319 

Clock Escapements, A. T. Hare, 155 

Cloud Phenomenon, A Striking, Prof. J. Mascart, 371 
Cnidonema capensis, Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist, 390 
Bituminous, Ingredients of, Dr. 
Stopes, 473; Combustion of, 
Conservation, Prof. H. E. Armstrong ; Prof. W. A. 
Bone, 393; ‘Consumption of Steam-Power Plant, R. 
H. Parsons, 33; in Thrace, Rev. Canon E. M‘Clure; 
Prof. H. Louis, 45; Rev. Canon E. M‘Clure, 85 ; Meter 
for Boilers, A, 91; in Railway Locomotives, Economic 
Use of, 213; Researches on the Chemistry of, Part I., 
Prof. W. A. Bone and R. J. Sarjant, 258; "Tar ‘and 


Marie C, | 
in the Flue-Gases, 91; 


<a 


Some of its Products, A. R. Warnes, 221; Dye: and 


Intermediates, E. de Barry Barnett, 221 

Cobalt, Organic Compounds of, Spontaneous Onjdation of 
Complex, H. Colin and O. ‘Liévin, 499 

Cobar Stope-Measurement Methods, Ww. $ 

Cocoa Production of the Empire, 410 

Coelonautilus trapezoidalis, J. W. Jackson, 18 

Coir: Philippine and Coir-Cordage, The Mechanical Pro- 
perties of, 433; The Mechanical Extraction of, 433 

Coke, Conditions of Formation of, G. Charpy and G. 
Decorps, 419 

Colloidal orden A New Method of Weighing, Prof. E. 
F. Burton, 258 

Colloid- Chemistry : A Handbook of, Dr. 
Second English edition, translated from the third Ger- 
man edition by Prof. Fischer. 
added by E. Hatschek, 401; and its General and In- 
dustrial Applications. - Second Report of the British 
Association Committee on, 454 

Colloids and Chemical Industry, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, 


A Journey in, M. T. Dawe, 133; The Birds of, 


. Curteis, 99 


454 
Colombia : 


462 
Colour :- -filters, ‘‘ Photographic Vision,’? 513; -sense of 
Wasps, H. Wager, 58; Transparency Process, A new, 
for Illustrating Scientific Lectures, A. E. Bawtree, 296 


Comet: A i Mr. Metcalf; M. Giacobini, 514; 1914¢ 
(Neujmin), J. Svardson, 92; 1915a Wier. Rosen- 
baum, 92 


Comets of the Jovian Family, 73 
Compete? Can: We, G. E. Mappin, 241 


Concentration Results, Comparison of, with Special Refer- be 


ence to the Cornish Method of Concentrating Cassiterite, 
E. Edser, 17 

Concrete : Frames, Reinforced, Analyses and Tests of 
Rigidly Connected, M. be, 373; Roads, 33; Ships, 
Economic Size of, E. O. Williams, 33 

Conifers, Seedling Diseases of, -C. Hartley, T. C. Merrill, 

and A.-S. Rhoads, 354 

Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies, 
the, 193 

Conjunctions, Coming, 212. ~ 

Connecticut College for Women, Bequest to the, by M. 
FE Plapt,: 238 2 ss 

Conscience and Fanaticism: An Essay in Moral Values, 
G. Pitt-Rivers, 342 

Consumption, The Cost of, 71 

Coolidge, Le Tube, Ses Applications Scientifiques, Médicales 
et Industrielles, H. Pilon, 224  — 

Co-operation and Profit- Sharing, Krupp von Bohlen, 211 


Second Report of 


W. Ostwald. — 
With notes — 


Co-ordination. of Research in Works and Laboratories, the _ 


late H. R. Constantine, 152 

Copper: A very Sensitive Reaction for, L. Maquenne. and 
E. Demoussy, 99; near Beaudoinville, Belgian Congo, 
Discovery of, 310 

Corona, Painting the, H. R. Butler, 374 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Absorption of Gases by Charcoal, Sir W. A, Tilden, 24 

Acquired Characters, The Inheritance of, Prof. E. W. 
MacBride, 225; Dr. Kammerer’s Testimony to Prof. 
W. Bateson, 344 

Aggregate can be Well-ordered, A Proof that any, P. E. B. 
Jourdain, 45 


— 


ef Sal 


I[ndex 


XXVIi 


c 2 Astronomical Society, The, Dr. J. Stebbins, 325 / 
m,’’ The, A. A., 104 

ters,, Nestling, * Feeding Habits of, E. R. Waite, 4 
it Valley Bird Sanctuary, The, W. M. Webb, 426 
da: Reform and the Date of Easter, A. Philip, it 
Military, Major A. Klein and D. J. C. 


364 
” of Ships in War, Prof. J. Graham Kerr, 
ommr. N, Wilkinson, 304 


10) ’ 
204 ; ag 
IR 


: 45, 

emistry, The Profession of, Dr. M. O. Forster, 24 

al in Thrace, Canon E. M‘Clure, Prof. H. Louis, 45; 
Canon E. M‘Clure, 85 

rocodile on Rotuma, A, Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, 264 
>, _ Behaviour of a, H. Eliot Howard, 426 

Moon, The Whiteness of the, C. T. Whitmell, 


e Effect in, the Molecular Scattering of Radiation, 

Prof. C. VY. Raman, Sir J. Larmor, 165, 

6 Codes , Velocity of, Prof. R. A. Fessenden, 505 

lectro-Z a in the Magnetic Field, Prof. 

¥ nae Ne R: Campbell, 384 

Fascination ’’ of Birds, The Sugoi Sir H. Maxwell, 4 
int Sy in the Far East, The, Cav. Filippo. 

12 

N: red al, Capt. G. C. L. Howell, 

of the Note, 85 

Le A and the Foraminifera, F. Chapman, 4 

ar , Cepheid Variables, and Radiation, Dr. 

Shaper 2s: 25; Prof. F. Soddy, 43; J. H. Jeans, 


r. J. 


bula Lightning, =a J. A. McClelland, G. Gilmore, 


sina and the Extinction of Tertiary. Mammals, Prof. 
D. A. Cockerell, 265 
nment Grants for Scientific Research. The Condi- 
tt yon ed to, Prof. F. eng 226 
t, of, A. J. Brander, 104. 
“and Radiation, Dr. 'R. A. Houstoun, 145 
ous Injections in Cholera, Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 


: The Colour of the Scales of, in Trans- 
ight, Hon. H. Onslow, Ae ke 

nd tHe. Research, P. , 428° 

nued Experiments, The Chedipitis tye Dr. E. J. 


: , Rev. H. Friend, 44 
xe) My "Feather of “pach Birds, The, H. J. 


84; the 


sc on by. Digestion, Kathleen F. Lander, 64 
neti Allied Observations, Proposed, during the 
tal, Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 


‘potas of August 11-12, 1919, ite Rey. A, L. 
, 483; Dr. C. Chree, 505; Dr. 


sai Ralinton, H ‘H. Poole, 
_ Theory, A Darwinian ees of the, Prof. 


_ The i idee, Prof, T. D. A, Cockerell, 44 
L. History, Museum, The Directorship of the, Prof. 
Boyd Dawkins and others, 3; Sir G, Greenhill, 24 
al Astronomy, he gp Methods in, Dr. A, Hutchin- 


5 Ao, Mi H, B. Goodwin 
‘ial terilisation in Soils A Possible Case of, F. 
wiles 
e atabas Question Relating to, A. Mallock, 305; 
of. G. N. Watson, 364 

tive Coloration. of Birds and Eggs, G. Grace 446 


ozoal’ Parasites in Cainozoic Times, Dr. G. D. Hale 
rpenter, 

aie The Collection and Pealintition. of, G. 
age, 385 

“The Food of, T. Steel, 345 

h. and Service Sir J. Ww. Barrett, Prof. F. Soddy, 


. C. Mitchell, | 


404 
Andrews University, Scientific Research at, Prof. 


W. C. McIntosh, 64; Marine Research at, 
Meek, 104 
Science and Salaries, C., 404 
Sea-Otter, Teeth of, M. D. Hill, 446 
Sparganophilus : A British Oligochzt, Rev. H. Friend, 426 
Sponges, The Cultivation of, Lt. W. R. Dunlop, 184 
Stars, The Age of the, Dr. H. Shapley, 284 
Stinging Instincts in Bees and Wasps, The, F. W. L. 
Sladen, 325 
Stirling, The late Sir Edward, L. M. Harwood, 
Sunlight on Water-drops, Supposed Effect of, Brot Pg H. 


Prof. A. 


Bryan, 125 
Visualisation of Features, R. F. Powell, 104 
Wasps, W. F. Denning, 184; Dr. J. Ritchie, R. F. Burton, 


245 

Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larve Dr. W. E, 
ee 404; E. R. gk 445; Hon. H. Onslow, 464 ;, 
Dr. W. E. Collinge, 4 

Wireless Telephony, A. Ae Chciabel Swinton, 284, 304 

X-Rays and British Industry, R..S. Wright, 244; Major 
G. W. C. Kaye, 245 


Corrosion Research Committee of the Institute of Metals, 
Report of the, 152 

Cotton: and the Cotton-seed Industries, Interdependence of 
the, E. C. de Segundo, 414; Grading, R.. C. Wood, 
137; Hairs, Existence of Daily Growth-rings. in the Cell 
Wall of, Dr. W. L. Balls, 78; Industries Museum, 
Proposed Establishment of a, 510; Plant Provides, us- 
with Foodstuffs and other Commodities as well as with 
Clothing, How the, Ed. C. de Segundo, 451; -seed By-~ 
products, 153; -seed, The Removal of the Residual 
Fibres from, and their Value for Non-textile. Purposes,. 
Ed. C. de Segundo, 153 

Crichton Royal Institution, Report for 1918 of the, 290 

Crickets, Destruction of, Some Methods for the, and Their: 
Application, Pp: Vayssiére, 519 

Cristaux, La Genése de la Science des, H. Metzger, 184 

Crocodile on Rotuma, A, Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, 264 

Croonian Lecture of the Royal Society, The, to be de- 
livered by Dr. H. H. Dale, 230 

perked Polytechnics, W. Thomson appointed Principal of 
the, 257 

Carnstogants, Geometrical, A Manual of, Prof. G. M. 
Butler, 103 © 

Crystals : Curvature in, L. J. Spencer, 98; Growth of, J. 
C. Hostetter, 512; Mimetic, Classification of,, E.. T,.. 
Wherry and E. Q. Adams, 473; Some Features in the 
Growth of, Sir H. Miers, 239 

Cuckoo, Behaviour of a, H. Eliot Howard, 426 

Cullum Geographical Medal of the American Geographical 
Society, The, awarded to E. de Margerie, 230- 


Cyanic Acid, Formation of, by the Oxidation. of Organic — 


Substances, R. Fosse, 460 
‘* Cyclone Depression,’? Some Examples of, G. Guilbert, 159 
Cyclonic Depression, Temperature Distribution in a, R. M. 
Deeley, 72 


Dar-Lughdach, An Ri; A. 
Macalister, 472 

Dark Markings on the Sky, Prof. Barnard, 34 

Date-Palm Sugar Industry of India, The, HL E. Annett, 272 


Dazzle-Painting of Ships, Lt.-Comm. N. Wilkinson, 395 


Early Story about, Prof: 


DEATHS. 
Apsey (G. M.), 210 
Bancroft. (C. K.), 191 
Barlow (G. T.), 172 
Becker (Dr. G. F.), 250 
Brown (Prof. Adrian J.), 369 
Brunner (Sir John T.), 350 
Canning (Ald. T.), 51 
Carnegie (A.), 471, 507 
Carus (Dr. P.), 19% 
Soactencsua (Prof, A.), 8 
Crisp (Sir F.), 191 
Crookes (Sir William), 1 
Cunningham (Archdeacon” W.),. 289 


XXVIll 


Index 


Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Curtis (R. od 

Danne (J.), 69, 

_ Davidson (Sir J. Mackenzie), 
Davis (W. G.), 508 

Doolittle (Prof. C. L.), 69 

Farlow (Prof. W. G.), 328, 509 

Fischer (Prof. Emil), 408, 430 

Forth (F. C.), 53 

Fraser (Sir A.), 8 

Gibson (Major H. G.), 31 

Goring (Dr. C.), 269 

Greenfield (Prof. W. S.), 489 
Haeckel (Prof. E.), 471, 487 
Hallopeau (Prof. F. H.), 69 
Hepworth (Capt. M. W. C.), 8 
Hill (G. H.), 51 

Hofer (Dr. B.), 132 

Julien (Dr. A. A.), 268 

Kobert (Prof. R.), 111 

Léveillé (H.), 191 

Levy (L. E.), 51 

Lineham (W. J.), 172 

Liveing (Dr. E.), 111 

Liveing (Dr. R.), 8 

Macdonald (Rt. Hon. Sir J. H. A.), 209 

Macgregor (Sir W.), 370 

McHenry (A.), 172 

Paterson (Prof. A. M.), 9 

Pickering (Prof. E. C.), 28 
Priem (Dr: F.), 172 

Purefoy (Dr. R. D.), 350 

Rayleigh (Lord), 349, 365-368 

Redwood (Sir B.), 28 

Retzius (Prof. G. M.), 448 

Richards (Prof. C. F.), 210 

Rintoul (Col. oA 150, 231 

Row (R. ‘sy 

Schloesing (Prof. J.J . T.), 8, 169 

Sidgreaves (Father W.), 307 

Smith (Dr. F. J.), 191 

Southern (R. W. A.), 51 

Stefanik (Genl. M.), 231 

Stirling (Sir = C.), 69, 87 

Sturge (Dr. W. A.), 111 

Townsend (Prof. E.), 191 

Vickers (A.), 390 

Waller (Dr. Elwyn), 408 

Walter (A. J.), 131 

Ward (Prof. at W.), 432 

Ward (H.), 4 

Washington Cot. EF. P:), $2 

Watson (Lt.-Col. W.), 29 

Weiss (Dr. E.), 190 

West (Prof. G. S.), 470 
Wiechmann (Dr. F. G:), 210 
Wilde (Dr. H.), 89; 129 


Decimal: Association, Annual Report of the, 330; Coinage 
and British Commerce, J. Gall Inglis, 113; System, 
James Watt and the, 512 

Democratic Ideals and Reality, A Study in the Politics of 
Reconstruction of, H. J. Mackinder, 423 

Dendritic Growths in Paper, Chemistry of, J. Strachan, 219 

Dendroglyphs, The, or Carved Trees of New South Wales, 
R. Etheridge, 269 

Dental Changes in the Teeth of the Guinea-pig produced by 
a Scorbutic Diet, S. S. Zilva and E. M. Wells, 17 

Development and Road Improvement Funds Acts, V. Nash 
and Sir T. H. Middleton appointed Commissioners 
under the, 250 

Devonport Technical School, S. C. Monk appointed Lecturer 
in Electrical Engineering at the, 336 

Diamond: Macle, Study of the, and the Internal Structure 
of Diamond, J. R. Sutton, 480; Some Controversial 
Notes on the, J. R. Sutton, 299 

Dicotyledons, Anatomy of the Lower, II., 
Gibson and Miss E. Horsman; IIl., 
Quinlan, 18 

Dielectric Liquids surrounding an Arc, Decomposition of, 
Ed. Urbain and C. Scal, 259 


Prof. Harvey- 
Miss C. E. 


Digitalis Preparations, A Standardisation of, E. Berry, 455 ; q 


Dimethyl Sulphate, Action of, on the Sulphates of 
Alkalis and Alkaline Earths, 
Simon, 380 

Dingo, External Parasites’ of the, T. Steel, 

Direct-current Motor, A Small, using Thermnionts ‘Tubes 
instead of Sliding Contacts, Prof. W. H. Eccles and 
F. W. Jordan, 38 

Dogfish, Development of the Pericardiaco-peritoneal Canal 
in the, E. S. Goodrich, 231 

Dogs, Experiments on, 130 

Dogs Protection Bill: ’ Protest against the, by the Research 
Defence Society, 230; Petition in opposition to the, 249; 
Rejection of the, 350 

Donyo L’Engai, Volcanic Eruption of, C. W. Hobley, 310 

Doppler Effect, The, in the Molecular Scattering of “Radia- 
tion, Prof. C. V. Raman, Sir J. Larmor, 16 

Dreams and Primitive Culture, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, 70 


‘Drosophila ie ark eat! (ampelophila), A. Sturtevant, 354 


Drought, End of the, 329 
Drugs, The Supply of, during the War, 486 


Dry Cells in Use in America, Methods of Testing and the 


Characteristic Behaviour of the Various Types of, 451 
Dublin: Trinity College, 
Provost of, 295; University, Sir J. Campbell appointed 
Vice-Chancellor, 318 
Durham: Earl of, Prize of the Institution of Naval Ass. 
tects awarded to W. G. Perring, 489; University, Lord 
Durham installed Chancellor of, 279 


Dustfall, = Remarkable, at Madison, Wis., A. N. Winchell : 


and E. R. Miller, 310 
Dyers, Worshipful Company of, Gold Medal of the, L. C. 
Radcliffe awarded the, 328 
Dyes, Synthetic, Statistics of, 207 
Dyestuff Industry, Manufacture of Intermediate Products 
in the, E. V. Evans, 412 
Dysentery: Amoebic, Dr. W. Yorke, 
Form of, Col. L. Dudgeon, 137 


Ear, Internal, The Functions of the, Prof. A. Keith, 182 
Earth: The Face of the, Prof. W. J. Sollas, 502; The 
Figure of the, 381; -Effect on the Sun, An, J. Evershed, 


272 
Earthquake : 
1918, Capt. M. Stuart, 915 


A Severe, in Eastern Bengal, etc., on July 8, 
in the Midland Counties on 
January 14, 1916, The, Dr. C. Davison, 473; in the 
Mugello Valley, near ’ Florence, 371; in the Upper 
Tiber Valley, April 26, 1917, The, Prof. Oddone, 71; 
Shocks in the Districts of Florence and Bologna, 350; 
Waves and the Interior of the Earth, ae, Cc. G. Knott, 


18 

Earthquakes: Distant, Registration of, T. A. aggar and 
A. Romberg, 251; in Greece, 1912-14, Prof. ee ginitis, 
E. Goulandris, and N. Critikos, 473 

Earth’s : Axes, The, and Triangulation, J. de Graaff Hunter, 
381; Pole, The Movement of the, Sir F. Dyson, 
Drv. Jeffreys, 392 

East: Indian Seas, Monthly Meteorological Chart of, 
September, 512; 
Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the, 198 

Echidna aculeata, The Temperature of, Dr. H. S. H. 
Wardlaw, 5 

Echo Porsonslities ‘A Short Study of the Contributions of 
Abnormal Psychology towards the Solution of some of 
the Problems of Normal Education, F. Watts, 382 

Eclipse, The, and Wireless Telegraphy, 3 


74 
‘Economic Ornithology, Plea for the Establishment of a 


Bureau of, Dr. W. E. Collinge, 231 

Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Prof. Sampson’ s Report of 
the, 453 

Edinburgh University: Gifts to; Dr. A. E, Sprague 
appointed University Lecturer in Actuarial Science ; 
Presentation of Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils by A. S. 
Stenhouse and Major W. Bisset, 78; Dr. J. Drever 
appointed Coombe Lecturer in Psychology; Proposed 
Invitation to the British Association for 1921 ; 
of Land for University Extension, 158; Impending 
institution of a Lectureship on the Organisation of 
Industry and Commerce; Resignation of the Chair of 
Logic and Metaphysics, by Prof. Pringle Pattison, 237; 


5: Guyot and L. J. 


Archbishop Bernard appointed 


13975 The Bacillary — 


ee es een a ey 


London College, W. J. John appointed 


Purchase -/ 


Nature, 
October g, 1919 


Index 


XxXix 


Re-establishment of the Lectureship in Military History 
and Strategy; Resolution to institute a Diploma in 
Public Health; Dr. H. S. Allen appointed Lecturer in 
_ Natural Philosophy, 336 Sir H. H. Styles appointed 
Professor of Clinical Surgery; Dr. Meakin, Protessor 
_ of Therapeutics; Dr. F. D. Boyd, Professor of Clinical 
Medicine; T. P. Laird, Professor of Accounting and 
Business Method, subject to the Approval of the Ordin- 
_ ance for the New Chair, 418 
ucation: Act, 1918, Section 28 of the, to come into 
Operation on April 1, 16; and Industry, 241; and 
_ Science in the Civil Service Estimates, 116; for Genius, 
E. C. Reed, 518; Importance of, Address by the King 
On the, 459; in Industry and Commerce, Association 
for the Advancement of, Establishment of an, 279; of 
_ the Youth of the Country, A Chart showing Desirable, 
Principal J. C. M. Garnett, 318; Part-time, in the 
United States, 127; Secondary and University, Sir F. G. 
_ Kenyon, 286 ;-The Advancement of, 143 
ducational: Problems presented to the Imperial Education 
Committee of the War Office, for the Coming Confer- 
. ence on, 258; Purposes, Bequest for, by C. K. Marr, 


% 


33 
Efficient Invention, D. Leechman, 213 
Eight-hour Day, An Application of the, H. de Chardonnet, 


(319 
Electric: Arc, Pressure upon the Poles of the, Dr. W. G. 
_ Duffield, T. H. Burnham, and Davis, 38; 
. Currents, Velocity of, Prof R. A. Fessenden, 505; 
_ Force n Two Electrodes, Distribution of, W. J. 
Harrison, 58; Furnaces, A. Gallenkamp and Co.’s 
_ Small, 492; C. R. Darling, 235; Light and Power 
eee, of the U.S.A., The, 372; -Wave Telegraphy 
___ and Telephony, The Principles of, Prof. J. A. Fleming, 
Fourth Edition, 423; Welding Developments, 72 
lectrical: Phenomena occurring at High Levels in the 
__ Atmosphere, Dr.-S. Chapman, 311; Research Com- 
mittee, appointment of E. B. Wedmore as Director of 
esearch, 191; Ship Propulsion, W. B. Hird, 232; 
ry, Foundations of, 142 
: (Supply) Bill, 1919, 408; The Theory of, G. H. 


_ davens, 142 _ 

Electro: -analysis, Prof. E. F. Smith, Dr. F. W. Gray, 363 ; 
_  satomic Phenomena in the Magnetic Field, Prof. A. 
ae, Dr. N. R. Campbell, 384; -cardiograph, The, 
- RR. S. Whipple, 133; -dynamics, The Fundamental 

_ Formulations of, G..H. Livens, 398 

Electrodes, Experiments with Perforated, on the Nature of 
_ the Discharge in Gases at Low Pressure, Dr. F. W. 


> 


ectrolysis in Chemical Industry, The Applications of, 
A. J. Hale, 203 ; 
lectrolytes, Strong, and Ionisation, J. C. Ghosh, 376 
Electrolytic Iron Deposition, Lt. W. A. Macfadyen, 178 
Elephants in the Addo Bush Reserve, Proposed Extermina- 
tion of the, 308 ‘ 
Elephas indicus, Structure of the Plates of the Molars of, 
and the Different Origin of the Two Species of Living 
Agno ants, S. Stefanescu, 380 
Elettro-Atomici, I Fenomeni, sotto 1’Azione del Magnetismo, 
Prof. A. Righi, 82 
Elgar coe theaae: Bis the Institution of Naval Architect 
_ awarded to W. G, Green, 489 
Eliza Hall Institute of Research, Dr. S. W. Patterson 
R pointed Director of the, 498 
Emissive Theories and the Doppler-Fizeau Principle, F. 
_ Michaux, 9 
Emotion and Value, A. F. Shand, 140 
Encysted Wood, Samples of, Col. R. A. Marr, 339 
: Expenditure and Food Requirements of Women 
orkers, O. Rosenheim, 279; Distribution in Spectra, 
Prof. J. W. Nicholson, 495; Transmission, A New 
Method of, Constantinesco, 93 
neer, The Title of, in Austria, 372 
ering: Trades 7 Industries) Committee, Report 
‘of the, 128; Training, An Undeveloped Aspect of, 


fay Lt.-Col. A, J. O'Meara, 387 
_ English (Language and Literature) in the Educational 


387 : 
ears Society of, Scheme to Associate the, with | 
other eae Societies, 329; The Training of, 


System of England, Appointment of a Departmental 
Committee on the Position of, 198 

Entomological Papers, Dr. W. Roepke, 269 

Eosins and Erythrosins, Examination of, T. T. Cocking, 
J. D. Kettle, and E. J. Chappel, 455 

Equilibrium and Vertigo, Dr. I. H. Jones, with an Analysis 
of Pathologic Cases by Dr. L. Fisher, 182 

Essays and Discourses, Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray, 1 

Essex Water Supply, 242 ; 

Ether, Purified, and the Variations of Commercial Samples, 
A. J. Jones, 455 

Eucalyptus: A New Species or Form of, Dr. C. Hall, 59; 

otes on, No. vii., with Descriptions of New Species, 

J. H. Maiden, 520; Oils, Germicidal Activity of the, 
Part I., Dr. R. Greig-Smith, 420 

Euglena deses, Behaviour of, on Mud, Miss R. Bracher, 511 

Euphrasia, The Norwegian Species of, E. Jorgensen, 433 

Evolution: and the Doctrine of the Trinity, Rev. S. A. 
McDowall, 103; Dynamics of, 201; Medical Contribu- 
tions to the Study of, Prof. J. G. Adami, 21 

Exhibition of Shipping, Engineering, and Machinery, 
Forthcoming, 471 er 

Experimental and Reseach Station at 
Cheshunt, Report of the, 151 

Experiments, The Credibility of Long-continued, Dr. E. J. 
Russell, 324 . 

Explosions, Experimental, The suggested, Dr. C. Davison, 


Turner’s Hill, 


31 
Explosive Reactions, Temperatures reached in, H. Muraour, 


299 

Explosives: J. Young, 414; 43rd Annual Report of H.M. 
Inspectors of, 491 

Eye: Papin of the, Dr. W. C. Posey, 63; The Unaided, 
J. W. French, 159 


Faith in Fetters, Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, 224 

Falmouth Observatory, Meteorological Tables and Notes for 
1918, 451 

Far Away and Long Ago, A History of my Early Life, 
W. H. Hudson, 22 

“Fascination ’’ of Birds, The supposed, Sir H. Maxwell, 4 

Fats: and Fatty Degeneration, Prof. M. H. Fischer and 
Dy. Ox Véoke: 504; Mechanism of the Action of, 
in the Utilisation and Assimilation of Albuminoids, 
F. Maignon, 79, 119 

Fauna Brasiliense, Peixes, Archivos do Museu nacional do 
Rio de Janeiro, vol. xvii., 425 

Felidz may be distinguished from each other, Structural 
Characters by which the Genera of, R. I. Pocock, 140 

Ferric Oxides, Natural Hydrated, Posnjak and Merwin, 490 

Ferro: -carbon-chromium Alloys, Structure of, Murakami, 
391; -cerium Flints, Manufacture of, in France, 270 

Ferrous Alloy, A New, 173; Metals, Measuring the Mag- 
netic Hardness of, and its Utility for carrying out 
Research Work on Thermal Treatment, L. A. Wild, 459 

Fertilisers, Soils and, Prof. T. L. Lyon, 323 

Fiji, Geological Observations in, W. G. Foye, 27 

Fijians, Early, Capt. A. M. Hocart, 279 

Filter-passing Germ, A, Serie Bowman, 136 e: 

Finger-print System in the Far East, The, Cav. Filippo de 
Filippi, 125 

Fisheries: Alleged damage to, by Washings of Tar-treated 
Roads, A. 2 Mason-Jones: appointed as Biologist and 
Observer, 389; National, Capt. G. C. L. Howell, 84; 
The Writer of the Note, 85; The, and Scientific Re- 
search, 385; The, and the International Council, Prof. 
W. C. McIntosh, 355; The, and the International 
Council, Prof. W. C. McIntosh, 376 

Fishes, the Shoulder-girdle and Pectoral Fin of, Compara- 
tive Anatomy of, Capt. E. W. Shann, 18 | ; 

Fishing Industry, Plea for the Unification of the Adminis- 
tration and Further Development of the, 31 


. Flagellz of Insects obtained in a Pure Culture, A. Laveran 


and G. Franchini, 499 
Flagellata from the Vicinity of Geneva, Dr. E. Penard, 360 
Flint Implements: from Glacial Gravel North of Ipswich, 
J. Reid Moir, 359; from Victoria West, South Africa, 
R. A. Smith, 410 
Flotation, Mechanism of 
I. Langmuir, 459 


the Surface Phenomena of, 


XXX 


Index 


; [ Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Flow of Liquids, The Laws of, by Drops in Cylindrical 
Tubes, L. Abonnenc, 119 

Fluorescent Screens, New, for use 
Roubertie and A. Nemirovsky, ‘519 

Fluorides: Action of, upon Vegetation, A. Gautier and 

Clausmann, 479; Influence of, on Vegetation, 
A. Gautier, 299 : 

Fluorometric Method of Measuring X-rays, A Modification 
of the, and its Application to the Measurement of the 
Radiation from Coolidge Bulbs, R. Biquard, 200 

Fluorometer, A, A. Muguet, 459 

Folk-beliefs, Current Modes of Interpreting, Dr. R. R. 
Marett, 210 ; 

Folk-songs of the Teton Sioux, The, Prof. G. H. Bryan,9515 

Folliculina boltoni, S. Kent, Dr. E. Penard, 219 

Food: Problems, Researches concerned with, Drs. Harden 
and Zilva, 454; Requirements of Man, Report on the, 
and their Variations according to Age, Sex. Size, and 
Occupation, 148 

Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct, Ptof. J. 
Loeb, 163 

Forest : Law in America, The Development of, J. P. Kinney, 
321; Policy and Law in the United States, 321; Re- 
search in Europe, S. Howard, 55; Soils and the 
Formation of Humus, H. Hesselman, 176 

Forestry: Bill, The, 431, 441, 449; Third Reading of the, 
469; Research in Sweden, 175 

Formulaire de 1’Electricien et du Mécanicien, Hospitalier 
et Roux, Vingt-neuviéme Edition, G. Roux, 403 

Forthcoming Books of Science, 11, 34, 92, 114, 134, 152, 
194, 211, 234, 274, 291, 311, 331, 353, 374, 391, 411, 
434, 452, 492 

Fossil: Insect Wing belonging to the New Order Para- 
mecoptera, Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 519; Vertebrates in the 
American Museum of Natural History, vol. vi., 31 

Foulerton : Fund of the Royal Society for Original Research 
in Medicine, etc., 89; John, Studentships, Impending 
Award of, ‘370 

Foxhall Human Mandible, The, 50 

Fractionating Column, A New Laboratory Form of, and 
the Measurement of its Efficiency, M. H. Robert, 299 

Franklin Medals presented to Sir J. Dewar and Major-Gen. 
G. O. Squier, 309 

Fream Memorial Prize for 1919 awarded to Miss Doris 
Anderson, 489 

“Free Place System’? in Secondary Schools in England 
and Wales, Report of the Committee of the British 
Association on the, 57 

French: Exhibition of Optical Instruments and Perfumery 
in London, A, 248; Steel and Iron Masters’ Associa- 
tion, The, M. Honoré, 233 

‘Fritz, John, Medal, awarded to Major.-Gen. 
Goethals, 370 

Fuel Economy, 213 

Fungus Diseases of Economic Plants, 354 


in Radidscopy, A. 


Galileo, W. W. Bryant, 23 

Gallium Chloride, Purification by Sublimation and the 
Analysis of, Richards, W. M. Craig, and 
J. Sameshima, 19; Purification of, by Electrolysis, etc., 

T. W. Richards and S. Boyer, 19 

Galton Laboratory, The Financial Position of the, Prof. 
Karl Pearson, 470 ‘ 

Game Birds of California, The, J. Grinnell, H. C. Bryant, 
and T. I. Storer, 281 

Garden: Flora, A, Trees and Flowers grown in the 
Gardens at Nymano, 1890-1915, L. Messel. Notes by 
M. Messel, 362; The Value of a, 362 

Gas, The Flow of, at very High Pressures, A. Rateau, 18 

Gases: Deadly, Defence against, Col. B. Dewey, 317; 
The Occlusion of, by Metals, Sir R. Hadfield, 168; 
Prof. McBain, 169 

Gas-fired Pot-furnace, Experiments with a, Dr. M. W. 
Travers, 419 

Gegenschein, The, or Counterglow, Prof. Barnard, 134 

Genetical Society, Visit to Cambridge of the, 432 

Genetics for the Botanist, 21 

Geodetic and Geodynamic Institute, A British, 154 

*Geological: Bibliography of India, A, 223; 


Society, 
Women to be admitted as Fellows of the, 89 


Gotha 


Geology : and Topography, Military, A Presentation of 


‘certain Phases of Geology, Geography, and Topo- 
graphy for Military Purposes, edited by H. E. Gregory, 
183; Practical, Aids in, Prof. G. A, J. Cole, Seventh 
Edition, Dr. J. W. Evans, 263 ae 
Geometrical: and Mechanical Fit, Sir G. Greenhill, 193; 
Crystallography, A Manual of, Prof. G. M. Butler, 103 
Geophysical Journal of the Meteorological Office, The, 352 
German: Dye Manufactures and the Supply of Explosives 
* and Poison Gases, Connection between the, Dr. H. 
Levinstein, 412; Glass Factories, Impressions of a 
Recent Tour of the, S. N. Jenkinson, 419; Imperial 
Postal Department, H. Bredow appointed Director- 
General of the, 88 
Germany : Co-operation in, 308; Food Conditions in, Prof. 
E. H. Starling, 471 
Gibbs-Helmholtz Equation, Application of the, 
variant Systems, A. Boutaric, 280 
Giblin Tin Lode of Tasmania, The, C. W. Gudgeon, 18 


to Mono- 


Gibson Memorial Scholarship: Gift for a, by Miss M. M. 


Gibson, 118; awarded to Miss M. E. Harding, 336 

Gilchrist Scholarship, A Special, offered through the 
London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for 
Women, 358 

Girvanella and the Foraminifera, F. Chapman, 

Glasgow School of Metallurgy, The Aims of 

Desch, 114 

Glasgow University: Conferment of Doctorates, 158; Con- 

' ferment of Degrees, 358; Prof. G. Henderson 
appointed Regius Professor of Chemistry, 438; Dr. 
C. H. Browning Gardiner Professor of Bacteriology ; 
Dr. T. S. Patterson Gardiner Professor of Organic 
Chemistry, Dr. E. P. Cathcart Gardiner Professor of 
Physiological Chemistry, 439 

Glass ; Optical, 65 ; Research Association, The, 149 ; -making 
before and during the War, H. J. Powell, 352; -work- 
ing Tools, The Spacing of, T. Smith, 159 

Glasses: for the Protection of the Eyes of Furnacemen, 
Properties of, 290; Welding of, L. Appert, 271 _ 

Globular : Clusters and Spiral Nebulz, Distribution of, Dr. 
H. Shapley, 514; Cepheid Variables, and Radiation, 
Dr. H. Shapley, 25; Prof. F. Soddy, 43; J. H. Jeans, 
Dr. J. W. Evans, 64; Lightning, Prof. J. A. 
McClelland, G. Gilmore, 284 

Glossina and the Extinction of Tertiary Mammals, Prof. 
T. D. A. Cockerell, 265 

Glucina from Beryl, A Method of extracting, H. Copaux, 
119 ; 

Glucose and Levulose, Utilisation of, by the Higher 
Plants, H. Colin, 159 

Glycerol, Method of Obtaining, K. Schweizer, 252 

Godman, F. Du Cane, Proposed Memorial to the late, 449 

Gold, Volatilisation of, Sir T. K. Rose, 98 

Gomontia lignicola, G. T. Moore, 71 

Goniometer, A Students’, Dr. G. F. H. Smith, 98° 

Gorizia,* The Climate of, Prof. F. Eredia, 310 

Government: Grants for Scientific Research, The Con- 
ditions attached to, Prof. F. Soddy, 226; The Functions 
of, in Relation to Education, H. A. L. Fisher, 78; The 
Machinery of, 85; A. J. Brander, 104 

Grain. Pests: and their Investigation, Dr. A. D. Imms, 
325; (War) Committee, Royal Society, Report No. 1, 
May, 1918, 325 

Grasses and Grasslands of South Africa, The, Prof. J. W. 
Bews, 62 : 

Graticules, J. Rheinberg, 239 

Gravitation and Relativity, 2 

Greek Vase-painting, The Study of, S. B. Luce, 472 

Greenwich : Temperature Records, A Periodogram Analysis 
of the, Capt. D. Brunt, 338; The Royal Observatory, 
Report of the Astronomer Royal, 313 

Greensand (Glauconite) Deposits, Value of, as a Source of 
the Potassium required by Growing Plants, True and 
Geise, 271 

Guy. Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, The, awarded 
to Dr. J. C. Stamp, 309 con 

Gymnosperms, New Knowledge of a Puzzling Group of, 
Prof. A. C. Seward, 115 

Gyroscopics, Sir G. Greenhill, 121 f 

Gyrostatics and Rotational Motion, A Treatise on, Theory 

’ and Applications, Prof. A. Gray, 121 


A Prof, C. 


whorls 


Index 


XXXi 


Hematic Phenomena in Anaphylaxy and Antianaphylaxy, } 
: Some, C. Richet, P. Brodin, Fe) Fr. Saint-Girons, 39 
kea- laurina, Application of the Biological Method to 
"the Study of the Leaves of, E. Bourquelot and 
HH. Heérissey, 39 
les, Rev. Stephen, Life of, Prof. F. Smith, 150 
Acids, The Addition: Compounds of, to Di- 
henylarsenic Acid, V. Grignard and G. Rivat, 479 - 
son, Lt.-Col. E. F., Memorial Lecture on the late, 
¥F. H. Carr, 432 
d University, 
: Scholarship, 237 

"R s and East Sussex Naturalist, The, 273 
aily, ené-Just, Articles on, 290 
Spontaneous Combustion of, W. Smith, 491 

Ith : ‘Bureau, Central, Proposal to set up a, 112; Bill, 
‘The Ministry of, Major Astor and others, 7; Third 
Reading Passed ‘after Alteration, 139; Sir R. Morant 
designated First Secretary of the, 88; Minister of, 
ale C., Addison appointed, 328; of our Children, The, 


ie Lig ht, and Motive Power, Distribution of, by Gas 
and Electricity, Sir Dugald Clerk, 233; of Evaporation 
of a Li baa Application to Eight Different Substances 
of the Formula which expresses the, E. Ariés, 

The 


carrying Fruit upon its Spines, Ancient 

d as to the, M. Christy, 119 

| Heider University, Prof. L. Jost appointed Professor 
of gaged in, 

Y Helium in Fire-damp, etc., Prof. C. Moureu, 412 

ers att College, Edinburgh, Dr. Boon appointed to 

* _ the Chair of Chemistry at, 198 

_ Higher agewyer et and Training for ex-Service 

a Officers and M » 499 

Highways and ecuass in Northaniptonshire and Rutland, 

; H. A. Evans, 103 


: Astronomical Deities, G. R. Kaye, 5%: Chemist, 
a The Life-work of a, Sir T. E. Thorpe 
Holzes, _ Mikrographie des, der auf lave Freeicameaandats 
asten, im Auftrage des Kolonial-Ministeriums, 
- Funtte Lief, Prof. J. W. Moll and Dr. H. H. Jans- 


me Civil Se 
"Home Civil rvice, New Regulations for Examinations for 
_ Clerkships in the, 237 
He eget Pauation for the’ Chemical Equi- 
ee 0 part i rof. A. W. Porter, 459 
4 wan gs Tang T'si-Tsung, The, and the Antecedents of 
e Chinese Horse, C. W. Bishop, 489 

Bho: Basal Metabolism, A Biometric Study of, J. A. 
By if ‘Harris and F. G.- Benedict, 19; Machine, The, and 
Industrial Efficiency, Prof. S. Lee, 261 ; Ovum, 
_ Maturation of the, Prof. A, Thomson, 472; Skeleton, 
The, An Interpretation, Prof. H. E. Walter, 383 
Humanity, The Old, and the New Science, Sir W’. Osler, 


x 


234 
Hummin Birds, The Lustre of some Feathers of, H. J. 
Charbonnier 
iat teorhr a in The Dr. W. Crooke, 
Hyderabad Archeological Society, The 
_ awarded to H. Cousens, 510 
ydraulic Experiments with Valves, etc., 27 
a ig 7 Atoms, Mobility of the, in Organic Molecules, 
ig Martinet, 159; in War and Industry, 442; The 
Pramnsrai and Manufacture of, Major P. L. Teed, 442 
hic Conference, The International, 328 
ydrophobia, Society for ‘the Prevention of,” ‘Reorganisation 
war’ the, 249 
yoscine, Resolution of, 
 Dextra-form, H. King, 114 
“Hyporit, *”” Manufacture of, at the Greeetn-ejektron 
Chemical Works, 111 


2 
ota Medal of the, 


into the Lzvo-form and _ the 


+e A ‘New Theory of Transportation by, F. Debenham, 
eA.) 31Qs es 44 Arctic Seas, State of the, in 1918, 270 
‘Ifugas R. F. Barton, 371 

q om ‘Deposits, Genesis of, W. H. Goodchild, 338 
P is University Duildings, Laboratories, etc., of, 238 
Se tiamincs. in Easte:n Europe, 158 
Illuminating Engineering Society, 


Tenth Anniversary 
_. Dinner of the, 70. Mes, ; tb + he 


Provision for a Choate Memorial 


™ 


Imperial: British Institute of Archeology in Cairo, Plea for 
an, Sir A. Evans, 31; College of Science and Tech- 
nology, Free Places at the, 237; Gifts to, by O. Beit 
and an Old Student of the Royal College of ‘Science, 5 288 > 
Education Conference, 313; Speeches by H. L. 
Fisher and others, 313; Mineral Resources Tea 
Incorporation of the, 350 

Incandescent Larva, “Smoke ’’ from, 433 

India: and the Cultivation of the Physical Sciences, Sir 
Prafulla Chandra Ray, 353; Board of Scientific Advice 
for, Annual Report of the, 434; Food-crops in, Means 
of rapidly increasing the Produce of, 113; The Govern- 
ment of, and Scientific Medicine, 229 

Indian: Association for the Cultivation of Science, Report 
of the, for 1917, 113; Astronomical Instruments, Dr. 
J. L. E. Dreyer, 166; Forest Records, vol. vi., part iv. : 
A Further Note on the Antiseptic Treatment of Timber, 
recording Results obtained from Past Experiments, 
R. S. Pearson, 81; Geology and Physical Geography, 

_ A Bibliography of, with an Annotated Index of Minerals 
of Economic Value, T. H. D. La Touche, two parts, 
223; Land Planarians, Prof R. H. Whitehouse, 211; 
Mineral Production in 1917, 372; Museum, Guide to 
Andamanese and other Objects in the, Dr. A. M. 
Meerwarth, 511; Science Congress, The Seventh 
Annual Meeting of the, 450; Survey Report, vol. xi., 293 

Indigo, A Hot-water Process for the Extraction of, Dr. 
F. Marsden, 137 

Individuality, The Problem of, 342 

Inductance Calculations, Simplified, with Special Reference 
to Thick Coils, P. R. Coursey, 97 

Indus, Brahmaputra, and Ganges, The Early History of 
the, Lieut. E. H. Pascoe, 78 

Industrial: Biology, National Institute of, Plea for a, 
A. Chaston Chapman, 511; Efficiency, 261; Electro- 
lysis, 203; Fatigue, Reports on, 4933 Research Board, 
Dr. Winifred Cullis and Miss M. Wilson accept 
Membership of the, 172; Hygiene, Journal of, No, 1, 
489 ; jldghting, L. Gaster, 437; L. Gaster, H. C. Wheat, 

. W. Souster, 513; Organisation, Capt. M. Green- 
mc 29; The Physiology of, and the Re-employment 
of the Disabled, Prof. J. Amar, Translated by B. Miall; 
Edited, etc., by Prof. A..F. Stanley Kent, 341; Recon- 
struction and the Metric System, H. Ailcock, 1733 
Research and the Supply of Trained Scientific Workers, 
Report of the Education Committee of the British 
Science Guild on, 318; The Government Scheme for, 31 

Infections, Hidden Experimental, C. Nicolle and C, Lebailiy, 
180 

Influenza : Epidemic in India, Major N. White, 52; Etiology 
of, Major G, Gibson, Major Bowman, and Capt. 
Connor, 90; Returns of, 9, 32, 52; The Clinical Aspects 
of, Sir W. Herringham, 136; The Epidemiology of, 
Capt. Greenwood, 136 

Inosite, Synthesis of the Hexaphosphate of, etc., 
nak, 480 

Institut d’Optique : 


S. Poster 
The, 473; Higher Instruction at the, 


Institute of Metals, The Autumn Meeting of the, 449 

Institution of : Civil Engineers, The King of Italy and the 
Prince of Wales elected Honorary Members of the, 
Awards of the, 192; Mining Engineers, Forthcoming 
General Meeting of the, 268 

Intensity, Distribution of, along Positive-ray Parabolas of 

. Atoms and Molecules of Hydrogen, and its Possible 
Explanation, F. W. Aston, 297 

Inter-allied : Confederation for Pure and Applied Chemistry, 
Arrangements for the First Meeting of the Council of 
the, 149; Co-operation in Chemistry, 187 

‘International : Hydrographic Conference, Forthcoming 
Meeting of an, 289; Research Council, Forthcoming 
Meeting of the, 308; Meeting of the, 449; The Brussels 
Meeting of the, 464 

| iaeeuvedaiae : Injection in Wound Shock, Prof. W. M. 
Bayliss, 122; Injections in Cholera, Prof. W. M. 
Bayliss, 264 

Inventions, The Efficiency of, 213 

Invisible Light in Warfare, Uses of, Prof. R. W. Wood, 138 

lonisation and Radiation, Dr. R. A. Houstoun, 145 

Ions produced by Phosphorus, Nature of the, Prof. J. A: 
McClelland and P. J. Nolan, 39 ~ 


XXXii 


Index 


[ Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Ireland, School of Physic in, Dr. H. Pringle elected King’s 
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the, 78 
Iridescent Insects, The Colour of the Scales of, in Trans- 

._ mitted Light, Hon. H. Onslow, 84 

Iris pseudacorus, Linn., Life- History of, T. A. Dymes, 360 

Irish Atlantic Coasts, Occurrence of ‘Tropical Drift-seeds on 
the, N. Colgan, 219 

Iron : and Iron-carbon Alloys, The Metallography of, Prof. 
H. C. H. Carpenter, Prof. G. Cesaro, Prof. Honda, 
436; and Steel Institute, Forthcoming Autumn Meet- 
ing ‘of the, 488 ; Jubilee Banquet of the, 209; Foundry, 
Improved Methods in an, Kes OPES Rl Myers, 493; -ore 
Developments in .the Uaited, Kingdom, Recent, Dr. 
F. H. Hatch, 477 

eepycity Compensation i in Inequalities in the Earth’s Crust, 

Sir S. G. Burrard, 351 

Saline Society for the Progress of the Sciences, 

Meeting of the, 132 


Tenth 


J-rays, Spectral Structure of the, R. Ledoux-Lebard and 
A. Dauvillier, 119 

Jacksonian Prize of the Royal’ College of Surgeons of 
England for 1918, The, awarded to J. A. Cairns 
Forsyth, 131; Subject for the, for 1920, 150 

Jacobi’s Extension of the Continued Fraction Algorithm, 

..° D. N. Lehmer, 19 

Jasminum malabaricum, Wight, Variation in Flowers of, 
Dr. H. H. Mann, 139 

Jewelry Trade in War-Time, The, 326 

Jolins Hopkins University : Gift for a Woman’s Clinic, 57; 

_ Sir A. Newsholme offered the Chair of Public Health 
at, 13 

Jordan Regions, A Characterisation of, by Properties 
having no Reference to their Boundaries, R. L. Moore, 


- 49 
Journal of a Disappointed Man, The, W. N. P. Barbellion, 


363 

Jungle Peace, W. Beebe, 22 

Jupiter, .234; Changes on, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 152, 
Observed Changes on, F. Sargent, 134; Occultation of 
Small Stars by, A. Burnet, 492 ; Venus and, 73 

Jurassic : Chronology, I.—Lias, S$. S. Buckman, 310; Plants 
from Bexhill, near Lismore, N.S.W., Dr. ‘A. B. 
Walkom, 420 


Kammerer’s, Dr., Testimony to the Inheritance of Acquired 
Characters, Prof. W. Bateson, 344 

** Karroo System ” of South ‘Africa, Zoning of the, A. L. 
du Toit, 330 

Kapok, The Use of, for Life-Jackets, 490 

Ketimines, Synthesis of, by the Catalytic Method, ‘1G: 
Mignonac, 519 

Ketones: Bicyclic, A new Method for the Preparation of, 
Fx Taboury and M. Godchot, 459; Related to 
Zingerone, Synthetic Aromatic, The Pungency of, Miss 
L. K. Pearson, 455 

Kilauea, Hawaii: A Model of the Volcano, R. W. Sayles, 
456; The Work on Vulcanology at, placed under the 
U.S. Weather Bureau; The Appointment of . Prof. 
T. A. Jaggar as Director approved, 131 

Kinema, Application of the, to the Teaching of Anatomy, 
Major E. D. Maddick, 327 

King’s Birthday Honours, The, 267, 288 

Kingsley, Mary. Medal of the Liverpool School of Tropical 
“sige The, presented to Dr. J. W. Scott Macfie, 

Rae wiedae’ The Profi: Jin Be 
Baillie, 239 

Kopff’s Periodic Comet, 453, 474, -492, 514, 519 

Kunadiyaparawitta Mountain, Notes on a visit to, with a 
list of the Plants obtained and their Altitudinal Dis- 
tribution, F. Lewis, 98 


Sterescopic Character of, 


L’Aéronautique, No. 

Labour: and its Organisation, The Service of, Dr. J. 
Ioteyko, 243; and the Higher Values, Prof. F. Soddy. 
447: and Scientific Research, P. G. Agnew, 425 

Lac Industry in India, The, 289 

flake Mendota, A Qualitative and Quantitative Survey of 
the Fauna of, R. A. Muttkowski, 232 } 


1, MEX 


Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory, Report for 1918 of q i 


the, 472 


Land and Sea, Relations of, in the North Atlantic Region, 


O. Holtedahl, 433 


Lankester, Ray, Investigators, at the Plymouth Marine 


Biological Laboratory, Appointment of, 250 

Larch, Cultivation of the, in Sweden, Prof. G. Schotte, 176 

Larix ‘eurolepis, History of, Prof. A. Henry and Miss M. G, 
Flood, 399 

Latin in the Curriculum, Abolition of Compulsory, by Yale 
and Princeton Universities, 78 


Latitude, Variation of, B. Wanach; I. Yamamoto, 10 

Lava- flow, Artificial, in Kinghorn, Products of. the, G. V. 
Wilson, 351 

Lead: Isotopes: Refractive Index Solubilities af the 


Nitrates of, T. W. Richards and W. C. Schumb, 19; 
Radio-active, The Problem of, Prof. T. W. Richards, 
74, 93; Tin, and Thallium, The Tempering of, P. 
Nicolardot, 119 

Ledge on Bald Face, The, Major C. G. D. Roberts, 22- 

Leeds University : Acceptance of the resignation of Dr. C 
Lovatt Evans of the Chair of Experimental Physiology 
and Experimental Pharmacology, 96; Dr. J. Strong ap- 
pointed Professor of Education, 418; Evening Courses 
in Technology at, 499 

Leicester, Bequest by Dr. J. E. M. Finch for the Endow- 
ment of a University for, 178 

Le Monnier, The Observatory ‘of, in the rue Saint-Honoré, 
G. Bigourdan, 159 

Lens Calculations, A Guide to, 401 

Leicestershire, County Mining Organiser for, M. H. Had- 
dock appointed, 499 

Lepadid Barnacles, Possible derivation of the, from the 
Phyllopods, J. M. Clarke, 19 

Leptinotarsa, Mechanism of Evolution in, Dr. W. L. 
Tower, 517 

Leucitic Lavas. of Trebizond, The, and their Transforma- 
tions, A. Lacroix, 159 


Lewis’s Medical and Scientific Circulating Library, Cata- _ 


logue of New Edition, Revised to the end ‘of 1917, 
204 

Lice, Pacccuses and Methods for Ridding the Troops of, 
Bacot, 454 

Lichtenberg’s ‘Dust Figures, P. O. Pedesen, 352 

Life and Finite Individuality: Two Symposia, Dr. J. S. 
Haldane, and others, Edited. by Prof. H. Wildon Carr, 
342; The. Origin and Evolution of, on the Theory of 


‘Action, Reaction, and Interaction of ‘Energy, Prof. 
H. F. Osborn, 201 
Light: Diffusion of, by Rain, Cloud, or Fog, A. Mallock, © 


298; by the Molecules of the Air, J. Carbannes, 18; 
Influence of, on the Absorption of Organic Material 
of the Soil by Plants, Mme. 
and M. Michel-Durand, 79: Invisible, Uses of, in 
Warfare. Prof. R. W. Wood, 138; Scattering of, by 
Solid Substances, Hon. R. J. Strutt, 27 
Lighting : in Factories and Workshops, L. 
Railways, A. Cunnington, 53 


Gaster, 70; of 


Linnean Society, Election of Officers and Council of the, 268 _ 


Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, Twenty-fifth An- 
nual Report of the; Proposed Change of Name to that 
of the Lister Institute for Medical Research, 454 

Liverpool University: Acceptance of Prof. Herdman’s 


Resignation; Record of his work, 56; Bequest to, for. 


a Scholarship, by Mrs. E. Morgan, 198; Col. | 3 
Adami, elected Vice-Chancellor, 278; Tidal Institute, 
296; Dr. L. Doncaster appointed Professor of Zoology, 


397 

“T’Océan,”’ 
223 

Locomotive Piston-valve Leakage, Tests on, 391 

London : County Council. Handbook of Classes and Lectures 
for Teachers, 518; Hospital, Forthcoming Appointment 
of Paid Medical Officers of the, 30; Offer by the Gold- 
smiths’ Company for the Endowment of a Chair of 
Bacteriology at the, 278; Plane, The History of the, 
Prof. A. Henry, 233; (Royal Free Hospital), School of 
Medicine for Women, Appointments at the, as8; 
University, Tenth Annual Report of the Military 
Education Committee; Bequest by Dr. W. J. Mickle, 
16; Capt. J..R. Partington appointed Professor of 


La Panne, Ambulance de, Tome II., fase. 1, 


D. Cebrian des Besteiro 


Nature, 
October 9, 1919 


Index 


XXXili 


Chemistry at East London College; Gifts to, by Sir H. 
H. Bartlett; Gift by G. S. Baker for a Prize in 
Memory of Dr. S..M. Baker; Resignation of Prof. 
Vaughan Harley; Degree of D.Sc. conferred upon 
E. C. Grey, 96; Proposed Course of Study for In- 
tending Journalists, 97; Grant by the Ramsay 
Memorial Committee for a Laboratory of Chemical 
Engineering at University College, 117; Annual Re- 
of the Vice-Chancellor, 218; Conferment of 
Doctorates; Resignation of Pember Reeves of the 
Directorship of the London School of Economics, 278; 
Prof. G, Elliot Smith appointed Professor of Anatomy 
at University College; Major A. J. Allmond appointed 
Professor of Chemistry at King’s College, 278; A. E. 
Richardson appointed Professor of Architecture at 
University College; Degrees in Commerce; The Ph.D. 
; A Chair of Aeronautics to be _ instituted 

_ at East London College, 278; War Memorial 
‘Scheme, 295; T. B. Johnston appointed Pro- 
4 of Anatomy at Guy’s Hospital Medical 
_ School; Dr. A. J. Clark appointed Professor of Pharma- 
_ cology at University College; Conferment of Degrees; 
_ Mrs. Row thanked for Donation for a Scholarship: 
Approval of Syllabuses for the Intermediate Science 
oe nation, 358; J.C. Fliigel appointed Lecturer 
in Psychology at University College; E. J. Salisbury 
Lecturer in Botany; Dr. P. Haas Lecturer in Plant 
Chemistry; Dr. F. W. Goodbody Lectuter in Medical 
Chemistry; H. T. Davidge Lecturer in Applied 
Mathematics; C. C. Hawkins Lecturer in Electrical 
Design, 379; Institution of a Faculty of Commerce, 


‘ The forthcoming Appointment of Principal, 379; 
sity College ; 


Wren appointed Reader in Geornetry at Univer- 
London School of Economics; E. A. Baker Director of 


Sir W. H. Beveridge Director of the 


____ the School of Librarianship at University College, 439; 
_ Gifts for the establishment of a Degree in Commerce ; 
3 Sir G. Thane, Prof. F. M. Simpson, and Prof. A. K. 
_ Huntington granted the title of Emeritus Professor; A 
__. Chair of Botany to be instituted at Bedford College; 
Conferment of Doctorates, 439; Appointments in, 479; 
__ School of Librarianship, Appointments at the, 498 
Longitudes and Latitudes all over the World, Project for 
eT ENO ination of a Network of, E. Picard, B. 
_ Baillaud, and M. Ferrié, 339 
Luminescence, The ‘Phenomena of, accompanying the 
_ Oxidation of Potassium and Sodium, G. Reboul, 379 
-uminous Worms, Rev. H. Friend, 446 
Lunar: Atmospheric Tide, The, Dr. S. Chapman, 272, 185 
is reg in Quantitative Microscopy, The Use of, T. E. 
‘Wallis, 455 


in the, Prof. J. Mascart, 433 

ysorophus, The Structure of, as exposed by Serial Sec- 
tions, Prof. W. J. Sollas, 279 

eGill University, Montreal: Sir A. Geddes appointed 
_ Principal of, 111; Capt. S. E. Whitnall aenchtat 
_ Professor of Anatomy, and Capt. J. Tait appointed 
_ Drake Professor of Physiology at, 336 

Mackinnon Research Studentships, The, of the Royal 


a2 MUUIECLY » 

Madras: Agricultural Department, Year-book, 1918, of the, 

_ 137;_ Medical College, Gift for a Scholarship at the, 

Lt.-Col. W. D. Smith, 517 

Magnesite and Dolomite in Australia and New Zealand, 
P. G. Morgan, 450 : 


Eclipse of May 29, 1919, Proposed, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 
44; Dip Chart, A Transformation of the, E. A. 
Reeves and others, 72; Observations taken during the 
Solar Eclipse of June 8, 1918, Dr. L. A. Bauer, H. 
WwW. Fisk, and S. J. Mauchly, 193; Observatories, 
American, New Procedure at, Dr. hree, 54; 
_ Storm, A, 492; Storm of August 11-12, 1919, The, 
: Rev. A. L. Cortie, 483; Dr. C. Chree, 505: Dr. A. C. 
‘ Mitchell, 506 ; Storms of March 7-8 and August 15—16,. 
_. 1918. and their Discussion, Dr. C. Chree, 97; Sus- 
___-—sceptibility, Influence of Molecular Constitution and 
__ Temtperature on, Dr. A. E. Oxley, Part IV., 398 


Lyons Neighbourhood, The Winters 1916-17 and 1917-18 


Magnetic: and Allied Observations during the Total Solar | 


Magnetite, Magnetic Properties of Varieties of, Profs. KE. 
Wilson and E. F. Herroun, 399 
Makdougall-Brisbane Prize of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, The, awarded to Prof. A. A. Lawson, 309 
Mallard Ducks of the United States, Food Habits of the, 
M. L. McAtee, 113 
Manchester: City Council, Approval by the, of a New 
_ Method for the Selection of Elementary School Pupils 
for Secondary Education, 279; Municipal College of 
Technology, A. J. Turner appointed to the Chair of 
Textile Technology in the, 37; University Courses in 
the, 479; Dr. J. K. Wood appointed Lecturer in 
Physical Chemistry at the, 518; Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society, Prof. G. Elliot Smith elected President 
of The, 210; University of, L. Bragg  ap- 
inted Professor of Physics; Prof. D. H. Macgregor, 
rofessor of Economics; Prof. O. T. Jones, Professor 
of Geology, 317; Dr. Chapman, Professor of 
Mathematics, 458; Dr. E. G. Gardner, Professor of 
Italian, 518 - 
Manila, Weather Bureau at, Report for 1916 of the, 290 
Manometer, A Glass, with Elastic Walls, G. Baume and 
M. Robert, 379 
Man’s : Redemption of Man, Sir W. Osler. Third editicn, 
23; Supreme Inheritance. Conscious Guidance and 
Control in relation to Human Evolution in Civilisa- 
tion, F. M. Alexander. Second edition, 444 
Manual de Fabricantes de Azucar de Cafia y Quimicos 
Azucareros, Dr. G. L. Spencer; Traduccién Autori- 
zada de la 68 Edicién Inglesa, Dr. G. A. Cuadrado, 


8 ‘ 
Ped in Southern India, Dr. Harris, 137 
March Weather, 90 
Marine: Algz as Food for Horses, C. Sauvageau, and L. 
Moreau, 419; Biological Association, Gifts to, by Dr. 
G. P. Bidder and E. T. Browne, 191; Boring Animals, 
Dr. W. T. Calman, 219; Plankton around the South 
End of the Isle of Man, Prof. Herdman, A. Scott, and 
Miss H. M. Lewis, 472; Plants, Ashes of, Spectro- 
| graphic Study of the, E. Cornec, 99 
Mars, H. Thomson, 212; Drawings of, 134 
Mass, Standards of, 515 
Matter and Radiation, H. H. Poole, 84 
Mauritius, Royal Alfred Observatory, Annual Report for 
1917, 372 
Maxillulae in the Orders of Insects, Structure and Occur- 
rence of, Miss A. M. Evans, 319 
Mechanics, Sound, Light, Thermo-mechanics, and Hydrat- 
-lics, Notes, Problems, and Laboratory Exercises in, 
Prof. H. Dunwoody, 302 
Medical: Research, The Use of Animals in, 108 ; Commit- 
tee, Proposed Reconstitution of the, Dr. C. Addison, 
so; Dr. C. Lovatt Evans to undertake Research Work 
under the, 96; H. King appointed Organic Chemist in 
the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology of 
the, 267; Science in the War, 354 : 
Medicine: Experimental, and the Sick and Wounded in the 
War, Sir Anthony Bowlby, 354; Scientific, The 
Government of India and, 229 
Mediterranean Peoples, Indentity of the, who took part in 
the Conflicts with Egypt during the Nineteenth and 
Twentieth Dynasties, Prof. Giuffrida-Ruggeri, 70 
Melanesian Dictionary, A, S. H. Ray, 102 
Melbourne, University of, Grant to, by thé Victorian Govern- 
ment, 237 , 
Mendelian Theory, A Darwinian Statement of the, Prof. H. 
F. Roberts, 463 
Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, Prospectus of the, 


18 
Meridian Telescope, Study of the Perturbations of the 
Optical Axis of a, M. Hamy, 79 
Mesozoic Insects of Queensland. Part V., Mecoptera, Dr. 
R. J. Tillyard, 520 


Metabolism of Female Munition Workers, Report on the, 


M. Greenwood, C. Hodson, and A. E. Tebb, 279 
Metal Sols, Mode of Action of, Prof. C. R. Marshall, 208 
Metals: Action of Finely Divided, upon Pinene Vapour, P. 

Sabatier, A. Mailhe, and G. Gaudion, 280; Institute 

of, Journal of the, No. 2, 1918. Vol. xx., 165; 


Spring and Autumn Meetings of the, Prof. Soddy 
to deliver the May Lecture, 150; Inter-crystalline Frac. 


XXXIV 


Index 


[ Nature, 
October'9, 11g 


ture of, under Prolonged Application of Stress, Dr. W. 
- Rosenhain and S. L. Archbutt, 118; Mechanical Test- 

ing of, New Methods for the, C. Trémont, 518; The 
Occlusion of Gases by, Sir R. Hadfield, 168; Prof. 
McBain, 169 

Meteor: A Bright, 411; An Interesting, 291 - 

Meteoric: Iron from Klondike, Acquired by the British 
Museum, 69; Shower, The, of Halley’s Comet, 174 

Meteorites Adare and Ensisheim, The, Dr. G. T. Prior, 


98 

Meteorological: Chart, Monthly, of the East Indian Seas, 
‘February, 10; Charts, North Atlantic and East Indian, 
491; Office, Sir Napier Shaw resumes the Administra- 
tive Duties of the Directorship of the, 210; Re- 
search, Change of Emphasis in, Prof. W. S. Frank- 
lin, 211; Science, The Outlook of, Sir Napier Shaw, 
475; Services of the British Dominions, Forthcoming 

.. Conference of Representatives of the, 488 

Meteorology : During and After the War, Col. H. G. Lyons, 
12; Introductory, Sir Napier Shaw, 123; The Society 

and its Fellows, Sir Napier Shaw, 475° 

Meteors: The April, of 1919, 174; June, 252 

Methyl Lzevoinosito] in an Australian Poisonous Plant, 
Occurrence of, Dr. J. M. Petrie, 50 

Methylsulphates of the Alkalis and Alkaline Earths, Action 
of Heat on the, J. Guyot and L. J. Simon, 320 

Metric System: Industrial Reconstruction and the, H. All- 
cock, 173; Letter of the World Trade Club on the 
Introduction of the, in the United Kingdom, 310 | 

Metrology in the Industries, Sir R. Glazebrook, 238; Dis- 
cussion on, 37% 

Mexican Clay Heads, etc., found on the site of Teotihuacan, 
A. C. Breton, 192 

Microcephaly, An extreme case of, Dr. Dru-Drury, 460 


Micrococcus populi, The Bacterial Nodule of the Poplar, 


R. Régnier, 460 

-Micropterygidz (sens. lat.), Morphology and Systematic 
Position of the Family, Introduction and Part I., Dr. 
R. J. Tillyard, 420 

Microscope, British Standard, Plea for a, Lt.-Col. Clibborn, 


89 

Micro-voltameter, A, C. T. R. Wilson, 298 

Military : Camouflage, Major A. Klein and Dr. J. C. Mot- 
tram, 364; Geology and Topography, 183 

Milk. Relation between the Fat-content and the Electrical 
Conductivity of, Dr. H. S. H. Wardlaw, 19 

Millstone Grit, Series of Yorkshire, Petrography of the, 
Dr. A. Gilligan, 297 

Minds, Other, Our Knowledge of, Mrs. N. A. Dudding- 
ton, 57 : 

Mine-gas Poisoning, Lt.-Col. D. Logan, 137 

Miner on the Western Front, Work of the, H. S. Ball, 


230 

Mineral: Production in Relation to the Peace Treaty, 
Prof. Louis, 205; Salts, Absorption of, by the 
Root-tip, H. Coupin, 519 

Miners’ Lamps, Appointment of a Committee upon Possible 
Improvements in, 210 

Mining Engineers, Institution of, 
General Meeting of the, 510 

Ministry : of Health, Appointments in connection with the, 
409; of Munitions, a Portion of the, Transferred to the 
Board of Trade, 268 

Mira Ceti. 453 

Mirrors, Prisms, and Lenses, Prof. J. P. C. Southall, 302 

Mitta Mitta Dam, The, on the Murray River, 452 

Mnemonic Notation for Engineering Formule, 
Etchells, 2 4 

Moisture in Deciduous-leaved Trees during the Felling Sea- 
son, Regional Spread of, W. G. Craib, 232 

Molecular Physics, Dr. J. A. Crowther. Second edition, 
303 . 

Monomethylamine, New Method for the Preparation of, 
Prof. P. F. Frankland, F. Challenger and N. A. 
Nicholls, 252 

Monosodium Derivative of Acetylene, Action of the, on 
some Halogen Esters of Secondary and Tertiary 
Alcohols, M. Picon, 200 

Moon, the Daylight, The Whiteness of, C. T. Whitmell, 


Forthcoming Annual 


Ee. 


145 
Moriori, The, H. D. Skinner, 329 


—s 


Mosquitoes, The ‘Oldest, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerall, 44 
Mosses from Deception Island, H. N. Dixon, 319 
Mother-right, R. H. Lowe, 351 


Mount Wilson Observatory, Name changed from that of the "7 


Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, 291 
Mozambique, The Pre-Cambrian and Associated Rocks of, 
Dr. A. Holmes, 490 
Munition Dump, Sound of an Explosion of, R. B. Marston, 


511 
Muscoid Flies, The External Breathing Apparatus of the 
Larve of some, J. L. Froggatt, 19 
Museums: as Educational Instruments, Lord Sudeley and 
others, 49; Association, Forthcoming Annual Confer- 
ence of the, 288; Thirtieth Annual Conference of, 394; 
Sir W. M. Concay elected President: Dr. W. M. 
Tattersall Secretary, 395; Municipal, The Control of, 
E. E. Lowe, 394; Re-opening of, 7, 69 
Mutation in Bacteria, An Experiment dealing with, Dr. 
Doncaster, 58 ‘ 
Mutations, Sudden, in the Formation of a New Race of 
Micro-organisms, C, Richet and  H. Cardot, 159 
Muzzling of Dogs, 149 
Myology and Osteology, Studies in Comparative, W. K. 
Gregory and C. L. Camp, 90 . 
Mysore, Government of, Dr. Shaiffer appointed Expert in 
Animal Husbandry to the, 471 ! 
Myzus ribis, Linn., Life-history and Bionomics of, Miss 
M. D. Haviland, 18 


National: Alliance of Employers and Employed, Offer of 


Prizes for Essays on Industrial Subjects, 249; Ilumina- — 


tion Committee of Great Britain, Election of the 
Executive of the, 268; Life from the Standpoint of 
Science, Prof. K. Pearson, 112; Physical Laboratory, 
Annual Visitation and Inspection of the, 331; Research 
Council of the United States, The, Dr. C. G. L. 
Wolf, 245 j 

Nation’s Debt to Science, The, 141 ; 

Natural History: in the New World, 22; Museum, The 
Directorship of the, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins and 
others, 3; Retirement of Sir L. Fletcher from the 
Directorship of the, 6; The Directorship of the, Si 
Sir G. Greenhill, 24; Dr. S. F. Harmer, 31; Dr. S. F. 
Harmer appointed Director of the; C. Tate Regan 
appointed Assistant Keeper of Zoology in the, 49; Staff 
Association, Inaugural Scientific Reunion of the, 52; 
Official Title of C. E. Fagan of the, 89 f 

Natural: Organic Colouring Matters, 241; Science in 
British Education, 387; in the Educational System of 
Great Britain, The L.C.C. and, 218 

Nautical Astronomy: Graphic Methods in, A. Hutchinson, . 
25; Graphical Methods in, H. B. Goodwin, 44; Naviga- 
tion and, 481 ? 

Naval Architects, Institution of, Offer of Two Scholarships 
of the, 358 

Navigation: Prof. H. Jacoby, Second Edition, 481; and 
Nautical Astronomy, 481 y 

Nayars of Malabar, The, K. M. Panikkar. 450 

Neon Lamps in Technical Stroboscopic Work, Use of, 
F, W. Aston, 297 


Nervous System: The Elementary, Prof. G. H. Parker, 


322; The Primitive, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 322 

Neurologie de Guerre, Traité Clinique de, P. Sollier, 
Chartier, F. Rose, and Villandre, 501 

Neuroses, War, Dr. J. T. MacCurdy, rot 

Neurosoria pteroides, Notes on, Rev. W. W. Watts, 520 

New: Guinea Primitive People, Reactions of certain, to 
Government Control, Lt. E. W. P. Chinnery, 199; 
South Wales, Report of the Director-General o Public 
Health, 1916, 211; Wine into Old Battles, Prof. F. 
Soddy, 308; Year“Honours, The, 170; York Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Medical Education and 
Medical Science, Formation of the, 499; Zealand Flax, 
Growth of, in the British Isles, 410; Institute, A 
Science Congress of the, 192; Introduction of Foreign 
Birds into, A. Philpott, go 

Newport, Mon., Technical Institute, G. R. Bennett ap- 
pointed Principal of the, 218 

Nickel and Cobalt, The Normal Nitrides of, A. C. Vour- 
nasos, 259 


Night Glasses, Performance of, L. C. Martin, 251 


a1 inte ees 


nt) SAakdeT y 


Index 


XXXV 


‘Oxide, Oxidation Cycle of, in Presence of Water, 

- Sanfourche, 39 

ous Mining in the United Kingdom, Appointment 

of a Departmental Committee on, 471 

mptonshire and Rutland, Highways and Byways in, 

HA. Evans, 103 

h-east : Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders 

Forthcoming Summer Mecting of the, 210, 309; Vic- 

tory Meeting of the, 395; Work of the Principal Indus- 

tries of the, during the War, A. H. J. Cochrane, 395; 

Wright, 38 Analysis of the Paleozoic Floor of, W. B. 
th Pabinids Tribe, The, E. Torday, | 251 

: Public Library “ Readers’ Guide,” July, 370 
University College, Prof. a. W. Kirkaldy 

‘appointed Professor of Economics and Commerce at, 78 

a Aquilz: The Spectrum of, Rev. A. L. Cortie ; Dr. hh 
Lunt; Visual Magnitudes of, Dr. A. A. Rambaut, 53; 

, ,» 234; H. Thomson, 353; The Spectrum of, 435; 

nitude of, Stebbins and E. Dershem, 474 

ia, The’ Orthoptera of, H. Piers, 289 

[OV A ion Spectrum of the, W. S. Adams, 19: 
The —~ of, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 153 

for Navigation, Co-ordinates and Instruments 

of the, G. caps 340 
ee henl of Stars by Venus, A. Burnet, 
age oon of Stars by the Moon, 


ee Life in the, A Review of Recent Deep-sea Re- 
searches, Prof. E. E. Prince, 438 
Oil: -fuel Reservoir at Rosyth, Large, 193; 
“Indications 0 , V. C. Illing, 265 
: Essential, Tables of Refractive Indices: vol. i., 
ies Kanthack, Edited by Dr. J. N. Goldsmith, 43 ; Fats, 
and Waxes, Technical Handbook of, P. J. Fryer and 
oF BS Weston, vol. ii., “ Practical and Analytical,” 262 ; 
Vegetable, The Production and Treatment of, T. W. 
_ Chalmers, 41 
Okapi, Presentation of a Live, to Belgium, Mme. Landa- 


174 
Calculation of, A. 


_490_— 
ap-area, Rocks in the, W. H. Collins, 390 
‘onstones, The Mineral Composition of, R. H. 


359 
for Use in Bacterial Estimations, An, Lambert, 
and de Watteville, 180 
ir, Joys of the, W. Graveson, ns 
Ophthalmological Training of Medical Students, 155 
Optical: Glass, 65; Instruments, Modern, The Theory of, 
Dr. A. Gleichen, Translated by H. H. Emsley and 
Ww. Swaine, be A “one on “ ee — : 
Munitions o he Design of, Lt.-Col 
Williams, R s “Whipple, 475; Pyrometer, The Dis. 
oer of, W. E. Forsythe, 459; Re- 
, 236 


search, 
“Optics: and Mechanics, 302; Applied, The Computation of 
) stems, Drs. A. Steinheil and E. Voit, Trans- 
ated and tn by J. W. French, vol. li., 401 
: | Spot,” W . B. Brierley, 10 
ga “Colouring Matters, The Natural, Prof. A, G. 
Perkin and Dr. A. E. Everest, 241; Readjustments, 444 
Oriental Tipulide, Revision of the, E. Brunetti, 269 
‘Orion Nebula, The Parallax of the, Prof. Pickering, 353 
nithological Notes from Norfolk for 1918, J. H. Gurney, 


Oriers and Willows, The Cultivation of, W. P. Ellmore, 


¢ Pressure, Prof. A. Findlay, Second Edition, 322 
Layers of Armenia and those of the Himalayas, 
fosations between the, P. Bonnet, 519 
Oxford: and Cambridge Universities, The Government and 
- the Position of, H. A. L. Fisher, 397; Christ Church, 
- Forthcoming Appointment of a Lee’s Reader in 
Chemistry, 379; Queen’s College and Trinity College, 
é i a to, 3 Bishop Percival, 198; University, Pre- 
le of a Statute to make Greek Optional in 


Be Seday Number of Undergraduates at, 78; Prof. 
: ces elected to the Second Chair of Chemistry, 

Lindemann appointed Professor of Experi- 
Forthcoming Lectures on Geo- 


nat Philosophy ; 


in Derbyshire, - 


. iidiconties, 16; Forthcorhing Elections’ to Two Pro-; 


graphy, Anthropology, and Primitive Law, 178; 
Amendments to the Statute to make Greek Optional 
in Responsions, 218; Question of Financial Assistance 
from the Government ; The Halley Lecture, Prof. H. 
Lamb, 257; Optional Greek ; Suspension for a Year 
of the Romanes Lecture ; Proposed New Rooms at the 
Physiological Laboratory, 278; Restoration of Pro- 
fessorships; The Preamble of a Statute admitting 
Women for Diplomas in Science, etc., passed by Con- 
gregation ; Impending Changes in the First Public 
Examination, 237; The. Question of a Government 
Grant, 295; The Statute for the Reform of Respon- 
sions; Doctorate conferred upon C. W. D. Perrins, 317; 
Gift from Sir Heath Harrison, 318; J. S. Huxley and 
H. Clay elected Fellows of New College, 479 

Ozone, A Reaction: and Method for the Estimation of, 

_ L. Benoist, 119 


Paleontographical Society, The 72nd Annual Meeting of 
the, Dr. H. Woodward re-elected President of the, 


172 
Palestine : 


Geology of, Major R. W. Brock, 239; The 
Flora of a small area in, J. M. F. Drummond, 219 
Panorpoid Complex, The, Part IIl., Dr. R. J. Tillyard, 


19 
Pappus in Composite, Forms assumed by the, J. Smith, 


2 

Parasitic Coccobacilli of the Caterpillars of Pieris brassice, 
A. Paillot, 79 

Paris: Academy of Sciences, Prof. G. E. Hale elected a 
Foreign Associate of the, 489; Observatory Reports, 
1916-18, 252 

a-Particles, Collision of, Sie 
Rutherford, 415 : 


with Light Atoms, 


Passalide of ‘the : World, Revision of the, Dr. F. H. 
Gravely, 251 

Patent: Law and the Legal Standard of Novelty, 
‘* Historicus,’’ 350; Empire, Scheme for a Proposed, 


5123 Searches, International Use of, S. H. Tilly, 70 

Patents in Relation to Industry, Sir Robert Hadfield, Lord 
Moulton, and others, 453 

Peace : Conference Atlas, The, 344; Treaty, Mineral Produc- 
tion in relation to the, Prof. H. Louis, 205; Signing 
of, 349 

Peas, Smee experiments with, Prof. Punnett, 432 

Pejark Marsh, Victoria, Origin of the Volcanic Tuff of, 
Ri H, Walcott, 440 

Pempheres affinis, Faust, 
T. V. R. .Ayyar, 137 

Pensions for Hospital Officers, Report on, 113 

Pentécoulant Prize, The, awarded to Prof. A. S. Edding- 
ton, 470 

Peroxydases in Milk, The, H. Violle. 519 

Persian Mineral Oil, Impending Exploitaton of, og 

Personality, The Secret of, Dr. T, Ladd, 

Perturbations of the Optical Axis of a Meridian Tileiove: 

Hamy, 

Peru-Bolivia Biccedary Commission, 1911-13, Reports of 
the British Officers of the Peruvian Commission, 46 

Petrol, Rapid Analysis of, Use of ‘“‘ T.C.D.” in Aniline 
for the, G. Chavanne and L. J. Simon, 459 

Petrol Vapour, The Physical Properties of, J. Roy, 99 

Petroleum, British, 306 

Pharmaceutical Conference, The British, 455 

Pharmacy, Theoretical and Practical, including Arithmetic 
of Pharmacy, Prof. E. A. Ruddiman, 83 

Phenological Observations, Dec., 1917 Nov., 1918, J. E. 

- Clark and H. B. Adames, 259 

Philippine mae Plants, Fungus Diseases of, O. A. 
Reinking, 35 

Philosophical Lreclouce of Canterbury, New Zealand, An- 
nual Report of the, for 1978, 289 

Philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll, The, With an Ap- 
pendix of Leading Passages from certain other Works, 
‘edited by P. E. B. Jourdain, 303 

Phoma citricarpa, McAlp, Life-history of, G. P. Darnell- 
Smith, 59 

Phosgene, Preparation of, by means of Carbon Tetra- 
chloride and Oleum or ordinary Sulphuric Acid, V. 
Grignard and E. Urbain, 439 


Habits and Life-history of, 


XXXVI 


Index 


[06 Nature, 
Octoler 9, 1919 


Phosphatic Nodules of Trichinopoly and their Availability 
as Manure, M. R. R. Sivan, 137 

Phospho-organic reserve principle of Green Plants, 
crystallised Salts of the, S. Posternak, 380 

Photographic: Almanac, The British Journal, and Photo- 
grapher’s Daily Companion, 1919. Edited by G..E. 
Brown, 3; Plates, The Sensitiveness of, to X-rays, 
Miss N..C. B. Allen and Prof. T. H. Laby, 177 

Photography: Aerial, 115; Its Principles and Applications, 


Two 


A. Watkins. Second edition, 461 
Photophoresis, F. Ehrenhaft; R. W. Lawson, 514 
Physical Chemist, The Complete, 161 
Physiological Chemistry, 504; ‘Practical, S. W. Cole. 


Fifth edition, 504 

Physiology: A Text-book of, Drs. M. Flack and L. Hill, 
402; and Metaphysics, 412; Applied, 341; for Students 
and Practitioners, 402; Human, Vol. IV. ‘‘The Sense- 
organs, ” Prof. L. Luciani. Translated by F. A. Welby, 

- 61; in Medicine, The position of, Sir E. S. ete 

173, 210; The New, and other Addresses, Rae S. 
Haldane, 261 

Phytophthora meadii, a new Fungus Disease of Hevea 
brasiliensis, W. McRae, 355 

Pilot-balloons, Further Measurements on the rate of 
Ascent of, Capt. C. J. P. Cave and J. S. Dines, 259 

Pine, The Common, indigenous in Northern Sweden, N. 
Sylven, 176 

Pinus pinea, Coloration produced in Clay by Injured Roots 
of, B. de St. J. v. d. Reit, 460 

Plaie de Guerre, Biologie de la, Prof. P. Delbet and N. 
Fiessinger, 501 

Planchet Reptile, The, H. C. Das-Gupta, 400 

Plane, London, History of the: Prof. A. euiy and Miss 
M. Flood, 38; Prof. A. Henry, 333 

Planet beyond Neptune, A,. Prof. W. H. Pickering, - 514 

Planetary Nebule : Distances of Six, A. van Maanen, 19; 


353 

Planets, Order of the, Dr. H. Chatley, 10; 331 

Plankton, The Quantitative Study of, Dr. E. J. Allen, 239 

Plant : Formations, Statistical Investigations on, C. Rann- 
kiaer, 33; Genetics, J. M. and M. C. Coulter, 21\: 
Physiology, 381 

Plantation Rubber Research, 176 

Plants: Life Movements in, Sir J. C. Bose, 381; Preserved 
by submitting them to the Action of Formalin Vapour, 
Miss M. Rathbone, 98 

Platonism and Human ‘Immortality, 

Platyzoma microphyllum, R. Br., 
Dr. J. M‘L. Thompson, 18 

Pleiades, The Parallax of the, Dr. W. J. A. Schouten, 374 

Polarisation of Light, Prof. F. J. Cheshire, 239 

Polariser, A new, G. Brodsky, 9 

Polyclad "Turbellaria of the Torbritte Coasts, The, M. Yeri 
and T. Kaburaki, 472 

Polyclads, Method of Progression in, W. J. Crozier. 10 

Polyneuritis, Acute Infective, Sir J. R. Bradford, E. F. 
Bashford, and J. A. Wilson, 150 

Porous Walls, New, filtering unsymmetrically, L. Benoist, 


Dean Inge, 297 
‘The Stelar Anatomy of, 


419 

Port Erin Biological 
at the, 112 

Portsmouth Municipal College, E. Rawson appointed Head 
of the Mechanical and Civil Engineering Department 
of the, 458 

Pot Attack, Some Phenomena of, Dr. W. Lani quo an 

Potash Famine, Passing of the American, Prof. ee 

. Boswell, 473: 

Potato : -Beetles. Evolution in, 517; The Cultivation, Com- 
position, and Diseases of the, Articles on, 133 

Potatoes, Report on the Composition of, Grown in the 
United Kingdom, 192 

Poultry : Bacteria of the Paratyphoid Group and the Causa- 
tion of Disease in, P. Hadlev, M. Elkins, and D. Cald- 
well, 310: Physiology of Sex and Reproduction in, 
Prof. R. Pearl and Miss A. M. Boring, 332 

Precious Stones, The Production of, for the year 1917, 
Dr. F. Kunz, 326 

Preservation of Fruit without the Addition of Sugar, etc., 
G.-Bertrand, 340 

Pressure and Temperature, Absolute ‘Scales of, F. J. W. 
Whipple, 296 


Station, Easter Vacation Work 


Reconstruction : 


Prickly Pear, Possibilities of the, as a source of Industrial 


Alcohol, etc., 232 


Priestley. Joseph, D. H. Peacock, 463 


Prime Numbers, Question Relating to, A. Mallock, 3053 


Prof. G. N. Watson, 364 


Printing on Paper in Natural Colours, a New Process of, 


: . Williams, 133 
** Pritzel’s Index,’’ Revision of, 328 
Productive Duality, 361 


Professorial and Non-professorial Teaching Staffs of Eng- 4 


land, Wales and Ireland, Conference of, 199 
Proper Motions, Determination: of, Innes, 194 
Propositions : What they are and how they mean, ‘B. 
Russell, 413 
Propyl: Acetate, Saturated Vapour Pressures and. Latent 
Heats of Pde friars of, at various temperatures, E, 
Ariés, 3 
Protective Pateratie of Birds and Eggs, G. Grace, 446 
Protozoal Parasites in Cainozoic Times, Dr.:Gi aa 
Carpenter, 46 
Pseudobonellia, Prof. T. H. Johnston and O. W. Tiegs, 


519 
Psychical Research. Experiments in, at Leland Stanford 
Junior University, Dr. E. Coover, 138 4e 
Psychology : Abnormal, and Education, 382 ; and Physiology, 
Proposed Establishment of an Institute of Commercial 


and Industrial, 309; Present-day Applications of, with 


Nervous 
C. S. Myers, 101; The Useful- 


oO. P. N. 
The Collection and Presentation. of, G. 


Special Reference to Industry, Education, and 
Breakdown, Lt.-Col. 
ness of, 101 
Psychoses in the Expeditionary Forces, Capt. 
Pearn, 371 
Public Stattstics, 
Drage, 385 
Pulverised-fuel Locomotive, A, 193. 
Punjab, Irrigation Schemes in the, 329 


Pyocvanic Bacillus, An Achromogenic Variety . of the, C. 


Gessard, 320 


Quantitative Analysis, An Advanced Course in, with 
Explanatory Notes, Prof. H. Fay, 362: : 

Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario: An Additional 
Endowment, 318; Grant by the Carnegie Corporation 
to the Medical Department of, 96 


Queensland : aes eet Floras of, Dr. Walkom, 450; 


University, R. W. H. Hawken 1 appointed to the Chair 


of fipepTRa “4 198 | 


R 34: Description of, 411; The Return of, 388 

Rabies, Cases of, in: England, 149 

Radiation, Ionisation and, Dr. R. A. Houstoun, o 

Radio : -active Lead, Fhe Problem of, Prof. T. W. Richards, 
74, 933 -communication, The ‘Principles of, Dr. A. 
Russell, 423; -telegraphic Investigations in connection 
with the Solar Eclipse. of May 29, 1919, 196; -tele- 
graphy by Infra-red Radiation, fi Hebert-Stevens and 
A. Larigaldie,- 479 ;. Practical, Progress in, G. Isaacs, 
249; Standard Tables and Equations in, B. Hoyle, 144 

Rainfall: at Southampton and London, 1862—r918, Sir 
Close, 338; in England, A. A. Barnes, 177; to Con- 
fgcation, Relation of, in the British Isles, C. Salter, 

; The Secular Variation of, C. E. P. Brooks, r77 5 

Radattans 177 

Ralegh, Sir Walter, A Memorial Tablet to, unveiled in 
Jersey, 471 


Ramsay: Memorial Fellowships, Forthcoming Appointment 
of, 370; Fund, ee 248, 295; Sir William, Work of, — 


Prof. C. Moureu, 

Rana _ subsigillata, Scull and Affinities of, Miss ¥. B. 
Procter, 38 

Range-finders, Modern Single-observer, J. W. Frencti, 405 

Rathmines Technical: Institute, W. Elliott appointed Prin- 
cipal of ‘the, 358 - 

Rats: Experiments with Two New Colour Varieties of, 
J. B. S. Haldane, 432; The Food of, T. Steel, 345 
Ray Society : Annual’ General Meeting of the, 69: Prof, 

McIntosh re-elected President of the, 70 
Problems, 387; The Spiritual Foundations 
of, A Plea for New Educational Methods, Dr. F. H. 
‘Hayward and A. Freeman, 143 


Hale — | 


9s 1919. 


Index 


XXXVIi 


Cross Conference at Cannes, 111 
Lecture, The, Lord Moulton, 292 
tive Indices, Tables of, Vol. I., ‘‘ Essential Oils,’ 
R. Kanthack, Edited by Dr. J. N. Goldsmith, 43 
Ltd. ; Bellingham 


and 


ee srator-cars, Interim Report on, 232 
onal Association, First Annual Report of the, 69 


ton, 2 — 

search: and Service, Sir J. W. Barrett; Prof. F. Soddy, 

oo University Education, 27; Associations, Con- 
of ene to, 31; Defence Society, Annual 


pe Meeting of the, 328 


/ 


_ REVIEWS AND OUR BOOKSHELF. 


culture and Horticulture : 
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. 
_. ~ holders. ag I, 5, 6, 7, 9, 283 
» Conn — ae lage W.), Agricultural Bacteriology. Third 
edition, povanhgd H. J. Conn, 304 
z Ellmore (W. P.), The Cultivation of Osiers and Willows, 


3 ats (Prof. S. W.), The Strawberry in North 
_ America. eager Origin, Botany, and: Breeding, 164 


Kinney (J. 
‘5 — 321; The Essentials of American Timber Law, 


yon (Prof. T 
] -), AG Garden Flora: Trees and Flowers Grown 
in the Gardens at. Nymans, 362 

-. Traftaat (G.), and H. Colt, Rechy Gardens in France, 
Belgium, and Occupied German Territorv, 343 
r.”. “Waters (H. J.), and Prof. J. D. Elliff, Agricultural 
4 Laboratory Exercises and Home Projects adapted to 
Bets: Secondary Schools, 124 


"Anthropology and Archeology: 
, _ Annual of the British School at Athens, The, No. xxii. 
ae Sessions ee 797. mer 2918, 424 


T. L.), Soils and Fertilisers, 323 


1 Alexander (F. -M), Man's Supreme Thievitamee 


_, _ Evolution in Civilisation. Second edition, 444 
Baa! ‘ ary Peace, 22 . 
rof. J. W.), The Grasses and Grasslands of South 
_ Boreal ‘a ig A Manual. of Elementary Zoology. 
tion, 8 
Bose. ran: i C.), Life Movements in Plants, 381 
Boyd (J.), Beer ration, 83 
| Sie Dr; F..M.), The Distribution of Bird Life in 
Colombia: a contribution to a Biological Survey. of 
sath America, 462 
Coulter (J. = and M. 4 Plant Genetics, 21 
Cray (C. R.), and M. D. Leonard, Manual of Vege- 
Tg ae Insects, 425 ; 
asiliense. Peixes, 425 
“a Grinnell (f.), H. C. Bryant, and. T..I. Storer, The Game 
Birds of California, 281 
_ Hudson (W. H.), Far Away and Long Ago. 
4 of My hg Life, 22 
_ Loeb » (Prof. J.), Forced ° Movements, 
4 Animal Conduct, 163. 
: . Lowson’ 's Text-book of Botany (Indian edition), 
& and adapted by sitet Sahni, and M. Willis. 
revised edition, 3 
| Macleod pervert ym 3 
Be 


_ Mol (Prof. J. W.), and Dr. H. H. lagebanios. Mikro- 


A History 
pat and 


Revised 


_" graphie des Holzes der auf Java vorkommenden 


_,  Baumarten, im Auftrage des Kolonial-Ministeriums. 

B Fiinfte Lief., 303 

Osborn (Prof. Hi. F.), The Origin and Evolution of Life 
on the Theory of Action, Reaction, and Interaction 
of Energy, 201 


~ 


| tivity Theory of Gravitation, The, Prof. A. S. Edding- | 


Guides to Small- | 


P.), The Development of Forest Land in | 


Con- | 
Guidance and Control in Relation to Human,|° 


New and | 


The Quantitative Method in Bio- | 


Pearson (R. S.), The Indian Forest Records. 
Part iv.: The Antiseptic Treatment of Timber, 81 
Pike (Capt. O. G.), Birdland’s Little People: Twelve 

Nature Studies for Children, 505 
Portier (Prof. P.), Les Symbiotes, 482 
* Roberts (Major C. G. D.), The Ledge on Bald Face, 22 
Smallwood (Prof. W. M.), A ‘Text-book of Biology. 
Third edition, 202 
Thoday (D.), Botany: 
Second edition, 301 
bot ig (Prof. Ph. Van), Eléments de Botanique, Tome 
Tome ii. Cing édition, 301 
Wiitherby (H. F.), A Practical Handbook of British Birds. 
Part: i.,+ 323 


Vol. vi., 


A Text-book for-Senior Students. 


Chemistry: 
Barnett (E. de Barry), Coal-tar Dyes and Intermediates, 


a21 
Chalmers (T. W.), The Production and Treatment of 
Vegetable Oils, 41 
Chaudhuri (Prof. T. C.), Modern Chemistry and Chemi- 
Tolan cece of Starch and Cellulose (with Reference to 
ndia), 24 
Cole (S. W.), Practical Physiological Chemistry. Fifth 
edition, 504 
Effront (Prof J.), Biochemical Catalysts in Life and In- 
dustry. locate’ Enzymes. ‘Translated by Prof. 
S. C. Prescott and C. S. Venable, 403 
Fay (Prof. H.), An Advanced Course in Quantitative 
Analysis, with Explanatory Notes, 362 
Findlay (Prof. A.), Osmotic Pressure. Second edition, 322 
Fischer (Prof. M. H.), and Dr. M. O. Hooker, Fats and 
Fatty Wet ae 504 
Fryer (P. J.), and F. E. Weston, Tecknical Handbook 
of Oils, Fats, and Waxes. Vol. ii. “Practical and 
Analytical,”’ 262 
Hale (A. J.), The Applications of Electrolysis in Chemical 
Industry, 203 
- Hart-Smith © (J.), 
Chemistry, 322 
Hawk (Prof, P. B.), Practical Physiological Chemistry. 
Sixth edition, 462 
Henderson (Prof. G. G.), 
Chemistry, 281 
Hendrick (E.), Everyman’s Chemistry, 62 
. Kanthack (R.), Tables of Refractive’ Indices. Vol. is, 
“Essential Oils,’’ edited by Dr. J. N. Goldsmith, 43 
Lewis (Prof. W. C. McC.), A System of Physical 
Chemistry. Second edition. Three vols., 161 
Maxted (Dr. E. B.), Catalytic Hydrogenation and Re- 
duction, 281 
Ostwald (Dr. W.), A Handbook of Colloid-chemistry. 
Second English edition, translated from the third Ger- 
man edition by Prof. M. H. Fischer; with notes by 
E. Hatschek, 401 
cae S- H.), Boiler Chemistry and Feed-water Supplies, 


Recent Discoveries in Inorganic 


Catalysis, in Industrial 


Paces (D. H.), Joseph Priestley, 463 
Perkin (Prof. A. G.), and Dr. A. E. Everest, The Natural 
Organic Colouring Matters, 241 


. Ramsay (Sir W.), The Life and Letters of Joseph Black, 
MDs 


181 
Ray (Sir Prafu'la Chandra), Essays and Discourses, 1 
a of the Progress of Applied Chemistry. Vol. iii., 


wale Richter (V. ), Organic ese or Chemistry of 
‘the Carbon Compounds. Vol. i., “Chemistry of the 
Aliphatic Series,’’ translated soi revised by Dr. P. E, 
Schimpf (Prof. H. W.), A Systematic Course of Qualita- 
tive Chemical Andlysis “of Inorganic and Organic Sub- 
stances, with Explanatory Notes. Third edition, 362; 
Essentials of Volumetric Analysis. Third edition, 362 
Schryver (Prof. S. B.), An Introduction to the Study of 
Biological Chemistry, 43 
Sellards (Dr. A. Watson), The Principles of Acidosis and 
Clinical Methods for its Study, 162 
Smith (Prof. E. F.), Electro-Aralysis. Sixth edition, 363 
Smith (G. C.), Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and Dinitro- 
toluenes: their Manufacture and Properties, 421 
_ Spencer (Dr. G. L.}, Manual de Fabricantes de Azucar 
de Cafia y Quimicos Azucareros. Translated by Dr. 
G. A. Cuadrado, 383 


XXXVIli 


Lndex 


[ Nature, — 
October 9, 1919 


saiciekacts, Second edition, 243 
Stewart (Dr. A  W.), Recent Advances in Physical and 
Inorganic Chemistry. Third edition, 322 
Teed (Major P. L.), The Chemistry and Manufacture of 
Hydrogen, 442 
Van ccteaads Chemical Annual. Fourth issue, 1918: 
Edited by Prof. J. C. Olsen; Assistant Editor, M. P. 
Matthias, 221 
Walker (Prof. J.), 
edition, 283 


Inorganic Chemistry. Eleventh 


Warnes (A. R.), Coal-tar and some of its Products, 221 


Watkins (A.),. Photography : 


Its Principles and Applica- 
tions. Second edition, 461 


Wiley (Dr. H. W.), Beverages and their Adulteration, 
482 
Engineering: 
Butler (E.), Carburettors, Vaporisers, and Distributing 


. Valves used in Internal Combustion Engines. Second 


edition, 445 


_Etchells (E, F.), Mnemonic Notation for Engineering 


Formule, 2 
Pagé (Capt. V. W.), The A B C of Aviation, 243 


Ae SED 


Geography and Travel: 

Evans (H. A.), Highways and Byways in Northampton- 
shire and Rutland, 103 

Mackinder (H. J.), Democratic Ideals and Reality : A 
Study in the Politics of Reconstruction, 423 

Peace Conference Atlas, The, 344 

Peru-Bolivia Boundary Commission, 1911-13. Reports 
of the British Officers of the Peruvian Commission, 46 

Smith (T. Alford), A Geography of America, 444 


Geology and Mineralogy: 
Artini (Prof. E.), Le Rocce: 
grafia, 304 
Butler (Prof. G. M.), A Manual of Geometrical Crystallo- 
graphy: Treating solely of those portions of the sub- 
ject useful in the Identification of Minerals, 103 
Cole (Prof, G. A. J.), Aids in Practical Geology. Seventh 
edition, 263 
La Touche (T. H. D.), A Bibliography of Indian 
Geology and Physical Geography, with an Annotated 
_° Index of Minerals of Economic Value. Two parts, 223 
Metzger (H.), La Genése de la Science des Cristaux, 184 
Military Geology and Topography: A Presentation of 


Concetti e Nozioni di Petro- 


certain Phases of Geology, Geography,: and Topography 


for Military Purposes, 183 

Suess (Prof. Ed.), La Face “te la Terre (Das Antlitz der 
Erde). Tome iii., 4°. ree Tables Générales de 
VOuvrage, Tomes i., ii., iii. 

Whitaker (W.), and Dr. J. C. Thresh, The Water Supply 
of Essex from Underground Sources, the Rainfall, by 
Dr. H. R. Mill, 242 


Mathematical and Physical Science : 

Bieglow (Prof. F. H.), A Treatise on the Sun’s Radiation 
and other Solar Phenomena, in Continuation of the 
Meteorological Treatise on Atmosphere Circulation and 
Radiation, 1915, 261 

Bryant (W. W.), Galileo, 23 

Card (Instructor Capt. S. F.), Air Navigation : 
and Examples, 481 
Crowther (Dr, J. A.) Molecular Physics. Second edition, 
393 
Dunwoody (Prof. H.), Notes, Problems, and Laboratory 
Exercises in Mechanics, . Sound, Light, .Thermo- 
mechanics, and Hydraulics, 302 


_ Eddington (Prof. A. S.), Report on the Relativity Theory 


of Gravitation, 2 

Fleming (Prof. J. A.), The Principles of Electric-wave 
Telegraphy and .Telephony. Fourth edition, 423 . 

Gleichen (Dr. A.), The Theory of Modern Optical Instru- 
ments. Translated by H. H. Emsley and W. Swaine, 
with an appendix on ‘‘Rangefinders,”’ 1o1 

Gray (Prof. A.), A Treatise on Gyrostatics and Rotational 

_. Motion. Theory and. Applications, 121 

Hospitalier et Roux, Formulaire de 1’Electrician et du 
Mécanicien. Vingt-neuviéme édition,.G. Roux,. 403 


Notes | 


Hoyle (B.), Standard Tables and Equations in Radiow Ei 
telegraphy, 144 * 

Hunter d. de Graaff), The Earth’s Axes and Triangula-_ fe 
tion, 381 | 

Jacoby (Prof. H.), Navigation. Second edition. With a & 
chapter on Compass Adjusting and a Collection of a 
Miscellaneous Examples, 481 - 

Kaye (G. R.), The Auroncutes Observations of Jai 4 
Singh, 166 

Livens (G. H.), The Theory of Electricity, 142 Al 

Norton (A. P.), A Star Atlas and Telescopic Handbook 
(Epoch 1920) for Students and Amateurs. New and 
Enlarged edition, 283 : 

Pilon (H.), Le Tube Coolidge. Ses Applications Scien- 
tifiques Médicales et Industrielles, 224 

Righi (Prof. A.), I Fenomeni Elettro-Atomici 
l’Azione del Magnetismo, 82 

Southall (Prof. J. P. C.), (Mirrors, Prisms, and Lenses : 
A Text-book of Geometrical Optics, 302 

Steinheil (Dr. A.), and Dr. E. Voit, Applied Optics: The 
Computation of Optical Systems. Translated — and 
edited by J. W. French. Vol. ii., gor 

Willows (Dr. R. S.), and E. Hatschek, Surface Tenision 
and Surface Energy and their Influence on Chemical 
Phenomena _ Second edition, 23 


‘sotto 


i er en 


Medical Science : 
Adami (Prof. J. G.), Medical Contributions to the Study 

' of Evolution, 21 a 
Amar (Prof. J.), Translated by B. Miall, The Physiology ri 

of Industrial Organisation and the Re- employment of 
the Disabled, 341 

Bayliss (Prof. W. M.), Intravenous Injection in Wound 
Shock, 122 

Delbet (Prof. P.) and N. Fiessinger, Bioligie de la Plaie 
de Guerre, 501 

Depage (Dr. A.) and others, Ambulance de ‘L’Océah,” 
La Panne,Tome ii, fasc. 1, 223 

Ducroquet (Dr.), Prothése Fonctionelle des Blessés de 
Guerre, Troubles Physiologiques et Appareillage, 383 

Flack (Dr. Pe and Dr, L. Hill, A Text-book of Phy- 
siology, 4 s 

Haldane (Dr, J. S.), The New Physiology, and other Ad- ~ 
dresses, 261 

Jones (Dr. I. H.), Equilibrium and Vertigo, with an 
Analysis of Pathologic Cases by Dr. L. Fisher, 182 

Lee (Prof. F. S.), The Human’ Machine and Industrial 
Efficiency, 261 

Luciani (Prof. L.), Translated by F. A. woe Human 
Physiology, vol. iv., ‘‘ The Sense Organs,’’ 

Osler (Sir W.), Man’s Redemption of Man, third edi- 
tion, 23 

oe (Prof. G. H.), The Elementary Nervous oe 


Pasty (Dr. W. C.), Hygiene of the Eye, 63. 

Ruddiman (Prof. E. A.), Pharmacy, Theoretical and 
Practical, including Arithmetic of Pharmacy. 83 

Sollier (P.). Chartier, F. Rose, and Villages Traité 
Clinique de Neurologie de Guerre, 501 

anes (Dr. A. L.), Sir William Turner, K.C.B., F.R. S., 


Wallace (Major-Genl. C.) and Major J. Fraser, Surgery 
at a Casualtv Clearing Station, 282 
Walter (Prof. H. E.), The Human Skeleton, 383 


Metallurgy : 
Institute of Metals, Journal of ina vol, xx, 165 


Meteorology : [ 
Gauthier (H.), La Température en Chine et & quelques 
eg voisines d’aprés des observations quotidiennes, 


Mirescology, Introductory, 123 e 


Miscellaneous : 
oe 6 os N. P.), The Journal of a: Disappointed 
Man 
Bravette Sor Admiral E.), L’Insidia Sottomarina e. conn 
fu Debellata, etc., 504 


° roti 


Index 


XXXI1X 


| Journal Photographic Almanac and_ Photo- 
iephec’s Daily Companion, 1919, edited by G. E. 
own, 
‘ish Reais Guild: British Scientific Products Exhi- 
bition, Descriptive Catalogue, Si 
dwell (Prof. O.) and Prof. W. L. Eikenberry, Ele- 
‘ments bi General Science, revised edition, 63 
&. S.) and others, A Century of Science in 

with special reference to the ‘‘ American 
,”? 1818-1918, 183 ’ 


grave U. ), The Great War Brings it Home. The 
u mescgeatruction of an Unnatural Existence, 


i (Dr. F. H.) and A. Freeman, The Spiritual 
ions of Reconstruction. A Plea for New Edu- 
143 i 
AL The Science of Labour and Its Or- 


NW. Gj ,, ae and Grammar of the Lan- 
age of bay and Ulawa, Solomon Islands, 102 
G.), Education: Secondary and Uni- 


Se: 


“12. 
BS ae C. 'S.), Present-day Applications of Psy- 
ae yy, with Special Reference to Industry, Education, 
yous Breakdown, 101 
Sir H.), eee and Anti-submarine, 263 
5 Ay and E. G. Jewett. An Introduction to 
Science: A First Course in Science for 


- =); Faith in, Fetters, 224 

x), The Voice Beautiful in Speech and Song. 

tion of the Capabilities of the Vocal Cords 

Work in the Art of Tone Production (new 

ged edition of ‘‘ Science and Singing ’’), 124 

of the Scientific and Learned Societies of 
eas and Ireland, The 35th annual issue, 63 


oe 3 & S., and ee Life and Finite Indi- 
ty. Two s Srey 3 42 
co and Neighbour : 


. BY), The Philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd 
1 an Appendix of Leading Passages from 
ce ape 303 

2G. T.), The Secret of Personality: The 
Man’s Personal Life as viewed in the 
Hypothesis of Man’s Religious Faith, 303 
rome “ceagame and Fanaticism: An Essay 

ues 3 

rof. W. ty Strife of Systems and Produc- 
ality: An Essay in Philosophy, 361 

HL), The Nature of Being: An Essay in 


an Ethical Study, 


342 
cho Personalities, 382 


: es Scholarships, Statement for 1918, 37 
reg Worm, The, Dr. E. J. Butler, 269 | 
--Righi’s, Prof., _Researches, 82 

ks in Sedimentary Rocks, W. H. Bucher, 450 
‘iver Dee, Possibilities of the Exploitation of the, S. E. 
Britten, 311 
Road-washings and Fish, W. J. A. Butterfield, 250 
“‘Robitin,’’ Isolation of, B. Tasaki and U, Tanaka, 132 
Rocce, Le, Prof. E. Artini, 3 304 
Romic Eonar, Ancient, H. B. Hannay, 500 


Root-tip, AbSorbing Power of the, H. Coupin, 99 

Roots, Anatomical Modifications of, by Mechanical Action, 
Mme. E. Bloch, 500 

Rosary in Magic and Religion, The, Miss W. S. Blackman, 
231 

Roumanians, Customs connected with Death and Burial 
among the, Mrs. A. Murgoci, 410 

Royal: Academy, The, 188; Agricultural College, Ciren- 
cester, Lord Bledisloe elected Chairman of the 
Governors of the, 267; Astronomical Society, Addi- 
tional Meeting to Receive American Astronomers, 328 ; 
College of Physicians of London, Lectureships of the, 
328; of Science, London, Forthcoming General Meeting 
of the Old Students’ Association of the, 199; O'd 
Students’ Association of the, Eighth Annual Meeting 
of the; Sir Re Gregory elected President, 258; of 
Surgeons of England, Sir J. Tweedy asked to deliver 
the First Thomas Vicary Lecture; Prof. Elliot Smith 
and Dr. F. Wood Jones appointed Arris and Gale 
Lecturers, 350; English Arboricultural Society, Forth- 
coming Summer Meeting of the, 510; Geographical 
Society Awards, 52; Horticultural Society, Research 
Station and School of Horticulture of the, at Wisley, 
Capt. H. J. Page, Research Chemist and Head of the 
Chemical Department of the, 389; Institute of British 
Architects, J. W. Simpson elected President of the, 
370; of Public Health, Forthcoming Conference 
arranged by the, 268; Institution Lecture Arrange- 
ments after Easter, 132; Meteorological Society, 
Summer Meeting of the, 328; Observatory, Greenwich, 
Report of the Astronomer Royal, 313; Society Con- . 
versazione, The, 275; Elections to the, 230; 
Recommended Candidates for Fellowship of the, 6; 
The Prince of Wales to be Proposed for Election 
to the, 230; Grain Pests (War), Committee, Report 
Nout, May, 1918, 325; of Arts, Awards of the 
Silver Medal of the, 350; The Albert Medal of the, 
awarded to Sir O. Lodge, 267; Presentation of the 
Albert Medal of the, to Sir O. Lodge, 289; of Edin- 
burgh, Election of Fellows of the, 7; of Medi- 
cine, Formation of a War Section of the, 471; Swedish 
Academy of Agriculture, Dr. E. J. Russell ‘elected a 
Foreign Member of the, 111 

Rubber Researches in Kuala Lumpur, 
Grantham, and Day, 176 

Rumford Committee of the American Academy of Arts and — 
Sciences, Grant from the, to Prof. A. G. Webster, 131 

Russian Hydrographical Expedition, A New, 209 

Rutherford Technical College, Capt. F. Downie appointed 
Head of the Electrical Engineering Department of, 517 


Malaya, Eaton, 


Sa‘a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands, Dictionary and Gram- 
mar of the Language of, Dr. W. G. Ivens, 102 
Saccharose, Inversion of, by Mechanical Ionisation of 

Water, J. E. Abelous and J. Aloy, 340 


St. Andrews, Marine Research at, Prof. A. Meek, 104; 
University, Scientific Research at, Prof. W. C. 
McIntosh, 64 

Salisbury Museum, Educational Work at the, 1916—-19, 

Stevens, 337 


Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry, Award of Fellow- 
ships of the, 51; Appointment of further Fellowships, 
8 


31 : 
Salvage Operations, Submersible Pumps and Engines for, 
152 
Samoan Coral Reefs, Growth-rate of, A. G. Mayor, 19 
Sand Grains, Rounding of, by Solution, J. J. Galloway, 


490 
Sands : under 


considered Geologically and Industrially, 
War ‘Conditions, Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, 490; The 
Texture of, 315 
Sausage, The Maturation of the, E. P. Césari, 180 


Scandinavian Geological Congress in Denmark, Excursions 
of the first, N. H. Kolderup, 2 

Schizoderma spengleri, The Shells of, Dr. J. D. F.. Gil: 
christ, 460 

School Science Review, No. 

Schorr’s Comet (d 1918), 73 

Science Abstracts for 1918, 151 

Science: An Introduction to the Study of, a first course 


1, 336 


xl 


- 


Lndex 


[ Nature, om 
October 9,1919 
G 


in Science for High Schools, W. P. Smith and E. G, 
Jewett, 424; and Character-building, Prof. D. Fraser 
Harris, 418; and Education, Prof. J. Graham Kerr, 
318; and its Application to Marine Problems, Prof, 
J. C. McLennan, 395; and -Industrial Development, 
333; and Industry, No. 1 of, 434; Reconstruction, 
Prof. Ripper, 296; and Salaries, C., 404; and the 
Classics, 234; and the Educational System of the 
Country, Conference on, 199; and War, Lord Moulton, 
292; Education and, in the Civil Service Estimates, 
116; General, Elements of, Prof. O. W. Caldwell and 
Prof. W. L. Eikenberry. Revised edition, 63; in 
America, A Century of, with special reference to the 
‘‘ American Journal of Science,’’ 1818-1918, E. S. 
Dana and’ others, 183; in Education, League for the 
Promotion of, forthcoming Conference arranged by the, 
139; in Industry, 414; Lectures at the British Scientific 
Products Exhibition, 392; in the Modern State, The 
Function of, Prof. K. Pearson, 112; Teachers, New 
Ideals of, Sir J. J. Thomson, 273; Sir R. Gregory, 
274; The Nation’s Debt to, 141. 

Scientific : and Industrial Research, Committee of the Privy 
Council for, Advisory Council to the, Sir J. J. Thom- 
son appointed a member of the, 230; The Endowment 
of, Dr. J. Horne, 27; Learned Societies of Great 
Britain and Ireland, The Year-book of the, Thirty- 
fifth Issue, 63; Industries, The Future of, 128; Instru- 
ments, Early, Loan Exhibition at Oxford of, 235; 
Management, The Benefit to the Workman of, forth- 
coming Conference on, 267; Method, The Scope of 
the, A. E.. Heath, 97; Progress, A Record of, 461; 
Research, Government Grants for, The Conditions at- 

_ tached to, Prof. F. Soddy, 226 

Scottish Marine Biological Association, Annual Report of 
the, 150 : 

Scurvy : Experimental Investigation on, Dr. H. Chick, 454; 
The Prevention of, Dr. H. Chick, and others, 71 - 

Sea-level, Mean, Prof. R. Witting; Prof. D’Arcy W. 
Thompson, 493 

Sea-otter, Teeth of, M. D. Hill, 446 

Sea-urchin Larvae, Movements and Physiology of, Dr. J. 
Runnstrém, 390 

Secret or Mystery ?, 303 

Sedum, Species of, collected in China by L. H. Bailey in 
1917, R. Ll. Praeger, 38 ; 

Seismological Library of Count F. de Montessus de Ballore, 
The, Purchased by Dr. J. C. Branner, and Presente 
to Stanford University, 350 : 

Seistan, The Vegetation of, N. Annandale and H. G. 
Carter, 299 ; 

Selection, Experimenta] Studies of, 354 

Selenariadz and other Bryozoa, A. W. Waters, 360 

Selenates of the Cobalt Group, Monoclinic double, 
A. E, H.. Tutton, 398 

Self and Neighbour: An Ethical Study, E. W. Hirst, 361 

Selous: Collections of Big-game Trophies and European 
Birds’ Eggs, presented by Mrs. Selous to the Natural 
History Museum, 274; Life of Frederick Courtenay, 
J. G. Millais, 125 

Sense and Senses, Translated, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 61 

Sergestide collected by the Siboga Expedition, Dr. H. 
Hansen, 511 

Sex, Physiology of, and Reproduction in Poultry, Prof. R. 
Pearl and Miss A. M. Boring, 332; Reproduction and 
Heredity in Pigeons and Fowls, Dr. O. Riddle, and 
others, 436 

Shap Minor Intrusions, The, J. Morrison, 473 

Sheffield: City Museums, Report on the, Dr. F. Grant 
Ogilvie, 133; University, Sir Henry Hadow appointed 
Vice-Chancellor, 318 

“ Shell-pockets’? on Sand dunes on the Wirral Coast, 
Cheshire, J. W. Jackson, 18 

Ship Repairing, M. C. James and L. E. Smith, 395 

Ship’s Rudder, A New Form of, 271 

Sidereal Time into Mean Time, Mechanical Transformation 
of, E. Esclangon, 519 

Sidgwick, Miss, a Fellowship founded in Memory of, 336 

Silica, Precipitated Amorphous, P. Braesco, 18 

Siliceous Sinter from Lustleigh, Devon, Lieut. A. B. Edge, 


Dr 


98 
Silurian Rochs of May Hill, The, C. I. Gardiner, 296 


Smithsonian Institution, Proposed Establishment of Addi 


Simpson, Martin, and his Geological Memoirs, T. Sheppz 


433 
Singapore ‘Botanic Gardens, F. Flippance appointed 
ant Curator of the, 309 
Skies, The Freedom of the, Prof. McAdie, 491 
Slime Treatment on Cornish Frames, Supplements, 


5. ia 
Truscott, 17 ay, 


4 
tional Observing Stations for Solar Radiation, 210 
Snook Machine, The, 271 
Snowstorm, A severe, on April 27, 171 
Société de Biologie of Paris, E. § 


Goodrich elected _ 
Membre-correspondant of the, 370 t 


Society of Chemical Industry, Forthcoming Annual General — 


Meeting of the, 309 


Sodium: Chloride, Immunising Action of, against Anaphy- © 
latic Injection, C. Richet, P. Brodin, and F. Saint. — 
Girons, 439; Nitrate on Blood, the Reaction Velocity — 
of, Some conditions influencing, Prof. C. R. Marshall, ~ 


298; Thiosulphate, Action of, upon Hypochlorites, F. y 
Diénert and F. Wandenbulcke, 439 cee 


Soil: A possible-case of Partial Sterilisation in, F. Knowles, — 
205; at Night, Cooling of the, Capt. T. B. Franklin, q 


298 
Soils and Fertilisers, Prof. T. L. Lyon, 32 


33 Meee a 

Solar : Atmosphere, The Structure of the, Prof. G. E. Hale, © 
426; Eclipse, selection of Cape Palmas, Liberia, by 

L. A. Bauer for Magnetic and Electric Observa- 


Dr. 
tions, 131; Radio-telegraphic Investigagions in connec-. 
tion with the, 196, 252, 265; Dr. L. Bauer, 311, 492; — 


Radiation, Effect of, upon Balloons from the Thermal a 


int of view, 410; Thermodynamics, 261 _ 

Somatic Mitosis of Stegomyia fasciata, glossary of terms 
employed in article on the, Miss L. A. Carter, 192 
Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 

Excursions and forthcoming Annual Meeting of the, 


370 Si 
Sottomarina, L’Insidia, e Come fu Debellata, Rear-Admiral — 
E. Bravetta, 504 ries ; ‘a 
Sounding at Sea from a Moving Vessel, A Method of, Lg 


Marti, 339 


Sound: -waves, Velocity of, A Measurement of the, in Sea- : 


water, M. Marti, 519; in the Atmosphere, Propagation 


of, Lt. G. Green, 338; -ranging Service of the A.E.F., 
Prof. W. 


Work of the, Col. A. Trowbridge, 317 ~ 

Sounds in Water, Transmitting and Picking up, 
H. Bragg, 393 [yo ) 

South : Africa, Cattle as a Factor in the Economic Develop- 
ment of, Rev. J. R. L. Kingon, 432; African Earth- 
worm, Luminosity and its-origin in a, Dr. Gilchrist, 
433: Grasslands, 62; Microthyriacee, Miss E. M. 
Doidge, 480; Pioneer, A, Sir H. H. Johnston, 125; 
School of Mines and Technology, Johannesburg, Capt. 
E. H. Cluver appointed Professor of Physiology at the, 
258; J. B. Robertson, appointed Lecturer in Chemis- 
try in the, 358; Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 
Address of Dr. A. Smith Woodward; Election of Sir 
E. W. Brabrook as President, 314; London Entomo- 
logical and Natural History Society, Proceedings of 
the, 410 

shuttiecs Nigeria, Outlines of the Geology of, with especial _ 
reference to the Tertiary Deposits, A. E. Kitson, 


399 
Spanish: Association for the Advancement of the Sciences, 


2 
= 
. 


forthcoming Congress of the, 510; Caves, Paintings . 4 


in, l’Abbé, H. Breuil, 210 


1s 
Sparganophilus: A British oligochet, Rev. H. Friend, 426 — 
Spark Discharge, Some Characteristics of the, and its | 


effect in igniting Explosive Mixtures, C. C. Paterson 
and N. Campbell, 118 : 

Sparking-plugs, the Relative Merits of the various Insulat- 
ing Materials used in, F. B. Silsbee, and R. K. 
Honaman, 391 


Spectra, Energy Distribution in, Prof. J. W. Nicholson, — 


495 
Spectrometer, Wave-length, Hilger’s, 311 
Speech, Transmission of, by Light, Dr. 
296 ; 
Sperm Whales, Three foetal, Dr. F. E. Beddard, 140 
Spiral Nebule, The, Prof. H. D. Curtis, 411 |. 
Sponges: Calcareous, Collected" by the Australian Antarctic 


A. O. Rankine, 


Index 


Inflammation of iktuses of Air and Ether 
, The, E. Alilaire, 179 

un globuliferum, Experiments with, 90 

; , The Dietetlc Value of, Dr. J. J. Johnstone, 


terature, Dr. Ph. Vogel, og 

University, Gift to, for a memorial hall, by Dr. 
Mrs. Younger, 198 

tion Committee, Horticultural Work 
18 

2 US. Bureau of, Report: on, 197 

A, and Telescopic Handbook (Epoch 1920) for 
Amateurs. A. P. Norton. New and 
lition, 283; Clusters, Dr. C. V. L. Charlier, 


oF the, Dr. H. Shapley, 284 
Foe Science in France, Proposed, Prot. 


A Miniature Model of a, H. Parenty, 


ition, Notes on, Sir Norman Lockyer, 484; 
of Planets, Photo-electric Determinations 
nick, 53; Systems, Mass and Momentum 
Watanate, 474 

' yal-combustion and Steam Engine, 


of. a Nettle, Presence of Formic Acid in 
, 339; Instinct in Bees and Wasps, 
2 

Edwant> L. M. Harwood, 446 

i St Miss E. R. Saunders, 432 

: met with in the Study of, as a result 
‘inty of the time of the  hservationa, J. 


_ America, The, History, 
ng, Prof. S. W. Fletcher, 

as a Meabotitute for Coal, 330 . 

larship in Medicine and Surgery, 


Origin, 
164 


a Supplement to Monograph on_ the, 


Colours of the, P. N. Ghosh, 337 

and Productive Duality: An Essay in 
|. W. Hz Sheldon, 361 

ns , An Experimental Study of, 


, Dr. F. L. Hopwood, 467; and Anti- 
r : H. Newbolt; 263 


for the British Navy ee the War by 
kers, gt; Detection of, Dr. H. C. Hayes, 


Whales and Whaling, Dr. 
of Matin of, H. Colin and Mlle. A. Chau- 


‘The, Sir w. Willcocks, 233 
ng Ancient India, Rai Bahadur 


S. F. Harmer, 


Joges 


yy 251 

l enates, Crystallographic and Physical In- 
on ‘the, Dr. A. E. H. Tutton, 452 
formed by Sodium, Rubidium, and Czsium 
R. de Forerand and F. Taboury, 419; Stability 
he, . formed by the TIodides of Sodifm, Rubidium, 
Cesium, R. de Forcrand and F. Taboury, 499 

‘ , Constitution of, Sir J. Dobbie and Dr. 
Fox, 38 

Acid : atta the War, 67; The Counter e.m.f. of 
ation in. A. Noyes, 320 

Time in Great Britain and Canada, 80 

ations of the, made at the Lyons Observatory 
os the Fourth Quarter of 1918, J. Guillaume, 
; Observations of the, made at the Lyons Observa- 
{en during the First Quarter of 1919, J. Guillaume, 
4eg: Total Eclipse of the, Observations relating to the. 
Hy. Deslandres, 330 


pot Maximum, The, J. Evershed, 291 
n-spots as Electric Vortices, Prof. Hale, 292 


xli 
Sunlight on Water-drops, Supposed Effect of, Prof. G. H. 
Bryan, 125 
Sun’s Radiation, A Treatise on the, and other Solar 
Phenomena in continuation of the Meteorological 


Treatise on Atmospheric Circulation and Radiation, 
1915, Prof. F. H. Bigelow, 261 

Superposing of two Cross-line Screens at Small Angles, 
and the Patterns obtained thereby, S. Lees, 178 

Suprarenals of Female and Male White Rats, Prof. P. T. 
Herring, 390 

Surface Tension and Surface Energy and their Influence 
on Chemical Phenomena, Dr. R. S. Willows and E. 
Hatschek. Second edition, 23 

Surfaces, The Area of, Prof. W. H. Young, 258 

Surgery at a Casualty Clearing Station, Maj.-Gen. C. 
Wallace and Major J. Fraser, 282 

Surveyors’ Institution Scholarships, 397 

Sussex Natural History, 273 

Sweden : Forestry Research in, 175; Hydro-electric Installa- 
tions in, 72 

Swedish Academy of Sciences, 
Foreign Member of the, 328 

Syllogism, The, and other Logical Forms, H. S. Shelton, 


Prof. F. Soddy elected a 


351 
Symibleked, Les, Prof. P. Portier, 482 


Symons’s Meteorological Magazine, July and August, 512 
Synthetic Dyes, Statistics of, 207 
Tables of Bordered Antilogarithms, etc., Prof. G. H. 


ryan, 452 

Tar-treated Roads and Fisheries, Appointment of a Sub- _ 
committee on, 250 

Tasmania, National Park Board, Report of the, 192 

Teachers, Inadequate Payment of, 296 

Technical Inspection Association, The, 172 

Telephony: Secret, A method of, E. Poirson, 499; wire- 
less, 266 

Temperature : Coefficient of Tensile Strength of Water, 
S. Skinner and R. W. Burfitt, 38; en Chine, La, et a 
quelques Stations voisines d ’aprés des observations 
quotidiennes, H. Gauthier, 42; Exponent in the Equa- 
tion of State of Fluids, Direct Determination of the, 
E. Ariés, 280; Influence of, on the Transmission of 
Commercial Coloured Glasses, M. Luckiesh, 352; of 
Maximum Density of Water, Effect of some Simple 

. Electrolytes on the, R. Wright, 113; the Human Skin, 

F. G. Benedict, W. R. Miles, and Miss A. Johnson, 513 

Tennessee, University of, Vote for a New Medical School 
in Connection with the, 359 

Terebene and its Pharmacopeeia Standards, B. F. Howard: 


455 

Terre, La Face de la, Prof. Ed. Suesse, Nice iii., 4e 
Partie; Tables Générales de 1’Ouvrage, Tomes i., ii., 
iii., 502 

Terrestrial Magnetic Force, Pulsations of the Vertical Com- 
ponent of, Dr. A. C. Mitchell, 339 

Tetanus Cases occurring in Home 
Analysis of, Sir D. Bruce, 454 

Teton Sioux Music, Dr. F. Densmore, 515 

Thermal Efficiency, Limits of, in Diesel and other Internal- 
combustion Engines, Sir Dugald Clerk, 395 


Military Hospitals, 


Thermionic Valve, Self-oscillations of a, R. Whidding- 
ton, 298 
Thermometers: Clinical, Testing of, at the National 


Physical Laboratory, 88; for Industrial Use, The Cam- 
bridge Scientific Instrument Co.’s, 291 

“Tillite” with Scratched Boulders in the Veranger District 
of Finmarken, The, O. Holtedahl, 330 

Timber in India, Preservation of, Prof. P. Groom, 81 

Timiskaming County, Quebec, Rocks of, M. E. Wilson, 390 

Tin, White and Grey, X-ray Analysis of the Structure of, 
A. J. Byl and N. H. Kolkmeyer, 373 

Todas, Customs of the, in connection with the Milk of 
their Sacred Dairies, Sir J. G. Frazer, 173 

Tokyo, Imperial University of, Calenda: of 
1917-18, 158 

Tornadoes, Lt. J. Logie, 338 


the, for 


Toxic Action of some Volatile Substances upon Various 


Insects, Comparative, G. Bertrand and Mme. M. Rosen- 
blatt, 259 


xlii 


Index 


[o Nature, a 
ctober 9, 1919 


Trans-Atlantic : Flight, The, 171, 369; Flying and Weather, 


227 
Transmission Factors for Diffusive Glasses for Illumina- 
tion, 151 


Transport, Minister of, Sir Eric Geddes appointed, 489 

Trees as Antenne in Radio-telegraphy and Radio-tele- 
‘ phony, Use of, Gen. Squier, 373 

Triennial Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
England, Subject for the, 150 


Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and _ Di-nitrotoluenes: their 
Manufacture and Properties, G. C. Smith, 421 
Trinity, Evolution and the Doctrine of the, Rev. S. A. 
McDowall, 103 
Triticum repens: A Commercial Rarity, Dr. J. Small, 455 
Troostite, The Formation of, at Low Temperatures in 
Carbon Steels, etc., Portevin and Garvin, 179 
Tropisms, Prof. D’Arcy W. Thompson, 163 
_ Trout, A New Parasitic Coccidium of the, L. Léger and 


E. Hesse, 259 

Trypanosomes, The Artificial Acentrosomic Varieties of, 
A. Laveran, 179 © 

Tryptic Digestion Process for Skeletonising Purposes, The, 
‘Miss K. F. Lander, 9, 64 


“Tsunamis,” Different Forms of, S. T. Nakamura, 270 
Tuberculosis, Share of “Colonies” in the Treatment of, 
J. E. Chapman, 112 


Tubingen University, Dr. W. Ruhland appointed Professor 
of Botany in, 96 

Tumuli on Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, Work on the, 
Reid Moir, 250 


Turbo-alternator, Efficiency of the, Drs. Barclay and 
' Smith, g1 
Turner, Sir William, K.C.B., F.R.S., Dr. A. Logan 


Turner, 341 
Tycho Brahe’s Original Observations, Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer, 


134 
Typhoid Fever, Réle of the Filtering Anti-bacterial Micro- ° 


organism in, F. d’Hérelle, 119 


United States: A Bill for the Creation of a Department of 
Education in the, 118; Board of Standards and the 
War, The, 197; Chemical Warfare Service, The, 208 ; 
Commission of Mining and Metallurgical Experts ap- 
pointed to visit Europe to assist Reconstruction in 
France and Belgium, 89; Distinguished Service Medal, 
The, awarded to Lt.-Col. S. J. M. Auld, 409; Legation 
in London, Major C. E. Mendenhall appointed Scientific 
‘Attaché to the, 7; National Academy of Sciences, 
Annual Meeting of the, 209; National Museum, Report 
of the, 74; Part-time Education in the, 127; Scientific 
Attaché, Notification of Major C. E. Mendenhall as, 

3703. The National Research Council of the, Dr. 
& G. L. Wolf, 245 

“Universities: A League of, 413; and University Colleges, 
Appeal for a Large and Immediate Increase in Ex- 
chequer Grants to, A. Henderson,’ 117; Conference 


of, 413 
University : and Higher Technical Education in the United 


Kingdom, Existing Provision of, 158; College, Aber- 
ystwyth, Offer by L. Philipps for the Foundation of 
a Plant-breeding Institute; Appointment of R. G. 
Stapleton to a Chair of Agricultural Botany and the 
Directorship of the Plant-breeding Institute, 178; 
of N. Wales, W. M. Jones appointed Lecturer 
in Physics at the, 178; of South Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire, Dr. A. Trow appointed Principal 
of the, 336; of Wales, Aberystwyth, Appoint- 
ments in the, 499 ;- Education in the United Kingdom, 
Appointment of a Standing Committee to Inquire into 
the. Financial Needs of, 337; Research and, 27; 
Extension er ig | Oxford, Forthcoming Resigna- 
‘tion of J. R. Marriott of the Secretaryship of the, 
498 ; Pee and Employment, pcheme for an 
Organisation to deal with, 249 
. Unsinkable Garment, An, Protecting 
C. Richet and G. Noizet, 119 
Unstable States, The Thermo-dynamics of, Prof. W. Peddie, 
2 
tie Mechanism of the Toxic Action of, P. Carnot and 
P. Gérard, 460 


against Cold, 


Vaccine Therapy, Recent Advances in, H. E. Annett, 45 
Valency, The Theory of, Prof. W. A. Noyes, 270 
Vapour-pressure of Liquids in thin Liquids, F. Mich 
340 a 
Variables of Long Period, W. Gyllenberg; P. W. Me 
53 ti 
Vector Diagrams of some Oscillatory Circuits used wit! 
Thermionic Tubes, Prof. W. H. Eccles, 38 "aa 
Vegetable : -garden Insects, Manual of, C. R. Crosby and 
M. D. Léonard, 425; Oil Industries, The, :419)30 ae 
Velocity of Wind, Utilisation of Measurements’ of the, at 
different altitudes for the Prediction of Barometri e 
Variations, L. Dunoyer and_G. Reboul, 179 5 
Venezuela, Explorations in, T. De Booy, sit ; 
Venus and Jupiter, 73 a 
Vibrations : of Bowed Strings, and of Musical Instruments 
of the Violin Family, with Experimental Verification of fe 
the Results, on the Mechanical Theory of the, Part I., 
by Prof. G, V. Raman, 207; of Elastic Shells. partly, a 
filled with Liquid, S. Banerji, 174 : 
Victorian Fossils, New or Hiteiekcnaween in the. National. 3 
Museum, Part xxiv., F. Chapman, 440 5 
Visualisation of Features, R, F.. Powell, “10479 ss 
Vitamines, A Note on, a Suet Emulsion for Infant-feed-— 
ing, “ote 6 Hampshire and C, E. G. Hawker, 456 
Voice Beautiful in Speech and Song, The, A Consideration — 
of the Capabilities of the Vocal Cords and: their wor rk i 
in the Art of Tone Production, E. G. White, 124 - i 
Volumetric Analysis, Essentials of, Prof. re Ww. Schimor. 
‘Third edition, 362 


oo ro 


Waipoua Kauri Forest, Report on pre D. E. Hintetls: 309 
Wales : National Museum of, Dr. J. L Simpson appointed — 
Keeper of Zoology, and Dr. Ethel N. Thomas a mee ; 
Keeper of Botany in the, 289; Secondary Educa b 
Appointment of a Committee to inaee into the 
. Organisation of, 
r: and Waste, 284 : Injuries, Researches based on the © 
Treatment of, Dr. H. Head, 413; Meteorology during — 
and after the, Col. H. G. Lyons, 12; Neuroses, Dr. 
5 ARBs 1! MacCurdy. 1o1; Lt.«Col. Mott, and others, 136; 
Surgery, 282; A Physiologist’s Contribution to, 122; : 
The Great, brings it Home. The Natural Reconstruction — 
ma) aay Unnatural Existence, J. Hargrave, 143; The | 
Lessons of the, and some New Prospects in the ela 
of Therapeutic Immunisation, Sir A. Wright, 112; 
Time Diets, German and English, Dr. M. Greenwood - 
and C. M. Thompson, 132; Work of British Chemists, © 
Lord Moulton, and others, 92; Wounds, De J. 164 
Fleming Burrow, . 501 
geo Larve of Ox, Experimental Researches. on ~ 
the, 
Warsaw "University, Mme, 
Radiology in, 517 . , i 
Washington School of Medicine, St. Louis. Fund for the — 
Endowment of the Department. of Pharmacology of _ 
the. 359 a 
Nee W. F. Denning, 185; Dr. J. Ritchie; R. F. Burton, 7 


War 


ms Matas an 


Curie appointed Professor of 


PRO) ts 


245 E 
Water : -birds of Louisiana, The, A. Bailey, 192; _Engineers, © 
Institution of, The "President’s Premium of the, 
awarded to C. Salter, 471 ; in Clouds, Measurement of, a 

L. F. Richardson, 57; is absorbed by the Root. Place — 
where, H. Coupin, 299; Power Developments, Dr. B. 
Cunningham, 246: Supply of Essex, The. from Under- © 
ground Sources, W. Whitaker and Dr. J. C. Thresh; i 
the Rainfall, by Dr. H. R. Mill, 242 4 
Watt, James: Forthcoming Centenary Commemoration, — 
5 

: 

q 


327; Centenary Commemoration at Birmingham, 507 "— 
Ways and Communications Bill, Ministry of, read a third 
time; Prospective Heads of Departments, 389 
Weald, Structure of the, and Analogous Tracts, G. 
Lamplugh, 38 cane ae 
Weather: Aviation and, 212; Controls over ae Fighting — 

during the Autumn of 1918, Prof. Ward, 
43; Influences on the War, 72; Over the ee Isles, — 
the, January to March, 30; Report, Daily, ‘Change in e 
the, 112 pi 
Western Australia, Sources of Industrial Potash in, E. S. 


Simpson, 450 


Ww. 


Index. 


xliii 


re Pach enteiettes: Dr. res Hatmer, 
at e ‘Stottish Whaling Stations, Prof. 


ation ae: DP: Montagu, 219; 
H. R. Amos, 98; Material, 
f. Biffen, 432 
roops and the incidence of Disease, 
ve and Major C. B. Davenport, 330 
ation | ty, Nomination of Officers 
289; Birds and Distasteful Insect 
445; Hon. H. Onslow, 464; Dr. 


E. Walden appointed Professor 


i 1 of Premcure Relation aexcen: 
a Lee cis ocean ae of 


 .... 40: E Telachonis Com- 
Ireland and Canada, 69; Tele- 

mpbell Swinton, 

toes in Installed in the Folke- 


f, omens © Braction of a Geologi- 
to Dr. COR: Van Hise, 


s and Archzology of the, 


F. J. Preumont, 17 

f, in relation to ag: of Work 
. E. Osborne, 

and i Shipbing during the 


284, 304; A} 


Zoology, 


Woods of two species of Dalbergia from Madagascar, De- 
termination of the, A. Jauffret, 159 

Woolly Aphis of the Apple-tree, Evolution cycle of the, 
P. Marchal, 518 

were Chemist, Post-graduate Training of the, F. H. Carr, 


5 

World: Politics, Geographical Aspects of, 423; Survey, A, 
434 

Worms Heath, Surrey, The Section at, with remarks on 
Tertiary ‘Pebble-beds and on Clay-with- flints, W. 
Whitaker, with Petrological Notes, G. M. Davies, 178 

Wound Shock : Injection of a Solution of Gum-arabic in 
eases of, Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 136; Nature and Casua- 
tion of, Dr. Dale, 136. 

Wounds of War, Research on, Major L. J. Austin, 223 

Wright, pan, Lecture, L. Bairstow, 327 


Xochipalli, or flower-paint if the Aztecs, 

Safford, 32 
X-ray : Demonstration of the Vobeutai System by Injections, 
. C. Orrin, 290; Optics. Part I., Dr. R. A. Houston, 


The, W. E: 


339 
X-rays and British Industry: Major G. W. C. Kaye, 194; 
Wright, 244; Major G. W. C. Kaye, 245; Pro- . 
tective Measures Against, Dr. Hernaman-Johnson, 309 ; 
The Examination of Materials by, Discussion on, 170; 
The Sensitiveness of Photographic Plates to, Miss N. 
C. B. Allen and Prof. T. H. Laby, 177 ~ 


. . 


Zirconium, Estimation of, P. Nicolardot and A. “Rigiade, 
18 


Elementary, A Manual of, L. A. Borradaile. 


Second edition, 83 


‘BRUNSWICK STREET, ‘erakroR, ‘sone 


= aca x . iA : ; = AND HUNGAY, ROR RRS 


A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF. SCIENCE. 


“To the solid ground 
Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”—WorpDswortu. 


MARCH 6, -1919. 


| gaa 


‘THE LIFE-WORK OF A HINDU 
+. CHEMIST. 


ys and Discourses. By Sir Prafulla Chandra 
With a Biographical Sketch and a Por- 
4 _Pp. xxxii+ 349. (Madras: G. A. Nate- 
- san ‘and Co. , 1918.) Price 3 rupees. 
=IR PRAFULLA CHANDRA RAY, pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the Presidency 
Sages , Calcutta, is well known to chemists 
a this ‘country as the author, either alone 
in. collaboration with his pupils, of more 
la hundred papers, chiefly on the inorganic 
nitrites, published 1 in the Transactions 
nga Society, in Continental journals, or 
n the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 
; own country he is also known as the founder 
a successful chemical industry, which, from 
mall beginnings, now occupies factories spread- 
= over an area of eight acres. It is one of the 
_ successful concerns in India, and proved of 
able service to the Government during 
ei when the supply of Western chemicals 
Mig was seriously interfered with. It is 
affed with Bengali workers, and its 
ists are of its creator’s training. 
a man has had a great influ- 
has succeeded in founding a 
‘school of native chemists capable of attacking 
| and elucidating modern scientific problems. 
roused and quickened the Bengali brain from 
torpor which had overtaken it, and by his 
a re and precept has proved that the Hindu 
Bes training, encouragement, and direction 
the ancient glories of his race in philo- 
and science. The success of the com- 
: at undertaking which ‘he initiated also indi- 
es that the Bengali is not lacking in the power 
rg anisation, application, and steadfastness of 
nose needed to conduct successfully a business 
prise. 
It was to be expected, therefore, that Sir P. 
‘NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


Chandra Ray should, as he od ceprelaal it, sooner or 
later find himself “the property of anybody and 
everybody,’’ and be called upon by various 
educational institutions, by conferences, and by 
the periodical Press and leading newspapers inte- 
rested in the social reform and development of 
the industrial and political life of India to address 
his countrymen on subjects which so closely affect 
their national welfare and prosperity; and it was 
equally certain that a demand should arise that 
these essays and discourses should be collected 
and published in some permanent form. 

The little book before us is the outcome of this 
demand. It contains a series of addresses and 
articles on scientific education in India; on the 
pursuit and progress of chemistry in Bengal; on 
science in the vernacular literature; on the anti- 
quity of Hindu chemistry; on the Educational 
Service of India; on the Bengali brain and its mis- 
use; on Government and Indian industries, to- 
gether with a number of appreciations of men 
who have signalised themselves in the national 
evolution of India. 

The colléction is. prefaced by a short bio- 
graphical sketch of the author, and concludes 
with a list of original contributions from the 
Indian School of Chemistry. 

Such a book, as a literary production, cannot 
be judged wholly from a Western point of view. 
To do justice to it one must have some knowledge 
of, and sympathy with, the Oriental mind. Its 


language i is at times suffused with a glow charac- 


He | 


| 


teristic of the East, and its excessive eulogy and 
altisonant phrases, as Evelyn would have styled 
them, are apt to provoke a smile in the stolid 
and more cold-blooded Englishman. At the same 
time, it is impossible. not -to-recognise and appre- 
ciate the earnestness, courage, and sense of duty 
of the author, or fail to perceive his sincerity or 
the strength of his convictions in warring against 
the galling restrictions of caste, of social in- 
equalities and depression, which are at the bottom 
of India’s degradation. Her elevation will not 


-come in Sir P. Chandra Réay’s, time. A 
small, spare man, in feeble health, and a con: 
B 


od ‘ 


NATURE 


| Marcu 6, 1919 


firmed dyspeptic, he will be spent in her service. 
But the memory of these services will survive, 
and the little book to which we direct attention 
will serve to perpetuate it. 

T. E, TuHorpe. 


GRAVITATION AND RELATIVITY. 


The Physical Society of London. Report on the 
Relativity Theory of Gravitdtion. By Prof. 
A. S. Eddington. Pp. vii+91. (London: 
Fleetway Press, Ltd., 1918.) Price 6s. net. 

os the year 1905 a paper was published. by 

Dr. A. Einstein which gave to the world of 

physical science a new subject for controversy 
‘under the title of ‘The Principle of Relativity.” 
For ten years discussion reigned between those 
who held to the ether as a firm basis to the uni- 
verse, and those who, treading more mathe- 
matically, felt a safer foothold on Einstein’s 
elegant abstraction, little caring that ether, space, 
and time all trembled. 

While men talked, the author of the disturb- 
ance was quietly preparing a greater. His first 
effort had left to the materialist a little comfort 
and cause for self-conceit in that it had not suc- 
ceeded in resolving the old contradiction between 
a metaphysical theory of the relativity of space 
and time and the apparent existence of an absolute 
standard of rotational motion. The new theory, 
however, claims, not only that the complete rela- 
tivity of space and time is true to the facts, but 
also that it can throw light on gravitational 
phenomena which was not shed by the more 
limited principle. To quote the author of this 
report: “ Einstein’s theory has been successful in 
explaining the celebrated astronomical discordance 
of the motion of the perihelion of Mercury with- 
out introducing any arbitrary constant; there is 
no trace of forced agreement about this predic- 
tion.’’ 

Any theory of gravitation which succeeded, in 
doing this would be worthy of serious considera- 
tion, but what words should be applied to one 
which transcends the limitations of Newton’s 
marvellous achievement through the acceptance 
of the doctrine of complete relativity of space and 
time ? 

In the earlier theory the one essential constant 
and invariant magnitude was the velocity of light 
(c). In mathematical signs, dx? + dy? + dz? — c*d#? 
was invariant. It is obvious that this cannot be so 
for a complete relativity, but a general quadratic 
expression in dx, dy, dz, dt will remain through 
all changes an expression of the same type, though 
the coefficfents of the several terms will be func- 
tions of position and time instead of constants. 
In the new theory it is assumed that the physical 
properties of space are such that there is a quad- 
ratic form of this kind which remains invariant. 
The physical state at any point and instant is 
summarised in the values of the coefficients. It is 
Einstein’s achievement to have been able to apply 
the work of the pure mathematician to find equa- 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


for all frames of reference to which the old prin- 
ciple of relativity applies, have a completely in- 
variant form. 

While we wonder at the feat, and at the vision 
of a hitherto uncomprehended unity of thought, 
there remain some obstinate questionings. If this 
dream of complete relativity be true we are get- 
ting near the point at which it is so general as to 
lose touch with common experience. The new 
law of gravitation has not that astounding sim- 
plicity of expression which distinguishes that of 
Newton. The old problem of absolute rotation is 
thrown further ‘back; but it remains true that 
there are systems of reference for which dynami- 
cal phenomena present their greatest simplicity. 
We ask why our first naive choice of a system 


| tions between these quantities which, while re- 
ducing to the equations of Newtonian gravitation © 


of measurement ready to hand is such that within . 


it material bodies have a nearly permanent con- 


figuration, and light has an approximately con- 
stant velocity. 
Generalisation is the supreme intellectual 
achievement, but it may leave us thirsting for the 
particular and for simplicity. This report on 
what may be the most remarkable publication 
during the war leaves us wondering in which 
direction the greater satisfaction is given. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Mnemonic Notation for Engineering Formulae. 
Report of the Science Committee of the Con- 
crete Institute. With explanatory notes by 
E. F. Etchells. Pp. 116. (London? ©. “and 
F. N. Spon, Ltd., 1918.) Price 6s. net. 


Tuis book contains a series of miscellaneous _ 


papers dealing with the application of mnemonic 
notation to various branches of pure and applied 
science, and especially to structural engineer- 
ing. The formule of science should not be ex- 
pressed in misleading symbols which are not sug- 
gestive of the quantities concerned, but in a 
notation which is the “embodiment of organised 
common sense.” The key to the notation adopted 
is to be found in the abbreviation of the significant 
words in any term until only the initial etter 
remains. In a few instances the second, Or even 
the final, letter may be retained to form a subscript 
to the initial letter. ‘The greater letters are used 
to indicate greaterness of quantity or greaterness 
of complexity.” * 
There is no doubt that the scheme proposed is 
founded on sound principles, which have been long 


recognised by competent teachers. To some it 


may seem that in parts of the present volume there 
is a tendency to-elaborate the obvious, and that 
the report would have been more convincing if 
there had been. fewer repetitions and less frequent 
use of odd and unfamiliar language. A series of 


useful appendices dealing with various practical 


Me 


questions, such as calculations for business pur- 


poses and the printing of mathematical formule, 


' occupies more than two-thirds of the. book. 


Marcu 6, 1919] 


NATURE 3 


é British Journal. Photographic Almanac and 
totographer’s Daily Companion, 1919. Edited 
y George E. Brown. Pp. 644. (London: 
snry Greenwood and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 
. 6d. net. 
T is very satisfactory that this annual has sur- 
ved the war, for it is indispensable wherever 
‘raphy other than mere routine work is 
ely carried on. The present volume is the 
ith issued since August, 1914, and suffers the 
10s t severely of all from the restrictions that 
wcessity has imposed upon us. ' However, even 
lis is a substantial volume, in which none of the 
ain features that we have been led to expect 
re omitted. The article by the editor is on 
otographic Definitions,’’ and these are 
d according to subject in a series of sec- 
each of which is a kind of running com- 
y on the subject of its title. The com- 
uncertainty of the present time is shown 
_ comparatively few prices that are given 
advertisements. The most useful section 
) the student, the “ Epitome of Progress,’’ shows 
lat notable advances have been made in the 
nce of photography, as well as in the prices 
terials. We regret that formule for the 
-metol and glycin as developers are not 
Metol, certainly, is as generally useful as 
was. Perhaps these were removed because 
“enemy origin,’’ but they have for some 
been “British-made,’’ and figure in at least 


does not hold himself responsible. for opinions 
se 2 correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 
Fr pee for this or any other part of Nature. No 
cae cen of anonymous communications.] 
ectorship of the Natural History Museum. 
apa of the British Museum (Natural 
is about to retire, and we learn with deep 
sion that the principal trustees, with whom 
tment rests, have received, or are about to 
om the general body of trustees a recom- 
lion to pass over the claims of scientific men 
to appoint a lay official, who is at present assis- 
i ea lg former directors, Sir Richard 
1, Sir William Flower, and Sir Ray Lankester, 
the present director, Sir Lazarus Fletcher, were 
distinguished scientific men. The Natural History 
| is a scientific institution. There is a large 
of scientific keepers and assistants. The director 
9 represent natural history to the public, to other 
tific institutions at home, in the Dominions and 
nies, and in foreign countries, and to the many 
overnment Departments with which the museum 
s relations. He must represent it with knowledge 
d authority. There are few posts with such possi- 
ities of dvancing the natural history sciences, of 
E king them useful to the nation, and of interpreting 
mem to the public. The existence of the post is a 
‘eat stimulus to the zeal and ambition of zoologists 
id geologists. 
‘The arguments alleged in favour of the recom- 
lendation are trivial. It is stated that a former 
rector was allowed by the trustees to leave the 
dministrative details to the member of the clerical 
aff whom it is proposed to promote, that he per- 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


formed these duties with ability, and during the 
tenure of the present director retained and extended 
his powers. It is urged that the tenure of thé new 
director would be short, as he would have to retire 
in two years under the age limit. It is pleaded that 
promotion would entitle him to a larger pension, and 
that he need not be called director, but only acting: 
director. 

Plainly, if the assistant secretary be the only man 
who knows the details of administration, it ‘is im- 
portant that the permanent director should be ap- 
pointed at once, in order to have the opportunity of 
learning them before taking them over. In actual 
fact there is nothing in the administrative work of 
the directorship that could not be learned in a few 
weeks .or months by any person of ordinary intel- 
ligence. At least two of the present keepers are 
eligible for the vacancy, have attained the necessary 
scientific standing, and have ample experience of the 
museum itself. To pass over these or several eminent 
and ‘eligible men not on the staff in favour of one 
of the ordinary office staff would be an affront to 
scientific men and of grave detriment to science. 

Boyp Dawkins, F.R.S. (Honorary Pro- 
fessor of Geology and Palzontology,' Man- 
chester). 

J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S. 

Natural History, Edinburgh). 

F. W. Gamste, F.R.S. (Professor of Zoology, 

- Birmingham). ce: 

J. S. Garpiner, F.R.S. (Professor of Zoo- 
logy, Cambridge). 

WALTER GarsSTANG, D.Sc. (Professor of Zoo- 
logy, Leeds). 

E. S. Goopricu, F.R.S. (Aldrichian Demon- 
strator of Comparative Anatomy, Oxford). 

W. A. Herpman, F.R.S. (Foreign Secretary, 
Royal Society, Professor of Natural His- 
tory, Liverpool). 

S. J. Hicxson, F.R.S. (Professor of Zoology, 
Manchester). 

J. P. Hitt, F.R.S. (Jodrell Professor of 
Zoology, London). 

W. E. Hoytrg, D.Sc. 
Museum of Wales). . 

ArtHur Keir, F.R.S. (Hunterian Professor 
and Conservator of the Museum of the 
Royal College of Surgeons). 

J. Granam Kerr, F.R.S. (Regius Professor 
of Zoology, Bisseow): 

E. W. MacBripe, F.R.S. (Professor of Zoo- 
logy, Imperial College of Science). 

W. C. McIntosu, F.R.S. (Emeritus Professor 
of Natural History, St. Andrews). 

J. E. Marr, F.R.S. (Woodwardian. Professor 
of Geology, Cambridge). 

P. Cwatmers MirtcHertt, C.B.E.,. F.R.S. 
(Secretary, Zoological Society of London). 

E. B. Pourton, F.R.S. (Hope Professor of 
Zoology, Oxford). 

R. C. Punnett. F.R.S. (Arthur Balfour Pro- 
fessor of Genetics, Cambridge). 

A. C. Sewarp, F.R.S. (Master of. Downing 
College, and Professor of Botany, Cam- 
bridge). 

A. E. Suretrey, F.R.S. (Master of Christ’s 
College and Reader of Zoology, Cambridge). 

W. J. Sotras, F.R.S. (Professor of Geology, 
Oxford). 

JerHro J. H. Teatr, F.R.S. (lately Director 
of the Geological Survey of Great Britain). 

J. ArtHur THomson, LL.D. (Professor of 

_ Natural History, Aberdeen). 

February 27. 


(Professor of 


(Director, National 


4 | NATURE 


h 
| 
| 
| 


[Marcu 6, 1919 


\ 


The Supposed ‘“‘ Fascination’ of Birds. 

Ir is well known that the stoat (Putorius ermineus) 
sometimes’ performs extravagant antics by way of 
ruse in approaching rabbits or small birds, which, in 
the opinion of some persons, are ‘‘fascinated’’ or 
hypnotised by the display. I incline to believe that 
the subject of these manceuvres becomes so deeply 
interested, amused, or puzzled by the movements of 
the acrobat that it defers flight until too late. This 
view has been strengthened by what I witnessed 
from my library window in the spring of 1917. A male 
blackbird was sitting on the open lawn; a stoat was 
racing round the bird at high speed, now rolling itself 
into a ball, racing again, then leaping fully 2 ft. 
high and turning an. aerial somersault, and again 
racing in circles. How long the performance had 
been going on before I happened to become a specta- 
tor I know not, but it went on under my eyes for 
perhaps seven minutes, during. which time the black- 
bird never stirred and the stoat continued in violent 
movement. Every moment I expected that it would 
spring upon the bird, which it might easily have 
done, but nothing of the kind happened. ‘Suddenly, 
in the middle of the performance, the blackbird flew 
away; and the stoat, apparently not caring to ex- 
hibit without a “gallery,” resumed its normal gait 
and disappeared in the bushes. 

Now if the blackbird was ‘‘fascinated’’ in the sense 
of an arrest of motor volition, what broke the spell? 
The acrobat was at the height of its antics when the 
bird flew off. One may assume, I think, that the 
latter’s interest in the performance was absorbing up 
to a certain point, for it is contrary to the habits of a 
blackbird to sit motionless for many minutes on a 
spring morning; but it does not seem as if its volition 
had been affected. 


In his great work-on British mammals Mr. J. G. | 


Millais describes instances of the stoat (than which 


there is no more bloodthirsty animal) resorting ‘to. 


these acrobatic feats with no deadly purpose, finish- 
ing up by romping with its audience of young rabbits 
and worrying them in make-believe. In the case I 
have described it does not. appear that the stoat had 
any intention of making its breakfast off the black- 
bird. ’ HERBERT MaxweE t. 
Monreith, Whauphill, Wigtownshire, N.B. 


Girvanella and the Foraminifera. 


BULLETIN No. 104 of the United States National 
Museum contains the first part of Mr. J. A. Cush- 
man’s ‘Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean.” 
Workers in this group will find it of much value to 
have a complete and well-illustrated account of the 
foraminifera as occurring in the Atlantic. In this 
paper there is, however, one doubtful point in regard 


Cushman includes other species of thread-like 
rambling and attached organisms. Whether they 
are all foraminiferal or algal in affinities can be 
determined only by careful examination by means of 
microscope sections, at the same time bearing in 
mind that the structure of the true Girvanella tube is 
not.a mosaic of particles held by cement, but a finely 
granular structure such as is seen in other livin 
calcareous alge. The point here raised is directed 
against the placing of the genus Girvanella, as defined - 
by Nicholson and Etheridge, with the Foraminifera. — 
FREDK. CHAPMAN. 

National Museum, Melbourne, 

December 23, 1918. 


Feeding Habits of Nestling Bee-eaters. 

THE paragraph in Nature of March 28, 1918, p. 70, 
upon a paper in which Mr. W. Rowan describes the 
defecation of the nestlings of the British kingfisher, 
leads me to mention the habits of a bird also nesting 
in tunnels. I refer to the bee-eater (Merops). Mr. 
J. E. Ward, recently a fellow-passenger from New 
Guinea, told me that the young of a Papuan species 
defzecate outside the nest but within the tunnel. The 
faeces attract flies, which breed in the mass, and the 
resulting larve form the food of the very young 
nestlings. As the flies later emerge, the young birds 
have grown sufficiently to be able to catch the insects: 
on the wing. eee | 

Mr. Ward noticed that nestlings in captivity did not 
gape for food as do most young birds, and he was 
thus led to investigate the subject, with the result 
above mentioned. Epoar R. Waite. 

S.A. Museum, Adelaide, September 6, 1918. ~ 


THE COMMERCIAL USE OF AIRSHIPS.. 


Bie future of the rigid airship from the com- 
mercial point of view is brought promin- 
ently into notice by a paper lately issued by the 
Air Ministry entitled “ Notes-on Airships for Com- 
mercial Purposes.’’ This memorandum discusses. 
at length the possibility of the use of airships in 
the immediate future, and enters into a detailed 
comparison between the large aeroplane and the 
rigid airship. At the outset it is stated, however, 
that the two types of aircraft, as at present de- 
veloped, are not likely to compete with one another 
seriously, since their characteristics are widely 
different, the aeroplane being essentially a high- 
speed, short-distance machine, while the rigid air- 
ship is a long-distance, weight-carrying craft. 


to affinity in which two distinct organisms are con- 
fused, and this, if not corrected, will mislead the 
student. I refer to the relegation of Brady’s Hyper- 
ammina vagans to, the genus Girvanella, Nicholson 
and Etheridge. It is a generally accepted opinion that 
Girvanella is probably related to the blue-green alge 
(Cyanophyceze), as shown by Rothpletz, Wethered, 
Seward, Garwood, and the writer. In. the earliest 


The great endurance of the airship and its piaehan 
of remaining in the air during a temporary break~ 
down of the machinery are valuable assets when 

long flights over sea or mountainous country are 
contemplated. The ‘safety and comfort of pas-— 
sengers are considered to be greater in the case 
of the airship than in that of the aeroplane. Im 


descriptions Nicholson and Etheridge, it is true, held 
Girvanella to be of foraminiferal affinities, and Brady 
compared it to H. vagans, but the consensus of 


opinion is now in favour of its plant origin. As I 
have elsewhere shown (Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 
Adelaide, 1907),, its larger dimensions, . arenaceous 


shell-wall, bulbous.primordial chamber, simple, not 


connection with the possibility of loss by fire in the 
former case the Air Ministry points out that there, 


_has been only one such loss since 1914, despite the — 


fact that about 24 million miles have been covered, 
and that in this one case the cause of fire has — 
been ascertained and eliminated. It is conceded 


branching, tube, and. absence of septation. separate it | that at present the airship is more affected by 
from Girvanella. In following Rhumbler (1913), | bad weather than the aeroplane, but it is stated 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103| 


Marcu 6, 1919] 


tt up to the end of November there were’ only 
ne days in 1918 on which no airship flight took 
¢ in the British Isles. ,; 
ving thus indicated the suitability of the 
‘ship for commercial purposes, the paper goes 
‘to discuss the developments which have taken 
tee during the last four years in the design of 
airships and aeroplanes, and it is considered 
he development of the airship has been even 
Ore marked than that of the aeroplane when 
earded from the point of view of weight-carry- 
r. Considerable emphasis is laid on the fact 
"a given increase in the gross weight of 
lane a more than proportional increase is 
essary in the weight of the structure itself if 
e same factor of safety is to be Maintained ; 
lereas in the case of the airship the strength of 
sti re is maintained if the structural 
yht is directly proportional to the gross weight. 
s difference is explained by the fact that the 
similar aeroplanes is proportional to the 
of their linear dimensions, whereas the 
ar airships varies as the cube of the 
“If, therefore, the size of aeroplanes 


| greatly, while still adhering to 
: hates ind constructional methods, 
ld be reached where the machine could 
¥ : its own weight, with no reserve for 
ing useful load. With the airship, however, 
load increases continuously, no matter 


a ypears that, while airships of great 
ty are theoretically possible on the 
of design, it is impossible to build 
» carry anything like the same loads 
s of design can be radically altered. 
of this kind is not necessarily an 
favour of the airship, as it may be 
und better to carry a given load by a 
roplanes of reasonable dimensions 
a single huge airship. 
illustrations are given of the improve- 
1914 in the cases of aeroplanes and 


ret 


ps, and a rough indication of the 
t is given in the table below :— 


LT UC 


eer e4 


Speed (miles Horse- Useful load 
per hour) power (tons) 
70 80 0:27 
125 810 1-45 
50 ~=© 800 8:5 
78 2100 38:8 
p ‘ 86 6000 170 


table shows the possibilities of the airship 
oh ca rrier-in a marked manner, but it is 
hat difficult to make a comparison of merit 
he size and the speed of flight are so vari- 
r the various aircraft. If it be assumed 
horse-power varies as the cube of the 
an assumption which is true for the airship, 
proximately. correct for the aeroplane), 
ible to compare roughly the performances 


y ate +2 


. ee 
where W is the useful load in tons, and 
NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


for the various 


V the speed in miles ‘per hour. For the five 
machines above considered, the values are :— 


1914 Avro bes 1,100 
1918 D.H. 1toA 3,300 
1914 Zeppelin 1,300 
1918 L.70 ey 8,200 
10,000,000 cu. ft. rigid 18,000 


These figures indicate clearly that, from the 
point of view of fuel consumption, the large air- 
ship is much more efficient than the aeroplane for 
carrying great loads at a moderate speed. It is 
possible, however, that this superiority may in 
practice be outweighed by the greater cost of up- 
keep of the airship, and, in particular, by the cost 
of the large housing sheds which are at present 
necessary, with their attendant need of a large 
personnel to handle the ships.' The aeroplane will, 
of course, always be the better machine where 
small loads are to be carried at the highest pos- 
sible speeds, and it is quite likely that a com- 
bination of aeroplane and airship services will 
often prove the best practical solution. For in- 
stance, as suggested in the paper under dis- 
cussion, a rigid airship service might run between 
Lisbon and New York, passengers being taken to 
Lisbon from Paris, Rome, etc., by aeroplane. The 
aeroplane would thus compete with the express 
train, and the airship with the ocean liner, and 
a gain of not less than 50 per cent. in the time of 
transit would be realised in both cases. | Moen. 

In conclusion, the Air Ministry appears very 
optimistic as to the possibilities of the rigid air- 
ship in commerce, and produces excellent reason- 
ing to support its optimism. One note of warning 
is sounded, and cannot be sounded too often, 
namely, that progress in point of size of aircraft 
must be made gradually. A premature attempt 
to build a very large aeroplane or airship is 
doomed to failure, and would do much ‘to prejudice 
future development. If, however, progress is 


attempted in easy stages, giving time to overcome 


difficulties gradually, and to apply experience so 
gained to the next stage of development, there is 
every reason to hope that vast improvement will 
result in both aeroplanes and airships, and that 
the success of commercial aviation will be assured. 


DR. F. DU CANE GODMAN, F.R.S. 


HE death of Dr. Frederick Du Cane Godman 

on February 19 removes a familiar figure 
from the meetings of our scientific societies. Few 
men had greater opportunities of benefiting the 
science of their choice; none made a better use of 
them. 
There is something characteristically British in 
the development of Godman’s life-work out of. 
the associations and friendships of his student 
days at the university. For it was at Cambridge 
in Godman’s time and with Godman’s help that 
the Ornithological Union and its journal, the Ibis, 
were founded, and at Cambridge that his fruitful 
friendship with Osbert Salvin was begun. Of 
that friendship, which closed with the death of 
Salvin in 1898, he wrote in his introduction to 


6 | NATURE 


[Marcu.6, 1919 


the ‘‘ Biologia Centrali-Americana ’’: “The sever- 
ance of a friendship such as ours had been for 


forty-four years was a terrible blow to me, for: 


we were more intimately connected than most 
brothers, and, besides the personal loss, I missed 
his knowledge and experience in all things con 
nected with our book... . It was with a heavy 
heart that I took up my pen again.’’ 

The choice of Central America as the field for 
their great enterprise was determined by an acci- 
dent—the search for commercially profitable palm- 
nuts by Salvin in 1857—but no accident could have 
been more fortunate, for it hit upon the most 
interesting and exciting of all links between the 
tropics and the great northern land-belt. Pro- 
longed isolation has led to the development, upon 
the great continent to the south, of a fauna un- 
equalled in the world for combined peculiarity and 
richness. Then, in the fullness of time, the area 
supporting this teeming and varied population lost 
its isolation. What more exciting problem than 
a study of the intermediate tract which would 
show how far the southern forms have pushed 
to the north, the northern to the south?. We 
know, as the result of this study, that the boundary 
between the two areas is concave towards the 
north, for the lower temperature of the high 
central Mexican plateau favours the northern 
forms, while the heat of the lower slopes and flats 
on the two coasts favours the southern. 

It is unnecessary, on the present occasion, to 
speak in any detail of the sixty-three quarto 
volumes and 1677 plates in which this splendid 
contribution to zoology, botany, and anthropology 
is contained, for an admirable and yet brief state- 
ment of the history and scope of the work will 
be found in Godman’s introduction, published in 
1916. But a word must be said of the great band 
of naturalists who gathered round and assisted the 
two editors. Of this band, some, like H. W. 
Bates, Albert Giinther, Joseph Hooker, O. 
Pickard-Cambridge, and P. L. Sclater, were 
veterans in 1879, when the first part appeared, 
and are now great memories. . Others, again, 
found in the “Biologia ’’ the whole of their train- 
ing, and nearly the whole of their experience, as 
systematists. It is as Godman and Salvin would 
have wished, that their memories should always 
be bound up with those of the great body of 
experts who laboured with them. 

-Godman was the most modest of men. He 
found his reward in his love of the work he had 
undertaken, and looked neither for honours nor for 
recognition; but when they came the evidence of 
appreciation by his scientific comrades was a great 
pleasure and encouragement to him. 

Outside his own subject Godman took a keen 
interest in ‘all that concerned the advancement of 
science, and its neglect in this country was a real 
grief to him. He saw clearly the double import- 
ance of science for its own sake and for the 
sake of the intellectual training it gives. In these 
essential things he felt strongly that the country 
was being starved, and he feared for the future 
when he thought of our politicians and the way 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


|} they had accepted their responsibilities | in. the. 
| past. 


In failing health at the end of his 


¢ 
¥ 


long life, ; 


Godman’s interest and sympathy remained un- — 


clouded, and in ‘his’dying hours he sent a last 
message to his colleagues giving his opinion on — 


a much¢debated subject about which he felt — 
His last thoughts were with the great 


strongly. 


National Museum to which he had made so many — 


noble contributions, Ei, Bove. 


NOTES. . 


Tue following fifteen candidates were selected on — 


Thursday last by the council of the Royal Society to 


be recommended for election into the society :—Prof. 


F. A. Bainbridge, Dr. G. Barger, Dr. S. Chapman, — 


Sir C. F. Close, Dr. J. W. Evans, Sir Maurice Fitz- 


maurice, Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith, Mr, E.- Heron- 
/Allen, Dr. W. D. Matthew, Dr. C. G. Seligman, 


Prof. B. D. Steele, Major G. I. Taylor, Prof. G. N. 
Watson, Dr. J. C. Willis, and Prof. T. B. Wood. 


Sir Lazarus FLercuer retired on March 3 from the — 


directorship of the Natural History Museum after 
forty-one years in the service of the ‘Trustees. 


Previous to his appointment as director on May 22, 


1909, he had served two years as assistant and — 


twenty-nine years as keeper in the Mineral Depart- 
ment. 
was to superintend the removal of the mineral col- 
lections from Bloomsbury to South peti. ue. and 
to re-arrange them in the Natural History Museum. 


His next work was the preparation of those admir- 
able guides, the introductions to the study of minerals, © 
rocks, and meteorites respectively, and the selection | 
and arrangement of series of specimens to illustrate © 
them, which have earned him the gratitude of all — 
‘The Introduction to the — 
Study of Minerals”’ is a highly successful attempt on ~ 


students of the subject. 


the part of a great mathematician and chemist to sur- 
mount the difficulty of explaining a very technical 


subject without the aid of mathematics and chemical . 


formulz. In the intervals of this work, and later, 


Sir Lazarus Fletcher found time, in the chemical 
laboratory which had been fitted up in the museum, 


for his well-known researches on meteorites and 
minerals. 


after his accession an attempted encroachment upon 


the grounds which had been allotted for the future 
expansion of the museum had to be repelled, and | 


more recently during the war certain proposals which, 
if carried out, would have been disastrous to the 
collections had to be met. 


A FEW weeks ago (January 23, p. 409) we referred 
to the approaching retirement of Sir Lazarus Fletcher 
from the directorship of the Natural History Museum, 
and the duty thus placed upon the Trustees of find- 


ing a successor who will maintain the high prestige 
of the museum among the corresponding institutions 


of the world From the letter which appears in our 
correspondence columns, signed by 


as a temporary measure, the appointment of an 
administrative official to the post of director has been 
contemplated. 


Trustees will adopt such a course of action, which 
would be most derogatory to the position of science 
and the interests of the museum. The shortness of 
tenure,- and -the provision of an increased retiring 


As keeper of minerals his first arduous task — 


After this exacting work as keeper of the 
Mineral Department, his tenure of office as director 
of the museum was still not devoid of care, for soon. 


twenty-three | 
naturalists of distinguished eminence, it appears that, 


We. can scarcely believe that the 


Marcu 6, 1919] | 


NATURE. - 


a: sion at the end, are merely matters of expediency, 
and are as nothing by the side of the principle and 
“precedent involved. Scientific men should not for a 
moment accept the view that they are incapable of 
‘administration, or that the high posts which their 
Knowledge qualifies them to fill can be occupied 
ciently by administrators not possessing it. Skilled 
work, no doubt, facilitates communication 
1 Government Departments, but it signifies 
and stagnation when it controls the activities 
Scientific institution. Knowledge gives the. driv- 
wer required for progressive development, and 
ative functions should be subsidiary to it. 
shout the Civil Service there is already far too 
of the reverse condition. We are glad, there- 
hat a strong protest has been made against the 
iption that the highest post open to naturalists 
this country can be filled. by an officer without 
lecessary scientific qualifications to do credit to 
the nation in the eyes of the world. 


facts made known by Lord Gainford and Lord 
rt in the House of Lords on February 26 show 
ng time must elapse before our museums and 
of the Board of Education can resume their 
unhindered. The latter body is scattered 
London, while its records are stored in 
ies of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
useum is closed to the public, its circula- 
ent shut down, its textile classes and 
s to industry suspended. The priceless Wal- 
ections are still in underground tubes. The 
Portrait Gallery, the London Museum, the 
ry, and the British Museum galleries of 
of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities, as 
- of its storage space, are occupied by 
staffs. Finally, the exhibition galleries 
erial Institute continue to be filled with a 
of other Departments; the institute’s lec- 
demonstrations are in abeyance, and its 
h work is hampered because the raw 
s are stored elsewhere. The result is not 

to disappoint the American and Dominion troops, 
deny the British taxpayer the enjoyment of his 
ational establishments; it is, above all, a 
us < on the commercial and industrial de- 
ment of the country. Unavoidable the delay may 
€ car eeling that the situation would 
Ministers a truer appreciation of 


aa consented to act as patron of the 
Scientific Products Exhibition, 1919, which 
eld at the Central Hall, Westminster, during 
of July. The president of the exhibition 
arquess of Crewe, and the vice-presidents 
the Prime Minister and all the leading 
of the Government. Prof. R. A. Gregory 
‘man of the organising committee. The 
tish Science Guild has been encouraged to organise 
exhibition by the success which attended that 
ollege last summer and the more 
anchester. Now that many 
be shown which could not be put 


ful than its predecessors. The objects of the 
tion will be to illustrate recent progress in 
sh science and invention, and to help the estab- 
lent and development of new British industries. 
| an exhibition will enable new appliances and 
svices to be displayed before a large public, and will 
vide progressive manufacturers with an_ oppor- 
_of examining inventions likely to be of service 
them, thus serving as a kind of clearing-house 


_ NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


for inventors and manufacturers, as well as. illus- 
trating developments in science and industry. The 
exhibition will include sections dealing with chemistry, 
metallurgy, physics, agriculture and stay mechanical 
and . electrical engineering, education, paper,  illus- 
tration and typography, medicine and surgery, fuels, 
aircraft, and textiles. Firms desirous of exhibiting 
are invited to communicate with the organising secre- 
bg , Mr. F. S. Spiers, 82 Victoria Street, London, 
.W. 1, 


Ar the forty-first annual general meeting of the 
Institute of Chemistry held on Monday, March 3, 
Sir Herbert Jackson, the president, referred to the 
work of the institute during the war. The record 
afforded an example of the value to the country of 
organised professional bodies in times of crisis. “The 
institute is now co-operating with the Appointments 
Department of the Ministry of Labour in the re- 
settlement in civil life of those who. have been so 
engaged, and it 1s hoped that with the return of 
more normal conditions chemists will be utilised to 
the fullest advantage in the application of their science 
to the industries of the country. The president, in 
referring to the losses sustained by the profession, 
mentioned especially Lt.-Col. E. F. Harrison, who 
will always be remembered for his exceptional work 
in the provision of means of-defence against poisonous 
gas attacks, in which work he undoubtedly sacrificed 
his life. The institute has before it a period of re- 
construction, and will endeavour to bring together in 
one body the trained and competent chemists both 
for their own benefit and for that of the community. 
The events of the war have done much to establish 
the claim of chemists to greater recognition than has 
been accorded them in the past. e council has 
recently prepared a scheme of Government Chemical 
Service, which it is hoped will secure better conditions 
for chemists holding appointments under various 
Departments. The vital importance of chemical ser- 
vice to the State has been clearly demonstrated in 
recent years, and a good example set by the Govern- 
ment will go far to bring home to the public the 
importance of chemistry to industry and commerce. 
Sir Herbert Jackson was re-elected president of the 
institute for the ensuing year. 


WHEN the Ministry of Health Bill passed its. second 
reading in the House of Commons on February 26 
Major Astor, Parliamentary Secretary to the Local 
Government Board, who replied on the debate, ex- 
pressed gratification that a first-class measure had 
practically secured unanimous support from all parts 
of the House. From all accounts this is exactly what 
happened, and, apart from certain of the Welsh 
members, who desire to see separate provision made 
for the Principality, and some of the Irish members 
who do, and some who do not, wish to see the pro- 
posed Bill extended to Ireland, there were few voices 
raised in criticism. Clearly the majority had come to 
the second reading convinced that the Bill was the 
best likely to be obtained, and prepared to support it 
and accept all it proposed in the. way of transference 
of powers, consultative councils, etc. Dr. Addison’s 
advocacy, sound though it was, apparently was also 
quite dispassionate. His attitude suggested that he 
was addressing the members of a learned society and 
engaged in reading a paper upon a scientific subject. 
This impression was heightened by the fact that a 
large proportion of those who took part in the debate 
were medical men. These, led by Sir Watson Chevne, 
devoted themselves largely to the question of research 
and the provision in clause 3 for placing this most 
important work in the hands of the Privy Council. It 
is interesting to note that, not only inside the House, 


8 | | MATERE 


[Marcu 6, 1919 


-but also outside, and particularly amongst medical 
officers of health, whose society has issued a 
memorandum dealing with the Bill, medical opinion 
is strongly against any Department other than the 
Ministry of Health having control of research. In 
regard to the failure of the Bill to provide for the 
taking over by the Ministry of lunacy and mental 
deficiency there was comment also, and here again 
medical opinion is in favour of transference. As Dr. 
Addison pointed out, however, there was much detail 
that must be left to the future. The main and press- 
ing business of the moment is to get the Ministry 
formed and to see that the definite fundamental health 
matters are brought within its purview. Other things 
will follow when the Ministry and the Minister have 
shown themselves worthy of the trust which every- 
body seems to be so willing to give them and of the 
high hopes that are based upon them. 


Carr. G. P. Tuomson will deliver his postponed 
lecture on ‘‘The Dynamics of Flying” at the Royal 
Institution on Monday next, March 10, at 3 o'clock. 


THE death is announced, at eighty-five years of age, 
of Dr. Robert Liveing, consulting physician to the 
skin department of the Middlesex Hospital, and 
formerly lecturer on anatomy at Middlesex Hospital. 


WE regret to announce the death on February 8, 
at ninety-four years of age, of Prof. ARS es 
Schloesing, doyen of the section of rural economy of 
the Paris Academy of Sciences, and professor of agri- 
cultural chemistry in the Paris Conservatoire des Arts 
et Métiers, 


Science for February 7 announces that Major C. E. 
Mendenhall, professor of physics in the University 
of Wisconsin, has been. appointed. scientific attaché 
to the United States Legation in London; and has 
been given leave of absence from the University to 
take up the duties of this post immediately. 


At the ordinary meeting of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, held on March 3, the following were 
elected’ ordinary fellows:—Dr. A. R. Cushny, Dr. 
W. J. Dundas, Dr. R. O. Morris, Dr. T. S. Patter- 
son, Mr. B. D. Porritt, Mr. A. H. Roberts, Mr. 
W.. A. Robertson, Dr. A. Scott, Dr. A. R. Scott, 
_Mr. W. W. Smith, and Capt. D. A. Stevenson. 


‘Tue following lectures will be delivered at the 
Royal College of Physicians during March and 
April :—Milroy lectures, Half a Century of Smallpox 
and Vaccination, ‘Dr. John C. McVail; Goulstonian 
lectures, The Spread of Bacterial Infection, Dr. 
W. W. C. Topley; Lumleian lectures, Cerebro-spinal 
Fever, Sir Humphry D. Rolleston. — 


Tue Paris correspondent ‘of the Morning Post an- 
nounces the death, at sixty-eight years of age, of 
Prof. André Chantemesse, professor ‘of hygiene -in 
the faculty of medicine in Paris, member of the 
Academy of Medicine, and Inspector-General of Sani- 
tary Services. Prof. Charitemesse was the author of 
works on typhoid fever, and others entitled ‘‘ Mous- 
tiques et Fiévre Jaune,” ‘‘Mouches et Choléra,” and 
‘‘Frontiéres et Prophylaxie.” 


Ar a special general meeting of the British Psycho- 
logical Society. held in London on February 1g. it 
/ was unanimously resolved that persons interested 
(instead of, as-heretofore, engaged) in the various 
branches of psychology shall be eligible for. member- 
ship. It was: also decided to institute. three special 
sections of. the. society, devoted respectively to the 


educational, industrial, and medical aspects of psycho- | 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


| logy. . Further particulars may be obtained from the 


British Psychological — 


honorary secretayy of the 
Laboratory, University — 
y ais 


Society, the Psychological 
College, W.C.1. 


Ir is with regret we record that Capt. Melville Willis 
Campbell Hepworth, Marine Superintendent of the 
Meteorological Office, died at his residence at Ealing 
on February 25. apt. Hepworth was in his. 
seventieth year, and had held his official position 
since 1899. He was a Younger Brother of Trinity 
House, and received his C.B.in 1902 at the coronation 
of King Edward VII. The Monthly Meteorological 
Charts of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, as 
well as of the East Indian seas, were initiated during 
his tenure of office, and the later editions of ‘*‘ The 
Barometer Manual for the Use of Seamen” and the 
**Seaman’s Handbook of Meteorology’? were com- 
piled under his direction, and attained a large cir- 
culation. Capt. Henworth was much interested in 
marine biology and in the temperature and salinity of 
the sea. Prior to his association with the Meteoro- 
logical Office he was in command of mail steamers 
trading to the Cape and Australia, and later of 
vessels engaged on the Canadian-Australian steam 
route. For many years while at sea he made a study 
of meteorology which prepared him for his official 
position. 


Str ANDREW Fraser, K.C.S.1., whose death has 
recently been announced, was the son of a missionary 
and one of the many Scottish Presbyterians who have 
been distinguished members of the Indian Civil Ser- 
vice, and began his work in India in 1871. He served 
with distinction in the Central Provinces, and in 1903 
was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He 
was in some ways unsuited for this difficult office, 
because he was unacquainted with the Bengali 
character, and was not qualified to deal with the 
organised resistance against the partition of the Pro- 
vinces. While his policy of attempting to conciliate 
the revolutionary party, as is usual in India, served 
only to encourage anarchism, he met with courage 
at least five attempts eee his life. Sir Andrew 
Fraser was a typical official of the secretariat type, 
and beyond his official duties his interests were 
limited, as is shown by the account of his experi- 
ences in his book ‘‘ Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots,” 
which, while interesting as a record of his official life, 
is lacking in first-hand knowledge of the ethnology, 
religions, customs, and manners of the races of India. 


Ir is reported from Ottawa that Mr. S. Storkerson, 
of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, with his party of 
five men, safely reached the Alaskan coast on Novem-. 
ber 19 last. When Mr. Stefansson was incapacitated 


by illness in December, 1917, and had to return to 


civilisation, his place was taken by Mr. Storkerson, 
who immediately made preparations for a journey 
from the coast of Alaska northward over the ice. of 
the Beaufort Sea. He left Cross Island in about 
long. 146° W. on March 15, 1918, with a large party, 
including several Eskimo. When about two hundred 
miles north of the coast he sent back several of his 
men, and with the remainder continued his journey, 
expecting to be carried westward with the ice to the 
coast of Siberia. Practically no provisfons were. 
carried, the party relying on seal-meat and polar bears, 
as had been done in all the journeys of the Stefansson — 
expedition. Contrary to expectations, based on the 


| drift of the Karluk and other evidence, the ice did 


not move westward, but drifted around in a great. 
eddy. The most northerly point reached was lat. 74°N., 
long. 152° W., in a part of the Arctic Ocean not ~ 
previously explored.. The problematical Keanan’s 


: 
7 


a Marcu 6, 1919] 


NATURE 9 


a Land, which appeared in many maps in about 
lat. 74° N., long. 140° W., does not exist. 


_ Pror. ANDREW MELVILLE Paterson, who died after 
a brief illness on February 13 at the age of fifty-six, 
held .a_ conspicuous place amongst modern British 
_anatomists. Graduating in medicine at Edinburgh 
‘ University ‘in 1883, Prof. Paterson sérved his 
_ anatomical apprenticeship as a demonstrator in 
ai ng-rooms of Edinburgh University 
r Sir Wm. Turner, and afterwards in Owens 
, ‘Manchester, under Prof. Morrison Watson. 
8 he was invited to become the first 
t of the chair of human anatomy in 
ty College, Dundee, and after labouring there 
‘six years was elected to the Derby chair of anatomy 
the University of Liverpool, a position which he 
-cupied with distinction until his death. His intense 
‘spirit led him to offer his services to the 
) ent of the War Office soon after the 
commenced, and there is no doubt that his 
luous duties as Assistant Inspector of Military 
jpzedic Hospitals were accessory to his sudden 
1 ire death. As an anatomist Prof. Pater- 
ll be remembered for his contributions to our 
wledge of the basal pattern in which nerves are 
istributed to the body, and particularly to the limbs, 
vertebrate animals. That was the subject which 
“attracted his attention; his investigations led 
on to an examination of the segmental character 
hs - vertebr body, particularly the variations 
z attend the segmentation of the sacral region. 
_ Most of his researches were published in the Journal 
of Ar tomy and Physiology—now the Journal of 
| Anatomy—but his monograph on ‘The Human 
: rum” appeared in the Transactions of the Royal 
‘Society (vol. v., 1893). In 1903, as a, Hun- 
professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of 
d, Prof. Paterson gave a series of lectures on 
_“The Morphology of the Sternum,” which was pub- 
lished in, < form in the following year. In these 
— lectu ‘maintained that the sternum must. be 
a derivative, not of the ribs, but of the 
-girdle. He was also the: author of several 
on anatomy and embryology, as well as a 
- to standard text-books on human anatomy. 
ne essays which he printed for private cir- 
e pieces of real literature. 


E. H. Stennine, King William’s College, Isle 
“Man, sends a description of a brilliant auroral 
yy seen there on February 27. The luminous 
appeared at about 8.30 p.m., and increased in 
until 10.10 p.m. They took the form of 
rge parallel arcs, extending across the northern 
‘The brighter of the two bands, the inner, was 
ight that ‘no star appeared to shine through it. 
‘was separated from the outer are by a broad black 
‘The inner band seemed to be of fixed intensity, 
outer varied incessantly. In altitude the 
portion of the outer band was well above the 
tral star of Cassiopeia, and the brightest portion 
the band was about 4° below the lower stars of 
; constellation (10.10 p.m.). The luminosity of the 
sr band faded rapidly, beginning from the ends, 
and at 10.45 could not be seen. The inner band was 
still visible, though faintly, at 11.15. 


NFLUENZA has:‘again further increased in severity 
Pere Bans pa and the -Registrar-General’s 
wn for the week ending February 22 shows that 
i@ deaths in’ London and in the ninety-six great 
towns of England and Wales were more than double 
those of the preceding week. In London (county) the 
' deaths from influenza were 653, which is greater 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


trie 


i1VerTs! 


Ci 


than in any week since that ending December 7, and 
the deaths in the ninety-six great towns were 3046. 
The deaths from influenza in London had risen from 
13 per cent: of the deaths from all causes in the 
preceding week to 25 per cent. in the week ending 
February 22. The deaths are still highest at the 
ages from twenty to forty-five, being 44 per cent. of 
the total, and there is some increase in the percentage 
of deaths above sixty-five years. Out of 12,939 deaths 
in London from influenza during the last twenty 
weeks there have been 5987 deaths at the ages twenty 
to forty-five, which is 46 per cent. of the total deaths 
from the epidemic. At the ages up to five years there 
were 12 per cent. of the total deaths, at five to 
twenty years 16 per cent., at forty-five to sixty-five 
years. 17 per cent., at sixty-five to seventy-five years 
6 per cent., and above seventy-five years only 3 per 
cent. 


Mr. J. Reip Morr describes in the February issue 
of Man a remarkable piece of carved chalk recently 
found by the Hon, R. Gathorne-Hardy in his park at 
Great Glemham House, Saxmundham, Suffolk. The 
specimen, measuring 43 in. by 22 in. by 2% in., is of 
a dull white colour, and has sandy material embedded 
in the interstices. It is believed that it was brought 
to. the surface by the action of rabbits, the burrows of 
which are very numerous at Great Glemham. Mr. 
Moir believes that, in its outline, the piece of chalk 
bears a very close resemblance to the outline of the 
mammoth (E. primigenesis), with which the scientific 
world has become familiar by an examination of car- 
casses of this animal found in the frozen ground of 
Siberia, and by drawings and outlines upon bone and 
other materials discovered in the Aurignacian and 
later Paleolithic deposits in France and elsewhere. ° 
The specimen certainly exhibits many remarkable 
points of resemblance to the mammoth, but the ques- 
tion remains whether these resemblances may not be 
accidental or the result of weathering. It may be 
advisable to await further examination by experts 
before we express a decided opinion upon this remark- 
able discovery. 


WE have received a copy of the first issue of the 
Balkan Review, which is to be published monthly by 
the Rolls House Publishing Co. at the price of 1s. 3d, 
The editor is Mr. Crawford Price. The review aspires 
to cultivate financial and commercial relations between 
Britain and the Balkans, and to act as an. organ of 
liaison between the West and the East. Its scope 
covers social, political, historical, and geographical 
aspects’ of Balkan lands. ‘‘ While supporting — the 
existing entente between Greece, Serbia, and 
Rumania, we shall hold the door ever open for the 
admission of a regenerated and reformed Bulgaria.” 
The first number contains several interesting articles, 
including one on the Jugo-Slays and another on the 
group of islands known as the’ Dodecanese. 


TuoucH for skeletonising purposés the use of the 
tryptic digestion process: has long been. known, the 
method does not appear to have been much used in 
England. Miss Kathleen F. Lander directs attention 
to its great value in the Museums Journal for Feb- 
ruary. She finds that half a gram of trypsin in 
a litre of water makes the best solution, and to this 
is added a pinch of sodium bicarbonate to ensure 
alkalinity. If allowed to digest at a temperature of 
37° C., the preparation of a skeleton can generally 
be completed within twenty-four hours. The method 
is superior to maceration in warm water only in so 
far as rapidity of action is concerned,, and it is cer- 
tainly costly. Trypsin—sold by Messrs. Burroughs 
and Wellcome—costs gos. per ounce, and the solu- 


IO 


NATURE 


[Marcu 6, 1919 | 


tion, when ready for use, 1s. per litre. Fortu- 
nately, however, it. retains. its digestive: action for a 
fortnight before the ferment is destroyed by bacteria, 
but its action becomes slower and slower. 


In the Gardeners’: Chronicle of ‘February 8 Mr. 
B. Brierley, writing from the recently estab- 
lished Institution of Pathological Research, Rotham- 
sted, discusses the question of the diseased’ areas on 
orchid-leaves known to horticulturists as ‘‘ orchid spot.” 
This, he points out, is not a single and_ specific 
disease, but a congeries of diseases, all little under- 
stood and urgently in need. of detailed investigation. 
From the casual examination of diseased specimens 
during the past two or three years Mr. Brierley has 
recognised seven distinct types of disease. Of these 
it is highly probable that four are the result of the 
action of parasitic organisms, one of local chilling 
of the leaf-tissues, one probably of atmospheric 
poisoning, and one of some other physiological de- 
rangement of the protoplasm, due probably to unsuit- 
able cultural conditions in the plant’s physical en- 
vironment. A continuous and_ intensive study of 
“orchid spot” would doubtless show that the seven 
diseases are but a few of the many covered by this 
name. At present all these diseases are lumped 
together as ‘orchid spot,’ and horticulturists en- 
deavour to control a disease of physical causation by 
a fungicidal spray, or a fungal epidemic by regulating 
to a nicety the temperature of. the water supply. 
There is needed a detailed investigation of this group 
of diseases, a critical experimental study of the physio- 


logical relations of the plants to their environment, an - 


understanding of all the complex hygienic factors 
involved, and a thorough elucidation of the life- 
histories and biological relations of .the pathogenic 
organisms which may be present. Only on such a 
foundation can a rational scheme of prophylactic and 
therapeutic treatment be based. . 


Tue Monthly Meteorological Chart of the East 
Indian Seas for February, issued by the Meteorological 
Office, shows in great detail the various meteorological 
data. Winds are given in an extremely intelligible 
and useful form for navigators, and aircraft can use 
much which has been primarily prepared for the sea- 
man. The wind-zones show for each 5° of latitude by 
5° of longitude both frequency and strength. The 
limits of the trades and -monsoons are shown on 
the face of the chart, and tracks of some cyclonic 
storms are given. Results for the several. elements 
are obtained from records extending over a period of 
about sixty years. Ice information is given on the 
back of the chart, and navigators voyaging in high 
southern latitudes will find the information very 
helpful in avoiding a common source of danger. 
There is a desire on the part of the Meteorological 
Office for captains who are interested in meteorology 
to assist in the work by observing for the Office. 
Naturally, the organisation has been seriously inter; 
rupted by the war, so that the assistance of volunta 
observers is’ now the. more urgent. The series of 
‘charts for the several months shows in the clearest 
‘possible manner the change of monsoon over the area 
of the sea embraced. ; 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


- Tue ORDER OF THE PrLanets.—In the oldest cunei- 
form inscriptions the planets are given in the. order 
Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, Mars (vide ‘‘ Encycl. 
_Brit.,”’ eleventh edition, vol. ii., p. 796, ‘‘ Astrology”). 
Dr. Herbert Chatley writes from Shanghai to point 


out that if we calculate the total gravitational force | 


between. the sun and each planet (viz. product , of 
“NO, 2575, VOL. 103] 


| 


masses+square of distance) we obtain results which 
in order of magnitude agree with. the list above. 
With the latest values of the 
numbers are :— 


Mercury, 0°24, “f Mars, 0-05. r 
Venus, 1-58. Jupiter, 11-76. 
(Earth, 1-00.) Saturn, 1-04. 


This cannot be anything more than a coincidence, but 
it is sufficiently curious to justify mention. Dr. 
Chatley notes that if by chance the ancients had 
possessed the necessary knowledge, they would have 
grouped the planets, not by the simple attractions, 
but by their tide-raising power, which would have 
involved the inverse cubes of the distances. 


CEPHEID VARIABLES.—The Observatory for February 
contains a letter by Mr. J. H. Jeans on the Cepheid 
problem. Mr. Jeans gives the following functional 
formula for the Cepheid light variation:— 


acosnt+bf[n(t—n)], 


where a, b, 7 are adjustable constants, and f is the 
same function for all stars. The spectral type follows 
the second term of the expression fairly closely, maxi- 
mum value of f corresponding with early or B type, 
minimum value with late or K type, 

The graph of the function f shows a steep rise 
followed by a much less steep and approximately 
exponential descent; its period is the same as that 
of the first term in the formula. This latter fact leads 
the author to the conjecture that the acosnt term 
arises from the rotation of a single elongated body, 
and the bf term from an explosion which occurs in a 
particular, orientation of the body, this explosion pro- 
ducing the change in spectral type. _He shows that 
Mr. Phillips’s Group I. of light-curves would be ex- 
plained. by one explosion per rotation, and Group II. 
by two explosions per rotation. . There is, how- 
ever, a difficulty in picturing a mechanism that could 
produce explosions in fixed orientations, for any 
external disturbing 
ing its orientation. ~ 


_ VARIATION OF LatiruDE.—The observatories of 
Mizusawa, Carloforte, and. Ukiah (all in N. lat. 
39° 8’) continued their series of latitude observations 
throughout 1917. The results are discussed by 
B. Wanach in Ast. Nach., No. 4969. The minimum 
latitude in the meridian of Greenwich was —o-14" at 
the end of March, the maximum +o0-16" early in 
November. The track of the pole is considerably 
more contracted than in the two preceding periods. 
-Issei Yamamoto contributes a: paper on’ the 
‘‘Kimura” or ‘‘z’? term in the latitude variation 
(Proc. Tokyo Math. Phys. Soc., second series, vol. ix., 
No. 17). He has made observations to test Prof. 
Shinjo’s suggestion that the term arose from an 
annual term in the distribution of temperature in and 
above the observing-room, and consequent  dis- 
symmetry in the refraction. ers 

He made a specially designed observing-room, with 
precautions to equalise. the temperature of the air 
above it, and found that the “‘z” term was greatly 


‘reduced. His results thus tend to confirm Shinjo’s 


suggestion. : 

The values of the variation of latitude that are 
adopted for, the Greenwich reductions are deduced 
from the results obtained with the Cookson floating 
telescope. They are ready long before the publica- 


tion of the results at the international stations, and ~ 
it is found that they do not differ much from the — 


latter. 


planetary masses the. 


body would necessarily be chang- © 


Marcu 6, 1919] 


NATURE LI 


) THE HEALTH OF OUR CHILDREN. 
my g NE feels on reading the report referred to below 
» that the nation possesses in Sir George Newman 
general with a plan, who, having consolidated the 
ims of ten years’ work, is pressing on to his. objec- 
tive: sp een he gorebting diseases and the 
winning for every child of his birthright of a happy 
and healthy childhood. Such is the iearesnics gained 
by a careful study: of this most interesting and com- 
prehensive report. 
___In section iii. will be found the results of a typical 
medical inspection conducted by a most competent 
observer—Dr. C. J. Thomas, se the London County 
incil. Two sets of three hundred unselected elder 
dren each, in typical London and country schools, 
are inspected, and the results are described and 
ysed. One reads with dismay that ‘after deduc- 
1 of the blind, deaf, mentally and physically defec- 
and invalid children drafted to special schools or 
absent from school, there were of the children present 
‘school 21 per cent. found to be suffering from one 
“More serious defects . . . 12 per cent, were ill- 
: hed ; > Asi cent. were unclean in body; of 
‘the London children 40 per cent., and of the country 
children 65 per cent., had some carious teeth; 11 per 
cent. suffered from disease of nose or throat; 10 per 
had ‘very serious’ defects of vision; 6 per cent. 
ered from defective hearing and 6 per cent, from 
e anemia; and of middle ear disease, of organic 
rt disease, of skin disease, and of spinal curva- 
e of “worst grade’ there were in each case 4 per 
t. of sufferers.” -— 


We ‘ee with Sir George Newman’s comment on 


! or read Dr. Thomas’s account of the 
physical condition of these children about to leave 
school for industrial occupations without understand- 
lay brary for all, the gravity of the situation.” 

__ It is with a sense of relief one finds that a good 
deal is being done by several education authorities to 
remedy the defects found. There are still, however, 
‘a good many C3 authorities. Most hopeful of all, 
fever, is the policy “broad and deep” which the 
oard of Education’s Chief Medical Officer, since trans- 


a9 
" 2 


ded “Y 


Jated to the Local Government Board, has all along had 
in mind—the safeguarding of each and every child’s 
health from babyhood up to and including school-life. 
This policy we find explained in his excellent exposition 
of those sections of the new Education Act which deal 
with the health of children and young persons. 

__ “The Act,” writes Sir George, ‘lays emphasis upon 
the broad fact that the purposes of the School Medical 
Service are not the detection of defects, the discovery 
of child-patients, and the treatment of such sick 
children, but the advancement of the health and 
physical development of the whole child population 
OF school | age,”” 3 

1 sn pitta of this report does not’ rest content with 
a recital of first principles. He points the way to 
their realisation. Thus we find much practical advice 
on the teaching of hygiene and mothercraft, on ‘the 
‘control of juvenile employment, on open-air schools, 
physical education, on play-centres, and on holiday 
camps. We note with pleasure his reference to the 
cheery brotherhood of Boy Scouts. 

__ Ev le interested in education, and therefore in 
our children, should study this inspiring report. Cer- 
tainly the personnel of the School Medical Service 
must realise that they have had ‘as chief, not only an 
eminent expert, but also a man of large vision, a 
leader who really leads. W. E. H. 


en Ge f 4 1 
2 Annual rae for 19:7 of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of 
_Edueation. (Cd. 9206.) (HM. Stationery Office.) Price rs. net, 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


" 


pty 
¥ 
‘2 


i‘, 


“these m facts:—‘‘No one, I think, can consider 


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NATURE 


[Marcu 6, 1919 


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METEOROLOGY DURING AND AFTER 
THE WAR.) 

DTDURING the past four years and a half of hostili- 
ties meteorology has, like many other branches 

of knowledge, been utilised. in naval and military 

operations to a far greater extent than ever before. 

Consequently, there are now a large number of officers 

in the Services who have had practical. experience of 


the value of meteorological information when it has | 


‘ been prepared from sufficient data, and by men who 
have been thoroughly trained. in the subject. It is, 
therefore, highly desirable that full advantage should 
be taken of the experience which has been gained 
- during the war in order to meet, as adequately as 
possible, those demands which will be made upon 
meteorology in the general reconstruction which is 
now beginning. ‘ 

In some ways the conditions which prevailed during 
hostilities were favourable to advances in the subject. 
Special facilities were given for the rapid transmission 
of reports; kite-balloons could furnish series of ob- 
servations at various heights; aeroplanes were ayail- 
able to observe the temperature in successive layers 
of the atmosphere up to 12,000 ft. or 14,000 ft.; the 
velocity and direction of air-currents up to. even 
25,000 ft, were determined by the bursting of shells 
fired at high angles; pilot-balloons at perhaps a 
hundred stations were observed four or more times 
daily. In these and other ways a vast store of in- 
formation has been amassed which has already been 
utilised, but remains. available for much more 
detailed study in the immediate future; and not the 
least difficult problem will be to reduce the mass of 
information to a manageable and orderly arrangement. 

There were in 1914 in this country the State 
Meteorological Service (the Meteorological Office) and 
a Naval Meteorological Service, which had _ been 
formed in 1913 to meet the needs of the Royal Naval 
Air Service. Besides these, a private institution, 
the British Rainfall Organisation, collected and dis- 
cussed observations of the rainfall of the British Isles 
and studied all questions connected with rainfall; also 
two scientific societies—the Royal. Meteorological 
Society and the Seottish Meteorological Society— 
specially devoted themselves to the advancement of 
meteorological science. It will be seen, therefore, that 
only the State service could provide a career for any- 
one desiring to take up meteorology as a profession, 
and as the staff of this service was comparatively 
‘small, it is scarcely surprising that the great majority 
of meteorologists were amateurs in the sense that they 
studied the subject from. their interest in it, outside 
their ordinary occupations. 

In the Meteorological Office the policy for some 
years had been -to bring in men who».had had a 
thorough scientific education at a university and to 
encourage them to devote it to the study of the many 
problems which meteorology had to offer. This was 

1 From a paper read before the Royal Societv of Arts on January 22 by 
Col. H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., Acting Director of the Meteorological Office. 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103 | 


a great advance from the empirical treatment of the 
subject, and has been 
obtained when this policy has been: tested under. the 
conditions of active service. 5 Th) Beet. | 

For the general public current meteorology was 
mainly represented by the daily forecasts and the 
weather summaries which appeared in the Press, and 
the cases in which these failed to describe accurately 
the weather in the reader’s immediate locality usually 
impressed him more than their general accuracy as 
tersely worded descriptions of conditions which were 
likely to prevail over’an extended area, such as south- 
eastern England, but those who had only been brought 
into contact with meteorology in this superficial way on 
the outbreak of hostilities soon found that the weather 
affected their preparations and their operations at 
every turn. It was scarcely to be expected in 
these circumstances that all Staff officers would at 
once realise what information trained meteorologists 
could provide, or to what extent their reports and 
warnings could be relied upon in practice. _ 

In the course of the last two decades investigations 


have been: extended from the surface of the earth - 


into the air by means of kites and balloons, and our 
knowledge of the conditions prevailing up to ten, and 
even fifteen, miles above the earth’s surface has, 
thereby been steadily increased. Self-recording instru- 
ments continuously registering the pressure, tempera- 
ture, and humidity have been carried py Pec ag 
lower seven miles (11 kilometres), the troposp 

the region in which the temperature falls with in- 
creasing height—and far into the stratosphere above 
it, sometimes to heights of 123 -miles (20 kilometres) 
or more. In this way the remarkable fact of the 
differentiation of the atmosphere into the lower tropo- 
sphere and the overlying stratosphere has been estab- 
lished, and further investigations indicate the great 
importance of these upper regions of the atmosphere 


in the solution of many problems relating to the 
_ weather. aia 


With the gradual introduction of balloons and air- 
craft into the Army, and the subsequent formation of 
the Royal Flying Corps, meteorological establishments 
were formed at South Farnborough in 1910 and at 
Upavon in 1913, where the study of the upper air 
was carried on regularly. In this way, and with the 
material furnished by the meteorologists of other 
countries, a very large amount of information had 
been collected, and, to a large extent, discussed and 
utilised, before the outbreak of war, but this was, for 
the most part, known and appreciated only by those 
who’ were especially interested in the subject, and 
the bearing of the results obtained had not reached the 
wide circle of those who were later to become 
acquainted with them under the exacting conditions 
of active service. Fibs eh 

On the outbreak of hostilities some lines of work 
had to be abandoned, and new lines taken up at 
once. Many of the staff of the State service joined 
the Army in those early days who would have been 


very profitably employed in the meteorological units 


which were formed later, or even in the Office itself, 
where the work became ever increasingly heavy, while 
the task of replacing those who went on: service 
became constantly more difficult. See 

On the outbreak of war in August, 1914, meteoro- 


logists were at first considerably handicapped by the 


reduction of their supply of information. Wireless 
reports from ships ceased; weather telegrams from 
Germany and Austria were no longer available; and 


Central Europe became a blank on the working charts ~ 
of the Meteorological Office. The censorship over all- 


inward and outward telegrams disorganised the supply 
of meteorological information from Allied and neutral 


Pics 
ve ue 


amply justified by the success 


PRE 


SA 


a _ Marcu 6, 1919] 


~ oe 


NATURE 13 


0 


q countries for a while, but this was soon rectified, and 
_ daily ‘Weather reports could again be prepared, though 
_ lacking part of the Continental information. As time 
_ went on the need for more and more distant stations 
_ was felt, and by 1916 reports were being regularly 
received from Spitsbergen to the North African coast 
and Cairo, and from Iceland and the Azores to the 
_ Russian stations of Petrograd, Nicholaieff, Sebastopol, 
‘g ithe supely of daily weather reports and forecasts to 
he pub © was stopped, but their preparation was 
ontinued actively in the Meteorological Office, where 
ete aphic reports which were collected several 
times daily reached the number of about one hundred, 
ad the information which they contained was com- 
on working charts from which the forecasts were 

ured. These were issued to the Admiralty, to 
is dockyards, to the Grand Fleet, various battle 
ns, submarine flotillas, etc., each of which 

a apeerts and forecasts adapted to their special 
‘ae ily information was supplied to the 
eteorological Service for the Royal Naval Air 
ree numerous units of the Royal Flying 
r the Royal Air Force as it afterwards became. 
ide information for aviators in the early 
x for use in preparing plans for the day’s 
it became necessary to take observations 
y hours of the morning, and 3 a.m. was 
chosen at first, but this was not found to be 
ough, and 1 a.m. was finally adopted, making 
rving hours 1 a.m., 7 a.m., I p.m., and 6 p.m. 
uous twenty-four-hour forecasting service 
ablished, and has been maintained in operation 
le present time, to prepare forecasts and reports 
nes daily; and to telegraph the observations 
ed stations to the Meteorological Section 


other stations that required them, as well as to the 
prological Service of the French Army, and later 
1erican Expeditionary Force. 
) conditions something simpler, plainer, 
rect in its presentation of the opinions of 
rologist who prepared it than the 
eather report with its statistical data 
9se who had to make use of the daily 
‘were usually far too busy to wish to 
tistical material before accepting the 
Opinions which were offered to them. 
direct statement of expert opinion 
d make use of in preparing their own 
1. The desire for such expert assistance 
n by many requests that forecasts should 
ctly simple and non-technical 


ression advancing from the westward,” “‘a 
ry depression developing over the Channel,” 
lone spreading northward,” are more than 
€ statements of fact; they convey to all who are 
uainted with meteorology much additional informa- 
depending on the weather conditions described, 
1 it would take several paragraphs to state 
y and in non-technical language. 
“far as meteorological conditions could be set out 
lain language, this was done in these special daily 
eather reports, which were issued in the early morn- 
3, before noon, and in the afternoon to all who 
aired them; and these were supplemented by 
cial summaries, one of which dealt with the pre- 
ng and the prospective weather conditions on all 
onts where military operations were in progress, and 
nother with the weather conditions in the various 
sea areas round Europe. : 
__ The whole of this information was of a highly con- 
 fidential character, since Germany and Austria were 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103| 


wired 


3 tish General Headquarters in France, and | 


cut off from all weather reports from meteorological 
stations to the westward, except those of neutral ° 
countries, Norway and Spain. 

We shall doubtless learn eventually to what extent 
the precautions taken sufficed to prevent information 
about the weather conditions over the British Isles 
and to the westward reaching the Central Empires, 
but at the time we had to depend mainly on negative 
evidence. It was not difficult to estimate from the 
working weather-chart what sort of forecast the enemy 
meteorologists would probably make on the assumption 
that the information from a wide area to the west- 
ward of them was not available, and this was done 
daily as part of the routine of the Meteorological 
Office. In the case of attacks by enemy aircraft it 
was fair to assume that his meteorological service 
considered the conditions to be reasonably favour- 
able; and this was compared with the estimate of 
his opinion which had been formed here. Occa- 
sionally enemy forecasts were available, and these 
were compared in the same way. Negative evidence 
is not conclusive, but the impression that we gained 
was that little, if any, meteorological information of 
value was obtained from our area. 

Many cases could be cited where operations were 
undertaken by the enemy which it seemed very un- 
likely that he would have undertaken had he possessed 
the information which we had here. 

By the spring of 1915 two branches of the Army, 
the Royal Flying Corps and the Special Brigade, 
R.E. (Chemical Warfare), had decided that they 
required the co-operation of trained meteorologists 
who could explain the meaning and the limits of the 
forecast, answer questions or give advice, and arrange 
for fuller or more suitable information being furnished 
when required. 

These demands for the provision of trained meteoro- 
logists in France led to the formation of a meteoro- 
logical section as a unit of the Corps of Royal 
Engineers which had at first a strength of about four 
officers and twenty non-commissioned officers, but the 
establishment was repeatedly increased until, when 
hostilities ceased, it consisted of thirty-two officers and 
about two hundred other ranks, and provided sections 
for duty, not only in France, but also on the Italian 
and Macedonian fronts, besides a reserve section at 
home. From a small unit at General Headquarters 
in France the organisation developed until there was . 
a meteorological unit with each army and one with 
the Independent Force, R.A.F., these units having 
their groups of observers and pilot-balloon stations 
reporting to them. The re yea weather reports 
from the stations in the British Isles, as well as those 
received from a large number of European stations, 
were at first thrice daily, and later four times daily, 
telegraphed from the Meteorological Office in London 
to the Meteorological Section at General Headquarters 
in France, in order that weather-maps might be drawn 
and forecasts prepared there as might be required. 
This information was supplemented by data which the 
Meteorological Section collected from its station on 
the British front, and also from other parts of France 
through the French Meteorological Services. 

In this way on the Western front, and similarly 
at later dates on the Italian and Macedonian fronts, 
a network of meteorological stations was built up, 
which, with the addition of the data and reports fur- 
nished by the Meteorological Office, enabled the 
meteorological officers to supply the information which 
the different Services required for their special pur- 
poses, to issue forecasts and weather warnings, and 
also, as will be seen later, to increase very materially 
the accuracy of the work of some of the Services. 

The task of providing the personnel for this military 
unit was no easy one, for, as has been already men- 


14 NATURE 


[Marcu 6, 1919 


tioned, the staff of the Meteorological Office was 


meteorologists who were available. 
the senior. staff of the Meteorological Office received 
commissions for duty in France, and afterwards a 
number of men who had a thoroughly scientific educa- 
tion at a university joined the Meteorological Office 
for longer or shorter periods of training before being 
posted to the Meteorological Section, and in this way 
a high-grade scientific staff was formed and main- 
tained. To a training which included especially 
mathematics and physics was added as much instruc- 
tion and practice in advanced meteorology as could 
be given in the time available, and on the basis of 
such an education the meteorological aspect of the 
problems was quickly appreciated. 


As time went on the scope and number of such | 
reports and warnings steadily increased until there | 


was a regular and continuous flow of information 
sent out from meteorological offices to various 
branches of the Service for them to utilise as best 
fitted the operations in hand. The Royal Air Force 


required forecasts of weather for short periods which 


it could use for its reconnoitring and bombing 
squadrons;. for day operations reports of the wind 
direction and velocity obtained from _pilot-balloon 
ascents and high-angle shell-bursts were communi- 


cated from different altitudes up to 20,000 ft.; -for 


night operations information for lower levels sufficed, 
and the arrangements had to be modified. For high 
altitudes a central station could supply information 
» adequately, but when data concerning lower levels 
became important, where the air turbulence set up by 
friction with the earth’s surface became a material 
factor, the reports were more effectively supplied by 
local stations where the special conditions could be 
more effectively studied. For all this the most rapid 
means of transmission is essential; for the shorter the 
forecast period, and the more detailed the forecast in 
its information, the more rapidly must it be placed 
at the disposal of the aviator if it is not to mislead 
him. These reports were largely supplemented by tele- 
phone inquiries by those interested, and a_ precision 
was demanded which was. often very difficult, and 
sometimes impossible, to attain. “Success in answer- 
ing these inquiries is reached by having as meteoro- 
logical officers men who have an acquaintance with 
the physical condition of the region, and also pos- 
sess such a scientific training that they instinctively 
proceed from cause to effect, and facts at once fall 
into their place in their minds. This is very different 
from the acquired skill of an empirical forecaster, who 
can never attain the samé confidence in his opinion. 
The work of a meteorological officer who has to advise 
on the suitability of conditions for: long flights, 
especially on active service, is very responsible, and 


throws a great strain on him, since he cannot but ' 


feel that on his advice great risks may be taken and 
grave danger encountered. In regions where high 
plateaux exist near the sea-coast, as in Macedonia, 
the cold-air currents which stream downwards, by 
reason of their greater density, to lower levels often 
attain full-gale velocity, blowing in violent gusts, and 
constitute an element of serious danger to aviators. 
The conditions which favour such a phenomenon are 
known and recognisable; but it may be very difficult 
to say precisely whether or not the descent of cold 
air will take this violent form. 

In chemical warfare a different set of problems was 
encountered. Here we! are concerned with the move- 
ment of air-currents close to the surface of the 
ground, affected by all its irregularities, diverted this 
way and that by obstacles, and generally in that state 
of irregular motion known as turbulence in which 
eddies form, break up, and re-form, greatly com- 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103 | 


| plicating the conditions. At ni ; 

Pg : night, too, when . 
small, and outside it there were very few expert . 2 spe: ; pri 
At first three of | 


face wind may die down to a calm and the ground 
cools under a clear sky, the colder and heavier air 
streams down from higher ridges into valleys and low 
ground. Consequently the direction and ‘velocity of 
air-currents along the front had constantly to be 
observed and. studied in relation to the relief and 
conditions of each section; so long as the wind was 
favourable for enemy operations, or even likely to 
shift into a favourable quarter, observations, reports, 
and warnings were unceasingly needed. 
But, besides the aviators, there are cther branches 
which are vitally interested in the conditions which 
prevail in the upper air. Projectiles leave the firing- 
point and traverse a considerable thickness of the 
atmosphere during their flight, reaching an altitude 
of about 10,000 ft. for a fifty-second trajectory. In its 
passage through the air a projectile traverses strata of 
different temperatures, and consequently of various 
densities, so that a correction has to be applied to the 
range-tables. On a winter day, when the temperature 
at the surface is 3° F., the temperature at 3000 ft., 
6000 ft., and gooo ft. may be 15° F., 16° F., and 
12° F. respectively, so that any correction based on the 
temperature near the ground would be wrong. Also 
the wind varies considerably, and often irregularly, 
both in velocity and direction as the ground is left, so 
that a correction based on mean conditions here will 
probably be widely different from that which should 
be used on any particular occasion. 
These considerations led to a much wider applica- 
tion of meteorological information to the practical 
correction of gunnery than had hitherto been em- 
ployed, and reports of upper-air temperature and of 
the velocity and direction of the wind at various alti- 
tudes were regularly prepared and transmitted from 
meteorological stations along the various fronts. This 
increased application of meteorology to ballistics raises — 
many problems of interest and importance, which 
demand for their solution the co-operation of scientific 
gunnery and meteorological science of the highest 
order. 
To mention another field, the sound-waves which 
are recorded in sound-ranging, that wonderful adapta- 
tion of the physical instruments of the laboratory to 
practical use on the field of battle, traverse the lower 
layers of the atmosphere, and as higher and higher 
accuracy was aimed at, it became clear that meteoro- 
logical observation must be made concurrently, and 
utilised in order to attain the desired precision. 
Frequent mention was made during the war 
of the meteorological efficiency of- the enemy’s 
organisation and of the very favourable conditions 
which he experienced during many of his operations; 
his superiority in these directions was not infre- 
quently assumed. It is not possible to compare the 
effectiveness and success of the rival organisations 
until much more information is available and, in the 
discussion and investigation of past operations, the 
various contributing factors have been sorted out and 
duly weighed. No doubt Germany started. with a 
much larger number of men who had received a 
scientific training in the subject, for professors of 
meteorology existed at several universities; the appre- 
ciation of the subject and its practical value, too, 
may have been more general among that nation; but, 
as a personal opinion, I do -not believe that it 
attained a higher standard than our own. Many 
apparently did not realise that the occurrence of. bad 
weather during operations did not necessarily mean 
that the commander and his staff had no information 
regarding the impending weather changes; but 
weather is only one of many factors which have to 
be taken into consideration, and it must often be 


Marcu 6, 1919] 


NATURE ; 


15 


that operations planned and prepared must be carried 
out whatever. the weather may be, though a good fore- 
4 wey at. the last pens Spels him to judge 
ther nearer or more distant objectiv ikely 
Be aiisined. j es are likely to 
_ ._ Free discussions and conjectures on the subject of 
_ the enemy’s advantages and the necessity for main- 
taining a strict silence regarding the details of our 
organisation naturally led many to doubt whether 
_ adequate steps had been taken to utilise meteorology 
e full. Many stata their services as forecasters 
of experience, or as having methods which they con- 
sidered could give-highly trustworthy results, but they 
did not realise that much more was needed than a 
brief description of general weather conditions. They 
did not know that a large and somewhat intricate 
organisation had been found necessary, in which each 
man played his seein part, and from the com- 
bined results of whose labours the required informa- 
tion was evolved. 
___‘There are now four State meteorological services in 
Et en an Meteorological Office, the Admiralty 
_ Meteorological Service, the Meteorological Section, 
__.R.E., for the Army, and the Meteorological Service, 
Pe RVAIF., of the Air Ministry—and the relations and the 
means for ration between these four services 


will have to be worked out, and a number of con- 
siderations taken into account. 
So far as the study of the weather and the issue 
of foreeasts is concerned, short-period meteorology, as 
it may be called—rapidity of transmission of the 
observations to the Central Office, where they are 
discussed: and compared, and of the forecasts, warn- 
ings, etc., which are sent from it—is the first essential, 


and the needs of aviation have only accentuated this. 
Observations should be in the Central Office for the 
forecaster’s use not later than one hour after they 
are taken if he is to get out his reports and warnings 
early enough to be of effective use to aviators. This 
will mean a considerable acceleration in the collection 
and transmission of reports from some parts, for a 
country’s own rf s are not enough; those from 
selected stations in the surrounding countries are 
needed in order to form a correct view of the changes 
that are taking place. Wireless telegraphy will assist 
in meeting such requirements, and each country will 
‘soon, it is hoped, send out the meteorological observa- 
tions taken at some ten to fifteen of its selected 
stations four times daily at fixed hours. French ob- 
_ servations are already being sent out thrice daily from 
the Eiffel Tower in this manner, but some organisa- 
tion will be necessary to bring this into operation as a 
- gener ctice. ith foreign reports collected in 
_ this way, and special priority for the necessary number 
of inland reports, forecasts could be got out more 
ickly, and, consequently, be of far greater utility. 
Only a small proportion of the observations which 
are taken can ever be printed and published, so all 
working meteorologists must often refer to the 
voluminous collection of manuscript data which every 
‘meteorological service accumulates. Where research 
into the problems of the atmosphere is to be actively 
carried on there must be free access to such a col- 
lection, as well as to a well-stocked library on the 


— 


ect. | 
All these considerations indicate the desirability of 
‘a close contact and co-operation between all the 
meteorological services in a country, So that the whole 
‘material may be available to each, that the scientific 
staff of each may be able to discuss the points which 
may arise, and that information may be quickly and 
easily distributed. ; 
Aviation, with its prospect of long-distance com- 
munication, has rendered necessary 4 readjustment 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


' of meteorological relations within the E pi 
; j impire, 
Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, 


and Egypt and the Sudan have all their well-equipped 
meteorological services, which. include networks of 
stations so selected as to represent most suitably the 
different meteorological conditions prevailing in those 
regions. In each there is a scientific staff studying 
the problems that arise or affect the economic life 
of. the country. Except as students of the same 
science, the interests of each service have been some- 
what diverse from the nature of the requirements 
which each had to meet, but in future we must 
organise the provision of all information that aviation 
may require; and since aviators are going to pass 
from continent to continent and from one country to 
another, uniformity of some kind must be attained in 
respect of the assistance that meteorology is to give. 

From the organisation necessary for Imperial co- 
operation to that of international co-operation is but 
a step, and the same requirements have to be con- 
sidered; but some additional complications, such 
as variety of units, have to be reckoned with. But 
these have been successfully dealt with in the past; 
and as for many years the international work of 
meteorological services has paved the way for steady 
advance in our science, we may look with confidence 
to even greater progress in the future. The problems 
that press for early investigation are too numerous 
to recite, but a few may be mentioned. 

- The relation of meteorology to gunnery must be 
continued and the study of the many problems in- 
volved carried on by competent men. 

_ The air routes of aerial transport will have to be 
studied and all the information now available must 
be sorted out, investigated, and discussed in order that 
it may be put in the form most suitable for use by 
airmen. This will demand much additional observing 
at many places besides the discussion of existing 
material, but unless this is done as part of a concerted 
scheme much unnecessary expense will be incurred, 
and the results will fall far short of what they should 
be, since all the data must eventually be worked up 
in connection with that from other places, and if all 
are not of the same scientific standard they cease to 
be comparable, and must often be rejected in dis- 
cussion. 

Many of the stations in the Crown Colonies can 
afford most valuable information in this connection 
if expert meteorologists are available to carry out the 
work. An observant traveller in Dahomey has re- 
marked upon the presence of a steady north-easterly 
current at. about 6000 ft. to 7ooo ft. over the lower 
currents of the south-western monsoon of West Africa, 
and such information, if substantiated and extended, 
mav be of material importance in this region. 

While overland observations are numerous, and 
have been extended by means of ballons-sondes, aero- 
planes, etc., to very great heights, our knowledge of 
the atmosphere over the sea is much less complete. 
By means of ships equipped for the purpose, such 
observations can be, and have been, made in certain 
parts, but this line of investigation must be extended 
if our knowledge is to be adequate. 

Besides these more evident needs of aviation there 
are many problems of great practical importance which 
merit a closer and more thorough investigation than 
they have yet received. Among these may be sug- 
gested those violent disturbances known as hurricanes 
and typhoons. Recent theoretical investigations have 
thrown much light on their nature, and a further 
study of the evidence which exists should greatly add 
to our knowledge of them. | 

Variation of rainfall is always a matter of import- 


16 


NATURE | 


[Marcu 6, 1919 


ante, and in countries where it is barely adequate for 
agriculture any: diminution of it is a serious matter, 
and such cases call for careful investigation. oa 
‘The war has given a great impulse to meteorology 
by ‘showing: its possibilities to all, and aviation has 
made, and is still making, more and more demands 
upon it for information of every kind. Co-ordination 
between the services of each country and effective co- 
operation between the meteorologists in all parts of 
the Empire are the first essentials for meeting quickly 
and adequately the demands which will be made. 
The ‘‘Manual of Meteorology’? which Sir Napier 
Shaw has in hand will be of the greatest value in 
the work before us, for it will place in the hands 
of every meteorologist and student of meteorology 
a masterly treatise on those aspects of our science 
which he has studied for years, and of which he is the 
acknowledged exponent. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE, 

BirMINGHAM.—At the annual meeting of the Court 
of Governors of the University, held on February 27, 
the Principal, Sir Oliver Lodge, announced his inten- 
tion of resigning his post at the end of the present 
session. He said that, having passed the age-limit of 
the professorial staff, he wished to make way for a 


younger and more ambitious man, who would begin. 


his duties with the period of reconstruction. He 
himself intended to devote the remainder of his 
life to the study of the ether of space in both its 
physical and psychical aspects. In seconding a resolu- 
tion. of deep regret, proposed by the Vice-Chancellor, 
Sir Richard Threlfall spoke in warmly appreciative 
terms of Sir Oliver Lodge’s scientific work, especially 
in electrolysis, in the electrical deposition of smoke, 
and in wireless telegraphy, which had been of. very 
great benefit to industry and to the world at large. 

‘Sir Oliver Lodge, who took office nineteen years 


ago as first Principal of the University, has rendered. 


invaluable service both to the University and to the 
city, and the close connection between the two which 
now exists is perhaps the best tribute to his work as 
head of the former. When the University first came 
into existence, as the result-of the efforts of a very 


small but-far-sighted body of men,-it is not too much - 


to say that the great majority of the citizens regarded 
it as a very unnecessary and entirely useless institu- 
tion, which for some obscure reason Mr. Joseph 
Chamberlain considered a subject of vital importance 
to the city. To-day, however, this attitude has 
changed, and the University has become an integral 
part of the civic life of the city: This change, the 
magnitude and significance of which can be fully ap- 
preciated only by those who have witnessed it, is due 


in a very large measure to the personality and activity. 


of Sir Oliver Lodge. He has not only convinced the 
public of the material advantage to be derived from 
having in’ its midst .a centre of scientific teaching 
and research, but has also unceasingly. insisted on 


the value of the humane : studies to the life of the. 


community. He has, in fact, taken a large and 
honourable share in laying well and truly the founda- 
tions of higher education in Birmingham. , 
CamBripGE.—Dr. J. B. Hurry has offered to increase 
_ the value of the Michael Foster research studentship 
in physiology, founded by him in 1912, and tenable 
biennially, from a hundred guineas to 2ool. A gift 
of three successive sums of tool., to be paid at ‘in- 
tervals of six months, has been offered for the assist- 
ance of research in the zoological laboratory by a 
benefactor who desires to remain anonymous. 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


- 


Mr. W. M. Smart, of Trinity College, has been’ 


a chief assistant at the observatory. — i 
he professorship of mechanism’ and applied’ 
mechanics, which was held by the late Prof. Bernard 


Hopkinson, has been formally declared vacant, and 
candidates are requested to communicate with the 
Vice-Chancellor on or before Monday, March 19.) eee 


_ Lonpon.—The tenth annual report of the Military 
Education Committee of the University (for the year 
1918), which has been presented to the Senate, refers 
with. gratification to the letter from the King in 
which his Majesty sent an assurance of the interest 
with which he had learnt that the University of 
London Officers Training. Corps continued ‘to up- 
hold the record of splendid services which it has 
rendered in the past.’’ The number of commissions 
granted to cadets and ex-cadets of the University of 
London O.T.C,, and to other graduates and students 
recommended by the committee, increased during the 
year from 4040 to 4413. First commissions in the 
Army, Navy, or Air Force have been granted to 
4101 former cadets. Of these officers 584 have fallen . . 


in the war. The number of distinctions gained by - 


former cadets up to the end of 1918 is 1175, including ° 
V.C., 4; D.S.O., 39 (including three with a petie 
Military Cross, 442 (including three with two bars and 
twenty-nine with one bar); Croix de Guerre, 21; 
Médaille Militaire, 1; mentioned in despatches, 480 
(mentioned four times, 3; thrice, 16; twice, §6). A 
roll of war service for the University of London 
Q.T.C. is being prepared, and will be published as 
soon as possible. ms ; 
sum of about 51331. has been accepted by. 
the Senate on the bequest of the late Dr. William 
Julius Mickle for the establishment, in honour of his 
great-grandfather, William Julius Mickle, the poet, of 
an annual fellowship to be awarded to graduates of 
the University resident in London who have specially 
distinguished themselves in ‘the advancement of 
medical art or science. jg} Agi) Mia 
Oxrorp.—On March 4 the preamble of a ‘statute | 
making Greek optional in Responsions passed Con-— 
gregation by 123 votes to 63. The statute was intro- 
duced by Mr. E. Barker, of New College, supported 
by. the Regius professor of Greek, and opposed by 
the Regius professor of divinity and Mr. E. M. 
Walker, of Queen’s. If the statute passes Convoca- 
tion in its present form, natural science will be 
brought into Responsions for the first time, either 
this subject or mathematics, or a combination of the 
two,. being made compulsory. 


Unper section 28 of the Education Act, 1918, which ' 
the Board of Education has now announced will come 
into .operation on. April 1, the persons r sible | 
for the conduct. of schools and educational institutions 
in England and Wales are, subject to certain excep-: 
tions, required to send to the Board of Education, ’ 
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington,’ 
S.W.7, before July 1, the mame and address and a- 
short description of the school or institution. The 
information is not required from the followin 
schools and educational institutions :—(1) Schools and’ 
educational. institutions in receipt of, grants from the’ 
Board.. of Education .or the Board of Agriculture. 
(2) Elementary schools certified by the Board of 
Education as efficient. (3) Secondary schools recog- 
nised as efficient under the Board’s regulations. 
(4) Universities and university colleges. (5) Poor Law — 
schools and schools certified under Part IV. of the 
Children Act, 1908. - (6) Educational establishments 
under the administration of the. Army Council or of 
the Admiralty. The responsibility for giving the’ 


~ Marcu 6, 1919] 
q eats ee _ 


NATURE 


17 


om 


oa. 1 secretary or 
person performing the duties of secretary to the 
verning body, or, if there is no governing body, 
the headmaster or person eaioraibie te the manage- 
ment of the school or institution. Notice will be 
re in due course as to any further particulars 
h h may be required under regulations made by 
e Board of Education. The Act lays it down that 
'f suc | responsible person fails to furnish the informa- 
a required, he will be liable to certain specified 
_ The particulars now demanded are neces- 
fai the Board of Education may have avail- 


information attaches to - the 


‘a lpe 5 ee ° 
of facts as to the provisions for education 


yar La "A 


= _Wales, and of the use which is 
of them. 


x \ 


¢ + or Bei 
; Ta? ieee Gee ots 
ei | Society, February 20.—Sir J. J. Thomson, | 


‘in the chair.—S. S. Zilva and E. M. Wells: 
| the teeth of the guinea-pig pro- 
D 1 scorbutic diet. The structure of the teeth 
nea-pigs subsisting on a scorbutic diet under- 
erised by “the total disorganisation of the pulp, in- 
ling the odonioblastic cells. The earliest modifica- 
) _ observed at a period when no other systemic 
ni ity can be recorded with certainty, and is 
cteri Pee wreations in the odontoblastic cells 

he dilatation of the blood-vessels of the pulp. 
’ teeth are also affected when these animals 
exist On a scorbutic diet. The bearing of the above 
esults “on human. Subjects is discussed.—W. E. 
ck and W. Cramer: A new factor in the 

*h free cei infection. The bacteria of 
gas-gangrene (B. welchii, Vibrion septique, and B. 
oedemati ns) and of tetanus, when Desi tekele freed 
rom their to , either by washing or by heating to 
an ie so that spores are formed, do 

the specific disease when injected into a 
‘guinea i : The normal animal disposes 
bacteria mainly by lysis, and partly also by 
osis, and this defensive mechanism is so 
£0 rend er 


sted by themselves. 


ee 


751 
esi 


slum, Vv hen i l 
it capable of producing gas-gangrene. 
; agri Pasad other experimental evidence the con- 
is drawn that calcium salts, when injected 


ee E> 


Be 
, a 


@ serological types of B. tetani in wounds of men 
tho received prophylactic inoculation, and a study 
of ? mechanism of infection in, and immunity from, 
tetanus. In a previous communication to the Royal 
dciety it was shown that. B. tetani was_ susceptible 
of classification into a number of groups differing one 
_ trom another in their serological reactions. As this 
_ finding might have an important bearing on the pre- 
aration of anti-toxin, as many strains of B. tetani 
_ a8 possible were investigated by the agglutination 
_ method: (i) from cases of the disease; (ii) from 


wounds of men showing no evidence of tetanus. The 
NO. 2575, VOL. 103]. 


The ultimate change is charac. | 


results obtained show that. Type J, bacilli are but 
relatively infrequently obtained from wounds of 
inoculated men suffering from tetanus. Thus 19 out 
of 25 (76 per cent.) strains obtained from. the 
wounds of men who showed no evidence of tetanus 
proved to be Type I. bacilli, while 41 per cent. of 
the strains obtained from men suffering from the 
disease proved to be of this type. This observation 
suggested that there was possibly a mono-typical im- 
munity to each getelogical type, for the serum used 
for prophylaxis was prepared mainly from the products 
of Type I. bacilli.. Experiments show that mono- 
typical anti-toxin neutralises the toxins of all the 
types. The precise quality, as well as the degree, of 
tissue debility produced by injury is of importance 
in initiating the process of infection in tetanus. 


Zoological Society, February 18.—Dr. A. Smith 
Woodward, vice-president, in the chair—-R. I. 
Pocock : External characters of existing Chevrotains 
(Tragulina). The Indian species, commonly cited as 
Tragulus memminna, differs in so many important 
characters from the Malaysian species that it is neces- 
sary to sever it from them as a distinct genus, for 


-which the name Maschiola, used by Thomas in a sub- 


generic sense, is available. In the absence of the 
interramal scent-gland, in the structure of the penis, 
and in the retention of shots on the pelage, Maschiola 
is a more primitive type than Tragulus, and resembles 
the still more primitive West African genus Hyo- 
moschus.—K. M. Smith: A comparative study of 
certain sense-organs in the antenne and palpi of 
Diptera. sere. 

Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, February 20.— 
Mr. Hugh F. Marriott, president, in the chair.—S. J. 
Truscott : Slime treatment on Cornish frames: supple- 
ments. This paper, which is one of a series pub- 
lished by request of the Tin and Tungsten Research 
Committee, relates to a number of experiments con- 
ducted with the view of determining the comparative 
values of fluted and plane surfaces, the most suitable 
length of bed, and other details connected with the 
improved recovery of tin in Cornish mills. A number 
of tests are recorded, made under varying conditions, 
and the results are embodied in a résumé which, 
after noting the factors governing frame-working | 
which are thereby established, further deals with 
conclusions in respect to policy, with particular re- 
gard to rapid enrichment and complete fine grinding. 
The paper is illustrated by flow sheets explaining the 
practice on various Cornish properties.—E. Edser : 
The comparison of concentration results, with special 
reference to the Cornish method of concentrating 
cassiterite. This paper embodies an attempt to de 
termine the relation between the enrichment attained 
by repetition of the concentration process, and the 
cassiterite that is lost. It is first assumed that the 
assay of any small increment washed off the surface 
used for concentration is proportional to the assay 
of the material on the surface, and it is shown that 
the assumption is correct, the amount of cassiterite 
lost during a complete washing being inversely pro- 
portional to the nth power of the enrichment effected. 
The value of m thus indicates the economy of the 
process; the smaller the value of n the more economi- 
cal will be the process. Experimental data are shown 
to support the conclusions reached. but additional 
investigations are called for.—G. F. J. Preumont : 
Wolfram mining in Bolivia. In view of the fact that 
wolfram is a product of outstanding importance, and 
that Bolivia is now yielding quite a considerable pro: 
portion of the world ‘output, this paper should be 
of timely interest. A collection of statistics showing 
the production and distribution of wolfram in Bolivia 


18 - . NATURE 


| Marcu 6, 1919 


is followed by detailed descriptions of the principal 
mines and deposits, and particulars of the costs, 
system of working, conditions of labour, and mining 
laws.—C. W. Gudgeon: The Giblin tin lode of Tas- 
mania. This is a deposit which has so far not been 
the subject of any published description. Like many 
another property which has since made good, this 
lode experienced a chequered career before reaching 
its present position. The author considers this to be 
a good example. of persistence of ore in depth. 


MANCHESTER. 

Literary and Philosophical Society, February 18.—Mr. 
W. Thomson, president, in the chair.—Dr. H. Wilde : 
The mutual relations of natural science and natural 
religion.—J. Wilfrid, Jackson: (1) ‘‘ Shell-pockets”’ on 
sand dunes on the Wirral coast, Cheshire. The paper 
consisted of a short account of ‘shell-pockets’’ in 
general, and contained remarks on the age of. the 
buried land surfaces in the neighbourhood. (2) A new 
Middle Carboniferous Nautiloid (Coelonautilus 
trapezoidalis). The species is founded upon two 


specimens,: one from the Lower Coal Measures near. 
1892 ° as, 


Colne, erroneously figured by Wild in 
Nautilus -subsulcatus, the other from the Pendleside 
series, Pule Hill, Marsden. The species differs from 
C. subsulcatus in several important details, but: pre- 
sents some affinity with C. quadratus. eas 


I:DINBURGH. 


Royal Society, January 20.—Dr. John Horne, presi- - 


dent, in the chair.—Prof. Harvey-Gibson and Miss Elsie 
Horsman: Contributions towards a knowledge of the 
anatomy of the lower Dicotyledons. Il.: The 
anatomy of the stem of the Berberidaceze.—Also Miss 
Christine E. Quinlan; Contributions towards.a know- 
ledge of the anatomy of the lower Dicotyledons. 
IIl..: The anatomy of the stem of the Calycanthacez. 
These two papers are parts of a general investigation 
into the affinities of the lower Dicotyledons and.) the 
Monocotyledons, and contain a number of anatomical 
facts regarding the stem which support the view that 
the Dicotyledons are the primitive forms, from which 
the Monocotyledons have been derived.—Miss Maud D. 
Haviland: The life-history and bionomics of Myzus 
ribis, Linn. (red-currant Aphis). Among the many 
facts established_ it was shown that there are two 
forms of this species which differ in the minute 
structure of the antennze and in the dimensions 
of the abdomen and wings, and are apparently 
correlated with the nature of the food. The 
species is migratory, and in summer colonises 
certain species of labiate and other weeds, but 
this change of host-plant is not obligatory, and the 
entire life-cycle may be passed on the red cur- 
rant. There is a decline in fertility in the later 
summer, caused probably by lower birth-rate. This 
may be considered as one of the factors accounting 
for the frequent disappearance of the species in 
August and September.—Dr. C. G. Knott: Further 
note on earthquake waves and the interior of the 
earth. There was evidence that as the compressional 
and distortional seismic waves penetrated to greater 
depths, the distortional wave reached its maximum 
velocity at a less depth than the compressional wave. 
In other words, the rigidity showed signs of falling off 
in value, while the incompressibility continued to 
increase. The hypothesis that the earth consisted of 
a nucleus of non-rigid, highly compressed material 
encompassed by a shell: possessing the properties of 
an elastic solid was found to fit well in with the 
facts, the radius of the nucleus being assumed to 
be four-tenths of the radius of the earth.. These con- 
clusions were based on .the accurate determinations of 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


the velocities of the seismic waves at various depths, 


and are in fair agreement with the views formerly _ 


advanced by Mr. R. D. Oldham. ~ : 
February 3.—Dr. John Horne, president, in the 
chair.—Dr. J. M‘L. Thompson: The stelar anatomy 
of Platyzoma microphyllum, R. Br. The conductive 
system of the stem of the Australian fern Platyzoma 
lies between the two extreme types of conductive sys- 
tems in modern ferns. ‘These are known as the proto- 
stele, with a solid cylinder, and the solenostele, charac- 
terised by a pithed tubular cylinder with both outer and 
inner phloém and with gaps in its wall. In the Platy- 
zoma there is the pithed cylinder, but no gaps and no 
inner phloém. In the majority of specimens examined 
the conductive system was an unbroken and unper- 
forated pithed cylinder, but in the smallest, and 
apparently youngest, specimen the conductive system 
was locally q protostele which was directly transformed 
as the stem was followed forward into the pithed 
cylinder without gaps in the wall and without inner 
phloém. The facts were in favour of the view that 
the. stele of Platyzoma is the result of upgrade de- 
velopment directly from within an original protostele. 
—Capt.. E. W. Shann: The comparative anatomy of 
the shoulder-girdle and pectoral. fin of fishes. The 
observations extend over a wide series of fish types, 
such as Rhina, Callorhynchus, Accipenser, Polypterus, 
and Zeus. A new nomenclature was introduced based 
on the divisions of the great lateral muscles which are 
found to be constant for any particular group of fishes. 
The primitive mature of the muscle system in 
Selachians is‘ emphasised. Among the Holocephali 
certain characters foreshadow the condition which 
obtains in the higher vertebrates—Sir Thos. Muir: 
Note on the determinant of the primary minors of a 
special set of (n—1)-by-n arrays. 


Paris. , 
‘Academy of © Sciences, February 17.—M. Léon 
Guignard in the chair.—A. Rateau: The flow of 


gas at very high pressures. The classical formule 
are based on the gas law pu=RT, and these become 


inexact when p is high, several hundred atmospheres. 


Formule based on the _ characteristic equation 
p(v—a)=RT are developed.—_]. Drach: The integra- 
tion by quadrature of the equation d*y/dx* =[9(x)+h]y. 
—J. Cabannes : The diffusion of light by the molecules 
of the air. The proportionality predicted by the theory 
of Lord Rayleigh, bettveen the luminous intensity 
diffused laterally by a transparent gas and the number 
of molecules in the illuminated volume, has been 
exactly verified by a method of photographic photo- 
metry devised by MM. Fabry and Buisson. Since 
certain ultra-violet radiations cause some complica- 
tions, it is advisable, in the experimental verification, 
to suppress radiation with a wave-length below o-3u.— 
P. Braesco: Precipitated amorphous silica. From 
experiments on the. coefficient of expansion it is con- 
cluded that precipitated silica, dehydrated and heated 
to 600° C., is really amorphous silica, but if calcined 
at temperatures above 1000° C. it becomes crystalline 
in the form of cristobalite-——M. Portevin ; e in- 
fluence of various factors on the critical speed of 
tempering in carbon -steels——P. Nicolardot and A. 
Reglade : The estimation of zirconium. In a solution 
containing 20 per cent. of sulphuric acid zirconium can 
be quantitatively separated.from iron, aluminium, and 
chromium: by ammonium phosphate.—G. Delépine : 
The carboniferous limestone in the Lille district.—A. 
Vacher: An old. direction of the Rance valley.—G. 


Reboul.and L. Dunoyer: A rule for predicting baro- 
. metric variations and its. coefficient of certainty.—E. 


Mathias: Sketch of a theory of rain. The influence 


4 
i! 
q 
5 


Marcu 6, 1919| 


NATURE 


Ig 


of; altitude —M. Molliard: The production of citric 
aay gears nigra.—t. Fauré-Frémiet and 
F. Viés: Are the laws of cicatrisation of wounds 

sducible to the general laws of growth of organisms ? 
—A. Lécaillon- The reproduction and development of 
accidental bivoltins and of the first generation derived 
fang them in the silkworm. | 


‘ 


SyDNEY. 


Linnean Society of New South Wales, October 30, 
4918.—Prof. H. G. Chapman, president, in the 
ir—Dr. R. J. Tillyard: The Panorpoid com- 


lex. Part ii. : ‘The wing-trichiation and its relation- 
ship to the general scheme of venation. The hairs 
found upon the wings of all Holometabolous orders 
are classed as (1) microtrichia, minute hairs developed 
in connection with every unspecialised hypoderm cell 
‘of the wing, and (2) macrotrichia, larger hairs of the 
nature of sensilla, only developed from _ special 

shogen cells of large size. The arrangement of 
these hairs is called the wing-trichiation. The vena- 
‘tional scheme is shown to consist of (1) main veins 
ind their branches, which are preceded by trachez in 


the aqme ; (2) true cross-veins, not preceded by 
trachee; and 


"ICNOE - 


3) the archedictyon, or original Palzo- 
‘dictyopterous meshwork formed of irregular venules, 
‘and only found complete in fossils. The Triassic 
fossil Archipanorpa possesses all these elements, but 
‘the archedictyon is aphantoneuric, or in process of 
becoming absorbed into the wing-membrane. With 
‘this fossil as a basis, the trichiation of the wings of all 
the orders of the complex is studied. It is shown 
that the most archaic forms all agree in having micro- 
-trichia all over the wing, but macrotrichia only upon 
the main veins and upon thesmembrane (the latter 
"were originally carried upon the archedictyon, but 
became seated on the membrane when the meshwork 
disappeared), and not upon the true cross-veins. The 
various lines of evolution are followed out, showing a 
1ey in some orders to suppression of both kinds 
hairs, and in others to the specialisation of the 
_macrotrichia as-scales, as in the Lepidoptera. Con- 
| clusions are drawn as to the probable phylogenies of 
| he Orders.—Dr. H. S. H. Wardlaw: The relation 
between the fat-content and the electrical conductivity 
of milk. Removal of fat from milk increases the 
i electrical conductivity. In a given sample of milk the 
i increase of conductivity is directly proportional to the 
volume of fat removed. The increase of conductivity 
due to the removal of a given amount of fat is not the 


rende! 


same, however, in different samples of milk. The 
‘average increase of conductivity due to the removal 
_ of 1 per cent. by volume of fat is 1-5 per cent.—J. L. 
_ Froggatt: A study of.the.external breathing apparatus 
_ of the larvze of some Muscoid flies. It is shown that 
the maggots of blowflies of five species pestilent to 
sheep can be identified by the characters of the 
. anterior and posterior spiracles, especially of the latter. 
—W. W. Froggatt: Notes on Australian sawflies 
| (Fen inidz). Particulars about four species are 
‘given, including a record of the death of cattle in 
Queensland from the abnormal habit of eating the 
larvee of Pterygophorus analis.—R. H. Cambage: 
Notes on the native flora of New South Wales. 
_ Part x.: The Federal capital territory. 


~  Wasutincton, D.C. 


fs National Academy of Sciences, December, 1918 
(Proceedings, vol. iv., No. 12).—W. S. Adams: 
‘The absorption spectrum of the nove. A _ dis- 


cussion of Nova Aurigze of 1892, Nova Persei of 


1918. The displacements of the lines in all these stars 
NO. 2575, VOL. 103]. 


are directly proportional to wave-lengths, and divide 
themselves into two pairs of equal amount. Of these 
the first pair of stars has exactly twice the displace- 
ment of the second. In the case of Nova Aquilz there 
is a progressive increase in the values of the displace- 
ments of the absorption lines at successive dates. 
Various hypothetical explanations are discussed.— 
D. N. Lehmer; Jacobi’s extension of the continued 
fraction algorithm. <A closer study of Jacobi’s expan- 
sion reveals a number of remarkable points. Six 
theorems are stated.—R. L. Moore; A characterisation 
of Jordan regions by properties having no reference to 
their boundaries. “The theorem is proved. In order 
that a simply connected, limited, two-dimensional 
domain R should have a simple closed curve as its 
boundary, it is necessary and sufficient that R should 
be uniformly connected. im kleinen.—J. A. Harris and 
F. G. Benedict: A biometric study of human basal 
metabolism. An analysis of measurements on 136 
men, 103 women, and 94 new-born infants.—A. M. 
Banta; Sex and sex intergrades in Cladocera. The 
presentation of facts in regard to Cladocera, with the 
discussion of their significance with regard to sex 
intergrades in general, leading to the tentative con- 
clusion that sex is always relative; and that while 
most individuals of whatever species are prevailingly 
male or prevailingly female, every individual may have 
something of the other sex intermingled with its pre- 
vailing sexual characters.—W. Crozier: The 
method of progression in Polyclads. In Turbellarians 
generally muscular operations analogous to those 
executed by the foot of Chitons and of Gastropods are 
essentially concerned in creeping locomotion.—R. 
Ruedemann: The phylogeny of the acorn barnacles. 
The derivation of an Eobalanus from a_Rhino- 
caris-like Phyllopod is illustrated in a_ set of 
diagrams.—J. M. Clarke: Possible derivation of 
the Lepadid barnacles from the Phyllopods. So 
far as present knowledge extends, the metamorphoses 
of the Phyllopods into the two great branches of 
the barnacles were essentially contemporaneous.— 
T. W. Richards and W. C. Schumb: Refractive index 
and solubilities of the nitrates of lead isotopes. The 
difference in atomic weight of the lead (207-20 and 
206-41) has no appreciable effect on the refractive 
index or on the molal solubility of the different samples 
of lead nitrate-—T..W. Richards, W. M. Craig, and 
J. Sameshima: The purification by sublimation and 
the analysis of gallium chloride. The method rests on 
the fact that gallium trichloride sublimes and distils at 
a low temperature, whereas the other chlorides likely 
to be associated with it are much less volatile.-—T. W. 
Richards and S. Beyer: The purification of gallium by 
electrolysis, and the compressibility and density of 
gallium. The method of separating gallium from 
indium by means of the different solubilities of the 
hydroxides in caustic alkali was tested without success ; 
much more promising results were obtained by the 
electrolytic method. The compressibility of solid 
gallium was found to be 2-09X 1o-*, and of liquid 
gallium 3-97 10-*, nearly twice as great, although its 
volume is less. The density of the liquid was 6-081, 
and of the solid 5-885.—A. G. Mayor: The growth- 
rate of Samoan coral reefs. The growth-rate of 
Acropora, Porites, Pocillopora, Pavona, and Psammo- 


cora are given, and the weight of limestone added 
| per year to the upper surface of the Aua reef-flat is 


estimated as 805,000. lb. Other similar estimates are 
given.—A. van Maanen; The distances of six planetary 
nebula. The nebula N.G.C. 2302, 6720, 6804, 6905, 


| 7008, and 7662 are examined. The parallaxes range 


tg01, Nova Geminorum of 1912, and Nova Aquilz of | 


from 0-002" to 0-021", and the diameters from 10,000 
to 1350 astronomical units. 


20 


NATURE 


+ 


[Marcu 6, 1919. 


BOOKS: RECEIVED, ° - bi 

What is Psycho-analysis? By Dr. I. H. Coriat.. 
Pp. 124. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, ‘Triibner, 
and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 3s. 6d. net. 

Calcolo delle Probabilita. By Prof. Guido Castel- 
nuovo. Pp.  Xxili+373. (Milano-Roma-Napoli : 
Societa Editrice Dante Alighieri di Albrighi Segati 
& C,, 1919.) ca aN 


Ethnogeography and Archeology of the Wiyot 
Territory. By L. L. Loud. Vol. xiv., No. 3. (Uni+ 
versity of California Publications in American 


Archeology and Ethnology.) Pp. 221-436+plates 21. 
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1918.) 

Chimica delle Sostanze Explosive. By Prof. Michele 
Giua. Pp. xvit+556. (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1919.) 
28 lire. 

Sanitation Practically Applied. By Dr. Harold 
Bacon Wood. Pp. vi+473. (New York: John Wiley 
and Sons, Ine.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 
1917.) 138. 6d. net. 

The Game Birds of California. Contribution from 
the University of California Museum of Vertebrate 
Zoology. By Joseph Grinnell, Harold Child Bryant, 
and Tracy Irwin Storer. Pp, x+642+16 coloured 
plates. . (Berkeley: University of California Press, 
1918.) 6 dollars net. 

The Secret of Personality. The Problem of Man’s 
Personal Life as Viewed in the Light of an Hypo- 
thesis of Man’s Religious Faith. By Dr. G. T. Ladd. 
Pp. ix+287. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 
1918.) 7s. 6d. net. 

Osmotic Pressure. By Prof. Alexander Findlay. 
Second edition. (Monographs on Inorganic and 
Physical Chemistry.) Pp. xi+116. (London: Long- 
mans, Green, and Co., 1919.) 6s. net. 
~An Advanced Course in Quantitative Analysis. 
With explanatory notes. By Prof. Henry Fay.. Pp. 
vi+111. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 
London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 6s. net. 

A Systematic Course: of Qualitative Chemical 
Analysis of Inorganic and Organic Substances. With 
explanatory notes. By Prof. Henry W. Schimpf. 
Third edition, revised. Pp. ix+187. (New York: 
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and 
Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 7s, net; : 

Differential Caleulus. By Prof. H. B.. Phillips. 
Pp. v+194. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 
London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) 9s. 6d. 
net. 


‘Empirical Formulas. By Prof, Theodore R. 
Running. © (Mathematical Monographs, No. _ 19.) 
Pp. 144. (New York: John. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 


London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 7s. net. 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, Marcu 6. 

RovaL Society, at 4.30.—L. F. Richardson: (1) Atmospheric Stirring 
Measured by Precipitation ; (2) Measurement of Water in Clouds. 

Roya Society or Arts, at 4.30.—W. R. Gourlay: The Need-for a 
History of Bengal. 

LINNEAN Society, at 5.—Dr. Harold Wager :’ The Colour-sense of Wasps. 
—F. Lewis: Notes on a Visit to Kunadiparawitta Mountain, Ceylon, with 
List of the Plants observed and their Altitudinal Distribution. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—G. L. Addenbrooke: 
Dielectrics in Electric Fields. 

CuiL_p-Stupy Society, at 6.—Miss S, Walker: The Training of Teachers 

. from the Child-Study Standpoint. : 

Cuemicat Society, at 8.—Prof. J. W. Nicholson : Emission Spectra and 


Atomic Structure. 
: FRIDAY, Marcu 7. : ; 
Roya. InstiITuTION, at 5.30.—Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter : The Hardening 


of Steel. 
: SATURDAY, Marcu 8. s 
ROVAL INSTITUTION, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson: Spectrum Analysis and its 
Application to Atomic Structure. ; 

; MONDAY, Marcu to. 3 
Roya INSTITUTION, at 3.—Capt. G. P. Thomson ; The Dynamics of Flying 
Roya Society or ARTS, at 4.30.—Prof. W. A. Bone: Coal and its Con- 

servation. 


NO. 2575, VOL. 103] 


‘Socuery oF ENGINEERS, at s.30.—A. S: E/“Ackermann = ments with 
aciay iy its Relation to Pigs. oe 
OVAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, at 8.—Maj of ae : % 
_ Approaches to Mt. Everest. oa a 5% By i: oe Harerh, 


WEDNESDAY, Maxcu 12 
Roya. Society or Arts, at 4.30.—W. L. Lorkin: Electric Welding and 
ane Applications. , et 
EOLOGICAL Society, at 5.30.—E. H. Pascoe :.The Early History 
Indus, Brahmaputra, and Ganges. * etc: : gee 
RoyaL AERONAUTICAL Socieee: at 8.—H. Levy: From Model to Full — 
Scale in Aeronautics. 


j THURSDAY, Marcu 13. , 
RovaL Society, at 4.30.—Frobable Papers; Dr. A. D Waller: Con- — 
cerning Emotive Phenomena. III. : The Influence of Drugs upon the — 
Electrical Conductivity of the Palm of the Hand.—Dr. W. L. Balls: The 
Existence of Daily Growth-rings in the Cell Wall af Cotton Hairs. 
Roya Society oF Arts, at 4.30.—D. T. Chadwick: The Report of the © 
Indian:Industrial Commission. ‘ ‘ 
InsTiTuTION oF ELEcTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—G. L. Addenbrooke : 
Dielectrics in Electric Fields. eae : 
Opticat Sociery at 7.—Major C. W. Gamble: Some Photographic ~ 
Apparatus used in Aerial Photography. a } 


FRIDAY, MARCH 14. : 

Puysicar Society, at 5.—C. C. Patersonand Dr. Norman Campbell: Some _ 
Characteristics of the Spark Discharge, and its Effect in Igniting Explo- 
sive Mixtures, . ia ney 

Rovat InsTITUTION, at 5.30.—Prof. A. Keith: The Organ of Hearing — 
from a New Point of View. m4 j ’ 


. SATURDAY, Marcu 15. 


Rovat Institution, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson : Spectrum Analysis and its 
Application to Atomic Structure. wel , 


@ 

CONTENTS. PAGE 
The Life-work of a Hindu Chemist.. BySirT.E, 
Thorpe, C.B., F.Reai ee 
Gravitation and Relativity . 
Our BOaKSHEN Sa ae 
Letters to the Editor :— bik 3 beh 
The Directorship of the Natural History Museum.— — 
Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., and Others, - 

The Supposed ‘‘ Fascination ” of Birds, —Right Hon. 
Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S.. 


ee © 8 280 ee ee Pere 
Z t 


0 10 a eee 


2 
J 22 SS, ee gee achat 
ae ee 


Girvanella and the Foraminifera. —Fredk, Chapman 
Feeding Habits of Nestling Bee-eaters, Edgar R.- 
VV RITE ce sro sme ie 
The Commercial Use of Airships 
Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.-S. 
Wptes’ ... ; eT ait 
Our Astronomical Column :— Ss 
The Order of the Planets . . 2. . + ss + ee * TO 


by BOBS To 


3 
4 
4 
4 
5 


Cepheid Variables . 6. 2 we 2 ee ee az.) 30% 
Variation of Latitude ote Me eet 9 PUR al peky €2, 6. Sei 10 
The Health of Our Children. By W.E.H. .... I 
Forthcoming Books of Science . . i 11 


Meteorology During and After the War. By Col. 

H. .G. Lyons Reese o.)+:0)%. 22.5) ee ae ee 
University and Educational Intelligence . . 
Societies and Academies-,. ... 


Oe 8. Re OR te Oe 


Books Réceived os + + ce ee eee 
Diary of Societies, 0. 2. 22 eae ee St yO 
re 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: ye 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., / 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, ‘LONDON, /W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be. oddressed to the 
Publishers. ph 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. -- 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. © 
Telephone Number: GERRARD. 8830. 


NATURE 


21 


a MARCH. 13, 


191g. 


- BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS. 


: i Coritributions to the Study of Evolution. 
of. G. Adami. Pp. xviii+ 372. (Lon- 
don: eewotth and Co., 1918.) Price 18s. net. 
A ‘BOOK attempting to fine light upon bio- 
_ logic: problems from a.new point of view is 
ly to be interesting, and We. therefore 
rof, Adami’s work. Undoubtedly, much 
matter is introduced, but a point of 
t etimes challenges’ what is too often 
for granted is, at any rate, stimulating. 
Seng letter quoted in the appendix Sir 
nkester protests that certain experiments 
nown to him, we venture to think that 
; the facts brought forward are unfamiliar 
gists ‘in 
‘Th book is fiiaed into” three parts, with two 
‘ . Parts i. and ii. will’ be the most in- 
to the general biologist. The reprinted 
n the latter parts of the book, however, 
great deal of repetition, while the style is 
hat cumbrous and involved. The prepara- 
the book in war-time may be the excuse 
ing many things as they were originally 
as later einctin being often referred to in foot- 
but th 1 matter could, with advantage, 
1 condensed into a tanh shorter book 
ve s of clearness. A Jess unwieldy book, 
2 have been published at a lower price, 
r we. oad that the amount asked errs on 
st part of. the book consists of the 
Lectures for 1917 on “Adaptation and 
with an introductory chapter 
tion and adaptation as-the basis of 
on. we get two chapters upon variation and 
ipta ion i peaeman the bacteria, followed by one upon 
‘correspo g adaptations in higher animals to 
cies. The next chapter deals with 
of apapired conditions in the higher 
qu _Carriére’s work with tuber- 
Stockd Stockdale’s experiments upon the effects 
oa to show that influences acting 
sy may affect the offspring in 
uceeeding generations. Kammerer’s 
Balannindra maculosa is also quoted. 
upon Sal with the physico-chemical basis 
the subject and the author brings forward a 
x of the constitution of living matter 
ed « 1 the. structure. of the proteins. He recalls 
\ ‘fact that i inorganic compounds generally the 
ere position of a radical profoundly alters the 
iss ‘of the compound, and shows that with 
; molecule such alterations may lead to a 
ltipli alts. of different new properties. From 
ihe. proceeds to the elaboration of a physico- 
emi eal conception of growth. The final chapter 
is devoted. to a recapitulation and review of the 
conclusions reached. 
aes isa pity that in such a work there is evinced 
a spirit of animosity to certain leading biologists. 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


‘dried »morphological 


We may suspect the author of setting up a figment 
for demolition in ascribing to Bateson the belief 
that evolution occurs solely by the loss of factors. 
We think also that nothing of importance is gained 
by the republication of the controversy in Appen- 
dix ‘ii., the tone of which reflects credit upon 


‘neither party. 


There are a few misprints and ‘inaccuracies 
requiring attention. On p. 18 Limulus is stated 


to be “‘no crab, but an A’rthropod ”; this should 
obviously be “Arachnid.” The “intestinal 
amoebee ’ of Musgrave and ‘Clegg referred ‘to 


upon p. 46 are almost ‘certainly coprozoic forms 
and not true parasites; nevertheless; ‘the adapt- 
ability to unusual forms of diet is interesting. The 
allusion upon 'p. 240 to Loeb’s work on chemical 
fertilisation is out of date and should not have 
been left as ‘it stands. In the first place, it has 
been shown conclusively that development is not 
initiated. by mere changes in tonicity. Moreover, 
though active nuclear changes and cell division 
may be set up by artificial means, ‘they do not 
always continue, but under certain conditions the 
process may cease when the four- or eight-celled 
stage has been reached, leaving the resting cells 
susceptible each of fertilisation by a spermatozoon. 

The main value of the book consists in the insist- 
enee upon the physico-chemical constitution of 
living matter, and we welcome particularly the 
author’s onslaught upon Weismann’s cut-and- 
conceptions ‘of ‘heredity. 
Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that the 
work of Conklin and others shows ‘the existence of 
structure even in the egg. It may be pointed out, 
however, that in chap. vii. we are somewhat in- 
consistently presented with some purely morpho- 
logical diagrams illustrative of the side-chain 
theory. It is evident that a physico-chemical ex- 
planation of such a theory must depend upon un- 
satisfied or unsaturated linkages, which would be 
just as easy to represent and would convey a truer 
picture of the, mechanism of protoplasmic reaction. 

On the whole, the book ‘may be commended to 
the attention of the general biologist. 


GENETICS FOR THE BOTANIST. 


Plant Genetics. By J. M. Coulter and MC, 
Coulter. Pp. ix+214. (Chicago: University 
of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge Uni- 
versity Press, 1918.) Price 1.50 dollars net. 


a HIS little book is one written by botanists for 

botanists. The. authors state in their preface 
that it is designed especially for the undergraduate 
student in botany who wishes to obtain some 
knowledge of what is being done in genetics with- 
out desiring to specialise in the subject. They 
have attempted, ‘so far as possible, to present an 
exposition of Mendelian, or neo-Mendelian, phe- 
nomena illustrated by examples from the vege- 
table world alone. As to the advisability of this 
there is likely to be some difference of opinion, 
for many hold, and with some justice, that one 
of the instructive features of genetics for the 


Cc 


eS NATURE 


[Marcu 13, 1919_ 


student lies in the numerous close parallels to be 
found between animals and plants in respect of 
heredity. A discovery in an animal may at any 
moment throw a flood of light upon puzzling 
phenomena in plants, and the converse is equally 
true. The genetics of plants and animals are so 
closely interwoven that an attempt to treat of one 
without the other necessarily leads to a sense of 
incompleteness. At the same time the unity of 
some of the fundamental phenomena of life in the 
vegetable and animal kingdoms—a most valuable 
lesson for the young student—is apt to be lost 
sight of. 
that the animal cannot be entirely excluded, for 
they had perforce to bring in Morgan’s Drosophila 
and Castle’s rats. Nevertheless, they have suc- 
ceeded in illustrating most of the important 
phenomena from plants alone, and the work will 
be of service not only to the young botanist, but 
perhaps even more so to the zoologist, who is apt 
to be hazy with regard to the special features that 
plants exhibit. 

We venture to hope that in the next edition the 
authors will enter rather more fully into the 
phenomena of the fertilisation of plants; for it is 
here that the zoologist so often encounters a 
stumbling-block. The chapter on endosperm in- 
heritance is a distinct advance upon the usual 
text-book treatment; but we would suggest, for 
the sake of the zoologist, a more detailed account 
of the manner in which the egg is derived from 
the megaspore, and of the fate of the nuclei of 
the pollen-grain. Apogamy, too, might be treated 
more liberally, with reference made to the im- 
portant researches of Ostenfeld and Rosenberg. 
Apart from its intrinsic value, the work of these 
observers has a peculiar interest in connection 
with Mendel’s own work on Hieracium. On the 
whole, the authors have given a clear and lucid 
presentation of genetic phenomena in plants, and 
one that should prove useful to the class of student 
for whom it was designed. We hope it may fall 
into the hands of many students and teachers in 
this country, where the study of plant genetics is 
far less widespread than it should be. It is high 
time it became an integral part of the botanical 
course at every university, and the authors of this 
little book have certainly demonstrated that this 
can easily be done without unduly trespassing 
upon the field of the zoologist. 

For the benefit of the English student, it should 
be stated that although the authors have naturally 
drawn upon American material in illustration of 
the various phenomena, it does not follow that 
these were necessarily discovered on the other side 
of the Atlantic. They state, for instance, that 
“the classic illustration of coupled characters was 
brought to light by Emerson during breeding ex- 
periments with corn.” If there is a classic 
example here, it should surely be Bateson and 
Punnett’s sweet peas, where the phenomena 
were first discovered, and the peculiarities 
of this type of inheritance first worked out. 
The authors confess to some inexactness in deal- 
ing with details, urging the excuse of peda- 

NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


Even the authors have had to confess © 


gogical necessity. Still there are few statements 


definitely misleading. But the account of Mendel’s 
peas on p. 37 looks as though the authors had 
fallen into the familiar trap that has snared so 


‘many an elementary student, forgetting that the 


seed characters used belong to a generation sub- 
sequent to that of the plant on which they are 
borne. 

The book is of a handy, small size for a 
student’s pocket, well printed, and illustrated” by 
a number of simple diagrams. 


NATURAL HISTORY IN THE NEW 


WORLD. 


(1) Far Away and Long Ago. A History of My 
Early Life. By W. H. Hudson. Pp. xit+332. 
(London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., te) 
Price 15s. net. 

(2) Jungle Peace. By William Beebe. Pp. 297. 
(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1918.) 

(3) The Ledge on Bald Face. By Major C. G. D. 
Roberts. Pp. 255. (London: Ward, Lock, and 
Co., Ltd:,-1918.) |Price ss. met 


(rt) HERE is much of the old-time aathralist 
in “Far Away and Long Ago,”’ 

G.O.M. of natural history, Mr. W. H. Hudson. 
It is a simple story, the recollections of his early 
life on the savannahs of the Argentine. 
imagine the estancia, with its poplars and willows, 
and with its flowery orchard lying isolated on 
the lonely downs. The whole was protected by 
a broad moat, and must have been a veritable 
has to woodland birds in what otherwise was 
to them an inhospitable land. Here Hudson made 
friends of birds, beasts, and trees, each one to 
him acquiring its own individuality : the cowbird 
parasitical like the cuckoo; the red willow, with 
its pair of tyrant birds, ever ready to attack the 
wandering hawk; green paroquets; peaches in 
blossom, loveliest of sights, and a proper band- 
stand for flocks of singers. The armadillo and 


the opossum were burrowers, the latter, with its — 


children, giving hospitality to pit vipers, most 
malignant of snakes. Here and there, on the 
plains, were viscacha villages, immense badger- 
like earths of a large rodent now getting extinct. 
The house was an old one, a relic of the early 
Spanish settlers, tillers of the ground, later driven 
to the herdsman or guacho life. As to the fen- 


man the fens are the most beautiful of all lands, | 


so to Hudson his pampas colours of yellow to 
rust, the latter produced by giant thistles, are 
beyond compare, their serenity disturbed only by 
the occasional pampero (hurricane) from ‘the 
Southern Ocean. He was clearly a lonely boy, 
and it is not difficult to see how he made friends 
with Nature. 


Hudson brings us back to Rosas, whom he | 


describes as the bloodiest, the most original- 


minded, and the greatest of the dictators of — 


South America. Rosas was in origin a guacho, 


and he had the cruelty and sardonic humour of the — 


class from which he sprang. He brought peace 
to the prairies, and in his time came many of 


a a ee 


by that 


We can | 


Marcu 13, 1919] 


NATURE 23 


the British settlers, who are now merging into 
i mew race. The old settler neighbours are 
escribed with their establishments and estates, 
ch are clearly best remembered for their 
theas, feral pigs, or more frequently their birds 

nd frog-infested lakes. Old as Hudson is, he 
remains a boy, projecting himself into bird, 
st, and plant. We imagine him as full of 
s and peace, and we trust he may con- 
for many years. Try as we may, we 
y ae him impersonally after we have 


ungle Peace ’’ is altogether a contrast, 
+ of a modern, professional naturalist, 
nt descriptions and bright writing, but 

he delightful unconsciousness of self be- 
to the old-time author. Perhaps, in these 
entific education has to some degree killed 
1e soul for Nature, and we may never see it 
its old form in the professional man of 
in whom ,the wonders of heredity have 
hed out interest in simple habits and psycho- 
y. The book is the description of the estab- 
a tropical research station in British 
‘wish being to study birds, beasts, 
$ in their natural environment. The 
was an old house in the jungle near 
of the Essequibo, and the quite vivid 
s show that it was well chosen and 
researches on the beasts of the little- 
inent of South America. The jungle 
to the doors of the house, and a 
ut through it to form a collecting 
fauna was evidently of extraordinary 


third work is in a different category 
latest work of a popular author of the 
it, a land famed for its inimitable wilds 
but conspicuous, beasts. To quote 


$5 
is heaved to heaven, which the blinding 


ik canyons where the rapids rip and: roar. 
berts is a man to follow, for he is 
id is true to Nature in man, bird, 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 

Redemption of Man. By Sir William 
. Third edition. Pp. 63. (London: Con- 
and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 7d. net. 
“Tay sermon” is a delightful piece of 
¢; good thoughts in good English; a little 
peagt nificat for anesthetics, antiseptics, preventive 
nedicine, and other great results of the work of 
he medical sciences; the author has the secret of 
pathy, and the art of making you think of what 
saying. The war has shown us further in- 
stances of the value of medical discoveries than we 
had in 1910; but that fact does not impair the 
wisdom and the pleasantness of the discourse. 
There is one passage in it which is exemplary; Sir 
William challenges the anti-vaccinationists with 
the old argument, which they cannot beat :— 

_ NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


“1 would like to issue a Mount-Carmel-like chal- 
lenge to any ten unvaceinated priests of Baal. I 
will take ten selected vaccinated persons, and help 
in the next severe epidemic, with ten selected 
unvaccinated persons (if available!). I should 
choose three Members of Parliament, three anti- 
vaccination doctors, if they could be found, and 
four anti-vaccination propagandists. And I will 
make this promise—neither to jeer nor to gibe 
when they catch the disease, but to look after them 
as brothers; and for the three or four who are 
certain to die I will try to arrange the funerals 
with all the pomp and ceremony of an anti- 
vaccination demonstration.” 


Galileo. By W. W. Bryant. (“Pioneers of Pro- 
gress,” Men of Science Series.) Pp. 64+ 
portrait. (London: Society for Promoting 


Christian Knowledge, 1918.) Price 2s. net. 


Born in the same year as Shakespeare, Galileo 
Galilei shared with his contemporary that philo- 
sophic outlook, that felicity of diction, and that 
elegant style which have contributed to the fame 
of both. Prof. Playfair has said that in reading 
Galileo’s “Dialogues” one feels oneself carried 
back to the period when the telescope was first 
directed to the heavens, and when the earth’s 
motion, with its train of consequences, was proved 
for the first time. Mr. Bryant has given a careful 
account of the life.of the great natural philosopher, 
whose first appointment was a professorship of 


‘mathematics with a salary of about five shillings a 


week. Galileo was, however, both a discoverer 
and an inventor, and started a workshop in his 
own house, in which he employed a staff of 
mechanics under his personal supervision to make 
his geometrical and military compass, his hydro- 
static balance, his magnets and telescopes. He 
ground all his lenses himself until his sight failed. 
The story of his conflict with the Jesuits as to the 
Copernican doctrine, and of his examination before 
the Inquisition, is retold in an interesting but 
unbiassed manner. His sufferings hastened the 
triumph of the doctrines which he upheld, and have 
ensured his enduring fame. 


Surface Tension and Surface Energy and their 
Influence on Chemical Phenomena. By Dr. 
R. S. Willows and E. Hatschek. Second 
edition. Pp. viii+115. (London: J. and A: 
Churchill, 1919.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 


Tue first edition of this useful volume was re- 
viewed in the issue of Nature for July 8, 1915 
(vol. xev., p. 506), when the scope of the book 
was described. The present edition has been 
enlarged by the addition of a chapter on some 
important complex phenomena, and it also now 
includes, among other additions, Mr. Whittaker’s 
work on the connection between surface energy and 
internal latent heat; a summary of recent theories 
on the structure and properties of metals, in 
which the surface energy of the intercrystalline 
layer plays an important part; Dr. A. Ferguson’s 
equation connecting surface tension and absolute 
temperature, and paragraphs on adsorption. 


24 


NATURE 


[Marcu 13, 1919 


vA 


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 

‘ithe writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 
this or any other part of Naturr. No notice. is 
taken of anonymous communications. | ’ 


The Directorship of the Natural History Museum. 


A RETROSPECT Of fifteen to twenty years will show 
the effect in action of the proposed appointment of a 
Civil Servant to be director of the Natural History 
Museum, 

The Science Museum adjacent had then been handed 
over to the direction of a Civil Service official, acting, 
apparently, on secret instructions that the collection of 
machinery and models initiated by Bennet Woodcroft 
was too great an expense for this country to main- 
tain, although something less than one of our 
numerous Lord Chancellors; and a ‘ca’ canny” 
policy was to be adopted ‘until the director. had 
qualified for the higher scale, when the museum was 
to be closed. 

But the science collection was saved by a miracle 
from dispersal, and a competent man appointed to 
direct in the late Mr. Last. Too late, unfortunately, 
for him) to secure such trophies as a broad-gauge 
express locomotive or the paddle-engines of the Great 
Eastern, to be had as a gift, and erected outside in 
the open if there were no funds to house them. 

The historical collection was the envy of Germany, 
which would have bid for it, if the chance had come, 
to serve as the nucleus of the magnificent museum in 
imitation at Munich, on which no expense was spared 
to make it perfect and complete. 

Prof. Klein was. on a visit of inspection at the time 
to. collect ideas. for the projected Munich Museum, 
and I felt humiliated, for England that he should 
glimpse our official mentality, and hear the low 


oe 


opinion held of the value of our own work, as I. 


accompanied him round. 

Quieta non. movere'is the motto of the old Govern- 
ment official. But the first act of Mr. Last’s appoint- 
ment was to set the collection of models at work by 
compressed air. 

The collection grew out of the old Patent Museum, 
under. the care of Bennet Woodcroft, encouraged by 
Cole, and housed in the Brompton ‘“ Boilers,” 
Thackeray’s name for the corrugated-iron sheds. 

It is melancholy to reflect on the glorious chances 
lost. by the niggardly policy lasting up to the war. 
The office of Master-General of the Ordnance had 
been: re-established, entrusted. with our military pre- 
paredness; and why not that of the Master-General 
of the Mechanicks, as Sir Samuel. Morland was, for 
title of the director, chosen as an enthusiast, always 
on the look-out for additions? 

But there has been no director of the Science Museum 
sinee Mr. Last. The Government official is suspicious 
of the competent man. G. GREENHILL. 

1 Staple Inn, W.C.1, March 8. 


Absorption of Gases by Charcoal. 


Or late years. much attention has been jgiven. to 
the remarkable power of charcoal to absorb gases of 
all kinds, and during the war extensive use has been 
made of this property in the construction of masks 
for removing noxious gases from the air inhaled by 
the wearer. As a matter of justice to the memory 
of a man whose interesting work in the chemistry of 
vegetable products is apt to be forgotten, I should 
like to remind. readers of. NarurE that the first prac- 


tical application of charcoal for such purposes was. 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103 | 


made by Dr, John Stenhouse, lecturer in chemistry: 
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 


perforated zinc case filled with granular wood char- 
coal, and adapted to fit over the mouth and nose. 


Respirators of this kind were in use by nurses: and — 


dressers in St. Bartholomew’s, and, I believe, some 


other hospitals, down to the time when Lister’s, anti- — 
septic system rendered such protection from the offen- 


sive emanations of sores unnecessary. en. | 
worked in Stenhouse’s private laboratory in 1862-63, 
he gave me one of these respirators, and I made 


use of it long afterwards with great advantage when | 
other: ; 


experimenting on the gases from aqua regia and 


irritating substances. 
Stenhouse further succeeded | induce 


authorities of the City of me oe 


charcoal as a deodorant of the gases. liable. Bese escape 
cation. ; 


from the gullies in the streets, in which a 
it was quite satisfactory so long as it was ept, dry. 
The difficulty of excluding water and mud from the 


trays on which the charcoal was placed led, after a — 


few years, to the abandonment of, the system in the 
streets. The letter addressed. by Stenhouse | to, the 
Lord Mayor in February, 1860, $n the sung was. 


reviewed in the Chemical News (vol. iii., rm. 
the same journal (vol. xxv., p. 239) there is 
from Stenhouse dated May, 1872, te which | 
to his respirators as then comin 
laboratories, 

February 28. 


Vituiam A. a 


A geet 


ete eee 
Brent ea 


The Profession: af Chemistry. 


feat bp 


_ Tue admirable article under the above orto ee 
issue of Nature for February 27 will be \ 
/ all who cherish the belief that active devel 


eat OF 
chemical study is vital to the welfare of | State,, 


and modestly hope that public reco 


it is too late. I am convinced, however, that this’ 
recognition will not be accorded until! the question fof 


nomenclature, to. which you refer, has been arranged 


satisfactorily. 


Schools and universities are not the only set gt, ; 
Leet 


learning. The street is one; its influence 

sistent and universal, for practically all sections ots 
the community, excepting Outer Hebridesians and 
Scotch crofters, come, sooner or later; under the fiver 
of its suggestion. Yet every day, from to 
the 
identical with a pharmacist, and principally 


occupi 
dispensing medicine and in the sale of toilet’ Cuiniee % 


Is it surprising that the public is still unaware of 
basic fact that the principles of chemistry lie at the 


foundation of our great national industries and of all — 


the forms which life itself assumes ? 


In the exercise of his craft the baker practises daily 1 


some curious operations in organic chemistry which 

are not even yet understood. by organic chemists them- 

selves. Supposing that some enterprising baker early. 
in the nineteenth century had called himself a_ 
‘chemist and baker,” that the idea had been embraced ~ 
by the whole body of bakers, and that the public, in 

purchasing jam-tarts or cake, had: become accustomed” 
to passing under the sign of the “Chemist and Baker,” 


1854 Sten- — 
Bitive devised a charcoal respirator consisting of a 


of this 
fact, so long deferred, may be acknowledged before 


grave, we are told by the street:that a chemist i page ; 


im § 
Becinal 
into use in ee | 


a 
% 


would: it not be excusable if the much abused public 


hazily associated confectionery with argon, T.N.T., 
or British dyes? 


The only remedy for the present situation is” 


courteously to approach the Pharmaceutical Society. 


and: endeavour to establish a friendly arrangement, in 
conformity with which the members of that body, who 
are now variously, denominated ‘‘ chemist,” “phar-— 
macist,” and. ‘‘druggist,’’ would conte themselves. 


ee Ss eee ae 


Marcu 13, 1919] 


NATURE 


25 


two of these names, leaving the first word for 
definition of persons engaged more obviously in 
xtension of chemical knowledge or the applica- 
chemical principles. 
by is an honourable occupation, and I can- 
eve that the pharmacist would lose dignity or 
‘the change. Comparatively. few pharmacists 
lists in the modern sense, and it is well 
‘iniother great countries this confusion of 
ot revail; in fact, this is one of the few 
hich we are at variance with our Allies, 
are in complete harmony with the Hun. 


M. ©. Forster. 
‘W.C.2, March 4. 


‘Methods in Nautical Astronomy. 
e@ of Nature published on October 24 
P- 155) there appeared an account of 
chart evised by Mr. G. W. Littlehales, 
States Hydrographic Department, for 
ith cettain problems in nautical 
involve the solution of a spherical 
‘three sides, or the two sides and 
are known. The article is entitled 
‘Method in Nautical Astronomy,” 
‘ar that the idea has been familiar in 
nore than five-and-twenty years. The 
constructing a chart like that made by 
thales was demonstrated by Maurice 
j ago as 1891 in his work “ Nomo- 
; Is usuels effectués au moyen des 
84, and an-abacus devised by him on 
} was described in W. Dyck’s ‘“ Katalog 
ind = mathematisch-physikalischer 
parate und Instrumente,” published in 
_A figure of the chart can be found in 
which appeared in the Journal 
ue (second series, 4th cahier, 
iso in his ‘“‘Traité de Nomo- 
28. In a modified form the 
by E. Collignon in 1898 (see his 
‘détermination de |’heure du passage du 
plan vertical,” Journal: de 1’Ecole Poly- 
-cit., pp. 125-35 : 
Mr. Littlehales the chart occupies a 
‘side. From 5° to 175° it is graduated 
ses, and over a large part of the scale 
estimation to 6’. Although the 
copies obtained from Mr. Potter, 
eharts, Minories, London (price 
ghly. executed, the chart is capable 
gC rvice in providing a rapid means of 
‘the results of calculation. The particular 
ne solution of spherical triangles it is de- 
ul with, frequently occur in the reduction 
_measurements, and the use of the chart 
confidently recommended to crystallographers. 
“A tn PeGR) A. HutTCHINSON. 
ralogical Laboratory, Cambridge, 
February 26. 


- Gurious Markings on Chalk. 
ATURE of March 6 there appeared a_ short 
» of a piece of chalk said to be carved to repre- 


| B tish Museum (Natural History), March 8. 
- NO 2246 VOT. T1021 


| theories; 


Globular Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and Radiation. 


(1) THe determination of the past duration of solar 
radiation, and, consequently, the problem of the age 
of the inhabitable earth, imposes upon theories of 
radiation a difficulty the magnitude and fundamental 
importance of which appear to be too infrequently 
considered. The difference in the time-scales derived 
from the gravitational theory of solar energy and 
from geological and astronomical observation is not 
one of a few per cent. (or less) of the basic quantities 
involved, as is generally the case with the discrepancies 
that have led to conspicuous modifications of radiation 
the discrepancy is rather a matter of a 
hundred to one, or even of a thousand or more to one. 
A more glaring disagreement could scarcely be 
imagined between a generally accepted and thoroughly 
workable theory on one hand, and, on the other, a 
mass of observation now too extensive and varied to 
be denied and some equally formidable physical laws.. 

Until recently the arguments for a long time-scale 
have been mostly geological and biological, and they 
have not been strongly insisted upon; imperfections 
in the geological records have been held to minimise 
the disagreement with the Helmholtz-Kelvin contrac- , 
tion theory of the sun. Similarly, the arguments for 
the short time-scale have not been too.convincing, to 
some geologists at least, because of the promising 
possibility of finding new sources of energy or other 
escape from the physical theory. Hence on both 
sides .of the question there has been a feeling of un- 
certainty relative to the validity and finality of oppos- 
ing arguments, and on neither side has the dis- 
crepancy been strongly emphasised as a critical point 
for theories of radiation and the structure of matter.. 

(2) In recent volumes of Nature the limited possi- 
bilities of the gravitational contraction of the sun 
in the problem of the age of the earth have been 


‘argued anew by Lindemann,’ Jeans,” and Eddington.* 


The energy of contraction, as is well known, is essen- 
tially self-regulating for gaseous stars, and its evalua- 
tion is a clear and straightforward ,process. The 
available .supplementary sources of energy seem in- 
competent; the heat of chemical combinations, an 
assumed increase in the specific heat, any definitely 
recognised atomic supply—all such as these appear 
quite insufficient to affect the problem. In fact, Jeans 
has shown by a calculation, remarkable both for its 
brevity and directness, that the total capacity of all 
electrical sources of energy (including the chemical 
and radio-active) must be comparatively small. He 
concludes: “‘It-aceordingly looks. as though the Helm- 
holtz contraction will provide much more energy than 
any other source, and we must apparently adjust our 
views to the time-scale set by the contraction theory.” 

Eddington‘ has pointed out important objections to 
the rather bizarre conception of obtaining great stores 
of energy through the gradual annihilation of matter, 
positive and negative electrons occasionally annulling 
each. other. 

Hence, unless we question, in some manner wholly 
new, the strict application of the gravitational theory, 
we may feel now more certain than ever that the 
sun could:have radiated at the present rate for only 
a few million years. 

(3) The main purpose of this note is to remark that 
recent developments in stellar astronomy make it 
unnecessary to rely on geological evidence alone for 
the proof of a vastly longer duration of solar radiation 
than the gravitational hypothesis admits. Thus the 
argument need no longer involve only the indefinite 


opposing of the tenets and conclusions of one science 
1 Vol. xcv., pp. 203, 372 (1915). 2 Vol. xcix., p. 444 (1917). ; 

% Vol. xcix., p. 445 (1017). 2p 

4 Loe. cit. and Monthly Notices, vol. Ixxvii., p. 611 (1917). 


: 


26 


NATURE » 


[Marcu 13, 1919 


against those of another. Each of the lines of astro- 
physical evidence: sketched below supports the exist- 
ence of a long time-scale; taken altogether, I believe 
they may be considered (in agreement with geological 
results) as very strong evidence that the quantity of 
energy radiated by the sun has not changed appreciably 
during more than a thousand million years.° 

(a) Studies of globular clusters and of faint stars 
now indicate a diameter of the known galactic system 
of scarcely less than a_ half-million light-years.® 


Average stellar velocities appear to be less than 10-* 


times the velocity of light. Accordingly, a single 
oscillation-period of a star, or of a group of stars, in 


the galactic system is probably not less than 10%. 


years—nearly a thousand times longer than the interval 
during which the Helmholtz-Kelvin contraction, ac- 
cording to current interpretation, can sustain present 
solar radiation—and one oscillation-period cannot be 
taken to represent a very large part of the history 
of a star’s evolution.’ We have no evidence of 
clusters the stars of which are all at the beginning or 
end of their luminous careers; stars are not evolving 
from invisibility continuously and in great numbers 
in any part of the galactic system that we have 
studied. In other words, the introduction of a vastly 
greater linear scale into the sidereal system indicates 
the necessity for a corresponding increase in time. 

(b) Compared with the most distant globular clusters 
known, the brighter ones are some 200,000 light-years 
nearer the earth, and, therefore, in our records their 
stars are 200,000 years older.* Such an interval of 
time would more than suffice, on the basis of recog- 
nised sources of energy, for the whole development 
(through luminous stages) of a giant star, according 
to calculations by Eddington.® There is, however, no 
evidence of differences of age for near and distant 
clusters, either in the numbers, colours, and dis- 
tribution, or other properties of giant stars open to 
investigation. Indeed, the distribution and motion of 
globular clusters with respect to the galactic system, 
their isolation in space, and the evidence of states of 
internal equilibrium practically negative the possibility 
of short life for their hundreds of giant stars. 

(c) The luminosity-period curve of Cepheid varia- 
tion © uniquely relates the period of pulsation of a 
giant Cepheid variable to its absolute brightness, the 
individual deviations from the mean curve averaging 
less than the observational uncertainties. The 
shorter the period of a Cepheid, the less is its 
absolute brightness. But for any given star this 
brightness does not decrease during the giant stage, 
according to theoretical results of Eddington’? and 
Jeans!*; apparently, therefore, the total life of the 
variation of a Cepheid passes without appreciable 
shortening of period.'* Since periodedensity—# 
according to the hypothesis that some type of pulsa- 
tion is the cause of Cepheid phenomena, the variability 
passes also without appreciable change in mean 
density, and therefore gravitational contraction in these 
giant stars makes no progress during the whole 
interval of time that Cepheid variation is effective. 
This interval of time, however, must be exceedingly 
long; no certain non-periodic diminution either in 
amplitude or period has ever been detected in a typical 
Cepheid. Disregarding both the period-luminosity 

5 Cf. general discussion in Publ. Ast. Soc. Pac., vol. xxx., p. 283 (1918). 

6 Mt. Wilson Contr., No. 157 (1918). 

7 Cf£..Charlier, Observatory, vol. xl., p. 390 (1917); Jeans, zdid., p. 406. 
A mach smaller stellar system was considered by Charlier and Jeans than is 
now under consideration. 


8 Publ. Ast. Soc. Pac., vol. xxx., p. 54 ‘(x918); Mt. Wilson Contr., 


No. 157, p. 14 (1918). 0 , 
. 9% Monthly Notices, vol. Ixxvii., pp. 610, 612 (1917). 
-10: Mt. Wilson Contr., No. 151, p. 16 (1917). 
11 Nature, vol. xcix., p. 308 (1917); Monthly Notices, vol. Ixxvii., 
nm. 16, 506 (1916, 1917). 
12 Monthly Noticés. vol. Ixxviii., p. 36 (1917). 
13 Mt. Wilson Contr... No, 1e4, p. 6 (r0T7). 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


curve and the mathematical theory of a gaseous giant — 
star, we still have, as Eddington has also noticed, — 
an indication from individual Cepheids that the 
time-scale is long. A study of 8 Cephei™ for 125 
years and of (Geminorum for 75 years shows 
no measurable change in period—no change, therefore, — 
either in mean density or in volume, and the observa- 
tions are precise enough to justify the conclusion that 
gravitational theory, as ordinarily interpreted, accounts 
for less than a thousandth of the energy that is 
radiated away. 


To the three groups of argument outlined above © 


may be added a number of quantitatively less definite — 
results. The clearest are :—(d) Evidence similar to (c) 
from the study of the periods of eclipsing binaries, 
and (e) the tidal development of our planetary system. — 
None of these results goes farther numerically than 
to indicate lower limits to the time-scale. The evi- 
dence of contraction is essentially all negative, and 
the duration of stellar radiation may be anything 


greater than the lower limit. So far as we now know, 
it is just as probably a million as a hundred times the 
value provided by known sources of energy. 


(4) It should be remarked that the geological © 


evidence has become much stronger in recent years. 
The exhaustive summarisation by 


rhythms in sedimentation and erosion, salinity of the 


oceans, and biological evolution leaves little ground ~ 


for a short time-scale in geological history. The oldest | 


sedimentary 1ocks appear to be about 1,500,000,000 
years old, and before their formation unknown ages — 
Independently of the extrapolated results — 


elapsed. 
from radio-activity in terrestrial rocks, Schuchert*’ 


derives from studies in historical geology an age of 
some 800,000,000 years for the earliest Archzeozoic — 


formations. 
(5) In computing the total energy radiated by the 
sun, the custom naturally has been to multiply the 


amount measured for unit area at the earth’s surface © 


by the total superficial area of the sphere the centre 


of which is at the sun and the radius of which is | 
It may be well to point | 
out, as a possible contribution to the solution of the © 


the earth’s mean distance. 


great discrepancy discussed above, that, however 


natural the customary procedure may be, nevertheless — 


this integration over the whole sphere involves an 
assumption that may be not only unnecessary, but 
possibly even unwarranted in the present state of our 
knowledge of the theories and phenomena of radia- 
tion; and if solar and stellar radiation is not uniformly — 
propagated in all directions—if in any way it is facili- 
tated by the presence of surrounding bodiés—then the — 


controversy between the short and long time-scales 


approaches a solution that does not violate the basic 
results of either line of reasoning. . ] 

If, following Sir J. J. Thomson,** we actually 
materialise the Faraday lines of electric force and 
adopt a corpuscular theory of radiation, already we 
may have good reason to question the assumed inde- 
pendence of radiation and direction. The ordinary | 
undulatory theory, to be sure, requires a continuity 
in the electromagnetic field, but continuity is by no 
means a necessary postulate in the analysis of Max- 
well’s equations. 

A special and limiting condition, along the line of 
the present suggestion, would require that the radiation 
from an isolated source should be wholly confined to 


arrell ?® of methods — 
of measuring earth-age from the radio-activity of — 


— a 


the solid angles subtended by surrounding matter. Dr. 


14 Observatory, vol. xli., p. 379 (1918). ary ‘ aed 

15 Cf, analysis by Luizet, Annales de l’Université de Lyon, N.S., i. 
fascicule 33 (1912). ; 

6 Bull. Geol. Soc. of Amer., vol. xxviti.. pp. 745-904 (1917). 

17 ‘* The Evolution of the Earth and its Inhabitants ” (New Haven, 1918), 


chap. ii. i p 
18 “ Electricity and Matter” (London 1904), and elsewhere. 


Marcu 73, 1919] 


NATURE 


27 


feman’s** corpuscular theory of the structure of 
_electr Benet field is not out of harmony with 
$ view, and, moreover, his hypothesis has the dis- 
et advantage of accounting for wave-motion as a 
cial case, thus apparently pointing to a method of 
= Sec difficulties with interference and diffrac- 
1 that usually affect corpuscular theories. If we 
ept the rather preferable “solid angle’ hypothesis 
ad of a less restricted type of non-uniform radia- 
(such, for instance, as the “specked” wave- 
®), it is not certain just what difficulties might 
in regard to the ultimate trend of planetary 
res. But certainly the great majority of 
sidereal phenomena would be unaffected, 
ther the “solid angle’’ interpretation is adopted or 
ely one which requires that radiation should be 
1 restricted outside the solid angle. 
addition to the possibility of accounting imme- 
ly ip tbe large discrepancy in the duration of 
id stellar radiation, there would be other 
advantages in a hypothesis of this kind. 
st, we should no longer be confronted with the 
almost incomprehensible ‘“ waste” of stellar 
the ordinary continuity theory, all the 
ion, except the one-millionth of 1 per cent. 
on flanets or known stars,?! penetrates 
ar beyond the regions where now we 
erial bodies;. and we recognise no reason- 
ism for its recovery or rematerialisation. 


. 


7, we should not have to call upon some 

source ot energy to account for the simplest 

of stellar radiation; the otherwise happy 

dances now existing between astronomical ob- 

ion gravitational theories of gaseous bodies 
len from the shadow of this great doubt. 

y, among others of less obvious connection, 

utstanding stellar phenomena might 

artial or complete explanation :—(a) The remark- 

“ase of redness with brightness for the giant 

gular clusters**; (b) the relation of spec- 

htness for both giant and dwarf visual 

c) the low density of the reddish com- 

sing variable star systems. In all 

vould be a matter of the ratio of the 


ise:—As commonly interpreted, the 
Kelvin contraction, and other but less 
t known stores of energy, can have main- 
r radiation for less than twenty million 
e other hand, it is equally definite that 
adiated at its present rate for much 
a yusand million years; in support of 
logical evidence of a long time-scale, various 
ical results may now be adduced, mainly 
observations and interpretations of star clusters 
riab’ The very pronounced disagreement 
be explained either if sources of energy now 
mised could be discovered in the sun and stars, 
necessity of modification of the physical 
could be demonstrated. ‘‘The search for an 
al store of energy is not at all encouraging,” ** 
nal, chemical, radio-active, or other 
‘ical sources appear unavailing. If we assume 
_ radiation. from isolated sources, such as 
bodies, is not uniformly propagated in all 
Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. iv., p. 140 (1918); the Messenger of Mathe- 
‘S:, vol. xlvii., p. 161 (1918); PAz7. Mag., vol. xxxiv., p. 405 
more extended statement of the theory will appear in the 


f the London Mathematical Society. i 
: Cambr. Phil. Soc., vol. xiv., p. 489, (so) 


at 


ples. 


but it is very unlikely that the nebula represent a continuous 
of matter. 

Mt: Wilson Communications, Nos. 19 and 34 (1916), and elsewhere. 
23 Eddington, NaTure, vo!. xcix., p. 445 (1917). 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


directions,** we may find the solution not only to the 
dilemma of the ages of stars, but perhaps also to 
other astrophysical phenomena; and, conversely, the 
removal of this serious discrepancy may be proposed 
as an argument for a corpuscular theory of radiation, 
in which the direction of other bodies from a radiant 
source is an important factor. HarLow -SHAPLEY. 
Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, Pasadena, 
California, December 14, 1918. 


RESEARCH AND UNIVERSITY 
EDUCATION. 


| by his opening presidential address this session to 

the Royal Society of Edinburgh on “The En- 
dowment of Scientific and Industrial Research’’ 
(Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1919, vol. xxxix., 
No. 1), Dr. John Horne discusses the report of the 
Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and 
Industrial Research for 1917-18, and the findings 
of Sir J. J. Thomson’s committee on the position 
of natural science in the educational system of 
Great Britain, and then turns his attention 
nearer home to the results of the Carnegie Trust’s 
research scheme in furnishing trained research 
workers. He alludes especially to the chemistry 
department of St. Andrews, which has secured 
more research scholars and fellows under this 
scheme than any other educational centre in Scot- 
land. Its favourable position in this respect is 
ascribed to the smallness of the number of 
students, to specially commodious and well- 
equipped laboratories, to a private research en- 
dowment which secures complete freedom of 
action to the head of the department and has 
rendered it unnecessary for him ever to approach 
the University Court for help, to a special field 
of investigation—the chemistry of sugars— 
capable of providing unlimited subjects for the 
training not only of the organic, but also of the 
physical and bio-chemist, and, lastly, to the initia- 
tive of the professor in finding industrial positions 
for the trained workers—it is to be hoped, at a 
salary that interests the income-tax commissioner. 
In the larger Scottish universities the science 
departments struggle under the disadvantages of 
inadequate laboratories, crowded class-rooms, and 
overworked and underpaid staffs. One hears, in 
fact, of nothing now but the duplication of the 
notoriously large medical classes, and even of the 
double daily lectures being given by the same 
lecturer. The Carnegie Trustees are asked 
seriously to consider whether the funds provided 
for scientific study and investigation cannot be 
increased very largely. 

It is interesting to find thus officially recognised 
a few of the more elementary conditions for the 
fostering of research. The conclusion that one 
of the main reasons for the success of the St. 
Andrews chemical research school is due to the 


very § between geo’ cory 
believing that radio-activity would be competent to make up whatever defic 
of energy might exist, 


28 


NATURE 


| Marcu: 13, 191g. 


smallness of the number of students should give 
at least a moment’s pause to those who are urging 
on the movement for the expansion of the univer- 
sities, and demanding that they should undertake 
more and more the routine instruction of the com- 


munity. There is no surer way of killing research ° 


than to leave it, as it usually has. been left, to 
take what is over in a rapidly growing democratic 
university, after every other need has first been 
canvassed. If we are, as is’ probable, to have 
greatly enlarged universities everywhere, and 
greatly increased Government grants for this 
purpose, in the name of common sense let some 
definite and inalienable part of these grants be 
put in the hands of persons who know what scien- 
tific research is. 

The St. Andrews research school of chemistry 
is a brilliant exception just because this has been 
the case. A’ private individual, Prof. Purdie, the 
present professor’s predecessor, founded it, built 
the laboratory, and provided the endowment out 
of his own private generosity, and left it in the 
hands of his successors. He knew what research 
was, and he has been able to effect more for 
research in Scotland than: the million of Mr. 
Carnegie, in the hands of his trustees. So little 
did the latter understand the needs. of: scientific 
research, or how to promote it before the war, 
that they spent on their whole research scheme 
less than one-half what they saved’ out of the 
revenue of the fund given them primarily for this 
purpose. Buc 


PROF. ..E.. C, PICKERING, For.Mem.R.S.. 


YY the death of Prof. Edward’ Charles Picker- 
ing, astronomy has lost a great leader, 
whose stimulating influence and remarkable gifts 
for organisation have contributed in an extra- 
ordinary degree to the advancement of our know- 
ledge of the stellar universe. Born at Boston in 
1846, Pickering was educated at the Boston Latin 
School and at the Lawrence Scientific School, 
Harvard. At the early age of twenty-one he was 
appointed Thayer professor of physics. at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he 
is said to have established the first physical 
laboratory in the United States. In 1876 he suc- 
ceeded Winlock as professor of’ practical astro- 
nomy and‘ director of the Astronomical Observa- 
tory of Harvard College, and continued in this 


position to the time of his death, which occurred 


on February 3. 

Pickering’s work in astronomy has. been espe- 
cially remarkable for the numerous enterprises 
of great magnitude which he initiated, and for 
the energetic manner in which he carried his 
schemes to successful’ completion. Thanks to the 
generous encouragement given to scientific 
workers in America, the resources of the Har- 
vard Observatory were in’ some measure com- 
mensurate with Pickering’s great conceptions, 
Beginning with the erection of the 15-in. refractor 
in. 1847, by. public subscription, the.resources. of 
the observatory have since bee1i so augmented by 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


subscriptions, gifts, and bequests that the annual 


income from invested funds during recent years: 
has provided for the employment of a staff of no 


fewer than forty persons. Through the Boyden 
bequest, in 1887, Pickering was charged with the 
establishment of an observatory at a high, eleva-- 
tion, under favourable climatic conditions; and 
with admirable foresight as to the needs of 
modern astronomy, he seized the opportunity of 
locating the new observatory south of the equator. 
The station selected was at Arequipa, in Peru, at 
an elevation of 6080 ft., and all important re- 
searches. undertaken at Harvard College have 
since been made to include stars:in all parts of 
the sky, from the North to the South Pole. 
Another important benefaction, which largely 
influenced the activity of Pickering, was the 
Henry Draper. memorial, by which Mrs. Draper 
made liberal: provision for the continuation of the 
researches on the spectra and other physical pro- 
perties of the stars. which had' been carried om by 
her husband, and interrupted by his. death. — 
While precise measurements of position have 
not been neglected, the policy of the Harvard 


| Observatory, from the beginning, has been the 


development of, the physical side of astronomy, 
and it was. doubtless very congenial to, Pickering 
to find himself in a position to devote his energies: 
mainly to photometry, photography, and spectro-. 
scopy. His earliest work at the observator was 
the reduction of Argelander’s observations of vari- 
able stars, calling for extensive photometric 


measurements of the brightness: of the stars which a 


had been utilised’ for purposes of comparison. 
Photometric work in general’ later became 
a leading feature of his programme of observa~ 
tions. For these investigations he devised the 
meridian photometer, with which, under favour- 
able conditions, stars. could. be observed. at the 
rate of one a minute, with an avera deviation 
not generally exceeding one-tenth of a magnitude. 

Under Pickering’s guidance, 
through his own untiring personal observations, 
a photometric survey of the entire heavens, in- 
volving observations to the number of more than. 
two millions, has. been. made and. published. The 
“Revised Harvard: Photometry,’’ forming vol. 1. 
of the Annals of the observatory, and giving the 


magnitudes and spectra of g110 stars; mainly of 


magnitude 6°50 and brighter, has thus become an 
indispensable source of reference in many depart- 
ments of astronomical research. A later volume 
of the Annals (vol. liv:), extends. the observations. 
to 36,682 stars fainter than magnitude 6’50. This 
again has been supplemented by. numerous: pub-. 
lications on photographic photometry, including 
the results of investigations undertaken for the 
establishment of a standard scale of photographic 
magnitudes. These extensive researches are the 


chief basis of modern standard magnitudes, and_ 
have been of immense value to observers of vari- 


able stars, as well as to those occupied ‘with stellar 
statistics. 

The great advantages of photographic ettione 
of observation were early realised ies Pickering, 


and’ largely | 


Fs 


:. Marcu 13, 1919 | 


NATURE 


29 


d} besides utilising photography in many of his 
<= undertakings, he showed great ingenuity 
levising new applications for special purposes. 
of his well-known devices was an instrument 
yr automatically charting the brighter stars: on 
y fine evening; and among numerous other 
ts was one for recording .the rapid 
es in brightness of short-period variables 
termittent exposures at short intervals. 
= number of photographs of the heavens now 
oteeinted: in the: Harvard “library of photo- 
3 is: must be approaching two hundred 
d. All stars of the 11th magnitude, 
any ee tee ones, are shown over and over 
these plates, and the collection provides 
ry that exists of the stellar universe. 
‘any new object is discovered, asin the case 
‘nea Eros, or the recent: Nova Aquile, its 
'y. ul many years has almost invariably 
ab the Harvard plates, and a vast 
of lay le. peasial doubtless still remains 


tna memorial) Pickering again 
view of his opportunities. The 
f the spectra of stars with a slit 
one by one, though essential for 
termination of radial velocities, is 


ereby hundreds of spectra may often 
nec [in ‘a single exposure, made a strong 
lesale *? method is usually small, but 
“purposes of general classification, 
sof. stars were soon included i in the 
survey. The first “Draper Cata- 
> vol. xxvii. of the Harvard Annals, 
» stars north of — 25°, classified on 
system, which, with some modi- 
ecome generally adopted by astro- 
it the world. This work has 
ued at Harvard and at. Arequipa, 
aper catalogue giving the spectra 
a bit of a million stars is now in 


ab liscoveries have been made in 
tion) wil work, of. the Draper memorial. 

‘the: earliest was that of the periodical 
on of the lines in‘the spectra of 8 Aurige 
Ursee Majoris, proving these stars to be 
3s, which, however, are far beyond the 
or resolving power of the largest telescopes. 
should also be made of the discovery of 
e of bright, hydrogen lines:as a charac- 
' of variable stars of Secchi’s third 
ading to the detection of a large number 


* 


whi Fie. since become of, considerable import- 
ancesin connection with theories of spectra. 

_. Pickering was not alone a zealous. worker 
hiaoett he was ever ready to aid the work of 
other institutions and individuals by advance 
‘copies of data which might be of use to them, 
poy the loan of photographs, or in numberless 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


ya slow process, and the objective-. 


The scale of the spectra yielded’ 


other ways. Besides the voluminous publications 
of the: observatory, he maintained. a valuable 
service of bulletins ‘and telegrams for the distribu- 
tion of information, respecting discoveries, made 
at Harvard or elsewhere; which required: imme- 
diate announcement. 

The value of Pickering’s contributions to science 
was universally recognised. He was a foreign 
member of the Royal Society, of the Institute of 
France, and of most of the other important learned 
societies of Europe. The gold medal of, the 
Royal Astronomical Society. was awarded to him 
in 1886for his photometric researches, and again 
in 1901 for his researches on variable stars and 
his work in astronomical photography. He was 
president of the Astronomical Society of America, 
and received the Bruce, Draper, and Rumford 
medals. Honours were also: bestowed upon him 
by his own and other universities. 


LT.-COL. W. WATSON, C.M.G., F.R.S. 
Bee science is the poorer as the result of 
the war by many a distinguished name. Few 
have deserved more highly of. their country, or 
done more useful work in defending our men 


against the scientific savagery of poison-gas 
shells, than Lt:-Col. William, Watson. = as 
director of the Central: Laboratory, B.E.F., from 


its establishment in June, 1915, soon after the first 
gas-attack, to) the conclusion of 1918. The 
hazardous, and exacting nature of this’ work, in 
the course of which: Watson was frequently 
“gassed,’’ no doubt largely contributed to. his 
death, which took place; after two months in , 
hospital, on March 3, at the comparatively early 
age of fifty. The full record of the manifold 
activities of the Central Laboratory under his 
direction will doubtless appear in its appropriate 
place when further details are available. We must 
be content here with a summary of his career as 
a scientific investigator. 

Watson received his training, in the accurate’ 


and delicate physical manipulation which distin-, 


guished all: his work, at the Royal College of 
Science under Sir Arthur Riicker and Prof; Boys, 
and: took his B.Sc. degree in 1890, securing first 
place on, the list’ of honours in physics. He 
obtained an immediate appointment as. demon- 
strator in the college, and afterwards succeeded 
to the assistant professorship in 1897. He was 
elected a fellow of the Royal Society in r901, and 
became in due course one of the professors of 
physics at the Imperial College of Science and 
Technology. 

Watson’s first scientific work was as assistant in 
the great magnetic survey of the British Isles insti- 
tuted by Riicker and Thorpe, 1890-95, in which he 
did the lion’s share of the observational work, and: 
appears in the record as the most accurate of the: 
observers. He also had the advantage of assist- 
ing Prof. Boys in his delicate experiments with 
the radio-micrometer, in timing the periodicity of 
the electric discharge, and: in photographing the 
flight of bullets. In the meantime he was occu- 


30 NATURE 


| Marcu 13, 1919 


pied, in conjunction with the late J. W. Rodger, 
- on an elaborate investigation of the magnetic 
rotation of the plane of polarisation in liquids (Phil. 
Trans., 1895, pp. 621-54), which has not yet been 
surpassed. A research of a similar character by 
an original method, on the determination of the 
earth’s magnetic field (Phil. Trans., 1902; pp. 
431-62), threw great light on some of the sources 
of error in absolute magnetic measurements. 

While engaged in these researches, and taking 
his full share of the teaching work, Watson yet 
found time to write his well-known ‘ Text-book 
of Physics,’’ which has become _ deservedly 
popular, and has made his name familiar to an 
ever-increasing circle of students. As a teacher 
his clearness of exposition and: his skill in devising 
experimental illustrations made his lectures very 
attractive to the serious student. 

A large part was taken by Watson in the design 
and equipment of the new laboratory (now part of 
the Imperial College) to which the physics de- 
partment of the Royal College was transferred 
in 1905. He next became interested in the appli- 
cation of physical methods to the scientific study 


of the petrol motor, and devised many ingenious 


instruments of research, including a new type of 
optical indicator, which has proved invaluable: for 
accurate work on high-speed engines. The labora- 
tory which he designed and equipped for these 
experiments has since been taken over and ex- 
tended by the Air Ministry, and proved very 
useful during the war for the solution of urgent 
problems in connection with: aero-engines. Many 
of his results were of fundamental importance, and 
will be found in most standard treatises on the 
subject. 

Watson assisted Sir W. de W. Abney for many 
years in his researches on colour vision, and 
made useful contributions of his own to the theory 
and methods of measurement, a_ characteristic 
example of which will be found in his paper on 
luminosity curves (Proc. R.S., 88 A, p. 404, 1913). 
In a later paper Sir W. Abney indicates that they 
were busily engaged on work of great promise in 


this direction when Watson was. “commandeered ° 
as scientific adviser at the front.’? The: work’ 


which he accomplished in this capacity was doubt- 
less of the greatest national importance, but, in 
the interests of pure science, one cannot help 
regretting that so active and many-sided an in- 
vestigator should have been cut off in his prime 
by the relentless exigencies of war. 


NOTES. 


AFTER two years’ interval, owing to war conditions, 
the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science will resume its series of annual meetings 
this year at Bournemouth from September 9 to 13, 


under the presidency of the Hon. Sir Charles 
Parsons. 
_ Str GrorGE Newman, K.C.B., Chief. Medical 


| Officer, Local’ Government Board, has been elected 
a member of the Athenzum Club under the rule 
which, empowers. - the--annual . election by. the. com- 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


for public service.” 


mittee of a certain number of persons ‘of distin- 
guished eminence in science, 


Ar the quarterly Court of the governors of the 
London Hospital, held on March 5, Lord Knutsford 


made the important announcement that it is proposed 


to fill up two vacancies on the honorary visiting staff 


by the appointment of two whole-time adequately — 


paid officers in charge of the beds. Under the new 
arrangement there would be a director, three clinical 
assistants, and laboratory and clerical assistants. 
These members of the staff will give their whole time 
to curing disease, to researches on the causation of 
disease, and to the education of the medical students, 
and they will be of precisely equal rank with the other 
members of the honorary staff. It will be remem- 
bered that this kind of arrangement was suggested 
in the report of the Haldane University Commission, 
and has been commended by Sir George Newman in 
his ‘‘ Notes on Medical Education.”’ 


THE ravages of the larve of ox warble-flies are 
well known to farmers, butchers, hide-dealers, and 
tanners. The flesh of bullocks and the milk yield of 
cows suffer through the presence of -these parasites, 
and the piercing of the hides greatly reduces the value 
of the latter. Furthermore, the annoyance caused 


by the flies during a hot July or August prevents . 


cattle from thriving so well as they otherwise would 
do. So far little or no good results haye been 
achieved from the application of various dips and 
smears which are intended to prevent oviposition by 
the flies. The only measure that can be advocated 
with any confidence is the systematic destruction of 
the larvz in the backs of the cattle. This method 
has the obvious disadvantage that the parasite is 


destroyed only after it has wrought its injuries. Im-_ 
pressed by the damage caused by the fly, the War 


Office called a conference last July of Government 
Departments, men of science, traders, and others 
familiar with the pest to discuss measures for its 
extermination. A scientific sub-committee, presided 
over by Sir Stewart Stockman, will supervise experi- 
mental researches.. A Government grant has been 
sanctioned, and the experiments are designed to fur- 
nish information on methods of preventing egg-laying 
of the fly, and on the effects of drugs in destroying 
the larve in the body of the host before they com- 
mence to penetrate the hide. 


Tue predominant character of the weather over the - 
British Isles since the commencement of the year 


has been rainy and dull. The rainfall in January 
exceeded the average over the whole kingdom except 
in Scotland N., where there was a deficiency of 
about 2 in. At Bournemouth the rainfall was 
252 per cent. of the normal, at Arundel 236 per cent., 
and in London, at Camden Square, 176 per cent. At 
Kew Observatory the excess of rain was 1-77 in., at 
Southampton 2-24 .in.,. and at Falmouth 2-86 in, 
February rainfall was in excess of the average in 
the south and east of England, and deficient else- 
where. At Greenwich the excess of rain was 0-75 in., 


at Cambridge 1-85 in., at Southampton 2-32 in., and 
In the first ten days of March | 


at Falmouth 2-80 in. 
rains were generally heavy; at Greenwich, in the 
three days ending March 5, the. rainfall measured 
1-49 in., which is 0-03 in. more than the sixty years’ 
average for the whole month. The aggregate dura- 


tion of ‘bright sunshine since the commencement of _ 


the year has been deficient in all: districts of the 
British Isles except in Ireland and in’ Scotland N-; 
in the south-east district of England the deficiency 
amounts. to..o-6h. .daily for. the first nine weeks, or 


literature, the arts, or 


Se 
% 
n] 


Marcu 13, 1919] 


NATURE 3 


31 


all 38h. At Kew Observatory the sunshine in 
Febr Was little more than one-half of the average, 
t at Cambridge it was. less than one-half of the 


_ Dr. S. F. Harmer, keeper of the Department of 
gy, Natural History Muséum, has sent us a 
r in which he points cut that the remarks upon 
le directorship of the museum published in our issue 
if March 6 may be read as an undeserved reflection 
the value of the scientific services rendered to 


, however, concerned solely with the principle, 
m in Government Departments, of appointing 
' officials to direct scientific institutions. It is of 
utmost importance at the present time not to 
le this principle even when personal considera- 
ore _be in favour of the appointment pro- 
Dr. Harmer says that Mr. Fagan’s work “ has 
ially scientific, and that his services in 
he national museum a scientific institution 
eptionally great.” These are, of course, 
isideration, and no doubt the Trustees 
Il attention to them. Our point is that, 
candidates are forthcoming, scientific know- 
experience should determine the appoint- 
not purely administrative ability. 
tment of Scientific and Industrial Re- 
ist issued two revised Circulars, Research 
1 I and 3, the first giving an outline of the 
for industrial research, the second 


mittee of council. As will be remembered, 
ment has placed a fund of a million sterling 
osal of the Research Department to enable 
age the industries to undertake research. 
fund is being expended on a co-operative 
in the form of liberal contributions by the 
ent towards the income raised by voluntary 
ijations of manufacturers peailishes ees a9! pur- 
of research, and the joint fund for each industry 
ler the Tele eintscl of the councils or boards 
espective research associations so formed, 
conditions outlined in the second Cir- 
to above. The results obtained from 
be available for the benefit of the con- 
but no firms outside the organisation 
‘such rights. The associations are to 
| limited by guarantee of a nominal sum 
| without profit, i.e. without division of 
mong the members in the form of dividends. 
-, the subscriptions of the contributing firms 
be subject to income or excess profits taxes, 
> income of the association will similarly be 
m income tax. The Government grant will 
en for a period of years to be agreed upon, 
eding five, except in special cases. The 
ractice, we believe, is to grant pound for 
hae by subscriptions within certain minimum 
maximum limits, specified in each case, for the 
_ period, although, where the special cir- 
stances of the industry may need it, this ratio 
be increased. There is, moreover, provision for 
ssible increase of the grant where the associa- 
nm raises additional sums, and for reduction where 
fails to reach the specified minimum. 


Tue Times of March 1, 3, and 4 contained long 
articles dealing with the necessity for the unification 

the administration and the further development of 
fishing industry. Two rather different points of 
were taken by the writers; a special correspon-’ 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


= 


Ss as to the payment to research associations’ 


dent stated what may be regarded as the expressed 
opinions of the fishing industries—that is, the great 
trawling companies, the wholesale and retail traders, 
and the conservation industries; while Lord Dunraven 
stated the views of the Sub-Committee on Fisheries 
of the Empire Resources Development Committee. 
On one hand, the trade interests press for a great 
simplification in the existin machinery of central 
and local regulation and Sicinlaieetile consolida- 
tion of the law with regard to fishing, and the forma- 
tion of a strong and adequate Imperial Ministry with 
the development of the industry as its single task. 
This would be directed to securing the means of speedy 
and economical transport and distribution of the fish 
landed, processes which are at present inadequate and 
wasteful. It would be closely and integrally linked up 
with—would actually include—the means of scientific, 
statistical, and industrial research carried out in the 
closest possible association with the industry itself and 
the machinery of administration. It would see that 
the present neglect of the inshore fisheries—shell-fish 
in particular—should cease, and it would greatly 
develop the fresh-water fisheries, particularly those for 
salmon and eels. On the other hand, Lord Dunraven 
emphasises the points of view of the State and the 
consumer rather than those of the trades voiced by 
the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association, 
namely, State control, co-operative enterprise, and 
development of the fisheries of the Dominions. To 
the trade, fish that is scarce and dear is easier to 
handle than, and at least as profitable as, fish that 
is cheap and plentiful. From the point of view of the 
consumer and of the State, cheap food, a large and 
prosperous fishing population, and, if. possible, some 
revenue, ought to be the objects of reconstruction of 
the industries concerned. ; 


Next Tuesday, March 18, Prof. A. Keith will deliver 
the first of a course of four lectures at the Royal 
Institution on British Ethnology: The People of 
Scotland.. On Thursday, March 20, Prof. C. H. Lees 
will give the first of two lectures on Fire Cracks and 
the Forces Producing Them. The Friday discourse 
on ‘March 21 will be delivered by Prof. W: W. Watts 
on Fossil Landscapes; and on March 28 by the Right 
Hon. Sir J. H. A. Macdonald on The Air Road. 


Tue death is announced of Major H. G. Gibson, 
who fell a victim to influenza probably contracted in 
the course of investigations on this Ain Major 
Gibson, with Major Bowman and Capt. Connor, pub- 
lished a paper in the British Medical Journal for 
December 18, 1918, in which they brought forward 
evidence that the influenza virus is of a “ filterable” 
nature, i.e. is so minute that it will pass through a 
fine porcelain filter. Sputum from influenza cases 
was diluted aad filtered through a Pasteur-Cham- 
berland filter, and the filtrate was then inoculated 
subconjunctivally and intranasally into monkeys. The 
animals suffered from a condition resembling influenza, 
and the post-mortem condition found’ was in many 
respects comparable with that obtaining in human 
cases. 


An article by Dr. C. Davison in the Observer for 
March 9 deals with Prof. de Quervain’s suggestion 
that a portion of the high explosives left in this 
country should be used for experimental explosions 
(Naturg, vol. cii., p. 371). After describing the prin- 
cipal results that might be expected from such 
experiments, the author points out that the firing of 
large amounts of explosive (Prof. de Quervain sug- 
gests fifty tons) is unnecessary. The sound from the 
explosion of 244 tons of dynamite on the Jungfrau 
railway in 1908 was heard for 112 miles, and that of 


rt 
- 


NATURE 


[Marcu 13, 1919. 


the explosion of 197 tons of gunpowder at Wiener 
Neustadt in. 1912: for 186 miles. On the other hand, 
the reports of the minute-guns at Spithead in 1901 
were: heard to a distance of 139 miles, and in this 
case seven-pound charges were fired from at the most 
thirty men-of-war, or a total of less than two hundred: 
weight, even supposing that the guns were fired 
simultaneously. 


INFLUENZA has again made a steady increase in its 
virulence over the British Isles, and the Registrar- 
General’s return for the week ending March 1 shows 
that in London (county) the deaths from the epidemic 
were 808, and in the ninety-six great towns, includ- 
ing London, they were 3889, both of which are the 
highest numbers since the closing week of November. 
The deaths from influenza in London had risen to 
32 per cent. of the deaths from all causes, whilst in 
the preceding week they were only 25 per cent., but 
pneumonia had decreased from 14, per cent. to 12 per 
cent., and bronchitis from 16 per cent. to 13 per cent. 
In, London there was some improvement in the general 
health, the total deaths from all causes having de- 
creased from 2643 in the preceding week to. 2501, and 
the annual death-rate per i1ooo of the aggregate 
population had decreased from 34-2 to 32-4. In 
London 47 per cent. of the deaths from .influenza 
during the week ending March 1 occurred at the ages 
from twenty to forty-five. 
since the commencement of the epidemic in October 
of last year influenza has caused 32 per cent. of. the 
deaths from all causes, pneumonia 12 per cent., and 
bronchitis 9 per. cent. 


Sir ArtHur Evans in. the Times of March 4 acts: 


as spokesman of an influential committee formed 
under the auspices of the British Academy, and repre- 
senting. various learned societies interested in archzo- 
logical research, which has presented a memorial to 
the Lords. of the Treasury strongly urging the 
creation of an Imperial British Institute of Archzo- 
logy in, Cairo, with the aid of a State subsidy. Sir 
Arthur Evans justly points out, that the position occupied 
by British archeologists. in Egypt is markedly inferior 
as compared. with the French and Germans, who 
already possess: institutes. of this kind, and with the 
Americans, who have large resources at their dis- 
posal. It is true that the Egyptian Exploration Fund 
and the: British School of Archzology in Egypt, in 
spite of a very limited income, have done admirable 
work. “But they are hampered by. lack of funds. to 
provide: a: home for their workers, instruction: for 
their students, and an adequate library. Experts 
working under this system receive neither suitable 
remuneration nor any guarantee that they will be 
able to follow up their archeological career. Hence, 
while: many of our university students are ready to 
assist in the work, they have little encouragement to 
make archeology their profession. It is also probable 
that: the classes which contributed to these enterprises 
before the war will be unable to maintain their sub- 
scriptions. 

A sprciat clinical and scientific meeting of the 
British. Medical Association will. be held in London 
on April 8-11.. A popular lecture, on the surgery of 
the war, will be given by~ Major-Gen. Cuthbert 
Wallace. An exhibition of surgical instruments, hos- 
pital furniture, drugs, foods, sanitary appliances, etc., 
will be held at the Imperial College of Science and 
Technology, South Kensington, from Wednesday, 
April 9, to Friday, April 11, both days inclusive. On 
the evening of April 9 the Royal Society of Medicine 
will hold a reception. at its house, 1 Wimpole Street, 
W. The guests will be received by Sir H. D. 
Rolleston, president of the society. The following 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103 | 


In the twenty-one weeks, 


discussions have been arranged; the names. given are 


those of the introducers :—Section of Medicine: ** War- 
Neuroses,” Lt.-Col. F. W. Mott; ‘Influenza’? (ins 
conjunction with the Section of Preventive Medicine 
and Pathology), Major-Gen. Sir W. Herringham, 
Capt. M. Greenwood, and Major Bowman;. ‘ Venereal. 
Disease,” Brevet-Col, L. W. Harrison; and  Prog- 
nosis in Cardio-vascular Affections,’ Dr. T.. Lewis. 
Section of Surgery: ‘Gunshot Wounds of the Chest,” 
Col. T. R. Elliott and Col. G. E. Gask; ‘* Wound 
Shock,’s Prof. W. M. Bayliss and Dr. H. H. Dale; 
and “A Review of Reconstructive Surgery,” Major. 
R. C. Elmslie and Major W. R. Bristow. “Section of 
Preventive Medicine and Pathology: ‘The Dysen- 
teries; Bacillary and: Ameebic,’”’ Col. L. S. Daron 
and Prof. W. Yorke; ‘ Influenza” (at a joint meeting 
with the Section of Medicine); and ‘ Malaria,” Lt.- 
Col. S..P. James. 


_ Tue introduction of the aniline dye industry has, as 
is well known, ruined the art of vegetable dyeing; 
and though we possess ancient ‘fabrics dyed with 
vegetable colours, it'is often. not possible to trace the 
plants which yielded them. The aborigines of America 
were’ well versed in the art, and many Peruvian tex- 
tiles-are remarkable for their beautiful and permanent 
colours. Mr. W. .E. Safford, in the Journal of the: 
Washington Academy of Sciénces (voli viii., No. 19); 
gives an interesting account with figures of the 
xochipalli, or flower-paint' of the Aztecs, which has 
hitherto. been. unidentified. The plant was described 
and. figured three centuries ago, and has been. sup- 
posed to be a species of, Tagetes, but. Mr. Safford’ 
has. proved that. the plant is really Cosmos sulphureus, 
and has: verified, his. discovery 
orange-red, from a decoction of: the flowers, which is 


ft 


Several of the other beautiful pigments derived from 


vegetables, used by the ancient' Mexicans for the: 


picture-writing of. their celebrated 
to in this: 
given. fh 

In the February issue of Man Dr. W. Crooke dis- 
cusses the question of hut-burning in India. In recent 
years several notices have been published of a custom 
prevailing from the Punjab southward to the Central. 
Provinces of barren women burning pieces of thatch 
taken from the roofs of seven huts in the hope of 
obtaining offspring—a custom which in some places 
has led to fires and loss of life. The practice was 
explained by the late Mr. R. V. Russell’ on the 
theory that the woman burns the thatch in the hope 
that the spirit of one of the children of the family 
may be reincarnated in her body. It is true that 
dead children are often buried under: the threshold 
in the belief that their spirits may be reborn in one 
of the women of the family, but, as Dr. Crooke 
observes, the intentional destruction of animal life is 
repugnant to many Hindus, and examples of re- 
incarnation, as suggested in the present case, do not 
seem to be forthcoming. Dr. Crooke suggests another 
explanation. A barren woman is naturally regarded 


codices, are referred 
paper, and the names of the plants are 


as being under taboo, sterility being universally attri- — 


buted to the agency of malignant spirits. He quotes 


many instances to show that it is the custom that 


when a man or woman is accused of adultery or other 
offences against the laws of caste, the offender is 
purified by passing through seven straw booths which. 
are successively set on fire. This leads to the con- 


clusion that, in the case of barren women, the rite is . 


a form of purgation which relieves. her of the impurity 
to. which sterility. is. attributed. 2 


Pror. D’Arcy THompson, in the January-February 


‘issue of the Scottish Naturalist, continues his most 


ee em 


by obtaining. the. rich a 
the colour of, xochipalli described by Hernandez. — 


" 
rs 


Marcu 13, 1919] 


NATURE 


22 
99 


ng Stations, dealing in the present instalment 
te bottle-nose, humpback, and finner whales. 
the six years covering the period of these 
tions only twenty of the first-named) species 
= landed at the Scottish stations, and this, not 
Se of its rarity, but because it does not pay 
umercially to take these animals in small numbers, 
a they have to be towed ashore to be “tried out.” 
Specimens landed none were fully adult. Of 
ack whales only thirty-one specimens were 
Scotland during this period. Twenty-three 
5, the largest of which measured 51 ft. in 
was the chief month of capture. The 
mmon rorqual, is by far the commonest 
at these stations, as is shown by the 
during the period under review no fewer 
9 were killed. The largest of the females, 
ghtly exceed the males, measured 81 ft. in 
ally, in regard to all the species, Prof. 
s some valuable figures as to the rela- 
to the length, and much very accept- 
as to migration. 


-Raungiazer (Kgl. Danske Videnskab. 
Biol. Meddel., i., 3, 1918) contributes a paper 
th) of considerable detail entitled) ‘* Statistical 
| Plant Formations,’ dealing’ more 
10se of northern Europe. A. general 
given of the frequency and distribution 
entering into the formations, of the 
ons of the species, and of the common 
eristics by which the species of a 
hemselves to their habitat. The 
2 noted for a complete ecological 
given area are summarised, and 
drawn up for a scientific description of 


t of} Agriculture of the Union of 
issued: a useful: little pamphlet 
18) entitled ‘“‘ Agricultural Grasses 

y? by Mr. H. A. Melle. In the early 
open veld afforded large areas of excel- 
little, if any, attention was given to the 
pastures. But the smaller farms 
denser population of the country has 
eriments with: exotic: grasses for the 
ove of pastures. The pamphlet gives an 
unt of the grasses and some of the forage plants 

‘at'the Botanical Experiment Station, Pretoria, 
» writer discusses the merits and characteristics 
different species, so that farmers may judge 
which particular grass will be best 
‘purpose and locality. 


of “Fossil Vertebrates in the American 
f Natural History” has just been received 
Department. of Vertebrate Palzontology of 
tution. It includes contributions 168 to 192, 
a uring the years 1915 to 1917 inclusive, 
studies of Osborn, Matthew, Brown, 
regory, Mook, Anthony, Watson, and von 
“hese articles are collected from the Museum 
olumes of the corresponding years. The 
limited to sixty copies, and is distributed to 
| research centres in various countries. 


R. H. Parsons contributes a valuable paper 
consumption of steam-power plant to the 
“Review of February 21. He points out 
€ consumption of coal in a power station be 
‘against the horse-power developed, all’ the 
‘fie practically on a straight line. If W be 
number of pounds of coal consumed and P the 
horse-power developed, then, in symbols, 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


| 


esting) notes on whales landed at the Scottish W=a+bP, where a and b are constants which 


depend on the plant in the station. Similarly, if W’ 
be the number of pounds of steam consumed, we 
have W’=c+dP, where c and d are constants. These 
laws: are practically identical with the laws which 
Willans proved in connection with high-speed engines. 
We deduce, for instance, that the steam consumed 
per brake-horse-power developed will be W’/P, i.e. 
d+c/P. It is suggested that the mean lines should 
be found which give the graphs of W, P and W’, P 
for the central station. If all the actual points shown 
on the curve lie very near this line, then the station 
is being worked economically. Whenever the points 
lie considerably above the mean line there is need 
for inquiry, and the fault will be found either in the 
boiler- or in the engine-room. 


An article on the economic size of concrete ships 
appears in Engineering for February 14. The author 
—Mr. E. O. Williams—plots a series of curves, and 
deduces from them the following information :—After 
1500 tons dead-weight the displacement increases more 
rapidly than the increase in dead-weight. Minimum 
indicated horse-power per ton dead-weight occurs at 
8000 tons dead-weight. Minimum cost of hull occurs 
at 4000 tons dead-weight. From these points it 
appears that the economic limit to concrete ships. is 
between 5000 and 8000 tons dead-weight. At 
1500 tons dead-weight the concrete ship is most 
favourably compared with a steel. ship for dis- 
placement and indicated horse-power.. The saving 
in steel at 1500: tons dead-weight is 74 per cent., and 
at 8000 tons dead-weight 38 per cent. Vessels 
above 8000 tons dead-weight are not economic in con-. 
crete;, there is no saving in steel at 12,000 tons dead- 
weight; the displacement and the cost of the hull 
per ton dead-weight increase rapidly above 8000 tons. 
Concrete ships, are most economical between dead- 
weights of 1500 and 4000 tons, and. the best size is in 
the neighbourhood of. 3500 tons, dead-weight. 


Tue leading article in Engineering for February 21 
deals with concrete roads, and. considers the requisites 
of a good road. with the view of discussing how far 
concrete fulfils. the requirements. There is no 
question regarding the hardness. of well-made 
concrete, but the length,of life depends upon various 
other considerations; The road should offer low 
resistance to the movement. of traffic over _ it. 
Recently some experiments were made in California 
with the view of ascertaining the pull necessary on 
different road. surfaces to. keep. three tons of load in 
motion after it had been started. With water-bound 
macadam in good condition the pull was 64 lb. per 
ton; on! a bituminous. road, 49 lb.; on unsurfaced 
concrete, 28 Ib. In other words, the load. which 
would be kept in motion by four horses on unsurfaced 
concrete would require seven horses on an asphaltic 
surface and nine on a water-bound macadam. Con- 
crete roads do not disintegrate under the traffic, and 
do not soften with rain or snow; theré is, therefore, 
neither dust nor mud: Cleansing the surface can be 
carried out easily and rapidly without damaging the 
surface in any way whatever. The surface of a 
properly made concrete road does not work into waves, 
nor does it disintegrate or develop holes. The ideal 
road must not be slippery, and modern concrete roads 
possess surfaces which afford a good grip for hoof 
or tyre. Owing to the readiness with which water 
runs off the surface a much smaller camber may be 
employed, and there is thus less temptation for drivers 
to use the middle of the road only. Concrete roads 
are not affected by climatic conditions. The initial 
cost is higher, but the maintenance cost is much 
lower, than both water-bound and bituminous macadam. 


34 


NATURE 


| MarcH 13, 1919 


The maintenance cost of the experimental stretch of 
concrete on the London to Chatham road, laid in 
1915, has been nil during the four years. 


A NEw series entitled “‘Manuals of the Science of 
Industry’? is announced by Messrs. Longmans and 
Co. It will be edited by E. T. Elbourne, and the first 
volumes will be ‘‘ Labour Administration,’’ the Editor ; 
‘“Law and Industry,” A. S. Comyns Carr; and 
‘Health and Industry,’’ W. H. Judson. These are in 
active preparation. The Open Court Co, will publish 
shortly ‘‘ Lectures on the Philosophy of Mathematics,”’ 
J. B. Shaw. The Wireless Press, Ltd., has in the 
press ‘‘The Year-Book of Wireless Telegraphy and 
Telephony, 1919"’; ‘‘Continuous-wave Wireless Tele- 
graphy,” Dr. H. Eccles, part i.; ‘‘ Telephony 
without Wires,’ P. R. Coursey; ‘‘ Alternating-current 
Working,” A. Shore; ‘‘Principes Elémentaires de 
Télégraphie sans Fil,’ R. D. Bangay; and ‘Manual 
de Instruccion Tecnica para operadores de Telegrafia 
sin Hilos,” J. C. Hawkhead and H. M. Dowsett. 


Tue latest catalogue (No. 177) of Messrs. W. Heffer 
‘and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, mainly deals with books 
treating of subjects outside the range of a journal 
such as NaTurE, but one section gives particulars of 
some recent purchases of works relating to scientific 
subjects. Among them we notice vols. i. to xiii. of 
the New Phytologist; Moore’s ‘‘ Lepidoptera Indica,” 
10 vols.; Moore’s ‘‘The Lepidoptera of Ceylon 
(Rhopalocera and Heterocera)”’; ‘‘Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum,” ‘‘Catalogue of Birds’ 
Eggs,” ‘“‘Hand-List of Birds,” ‘General Index,” in 


all 38 vols. ; Sowerby’s ‘‘ English Botany, or Coloured » 


Figures of British Plants, with their essential Charac- 
ters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth,’ and the 
index, with the Supplements, and MS. _ index; 
Parkinson’s ‘‘Theatrum Botanicum: The Theatre of 
Plants, or an Herbal of a Large Extent,” first edition ; 
and Roscoe’s ‘‘Monandrian Plants of the Order 
Scitaminz.” 


Tue special catalogues of Messrs. J. Wheldon and 
Co., 38 Great Queen Street, Kingsway, W.C.2, are 
always worthy of note, being very carefully classified 
and containing books not easily procurable. The 
one just issued (new series, No. 86) is no exception 
to the rule, and should be seen by all entomological 
readers of Nature. It contains particulars of more 
than 1100 volumes dealing with entomology in its 
various branches, conveniently arranged under the 
headings Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Arachnida, Myria- 
poda, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, 
Orthoptera, General Entomology, and Economic 
Entomology. In addition, attention is directed to sets 
and long runs of many scientific serials. The cata- 
logue is sent post free on receipt of 2d. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


THe REFORM OF THE CALENDAR.—It will be remem- 
bered that this subject was much to the fore before 
the war, and it is now again attracting attention. 
The Comptes rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences 
for January 6 and 20 contain papers upon the sub- 
ject by M. G. Bigourdan and M. H. Deslandres 
respectively. Both agree that each quarter should 
consist of two months of thirty days each, followed 
by one. of thirty-one. This makes each quarter just 
‘thirteen weeks. There would be a supplementary day 
at the middle of the year; in leap-year an additional 
one at the end. M. Deslandres (but not M. Bigour- 
dan) is in favour of putting these days outside the 
weekly reckoning, so that every year would have the 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103 | 


same days of the week on the same days of the 
month. There is no question that the existing calen- 
dar, with its irregular months, short February, and 
leap-day at the end of the second month, is very ill- 
contrived; it is only the difficulty of agreement as to 
best alternative that has permitted it to survive so 
ong. 


Dark Markincs ON THE Sky.—Prof. Barnard has 
often described these dark patches of definite outline, 
which strongly suggest, by their appearance and by the 
abrupt alteration in star-density, that they are due to 
clouds of obstructing matter. He gives a catalogue of 
182 of these objects in the Astrophysical Journal for 
January. They are mainly, but not wholly, in the 
Galaxy. He suggests that in many regions of the 
sky there is enough background luminosity, due either 
to unseen stars or diffused nebulous matter, to throw 
them into relief; one such is in R.A. 4h. 22m. 50s., 
N. decl. 46° 21’; it is a dark, elliptical space 15’ x io’. 
It is curious that Prof. Barnard’s paper is in juxta- 
position with one by Dr. Harlow Shapley on the 
distances of the globular clusters; taken in conjunc- 
tion with recent evidence of the wide distributien of 
calcium in cosmic clouds, it tends to weaken our con- 
fidence in the perfect. transparency of space which is 
one of the postulates of Dr. Shapley’s deductions. 
Prof. Barnard gives photographic reproductions. of 
nine of the dark regions in the galactic clouds. | 
some cases they are fairly round and regular, in others 
they present. complicated and contorted forms. 


Tue ‘ASTROGRAPHIC CATALOGUE,—Vol. ii. of the 
Hyderabad section of this Catalogue has just been pub- 


lished, containing the measures of the stars on the ~ 


plates the centres of which lie in decl. —18°. There 


are 61,378 stars in the volume, which is at the rate — 


of 33 millions to the whole sky. Their x, y co-. 
ordinates are given, and the measured diameters. A 
separate formula is calculated for each plate, of the 
form A—BWd, to reduce to the ordinary magnitude 
scale. The limiting magnitude for most of the plates 
appears to be about 13. Standard co-ordinates are 
also given for all the stars that occur in the Algiers 
or Washington Astr. Gesells¢haft catalogues, which 
are for the same epoch (1900) as the present catalogue. 
There are also auxiliary tables for focralan the R.A. 
and declination of any star, if required. 

This volume has a pathetic interest in that the 
director, Mr. R. J. Pocock, has died since it was sent 
to press. In spite of war difficulties, he accomplished © 
a great deal of work during his few years at Hydera- 
bad. Much of it is still unpublished. — 


A SUGGESTED GOVERNMENT CHEMICAL 


SERVICE. 


aN important memorandum has been drawn up by 
the council of the Institute of Chemistry, which 
desires to direct the attention of the Government to 
the increasing and vital importance of chemical science 
in affairs of the State. The memorandum is published 
in the Proceedings of the institute, part iv., recently 
issued. 
The council is of opinion that the time is oppor-. 
tune for taking steps to secure for the profession of 
chemistry a position corresponding with that occupied 
by other learned professions. It considers that much 
would be accomplished towards the attainment of that 
aim if, in the first place, adequate and uniform condi- 
tions of appointment were accorded to chemists directly — 
engaged in the service of the State. These include 
chemists occupied in research, in analysis, and in 
technological work, as well as those employed in 


a 


Fe 


we, 


Tn ah 


a “Marcu 13, 1919] 


NATURE 35 


_ educational work. It is chiefly to the first three 
_ branches that the memorandum relates, 
Only persons possessing recognised qualifications 
_ should be eligible for appointment as chemists in the 
GO iment chemical service. Such appointments 
_ should be rendered attractive to those who have 
‘reached «he required standard of efficiency, and there 
should be no confusion between these chemists and 
- unqualified assistants. 
hoch aggre regards it as a first principle that steps 
_ should be taken to remove the confusion (existing in 
s, but in no other country) which arises from the 
of the title “chemist” by those who practise 
It is | ted that the appointment of chemists 
should be on a system of selection by properly 
isti ee ~ not by examination or 
nomination. urther, the persons appointed as 
uists should be graded as Civil Servants in the 
higher division, preferably as. members of a_profes- 
‘sional division, with status, emoluments, and pension 
comparable with those of the members of other 
7) learned professions employed by the 


further sugges tion is that, subject to satisfactor 
r being given, the system should provide for 
_ certainty of promotion, independently of the occurrence 
| of vacancies, up to a definite rank, not necessarily 
_ the highest, but one securing an adequate salary to a 
irried man. is is regarded as essential if men 
‘the best type are to be obtained. A chemist should 
constantly increasing in efficiency, and this should 
cognised by the provision mentioned. 
‘titles for the service, it is considered, would 
ief Chemist (with a special departmental title in 
cases), followed by Deputy Chief Chemist, 
ing Chemist, and Assistant Chemists 
Senior, and Junior). The rank held by 
would be determined by the size of 
e estal and the nature of the work carried 
t. The secondary staff, to whom the title of chemist 
would not apply, should be classified into Chemical 
Assistants, DS iatiobasery: Assistants, and Laboratory 
: nts. The first of these three classes would 
: le men of good education, but without full pro- 
il qualification; on obtaining this they would 
ible for appointment as chemists. 
The council of the institute believes that direct ad- 
_ vantage would accrue to the State from such an 
ganisation,’ and that the status of the profession of 
‘ listry would be raised. This would, incidentally, 
contribute to the advancement of chemical science. 
Sg eA 


ays 


Ecard War. Bette 
_ ROGER BACON (1214-94). 
WN a paper entitled ‘‘ Notes on the Early History of 
: be io Matiter's Compass” in the Geographical 
Journal for November, 1918, Mr. M. Esposito ably 
_ shows the difficulty of stopping a fable when it has 
once gone forth, and, incidentally, reveals the small 
amount of knowledge possessed even by eminent men 
of science of the actual facts of the life of the first 
modern man of science. Mr. Esposito clearly demon- 
strates to the scientific public what was already known 
_ to Baconian scholars: that Roger Bacon, great as 
are his titles to remembrance, was neither the inventor 
nor introducer of the mariner’s compass. 
At a time when the claims of Englishmen to a 
_ leading place in the history of science are being 
aA he ‘with so much vigour, it is disheartening to 
; 1d that the great founder of modern scientific 
_ thought, though himself an Englishman, is usually 
_ ~ forgotten or his work misunderstood. Oxford, his 
_ alma mater, with her thoughts and gaze turned to 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


Powe} re 
in). ee 
tad 


$ 


the remoter past, has scarcely glanced at Bacon, and, 
save for the faithful labours of Prof. Little, Dr. 
Withington, and the late J. H. Bridges, has only 
thought fit to regard one of the greatest of her sons as 
a buffoon for her pageant. Italy has her national 
edition of Galileo; France has produced, at the 
expense of her Government, two monumental editions 
of the works of her national philosopher, Descartes; 
and even little Denmark has found a private patron 
to provide the magnificent definitive edition of Tycho 
Brahé. Yet the writings of Bacon remain neglected, 
many of them unprinted, most of them in old or 
inaccurate editions. Even more astonishing is the fact 
that not a single important work of Bacon has 
appeared in English. Were it not for the public spirit 
of Mr. R. R. Steele, who for years has been labouring 
at the text, and whose fascicules have been issued 
from the Clarendon Press, Bacon, the herald of the 
new dawn, would have been almost forgotten in his 
own university. 

The ideas in circulation as to the achievements of 
Roger Bacon are usually so vague that it may be con- 
venient to place on record, in categorical form, his 
claims as a scientific pioneer :— 

(1) He attempted to set forth a system of natural 
knowledge far in advance of his time. The basis of 
that system was observation and experiment. He was 
clearly the first man in modern Europe of whom this 
can be said. 

(2) He was the first man in modern Europe to see 
the need for the accurate study of foreign and ancient 
languages. He attempted grammars of Greek and 
Hebrew along definite scientific lines. He also pro- 
jected a grammar of Arabic. Moreover, he laid down 
those lines of textual criticism which have only been 
developed within the last century. 

(3) He not only expatiated on the experimental 
method, but was himself an experimenter. The 
criteria of priority were not then what they are now, 
but his writings are important in the development of 
the following sciences :— 

(a) Optics.—His work on this subject was a text- 
book for the next two centuries. He saw the import- 
ance of lenses and concave mirrors, and showed a 
remarkable grasp of mathematical optics. He described 
a system which is equivalent to a two-lens apparatus, 
and there is trustworthy evidertce that he actually used 
a compound system of lenses equivalent to a telescope. 

(b) Astronomy was Bacon’s perpetual interest. He 
spent the best part of twenty years in the construction 
of astronomical tables. His letter to the Pope in 
favour of the correction of the calendar, though un- 
successful in his own days, was borrowed and re- 
borrowed, and finally, at third-hand, produced the 
Gregorian correction. 

(c) Geography.—He was the first geographer of the 
Middle Ages. He gave a systematic description, not 
only of Europe, but also of Asia and part of Africa, 
and collected first-hand evidence from travellers in all 
these continents. His arguments as to the size and 
sphericity of the earth were among those that induced 
Columbus to set out on his voyage of discovery. 

(d) Mechanical Science.—Suggestions descri by 
him include the automatic propulsion of vehicles and 
vessels. He records also the working out of a plan 
for a flying-machine. 

(e) Chemistry.—The chemical knowledge of his time 
was systematised in his tracts. His description of the 
composition and manufacture of gunpowder is the 
earliest that has come down to us. It is clear that 
he had worked out for himself some of the chemistry 
of the subject. 

(f) Mathematics.—His insistence on the supreme 
value of mathematics as a foundation for education 


36 


NATURE © 


| Marcu 13, 1919 


recalls the attitude-of Plato. It was an insistence 
that the method of thought was more important than 
its content. 

Summed up, his: legacy to thought may be regarded 
as accuracy of method, criticism of authority, and 
reliance on experiment—the pillars of modern science. 
The memory of such a man is ‘surely worthy of 
national recognition. CHARLES SINGER. 

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 

THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 

HE seventy-first meeting of the American Associa- 

tion ‘for the Advancement of Science was held 

at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., 

on December 23-28, 1918, under the presidency of Dr. 
John Merle Coulter, of the University of Chicago. 

The arrangements for the meeting were made before 
the close of the war, and the armistice in November 
was, naturally, not anticipated. It had been intended 
originally to hold this meeting in Boston, but the place 
was changed on account of the fact that Baltimore 


{in close proximity to Washington) was most .con-— 


venient for the small army of scientific workers who 
were engaged at the national capital. In the interval 
between November 11 and the ‘Christmas holidays, 
however, the character of the programme was. largely 
altered, and reconstruction papers were substituted in 
many cases for war papers, and some of the symposia 
were altered accordingly. The total attendance ap- 
proximated eight hundred, and the following affiliated 
societies met with the association :—Americal Physical 
Seciety, Optical Society of America, Association of 
American Geographers, Geological Society of. America, 
American Society of Naturalists, American ‘Society 
of Economic Entomologists, Ecological Society of 
America, Botanical Society of America, American 
Phytopathological Society, American Anthropological 
Association, Psychological Association, American 
Metric Association, Society of .American Bacterio- 
logists, American Society of . Horticultural Science, 
Society of American Foresters, School Garden Associa- 
tion of America, and American Association of the 
University ‘Professors. 

The outstanding character of .the meeting is indi- 
cated by the titles:of some of the addresses and sym- 
posia, a few. of which may. be mentioned. The address 
of Dr. H. J. Waters, of Section M, is entitled ‘‘ The 
Farmers’ Gain from the War,’’ and this was. followed 
by a symposium on ‘The Agricultural Situation in 
Europe and Measures for Recgnstruction.’”’ Members 
of the American Agricultural Mission, recently re- 
turned from Europe, took part in this symposium, 
The address by Dr. H..S. Drinker, before Section D, 
was on ‘“‘ The Need of Conservation of our Vital and 
Natural Resources as Emphasised by the Lessons of 
the War.” 

The American Foresters’ Association held a sym- 
posium on ‘‘ Forest Reconstruction.’’ Section L, held 
one on “The Education of the Disabled Soldier.” 
The Optical Society of America .presented a sym- 
posium on applied optics, and the address of the 
president, Dr. F. E. Wright, was on the optical 
industry in war-time. Before the Association of 
American Geographers Prof. G. A. Condra read a 
paper entitled “Potash a Factor in Winning the 
War,” and Prof. R..DeC. Ward on ‘‘ Weather Controls 
over the Fighting during the Autumn, of 1918.” 

Section F, in .a joint .meeting of the American 
Society .of Naturalists, held an important symposium 
on the subject of ‘‘The Need of Securing Better .Co- 
operation between Government and University Labora- 
‘ tory.Zoologists in the Solution of Problems of National 

Importance.” This .symposium .is the direct outcome 
of the war, the university men having become con- 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


vinced that they can help the Government more than _ 
they have in the past. “reat 
Dr. R. A.-Harper, of Section G, discussed ‘The 


Stimulation of Botanical Research after the War,? — 


and Dr. ‘G. T. Moore “Botanical Participation in 
War-work.” The programme of the American Phyto- 
pathological Society contained several discussions of 
war emergency projects in regatd to crop diseases. 

The programme of Section H and of the American 
Anthropological Association dealt almost entirely with 
questions relating to the war. Some of the titles may 
be mentioned :—‘‘A Unified Blank of Measurement 
to be Used in Recruiting in Allied Countries: A Plea 
for the Unification of Anthropological Methods,” by 
Prof. Fabio Frasetto, of the Royal Italian Embassy, 
and also of the University of Bologna; ‘‘The War 
Museum and its Place in the National Museum 
Group,” ‘by Dr. W. H. Holmes; “Race Origin and 
History as Factors in World-Politics,” by Dr. Jz-C. 
Merriam; ‘‘ The Effect. of the War upon the American 
Child,” by Ruth McIntire, of the National ‘Child 
Labour Committee; “‘The War and ‘the Race,” by 
Dr. A. Hrdlitka, U.S. National Museum; and 
‘‘Examinations of Emotional Fitness for Warfare,” by 
Dr. ‘R. W. Woodworth, of Columbia University. 
There were also several papers before Section H - 
relating ‘to the psychological examination of ‘the 
American ‘troops by officers of the Reserve Army. | 

Section I (Social and Economic Science), as usual, 
presented a varied programme, but on the last day of 
the meeting held a reconstruction symposium, in which 
several very important papers were read. Dr. David J. 
Hill, formerly United States Ambassador to’ Germany, 
gave an address on ‘‘Germany after ‘the War”; 
M. Edouard de ‘Billy, of the French High Commission, 
spoke of’ France afteri\the war; Dr. William’H. Welch, | 
of the Johns Hopkins ‘University, ‘spoke of the health 
problems of reconstruction ; Mr. Charles Pergler, Com- 
missioner ‘in the United ‘States of the 'Czecho-Slovak 
National ‘Council, gave an address on the future of 
the Czecho-Slovak State; Sir H. ‘Babington Smith, - 
of the British Embassy, spoke on the reconstruction 
of Great Britain following the war; and Mr. J. W. 
Bain, of Canada, on ‘the reconstruction after the war 
in'Canada. Mr. John. Barrett, Director-General of the 
Pan-American Union, who ‘presided at ‘this session, 
gave an address on the subject of ‘ Pan-Americanism 
after the War.” ‘ 

The retiring ‘president of the association, Prof. 
Theodore W. Richards, of Harvard University, 
was to ‘have given’ his address at the opening 
meeting of the session on ‘the subject “‘The Problem 
of Radio-active Lead.’’ Most unfortunately, Prof. 
Richards was seized with ‘‘Spanish”’ influenza when 
on the point of leaving Boston, and was unable to be 
present at the Baltimore meeting. The proceedings at 
the general session were, therefore, brief, and con- 
sisted of an address of welcome by Dr. F. J. Goodnow, 
president of the Johns Hopkins University, and a reply 
by President-elect Coulter. . 

The titles of the addresses of the retiring vice- 
presidents of ‘the sections which met at Baltimore 
were :—Section A, Prof. Henry N. Russell, of Prince- 
ton, ‘Variable Stars’; Section B, Dr. W. J. 
Humphreys, of the U.S. Weather Bureau, ‘Some 
Recent Contributions .to the Physics of the Air”; 
Section C, Prof. W. A. Noyes, of the University of 
Illinois, ‘‘ Valency’?; Section D, Dr. H. S. Drinker, — 
president of Lehigh University, ‘The Need of Con- 
servation of our Vital and Natural Resources as 


‘Emphasised by the ‘Lessons of the War’; Section E 


Prof. G.:H..Perkins, of the University of Vermont, 
““Vermont.-Physiography”.; Section F. Prof. Herbert. 
Osborn, of the University of Ohio, ‘‘Zoological Aims 
and Opportunities”; Section G, Prof. Burton E. 


NATURE 39 


: - Marcu 13, 1919] 


gston, of the Johns Hopkins University, ‘‘ Some 
sibilities of Botanical Science”; Section H 
L. Thorndike, ‘Scientific Personnel Work in 
ihe United States Army”; Section L, Prof. E. F. 
chn er, of the Johns Hopkins University, ‘ Scientific 
butions of the Educational Survey”; and. Sec- 
Prof. H. J. Waters, of the University of 
“The Farmers’ Gain from the War” (Prof. 
as unable to be present, and the address was 


g, and the emphasis. which the war has 
the value of. scientific investigation was 
wn throughout the whole list of papers. 
emp an ged for a permanent committee on 
consist of nine members, of which Prof. 
was made chairman, and Prof. Joel 
ary, both of the University of Illinois. 
, through its committee on policy, also 
the general. session a complete revision of 
xt on. of) the association; which reorganises 
fies the work of the association to a very 
e.. The full revision will; be published in 
tence, and acted upon at the next 
_association. 
# the general:committee Dr. Simon 
ockefeller Institute for Medical 
ade president of the association for 
ear, and St. Louis was chosen as the 
2, the next meeting to begin on Decem- 
The following officers were also elected : 
ents (chairmen of sections): Section B, 
-Lyman, of Harvard University; Sec- 
of. B. F. Lovelace, of the Johns Hopkins 
Section E, Prof. C. K. Leith, of the 
8 onsin; Section F, Prof. William 
ard’ University; Section G, Prof. 
of the Iowa State College; Sec- 
-M. Yerkes, of the University of 
m L, Prof. V. A. C. Henmon, of 
Wisconsin; and Section M, Dr. 
sident of the Maryland Agricultural 
of vice-presidents of Sections A, 


postponed to the spring meeting of 


ra 


reta 


CT1O 


. Moore, director of the Missouri 
’n, was elected general secretary, and 
Abbott, of Washington University, was 
y of the council. 


RSITY AND) EDUCATIONAL 
) *INTELLIGENCE. 
DGE.—Sir J. J. Thomson has expressed his 
‘to resign the Cavendish professorship of experi- 
ntal physics, and at the same time has generously. 
red to continue his services in the promotion and 
1 of reseatch work in physics without stipend. 
sidered’ of such great importance for the 
‘that Sir J. J. Thomson should con- 
associated with it as a professor that the 
to which the question has been referred 
mends that a new professorship without stipend, 
lled the professorship of physics, should be 
tblished for him. It is proposed that this professor- 
» Should terminate with. his tenure of the office 
ss the University should meanwhile determine 
wise. The Cavendish professorship of experi- 
7 physics has accordingly been declared. vacant, 
and the election of a professor will take place on 
_ April 2. Candidates for the vacant professorship are 
requested to communicate with the Vice-Chancellor, 
and to send such evidence as they may desire to: 
submit to the electors on or before Wednesday, 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


O74 
The. election to the professorship of mechanism 
and applied mechanics will take place on) March 28. 
Mr. R. A. Peters, of Gonville and Caius College, 
has = appointed senior demonstrator of bio- 
stry. 


Mr. A. J. TuRNER has been appointed to the chair 
of textile sagen in the College of Technology, 
Manchester. Mr. Turner had a distinguished career 
at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and 
during the latter part of 1912 he was engaged in 
research work in organic chemistry at Cambridge 
under Sir William Pope. He later accepted an appoint- 
ment upon the scientific staff of the National Physical 
Laboratory, where he was chiefly engaged in research 
work on fabrics and dopes for aeronautical purposes. 
Following this he was appointed to the charge of the 
fabrics laboratory of the Royal Aircraft Establish- 
ment. " 


A. STATEMENT for the year 1918 as to the Rhodes 
scholarships has just been issued. Only nine scholars 
were in residence during the year. Of these four had 
previously been on active service, two had been re- 
jected, for service on medical grounds, and three were 
carrying on their, medical studies with a view to 
early qualification. There were also in residence in 
the course of the past year fifteen holders of overseas 
scholarships, granted by the Rhodes Trust and certain 
other bodies, Of the fifty scholars elected for 1917, 
forty-six took military service, two were rejected on 
medical grounds and accepted Government work 
instead, and two have been otherwise employed. The 
election of scholars, postponed on account of the war, 
will be resumed in October of the present year (1919). 
It is hoped that by that time the demobilisation of the 
armies will be so far completed that intending candi- 
dates who have taken military service will have an 
opportunity to compete. It is proposed to fill up in 
October of this year only the 1918 and 1919 postponed 
scholarships. During the years. 1917 and. 1918 the 
organising secretary of the Trust, Dr. G. R. Parkin, 
visited most of the States of the American Union and 
the provinces of Canada, and made an exhaustive 
study, in consultation with university and college 
authorities, of the operation in. those countries of the 
system pursued in the selection of scholars since the 
foundation of the Trust. As a result of this investiga- 
tion certain changes in the methods of selection have 
been under consideration. Among other changes it 
has been decided that candidates in the United States 
who are otherwise eligible shall no longer be required 
to pass a. qualifying examination, but shall be selected, 
with due reference to the suggestions of Mr. Rhodes, 
on the basis of their university or college standing, 
subject to any further test which the committees of 
selection may, in their discretion, impose. 


SOCIETIES. AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 


Royal Society, February 27.—Sir J. J. Thomson, 
president, in the chair——Hon. R. J. Strutt: Scatter-. 
ing of light by solid substances. Glasses of all kinds. 
show a strong internal scattering of light. The beam, 
viewed laterally is strongly, but not completely, 
polarised. Yellow. and smoky quartz also show a 
strong scattering. One specimen gave a polarisation 
so nearly complete that an analysis set for minimum 
intensity transmitted only o-7 of 1 per cent. of the 
scattered light. If a polarised beam is passed: along 
the axis of such a quartz crystal, there are for a given 
wave-length maxima and minima of scattered light. 
along the length of the beam. This is due to the 


38 


NATURE © 


| Marcu 13, 1919 


rotatory property. Owing to rotatory dispersion the 
period is different for different wave-lengths, and 
coloured bands result. The clearest and whitest 
quartz has some scattering power, though much less 
than that of glass or liquids. In one case examined 
the intensity was about eight times that due to dust- 
- free air at atmospheric pressure. This small scatter- 
ing is considered to be due to inclusions, as in the 
case of visibly smoky or yellow quartz. The regular 
atomic structure, which has a period small com- 
pared with the wave-length of ordinary light, should 
give no scattering. For very short wave-lengths 
(X-rays) the well-known diffraction effects of crystals 
come in.—Sir James Dobbie and Dr. J. J. Fox: The 
constitution of sulphur vapour. Investigations based 
on the determination of the vapour density leave the 
question of the existence of sulphur molecules inter- 
mediate in complexity between S, and S, unsettled. 
The present paper contains an account of an attempt 
to solve the problem by the study of the absorptive 
power of the vapour of sulphur for light under various 
conditions of temperature. When light from a suit- 
able source is passed through the vapour and 
examined with the spectroscope at successively higher 
temperatures it is found that the amount of absorp- 
tion caused by the vapour gradually increases up to 
about 650° C., after which it decreases as the tem- 
perature rises until goo° C. is reached, above which 
no further change occurs.—Dr. W. G. Duffield, T. H. 
Burnham, and A. H. Davis: The pressure upon the 
poles of the electric arc. For many reasons the pro- 
jection of electrons from the cathode of an electric 
arc is to be expected, and the mechanism of the arc 
appears to require it. If this projection exists, it is 
likely to occasion a mechanical recoil upon the 
cathode. A pressure was looked for in 1912 and dis- 
covered. It remained to determine if the magnitude 
was such as to be accounted for by electronic projec- 
tion. Numerous sets of observations upon anode and 
cathode were taken with varying current and arc- 
length and different dispositions of apparatus. The 
pressure was found to be about 0-17 dyne per ampere, 
or when convection current effects were eliminated 
so far as possible, 0-22 dyne per ampere. The effect 
does not appear to be due to radiometer action, and 
is about two hundred times too small to be referred to 
the expulsion of carbon atoms at the boiling-point 
of that element. Such evidence as has been obtained 
thus favours the recoil being due to the projection of 
electrons. 


» Physical Society, February 14.—Prof. C. H. Lees, 


president, in the chair.—S. Skinner and R. W. Burfitt : 
Temperature coefficient of tensile strength of water. 
The liquid is forced under pressure through a capillary 
constriction between two limbs of a U-tube. By trial 
the pressure is adjusted until the speed in the capillary 
is sufficient to produce rupture. This is judged by 
the sound and also the appearance. The whole U-tube 
is immersed in a bath, the temperature of which can 
be varied. Actual observations of rupture, velocity, 
and temperature are recorded up to about 100° C., 
from which it is deduced that the tensile strength 
becomes zero in the neighbourhood of 245° C., which 
is in agreement with theory.—Prof. W. H. Eccles: 
Vector diagrams of some oscillatory circuits used 


with thermionic tubes. The method of the 
crank or vector diagrams used commonly in 
the study of alternating-current circuits is ap- 


plied in the paper to the assemblage made up of 
an oscillator, the thermionic relay maintaining it in 
oscillation, and the devices linking these two parts. 
The diagrams then serve as substitutes for the usual 
treatment of the problem by differential equation, and 
from them may be obtained all the formula. They 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


have, besides, the advantage of exhibiting to the eye 
the phases of the currents and voltages in every part 
of the circuits. 
drop across the oscillator is calculated by the usual 


rules of the alternating-current diagram, and added 


geometrically to the potential drop across the tube. 
This total is made equal, in magnitude and phase, to 
the voltage applied at the instant to the grid multi- 
plied by the voltage factor of the relay. In its turn 
the voltage applied to the relay depends upon, and is 
obtained from, the current running in a portion of the 
oscillator. The fitting together of these lines gives all 
the conditions to be satisfied for the maintenance of 
steady oscillations.—Prof. W. H. Eccles and F. W. 
Jordan; A small direct-current motor using thermionic 
tubes instead of sliding contacts. In this motor the 
rotating part is an ebonite disc with iron teeth on its 
periphery, and the stationary part comprises two 
electromagnets with their poles close to two teeth. 
One electromagnet is connected to the grid of a 
thermionic relay, the other is included in the plate 
circuit. When during rotation a tooth passing the 
grid magnet induces a voltage in its winding, the 
consequent transient increase of current through the 
other magnet causes this magnet to exert a pull on 
the tooth approaching it. We thus have a small motor 
without commutator or spark which may under no- 
load be driven up to a speed of 4000 to 6000 revs. per 

min. from the lighting supply. * 
23... WY 


Geological Society, February 
Lamplugh, president, in the chair.—Annual general 
meeting.—G. W. Lamplugh: Presidential address : 


The structure of the Weald and analogous tracts. 
(1) The anticline of the Weald is a superficial structure 
dependent upon an underlying syncline.. The lens of 
sediments thus bounded was deposited in a gradually 
deepening trough, which was afterwards shallowed by 
partial recovery. (2) The Jurassic rocks of the rest 
of England have had a similar history, and show an 
analogous structure modified by unequal uplift. 
(3) The Triassic and most of the Carboniferous rocks 
of England appear also to have been accumulated in 
deepening troughs or basins, which were afterwards 
shallowed by differential uplift where the deposits 
were thickest. (4) Where the formations dealt with 
lie above sea-level, the present outcrops represent the 
areas of maximum development, and therefore co- 
incide roughly with the position of the deepest parts 
of the old troughs. This factor may be of wide 
application, and has a practical bearing. __ : 
February 26.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, president, in 
the chair.—Col. T. W. Edgeworth David: Geology 


at the Western Front. 


Zoological Society, March 4.—Dr. A. Smith Wood- 
ward, vice-president, in the chair.—G. A, Boulenger : 
Fishes from Lake Tanganyika, including three new 
species.—Miss Joan B. Procter : The skull and affinities 
of Rana subsigillata. Attention was directed to several 
cranial characters either peculiar to this frog or held 
in common with R. adspersa, its nearest ally. 

DUvsLin. 

Royal Irish Academy, January 27.—Mr. T. J... 
Westropp, vice-president, in the chair.—R. LI. Praeger : 
Species of Sedum collected in China-by L. H. Bailey 
in 1917. The collection included three new species, 
S. limuloides, S. baileyi, and S. quaternatum, the first 
being a remarkable plant of doubtful affinities, and the 
second a member of a group (Involucrata) confined 
as hitherto known to the Caucasus and Asia Minor. 

February 10.—Prof. G. H. Carpenter, vice-president, 
in the chair.—A. Henry and Miss M. G. Flood: The 
history of the London plane, Platanus acerifolia. 
This tree, unknown in the wild state, and invariably 


In forming the diagrams the potential — 


Marcu 13, 1919 | 


NATURE 39 


owns in Europe and the United States, where it 
ses all other trees in resistance to evil condi- 
of soil and atmosphere. It has all the characters 
first cross, its leaves and fruits being intermediate 
| the two wild species, P. orientalis and P. 
alis, while its vigour is remarkable. It more- 
oduces, when its seeds are sown, a mixed and 
crop of seedlings, in which are variously com- 
the characters distinctive of the two parent 
_ The London plane probably originated as a 
edling in the Oxford Botanic Garden some 
ee 2070. Specimens of its foliage, preserved 
loane Herbarium at Oxford, were collected by 
about that date, and bear the label Platanus 
lowing that it was then recognised as a hybrid 
the Oriental and Occidental planes. This date 
with the recorded age of the largest London 
known, a magnificent tree at Ely, 110 ft. in 
ind 23 ft. in ec; Certain cultivated varieties, 
». pyramidalis, P. hispanica, etc., appear to have 
ed at a pe = Ne chance seedlings of 
olta, as is shown by their history and a careful 
their botanical ehitkctars A complete 
f the fruit and leaves of all the species 
and of the hybrids is given. The lobing 


minence. Three groups of. ions of 
ies than the atmospheric large ion were 

‘conclusion as to the nature of the 
is that they are composed mainly of 


Paris. 

ices, February 24.—M. Léon Guignard 
. Richet, P. Brodin, and Fr. Saint- 
_hematic phenomena in anaphylaxy 
flaxy. ‘Three new facts are brought 
ts on dogs. In anaphylaxy the blood 
diy modified by the appearance of nucleated 
ss, by an increase in concentration, and 
‘ance of the polynuclear cells.—A. 
_ Application of the theory of the two re- 
to the calculation of the forced oscillations 
hronised alternators.—M. Balland: Military 
-M. Danie! Berthelot was elected a member of 


ior BaeReysics in succession to the late E. H. 
it.—A. Denjoy: A property of functions with 
nplex variables.—M. Risser: Formule representa- 
e of trajectories—M. Mesnager: Maximum values 
: tension near the lower face of a square plate 
rting a single load concentrated at its centre.— 
re: The gyroscopic force of liquids.—A. 
: ro : The central temperature of the sun.—A. 
_ Sanfourche: The oxidation cycle of nitric oxidé in 
_ presence of water. The oxidation of nitric oxide in 
_ presence of water gives nitrous anhydride, and not 
_fitrogen peroxide, as the intermediate product.—E. 
_ Léger: The a- and §-oxydihydrocinchonines and their 
_ réle in the production of certain isomers of cinchonine. 
_ —F. Grandjean: Some new examples of the calcula- 
_ tion of the extraordinary rays for certain structures 
_ of anisotropic liquids.—J. Renaud: Difficulties met 
_ with in the study of storms as a result of the uncer- 
NO. 2576, VOL. 103] 


gated by cuttings, is much planted in the streets | 


tainty of the time of the observations. The change 
over from Greenwich time to summer time causes 
difficulty with self-recording instruments, and in 
several cases it is not clear froin the records whether 
the chart was changed on the date of the change. of 
time.—L. Joleaud: The migrations of the genera 
Hystrix, Lepus, Anchitherium, and Mastodon at the 
Neogene epoch.—Em. Bourquelot and H. Hérissey : 
Application of the biological raethod to the study of 
the leaves of Hakea laurina. The extraction of a 
glucoside (arbutin) and quebrachite. By the succes- 
sive action of invertin and emulsin, these leaves were 
proved to contain cane-sugar, quebrachite, and two 
hydrolysable glucosides, one of which, arbutin, was 
identified.—G. Petit: Remarks on the morphology of 
the phrenic centre of mammals.—P. Armand-Delille : 
Considerations relating to the unicist conception of 
the hamatozoa of benign and malignant tertiary fever. 
—MM. Boquet and L. Négre: Infection, sensibilisa- 
tion, and immunity in epizootic lymphangitis of the 
Solipeds.—E, Belot: The economical organisation of 
commercial motor transports in a large town. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Essentials of Volumetric Analysis. An Introduction 
to the Subject. Adapted to the Needs of Students of 
Pharmaceuticai Chemistry. By Prof. Henry W. 
Schimpf. Third edition, rewritten and enlarged. 
Pp. xiv+366. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 
Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 7s. 
net. 

Integral Calculus. By Prof. H. B. Phillips; Pp. 
v+194. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 
London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 6s. net. 

Elements of General Science. By Prof. Otis Wil- 
liam Caldwell and W. L. Eikenberry. Revised edi- 
Pp. xii+404. (London: Ginn and Co., 1918.) 
5s. 6d. net. . 

Agricultural Laboratory Exercises and Home Pro- 
jects Adapted to Secondary Schools. BY Henry J. 
Waters and Prof. Joseph D. Elliff. p- vit+218. 
(London: Ginn and Co., 1919.) 4s. 6d. net. ; 

A Century of Science in America. With Special 
Reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818- 
1918. By Edward Salisbury, Dana, and others. Pp. 
458. (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: 
Oxford University Press, 1918.) 17s. net. : 

Military Geology and Topography. A Presentation 
of Certain Phases of Geology, Geography, and Topo- 
graphy for Military Purposes. Edited by Herbert E. 
Gregory. Prepared and issued under the auspices of 
the Division of Geology and Geography, National 
Research Council. Pp. xv+281. (New Haven: Yale 
University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 
1918.) 5s. 6d. net. 

A Practical Handbook of British Birds. Edited by 
H. F. Witherby. In eighteen parts. Part i. Pp. 
xvit+64+2 plates. (London: Witherby and Co., 
191g.) 48. net per part. ; 

Introductory Meteorology. Prepared and _ issued 
under the auspices of the Division of Geology and 
Geography, National Research Council. Pp. xii+ 
1so. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1918.) 
4s. 6d. net. . 

The Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned 
Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. Thirty-fifth 
annual issue. Pp. vii+333- (London: Charles Griffin 
and Co., Ltd., 1918.) 9s. net. ; 

The Science of Labour and Its Organisation. By 
Dr. Josefa Ioteyko. Pp. viii+199. (London: George 
Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1919.) 3s. 6d. net. 

La Genése de la Science des Cristaux. Par Héléne 


40 


i 


NATURE 


| Marcu 13, 1919 


Metzger. Pp. 
5.50 frances. 

A’'Garden Flora. Trees and Flowers Grown in the 
Gardens at Nymans, 1890-1915. By L. Messel. With 
illustrations by Alfred Parsons. Foreword by William 
Robinson. Notes by (Muriel Messel. Pp. ix+196. 
(London: Country Life Offices and George Newnes, 
Ltd., 1918.) ros. 6d. net. 

The Quantitative Method in Biology. By Prof. J. 
MacLeod. (Publications of the University of Man- 
chester. Biological ‘Series, No. ‘11.) ‘Pp. xii+228. 
(Manchester: At the University Press; London: 
Longmans, Green, and Co., 1919.) ‘15s. net. 


248. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1918.) 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, Marcu 13. 

Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Dr. D. Waller: Concerning Emotive 
Phenomena. III.: ‘The Influence of Drugs upon the Electrical Con- 
ductivity of the Palm of the Hand.—-Dr..W. L.: Balls: The | Existence ‘of 
Daily. Growth-rings in the Cell Wall of Cotton Hairs. 

‘Royal’ Society or Arrs, ‘at 4.30.—D. T. Chadwick: The Report of the 


Indian Industrial Commission. 

MATHEMATICAL SOcIETY, at 5.—J. Hammond: The Solution of the 
Quintic.—L. J. Mordell: A Simple Algebraic Summation of Gauss’s 
Sums.—Major P, A. MacMahon: Divisors of Numbers and their Con- 
tinuations in the Theory of Partitions.—S. Ramanujan : (1) Congruence 
Properties of Partitions ; (2) Algebraic Relations between Certain Infinite 
Products. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL 
Dielectrics in Electric Fields. 

Optica Socrery, at 7.—Major C. W. Gamble: 
Apparatus. used in Aerial Photography. 


FRIDAY, MARcuH 14. 

Puysicav Society, at 5.—C. C, Paterson and: Dr. Norman Campbell : Some 
Characteristics of the Spark Discharge, and its Effect in Igniting Explo- 
sive ‘Mixtures.—Major R. W. Wood : Demonstration entitled ‘‘ Invisible 
Light for Military Purposes.” 

RovaL ASTRONOMICAL SociEtTy, at 5 —J. Evershed: The Spectrum of 
Nova Aquilz.—Nautical Almanac Office : Numerical Differences for 1923 
between E. W.-Brown’s Tabular Places of the Moon and the Places 
according to Hansen; Tables with Newcoml.’s Corrections.—A. ‘Panne- 
koek : Distribution of the Stars of the rrth i TS iF Lunt: The 
‘Dark Line Spectrum of Nova Aquile No. 3.—G. 
Prominences, 1918.—Cambridge Observatory : i phatbinetie agnitudes 
and Effective Wave-lengths of .Nova Aquile.—A. Stanley Williams: 


ENGINEERS, at 6.—G. L. Addenbrooke : 
Some Photographic 


Further Observations of Nova Persei (1901 ),—Royal Observatory, Green- | 
1918.—E. . W. | 
Notes.on Some: of the Sun-spots Measured on Photographs | 
taken at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 1915.—Probable Papers— | 


wich: Preliminary Values of Variation of Latitude, 
Maunder : 


J. H. Jeans: The Internal Constitution’ and Radiation. of Gaseous 


Stars.—A. F. and F. A. Lindemann ; Preliminary Note on Some Applica- | 


tions of Photoelectric Photometry to ‘Astronomy. 

-Rovat INsTiTuTIon, at 5.30.—Prof. 
from a New Point of View. 

MALAcoLoGicaL Society, at 7.—A. S. Kennard and B. B. Woodward : 
Helix revelata, Britt, auctt. (mon Férussac, vec Michaud), and the Validity 
of Bellainy’s Name of Hedix subvirescens in lieu of it for the British Mollusc. 
—A, Reynell : Forbes's! Notes on Loven’s ‘‘ Index.’’—H. Watson: Notes 
on Hygromia limbata (Drap.). 


SATURDAY, Marcu 1s. 
Roya InstiTuTIon, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson : Spectrum Analysis ana its 
Application to Atomic Structure. 


4 MONDAY, Marcu 137. 

Roya. Society oF ARTS, at 4. 30.—Prof. W. A. Bone: Coal and its Con- 
servation. 

Vicrorta INSTITUTE, . at Bible 
History. 

Roya.’ GeocrapnicaL Society, at 5.—Lt.-Col. N. M. Maclieod : Survey 
by Air Photographs. 

ARISTOTELIAN Society, at 8.—A. E. Heath: The Scope of Scientific 


eth 
TUESDAY, Marcu 18 

‘Rovat_ InstTITUTION, at 3.—Prof A. Keith: British Ethnology—The 
People of Scotland. 

BririsH Association GeEopuysicaL CommirTEr (Royal Astronomical 
Society), at 5 —Prof. W. H. Bragg and Dr.» Crichton Mitchell: The 
Measurement of Pulsations in the Vertical Component of the Earth’s 
Magnetic Force! by means of Horizontal Coils.— Prof. Hubert Cox and 
Prof. Ernest Wilson : Recent Investigation of the Geological. Bearing of 
Local Magnetic Disturbance in a certain Region. 

RoyaL SratisticaL Society, at 5.15.—Prof. G. Diouritch : A Survey of 
the Development of the Serbian (Southern Slav) Race. An Economic 
and Statistical Study. 

MINERALOGICAL Eras at 5.30.—L. J. Spencer: Curvature in ai 
—Lieut. A. B. Edge: Siliceous Sinter from Lustleigh, Devon.—Dr. G. 
Prior : The Meteorites ‘Adare and Ensisheim, 

ZOOLOGICAL SociETY, at 5.30.—H. R.A. Mallock; Some Points in Insect 
Mechanics.—-F. Martin Dunean: Photographs. and Lantern-slides of 
Marine Zoology.—H. F. \Blaauw: The Breeding of Oryx gazélla at 
Gooilust. 

INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS, at 5.30.—M. A. Ockenden 
and Bog! Carter : Plant Employed in the Percussion Systems of Drilling 
Oil Wel , vg 


NO. 2576, VOL. 103 | 


4.30.—Dr. A. B. Rendle: Natural 


-Biological Problems ..... 


Betis ai Solar | 


A. Keith : The Organ ofHearing | 


Instirorion or ELECTRICAL EnGinEgrs (Students’ Meeting), at» oe 
P. Howgrave-Graham ¢ Oscillatory Electric reas 
| WEDNESDAY, Maxcu 

Rovar Socisry or ARTs, at 4.30.—Sir Dugald Clerk : The Distribation of ; 
Heat, Light, and Motive Power by Gas and Electricity. 7 

Rovat METEOROLOGICAL SociETy, at 5.—Prof. Leonard Hill: Atmo- 
spheric Conditions which Affect Health. . 

YAL Microscoricar. Society, at 8.—Dr. J. Bronté G eed 
Account of Work on Cytoplasmic Inclusions of the Cell.—Lt. J: 
Clibborn: A Standard “Microscope.—Dr. Nathan’ Mutch: A ei 
Method for the Isolation of Single Bacteria for the ‘Preparntiontor” Pure 
Cultures (Demonstration). 

|ITHURSDAY, Marcu 20. 

Roya Institution, at 3.—Prof. C. H. Lees: Fire Cracks and the Ponces 
Producing Them 

LINNEAN Socusny, at 5.—F, Lewis: Notes on a Visit’ to ty on pe 4 
witta Mountain, Ceylon, with List of the PlantsjObserved rea spd Seer titu- 
dinal Distribution.— iss‘May ere Specimens of Plants Preserved — 
by) Formalin Vapour.—H. R.. Amos : Wheat-breeding ‘with Mr, W. O. 
Backhouse in Argentina. 

INSTITUTION OF MINING AND METALLURGY. at 5.30.—Sir Thomas’ Kirke 
Rose: The’ Volatilisation of Gold.—W.'S. Cosel 5 fisher: Stope Measure- 
ment Methods, 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRIGAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Di 
Addenbrooke's Lectures on Dielectrics in Electric hig 

Cui_p*Stupy Socrery, at ‘6,—Discussion. open 
Training. of th ‘School Girl in Infant Care. 

CHEMICAL’ Society at 8. 


FRIDAY, Marcu 2 
Roya. INstiTuTION, at 5.30. Prof W. 'W. (Watts : : Fossil 
INSTITUTION: OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—H. | Ties, 


Tools, and Special Machines with :their Relation to. degingi of 
Standardised Parts. 


INSTITUTION ‘oF (ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS,’ at 8, with ‘Royal Society of 
Medicine (Electrical. Section).—R. S. 'W. le: ® Electrical. Methods of 
Measuring Body ‘Temperatures; (2) The Dee clue 


SATURDAY, Marcu 2 


ion on G. L. 
Mrs. K.<Truelove : 


‘Roya InsTiTuTION, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson: ‘Specniain Analysis and j its 


‘Application to Atomic Structure. 


CONTENTS. 


. ot ett Si Nie erie f 21 
Genetics forthe Botanist . Jesitl orekiieendiieeeaciial 
Natural History in.the: New World | juss aanhicel 22 
Our Bookshelf . . SOY oce'e  pmrcoly' labia gieemsia es acy eee 
Letters to the Editor:— My 

The Directorship of the Natural History Museum. - — 
‘Sir G. Greenhill, F.R ; 24 
‘Absorption of Gases by Charcoal. —_Sir ‘William A 
‘Tilden, F-R/S. 24 

The Profession of Chemistry Dr. M.O. ‘Forster, 

24 


'F.R.S. 

Graphical Methods in: Nautical ‘Astronomy: —Dr. oe 
Hutchinson 25 
ee ae onChaik. —Dr. Chas. W. Andrews, : 
2 
‘Globular ‘Clusters, Cepheid’ Variables, and ‘Radiation. 
— Dr. Harlow Shapley ‘APES ye 1 
Research and University Education. ‘By Fs oo, | 27 
Prof. E.'C, Pickering, For.Mem.R:S. ty 2)288 


‘Lt.-Col. W. Watson, ©.M.G.,(F/Ri6. 3: Dae ete) ap 


WNoteasiiiacss TSS a) ESE Bi AO 
Our Astronomical Column :— , 
The Reform of the-Galendar ..) 4 a) so) woh ss Ea 4 
Dark Markings on the Sky . ~~... + + + «ee + 34 
The Astrographic Catalogue. . . © a4 
A Suggested Government Chemical. Service . . Cheek 34 
Roger Bacon (1214-94). By Dr. Charles Singer . . 35 


‘The American Seauciation for the Advancement of 


Science . , Sn aid ONE 
University and ° Educational Intelligence NaI ES aa ale y Bl 
Societies‘and'Academies ........4+++++ 37 
Books Received. fis. .63 660. iS a, a 9 
Diesy of Sacteties) 4.0. 200 2.670 eee oe ao 


‘Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Lr. 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to 7 addressed to the 
Publishers. 


Editorial Communications .to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. 
Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 


Be Riel ws. NATURE 


41 


_ THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1910. 


i sa = = 


THE VEGETABLE OIL INDUSTRIES. 


duction and Treatment of Vegetable Oils. 
- W. Chalmers. (The Engineer Series.) 


hey es 152. (London: Constable and Co., 
Lt aM 1g18.) Price 21s. net. 


) HE series of industries which is based on 

vegetable oils as raw materials manu- 
S products which are of the utmost import- 
oy to mankind. These industries utilise profit- 
y a very large capital, and in the aggregate 
seen to a considerable number of work- 

‘They are amongst the most highly or- 
ised industries in this country in the appli- 
ion of | science to their manufacture, in the 


the caper both scientific and 
ical, dealing with them is a large one, but 
2 the less there is ample room for a book on 
he _ somewhat novel lines developed by Mr. 
almers. He has put together in book form a 
ies of particularly well illustrated articles 
red from time to time in the 
ingine ring 1917. The subject i is treated in 
ar ee eit from the engineer’s point of 
cae thoug! certain amount of chemist 
fa introduced, thi a essentially of an stuaveheary 
laracter; it is likewise unnecessary, as the 
sn ig subject is fully provided for in 


e veget oil industry in this country has 
"a great stimulus from the conditions 
- about by the war. Previously it had 
lc ‘on international lines; though the raw 
ets came in the main from British Colonies, 
were” dealt with largely at Hamburg or 
ia eilles and further elaborated in Holland, only 
i a -making being an essentially British industry. 
4 oe at inches are firmly established in this 
way y> ai unless their growth is hampered by 
legislation and taxation, a contingency 
is not altogether impossible, they are 
kely ‘to prove a great national asset. 
_ The method adopted by Mr. Chalmers is to give 
detailed description in simple terms of the pro- 
| cesses in use throughout the industries from the 
bl raw materials to the finished products. He has 
Be ed in making this sufficiently detailed to 
i of considerable value to those engaged either 
particular section or in one of the allied 
‘Suge of the industry and thus already possess- 
a general knowledge of the subject, as well as 
to others, outside the industry who may wish to 
derstand it. With such a work, criticism of 
ails is largely a matter of opinion and there- 
fore unnecessary; but on the general question it 
a perha a matter for regret that the author has 
= WH his experience of the machinery he. de- 
rt let and illustrates from a very limited number 
_ of firms, thereby to some extent misleading the 
_ réader as to the alternative plant available. 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


The earlier chapters deal with the preparatory 
machinery for the nuts and seed before they enter 
the oil mill proper and that required afterwards 
to prepare them for the presses or extraction 
vessels. Oil presses of both the Anglo-American 
and Cage types are described, these sections being 
particularly well illustrated. ‘A useful chapter dis- 
cusses the general arrangement of oil mills of 
both types. 

A very good account is given of the solvent 
extraction process, which, of course, has a wide 
field of application outside the vegetable oil in- 
dustry. The cake from the oil presses contains 
somewhere about 8 per cent. of oil and is recog- 
nised as a very valuable food’ for cattle; the 
residual meal from the solvent process contains 
-only about 1 to 2 per cent. of oil, and has to be 
carefully steamed to get rid of the last traces of 
solvent. The early imperfect working of this 
process has caused a prejudice against the meal 
in the minds of farmers which is to-day entirely 
unjustified. Furthermore, it is generally stated 
that extracted oil cannot be refined for edible 
purposes, though this is entirely contrary to 
experience. The author lays stress on the fact that 
recent progress has overcome the objections to 
the solvent process, and that pressing and extrac- 
tion can be very profitably worked side by side in 
the same mill. 

The refining of oils so as to make them 
edible is a subject concerning which much secrecy 
is usually exercised; the industry has been very 
much developed in Britain during the last few 
years, and wé should now be entirely independent 
of the Continent for edible oils. 

The manufacture of margarine is omitted, and 
the author passes to another section of the in- 
dustry, that of oil-hardening, or hydrogenation. 
Most of the vegetable oils are too liquid to be 
used for soap-making or even for edible purposes ; 
this is due to their being unsaturated—that is, 
they contain an insufficient proportion of hydrogen. 
This element may be introduced into the molecule 
by means of a nickel catalyst, whereby a liquid oil 
can be converted into a solid oil of any desired 
degree of hardness. The process is full of tech- 
nical difficulties, and their practical solution, so as 
to give a thoroughly efficient commercial process, 
is one of the best achievements of the English 
chemical manufacturer during the last twenty 
years. It is worth recalling that but for this 
process there would have been no soap and very 
much less margarine during the last two critical 
years. 

The problem of the technical manufacture of 
hydrogen on a large scale had also to be solved 
before ‘hardening could be carried on com- 
mercially. The author deals with these two 
subjects in considerable detail and imparts much 
information which has not hitherto been published. 

The final chapters describe the manufacture of 
soap, perhaps the best known part of the industry, 
and with the recovery of the glycerine from 
soap lyes. As the soap industry has been worked 
mainly for the sake of this by-product during the — 


dD 


42 


NATURE 


{ Marcu 20, 1919 


war, considerable interest attaches to its efficient 
recovery. _ 

The author is to be commended on a solid piece 
of work, which cannot fail in the long run to be 
of much use to the vegetable oil industries. 

Bi Fe 


TEMPERATURE IN CHINA. 
La Température en Chine et a quelques Stations 
voisines d’aprés des observations quotidiennes. 

_Compilées par H. Gauthier, S.J. 3 vols. 

Pp. xlviii+ 784. (Shanghai: ‘Imprimerie de la 

Mission Catholique, 1918.) 

INCE the publication of Buchan’s compre- 
hensive “Report on Atmospheric Circula- 
tion,’’ the accepted unit of time in the compila- 
tion of climatological data has been the month,- 
and daily averages of meteorological elements 
have rarely been calculated. The inadequacy of 
monthly, and the need for.daily, normals have 
often been urged, but the preparation of the latter 
requires considerable leisure, a rare COPE in 
most. meteorological services. 

The present set of three volumes provides daily 
averages of temperature for China and its vicinity 
in the most complete and satisfying manner, deal- 
ing with one hundred stations, for periods varying 
from one to forty-four years. The data have been 
prepared by Father H. Gauthier, S.J., director of 
the meteorological observatory of Zikawei, which 
is also the headquarters of the meteorological 
service of China. The work was obviously a 
labour of love, from the completeness of the tables 
and the full discussion. The volumes contain a 
long and interesting introduction, a set of charts 
of monthly and annual isotherms of China, with 
other diagrams, and 784 pages of tables. The 
introduction alone is a valuable treatise on the 
climate of China, containing a full discussion and 
analysis of all elements at Zikawei, including 
some, like ozone, not generally dealt with, and 
also a summary of the changes in the meteorology 
of China month by month. 

The harmonic analysis of the annual variation 
of the meteorological elements at Zikawei sug- 
gests a study of the influence of various factors 
—-insolation, pressure, wind, evaporation, etc.—on 
‘the temperature. The annual curve is built up, 
step by step, from these data in a very instructive 
way by the gradual modification of the sym- 
metrical curve due to heat supplied by the sun as 
each additional factor is brought in. The final 
result is to obtain a very close approximation to 
the mean temperature of each month, and the 
procedure is repeated with almost equal success 
for other stations—Irkutsk, Peking, and Hong 
Kong—for which, however, the author has to 

-bewail the absence of important data like the 
figures of evaporation. 

Other notes on the geographical factors influ- 
encing temperature follow, but the raison d’étre 
of the book is the set of tables. Of these, 730 
pages are devoted to the daily averages of tem- 
perature at one hundred stations arranged in order 
of latitude, each day eccupving two pages. The 

NO..2577, VOL. 103] 


south-westerly winds in summer; 


details given include the raw daily means, the 
same corrected for altitude and also smoothed, 
the mean and extreme maxima and minima, and 
the daily range. Corresponding figures are given 
for 1916 alone. 

The author refrains from drawing elaborate 
conclusions from the figures, but contents himself 
with laying them before the meteorologists of the 
world as a contribution to the knowledge of a 
country long, but erroneously, considered as ~ 
meteorologically unexplored. He points out, how- 
ever, the value which such a set of data has for 
the study of the connection between solar heat 
and the annual variation of temperature. There 
are, indeed, a number of problems clustered round 
this point which can be solved only by a study of 
the daily means of temperature—for example, the 
cold spells of spring and the warm spells of 
autumn. The reality and periodicity of these—the 
Ice Saints and the Indian summer—can be mee: 
mined only by a study of daily averages. 1! 
tables, for instance, appear to show that cover 
the whole seaboard of China there is a quite 
decided lapse of temperature between June 4 and 
11, and there are possibly. others which would 
be revealed by a detailed study. Another problem 
is the incidence of the monsoon. in China, in 
which, of course, temperature is the ruling factor. 
The details of the complete reversal of: type from 
the cold, dry,, anticyclonic conditions ‘of winter to 
the maritime conditions of sunimer, and still more 
the reverse changes from summer to winter, 
cannot be brought-out entirely by monthly charts. 
For example, those of August and September in 


Middle China: show a reversal of type from the 


land-warmer than the sea to the land colder ‘than 
the sea, with a corresponding change in the pre- 
dominant: wind direction, and the intervening 
period of transition, which is not without interest, 
is unrepresented until the daily charts are drawn. 

The progress of the seasons is further illus- 
trated by marginal notes of a phenological nature, 
especially dealing with the migration of birds, 
and by meteorological details showing the con- | 
ditions. under which extremes have-occurred. — It 
appears that there is a tendency for individual 
days to be hot or cold over a large extent of 
eastern Asia. The cold days occur, as one would 
expect, with large and intense areas of high 
pressure in the north or north-west of China, while 
the warm days occur in the presence of depres- 
sions, especially. when the latter are so situated 
that they cause south-easterly winds in winter or 
thus the great 
heat-waves occur when shallow depressions, not 
sufficiently intense to cause great cloudiness, pass | 
north-east of Shanghai. 

The author expresses his .conviction that. the 
value of his work will rise above its. possible 
deficiencies. That conviction is certainly justified, 
but may one add'a hope that, in the full volume . 
of plates which is promised to accompany the 
tables, the printer will succeed in making the 
denominations of the isotherms more legible? 


Ct. a. 


Marcu 20, 1919] 


NATURE 


43 


a a 


‘OUR. BOOKSHELF. 
_ Tables of Refractive Indices. 


Vol. i. -“ Essential 
Oils.” Compiled by R. Kanthack. Edited by 
Dr. J. N. Goldsmith. Pp. 148. (London: 


_ Adam Hilger, Ltd., 1918.) Price rss. net. 

Tuis volume is the first of a series, in which it 
osed to publish the values of the refractive 
y rtaining to Various technical products. 
sed with discretion, the refractive index is a 
+ which will often give valuable informa- 
to the purity of a liquid, and it is a pro- 
ich is readily determined. Another ad- 
> is that, given a suitable refractometer, 
ry small quantity of the substance suffices for 
nination. In examining essential oils 
of the refractive index is a very) useful 
and it is convenient to have the numerous 
ded observations, hitherto scattered over the 
ature, selected, scrutinised, and brought to- 
in a handy form such as that of the book 


data which Mr. Kanthack has collected are 
in tables oceupying the right-hand pages 
» the reste pages. being left blank 
n the first column of the table are the 
le oils in alphabetical order, with their 
Origin, and often their geographical 
_ Then follows the refractive index, 
iture of the observation being given in 
_ With respect to this last point, 
of chemical literature would do well 
-author’s remarks upon the futility of 
tive index unless the temperature 
tion is also given. Finally, there 
nce to the authority, and this will be 
i 

important feature, because there are 
hundred and eighty of these references, 
form a good guide to the literature of 
in fact, some of the index-values, 
otherwise be redundant, have been 
ed for introducing references to 
© or special information. Chemists 
cerned with the examination of 
will find the book decidedly helpful. 


| n to the Study of Biological 
ustry. By Prof. S. B. Schryver. (Modern 
yk Series.) Pp. 340. (London: T. C. and 
_ Jack, Ltd.; n.d.) Price 6s. net. 
r is to be congratulated on a very useful 
to chemical literature. The. special 
of the book is a careful choice of examples 
are of peculiar interest to students of bio- 
chemistry. The first 178 pages are devoted 
description of géneral chemical methods, and 
) a study of the chief groups of organic sub- 
ances; and, while no attempt has been made to 
ive full details of the properties of the individual 
compounds, a succinct account has been given of 
eR between the various groups. 
__. A specially good feature is the inclusion of, and 
the prominence given to, synthetic methods, and 
_ careful accounts are given of Grignard’s reaction, 
Friedel and Crafts’ reaction, the malonic éster 
reaction, Kiliani’s reaction, and Sandmeyer’s re- 


_ NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


action, as illustrative of general synthetic methods. 
A very useful chapter deals with optical activity 
and the chemistry of stereoisomerism. The treat- 
ment of the aromatic substances is brief; but 
sufficient for the purposes for which. the book is 
intended. The remainder of the book is devoted 
to the study of the chief chemical constituents of 
the animal body, and the chemistry of the fats 
and carbohydrates is given in more detail than is’ 
usual outside special monographs. To the student 
of bio-chemistry the constitution and properties 
of the proteins are questions of fundamental im- 
portance, and have been fully treated. The purely 
chemical part of the book is completed by special 
chapters om the methods employed for the investi- 
gation of the chemical changes within the animal 
organism, and on the chemical processes in plants. 
In these chapters the main features of enzyme. 
action are dealt with, and the nature of the 
changes which occur during the intermediate meta- 
bolism of the foodstuffs is discussed. 

In’ conjunction (as the author suggests) with: 
suitable practical exercises worked in the labora- 
tory, the book should prove very useful, and forms 
an excellent basis for the preliminary training of 
medical students or of agricultural students in 
those lines’ of thought which are of service to. 
them. The .book is tersely and continuously 
written, each chapter carefully summarised, and 
an efficient index is provided. 


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. | 


Globular Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and Radiation. 


I was much interested to see in the letter by Dr. 
Harlow Shapley bearing the above title (NaturE, 
March 13, p. 25) that new astronomical evidence 
makes it necessary again to challenge the almost uni- 
versal assumption that radiation is uniformly propa- 
gated in all directions through free space. I have 
long felt that this unjustifiable assumption was at 
the bottom of the difficulty of accounting for the 
maintenance of solar and cosmical energy even over 
the periods of time demanded by geological history, 
and I have often thought that, even though no actual 
crucial test is possible, experimental evidence on such 
an important question ought to be attempted. In a 
review of Dr. N, R. Campbell’s ‘* Modern Electrical 
Theory” (Nature, vol. xcii., p. 339, 1913) I pointed 
out that experiment and observation justify only the 
conclusion that radiation is propagated between por- 
tions of space occupied by matter, and that elsewhere 
it may not be propagated at all. The frank confession 
of complete ignorance on this, the simplest first. ques- 
tion as to the nature of radiation in its cosmical 
aspect, would put an entirely different complexion on 
the doubtful generalisations from laboratory science 
to cosmology. As Dr. Shapley calculates with regard 
to solar radiation, the ordinary assumption demands a 
loss of energy one hundred million times greater than 
experimental evidence justifies. , 

* ces FREDERICK Soppy. 


44 


NATURE 


| Marcu 20, 1919 


Graphical Methods in Nautical Astronomy. 


As the author of the article in Nature of October 24, 
1918, in which the diagram referred to by Dr. 
Hutchinson last week was first brought to the 
notice of your readers, may I be permitted to supple- 
' ment the information as to previous efforts in the 
same direction? When the diagram first appeared 
in this country Rear-Admiral Parry, Hydrographer to 
the Admiralty, also set on foot an inquiry similar to 
that of Dr. Hutchinson, and very courteously sent 
me the result of his investigation. From his report it 
appears that ‘‘an account of the ‘ Nomogramme’ was 
published in Petermann’s Mittelungen (vol. ii., pp. 182 
and 249, 1913), and was illustrated by a skeleton 
diagram similar in principle to these charts, and the 
method for using it was fully explained.’”” This, in 
point of time, is fifteen years later than the date, of 
the paper of M. d’Ocagne, who, so far as appears at 
present, is clearly entitled to the credit claimed for 
him as first in the field. 

The share of Mr. Littlehales, however, is marked 
by two features of interest :—(1) That he seems to 
have been the first to prepare and publish the dia- 
gram in a form that promises to be useful in the 
navigation of air and ocean, and (2) that the sim- 
plicity of treatment which deduces the principle and 
graduation of the chart directly from a general for- 
mula of spherical trigonometry renders the theory of 
the matter intelligible to many nautical persons to 
whom the’ mysteries of ‘‘ Nomographie” are as a 
sealed book. H. B. Goopwin. 

March 15. 


The Oldest Mosquitoes. 

Tue Rev. Perer BELLINGER Bropig, in his ‘ His- 
tory of the Fossil Insects of the Secondary Rocks of 
England,” gave a figure of a small fly which he 
named Culex (?) fossilis. This insect, from. the 
Purbeck strata, would be by far the oldest mosquito 
known, were it a veritable Culex. Unfortunately, it 
is impossible to form any definite opinion, and as 
positive evidence of the antiquity of the Culicidz the 
specimen must be dismissed as valueless. On general 
grounds it is very improbable that the group is so 
ancient. In Handlirsch’s great work on fossil insects 
several Culicidz are listed from the Oligocene Ter- 
tiary; but Handlirsch did not know that two species 
described by Scudder, from Wyoming and Utah 
‘respectively, are actually much older, coming from 
Eocene rocks. The one from Utah is of little value, 
and presumably not a true Culex; but that from the 
Green River beds of Wyoming has the unmistakable 
features of a genuine mosquito, showing the long 
proboscis and the short palpi of the female. Accord- 
ing to Schuchert’s estimates of geologic time, this 
should be more than two million years old at the 
very least. Scudder’s insect, called Culex damna- 
torum, ‘is 6 mm. long, with a proboscis 1-¢ mm. _ It 
doubtless tormented the Eohippus and_ related 
mammals of this general period. Whether it carried 
any pathogenic protozoa we can, of course, never 
know. It is now possible to put on record a second 
Eocene mosquito, found by Mr. Dean E. Winchester, 
of the U.S. Geological Survey, at Smith’s Ranch, in 
the vicinity of the Cathedral Bluffs, in western 
Colorado. It is represented by a female, preserved in 
lateral view, 5-2 mm. long, the wing about 4-2 mm., 
thorax about 2 mm., palpi about o-4 mm., and the 
distinctly curved proboscis 3 mm.. The stout 


abdomen is like that of true Culex, obtuse at the. 


end, not tapering as in Aédes. The longer proboscis 
readily separates it from Scudder’s insect, so it must 
stand as a new species, to be called Culex winchesteri, 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103| 


| after its discoverer. 


The horizon is considered to be 
Green River, approximately equivalent to that of the 
Wyoming locality. 

The oldest British mosquitoes, setting aside Brodie’s 
very dubious Purbeck specimen, are three species from 
the Oligocene of Gurnard Bay, in the Isle of Wight, 
also collected by Brodie. These were described by the 
present writer in 1915, and are in the U.S. National 
Museum. One of them is so beautifully preserved. 
that it shows the wing-scales. hawk, 

While writing on fossil Diptera I take occasion to. 
note that my Mesomyites concinnus, another of the 
Gurnet Bay fossils, is evidently a member of the 
peculiar Tipulid genus Styringomyia, and should be 
called Styringomyia concinna. I: am indebted to Mr. 
C. P. Alexander for suggesting the correction. The: 
specimen is in the British Museum. ~ 

The Gurnard Bay locality, which furnished Brodie 
with large and important collections, seems not to, 
have. been investigated in recent years. Most- of 
Brodie’s collection is at the British Museum, and will, 
when fully described, add greatly to our knowledge of 
Tertiary insects. T. D. A. CockereLt. 

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. 


Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the 


Total Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919. 
SpEcIAL magnetic and allied observations will be © 
made at certain stations inside and outside the 
shadow belt of the total solar eclipse of May 29 next 


-by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the 


Carnegie Institution of Washington and by various 
magnetic observatories, institutions, and individuals. 
The probable stations of the Department of Terres-. 
trial Magnetism are (1) La Paz, Bolivia; (2) Huan- 
cayo (north of belt of totality); (3) near Sobral, — 
Brazil; (4) Ile Principe or Libreville, French Congo ; 

and (5) various field stations within the zone of visi-’ 
bility. At station (3) complete magnetic and electric 
observations will be made. eae) ibe 2, | ke 

The general scheme of work proposed by the Depart- 
ment of Terrestrial Magnetism is as follows :— 

(1) Simultaneous magnetic observations of any or all 
of the elements, according to the instruments at the 
observer’s disposal, every minute from May 29 next, 
gh. 58m. a.m. to 4h. 32m. p.m. Greenwich civil mear 
time, or from May 28, 2th. 58m. to 4h. 32m, May 29, 
Greenwich astronomical mean time. 

(To ensure the highest degree of accuracy, the 
observer should begin to work early enough to have 
everything in complete readiness in proper time. ‘Past 
experience has shown it to be essential that the same 
observer should make the readings throughout the 
entire interval. If possible, similar observations for 
the same interval of time as on May 29 should be, 
made on May 28 and 30, to afford some means of 
determining the undisturbed course of the magnetic 
declination.) 

(2) At magnetic observatories all necessary pre- 
cautions should be taken to ensure ‘that the self- 
recording instruments will be in good operation, not 
only during the proposed interval, but also for some- 
time before and after, and eye-readings should be 
taken in addition wherever it is possible and con- 
venient. 

(It is recommended that, in general, the magneto- 
graph should be run on the usual speed throughout the 
interval, and that, if a change in recording speed be 
made, every precaution possible should be taken to . 
suard against instrumental changes likely to affect 
the continuity of the base line.) xf 

(3) Atmospheric-electric observations should be. 
made to the extent possible with the observer’s equip- 


a 
~ Marcw 20, 19 19 | 


a ae 


NATURE 


ment and personnel at his disposal. At least observa- 
tions of potential-gradient and conductivity (prefer- 
y both positive and negative) should be made. 
» &4) Meteorological observations in accordance with 
the obse ’s equipment should be made at con- 
ent periods (as short as possible) throughout the 
rval. It is suggested that at least temperature 
id be read every fifth minute (directly after the 
netic reading for that minute). 
) Observers in the belt of totality are requested to 
ke the magnetic reading every thirty seconds during 
€ interval, ten minutes before and ten minutes after 
the time of totality, and to read temperature also 
_ every thirty seconds before the magnetic readings. 
fl t is. hoped that full reports will be forwarded 
‘soon as possible for publication in the journal 
rres ic PMhagnetism and Atmospheric Electricity. 
jose interested are referred to the results of the 
rvations made during the solar eclipse of June 8, 
the publication of which was begun in the 
r (1918) issue of the journal. A summary 
Its obtained is given in the March (1919) 


apt Lourts A. Bauer. 
gie Institution of Washington, Depart- 

t of Terrestrial Magnetism, Washing- 

“C., February 15. 


fitics of my method sketched or described 
0 letters to Nature (vol. ci., pp. 84 and 304, 
> gen notes in Comptes rendus (vol. clxvi., 
and 984-86, 1918), in Mind for July, 1918, 
mce Progress for October, 1918, wish to see 
ular case solved in‘detail. Although this 
‘ow so much light on the problem 
iple method of dealing with the 
I happen to have discovered 
it to special cases, I here give 
particular case referred to. 
: an aggregate M is such that there 
,- -., Where x, is the class of all 
of M of type n, and the suffixes of the 
1 the finite ordinal numbers (that is, 
than »); we are to prove that M has a 
We ‘will define by complete induc- 
actually constructing out of the x’s 
afterwards that the many are 
f course, merely postulate that there 
3s of all such classes) classes of direct 
which each contains one chain from 
_ each x. The rule, though it is, accordingly, split 
_ into two parts, is to be regarded as one whole; and 
it can be so regarded, since it does not involve an 
infinity of arbitrary selections. 
__. (1) With each member K, of x,, class that member 
°, which is the sole segment of K,. Thus each 
yer of x, is classed with many of x,, and each 
he er of x, is classed with a definite one of x, $0 
that together these members form a she of direct 
_ continuations with members of types 1 and 2. 
s Cy Ta eral, for Prete with each member 
ee ee cacy (a) that member (K,,_,) of 7. which 
4s a segment of K,, and (b) also those chains of 
_ types n—2, . . . 2, 1 previously classed with K,_, by 
' the rule. Remember not to regard here a class of 
_ y and z as anything more than just y and z. For 
_ instance, each member of x, forms, with the chains 
classed with if, a class of direct continuation with 
Bs ‘members; and we easily see that, in general, 
i class of direct continuations with n members 


--s 


Gs added to, provided that the whole rule is applied 
and not merely a part of it which stops at n._ 
‘Thus we have defined a means of rearranging all 


oa NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


Pity 


_ lignite, bot 


-might have given rise to the 


the members ofi all the x’s so that they form classes 
of direct continuations of the kind we wished and 
stated above. Since any class of direct continuations 
which is formed from the members of M, and con- 
tains chains of all types less than w, plainly defines 
a chain of type , each of the classes of direct con- 
tinuations formed by the rule defines a chain of 
type ». This is what we had to prove. We have, 
indeed, a set of classes of direct continuations such 
that each class has at least two terms, and, if it has 
n terms, it has n+1, Pure E. B. Jourpain. 
The Bourne, Basingbourne Road, 
Fleet, Hants, March 11. 


Coal in Thrace. 


ANTIGONOS, a Greek writer about the beginning of 
our era, made a collection of the accounts of the 
natural wonders of his time. Among them he men- 
tions—I translate from the Greek edition of 1568— 
that “‘they say that in the wild (uncultivated) region 
of Thrace there is a river called Pontos, which brings 
down in its course stones resembling anthrax (char- 
coal), and that these burn, but differ in combustion 
from charcoal, inasmuch as the use of bellows extin- 
guishes the fire. On the other hand, sprinkled with 
water they burn all the better.” Where was this river ? 
Kiepert does not mention it, but it seems to have 
flowed into the Black Sea, then called Pontos, It 
would be interesting to know if anthracite has been 
found so near Constantinople. 


Epmunp M‘Cvure. 
80 Eccleston Square, S.W.1, 


February 27. 


THERE is no warranty for suggesting that “stones 
resembling anthrax” are anthracite; they are far 
more likely to have been bituminous coal or 
of which burn more readily than does 
anthracite, which latter is decidedly difficult of igni- 
tion. Whilst European Turkey has not been fully 
explored for coal, the existence of coal is known in 
various places; a bituminous coal-seam is reported 
near Keshan, in the province of Adrianople, and along 
parts of the northern coast of the Sea of Marmora ; 
and there are lignite deposits known near Rodosto, 
near Dedeagatch, and even within a short distance 
of Constantinople. Obviously any of these deposits 
stones referred to by 


It would be interesting to know whether the Greek 
text excludes the possibility of its reference being 
to the district of Pontos, on the south shores of the 
Black Sea, as the best-known coal-mines of all the 
region are those to the south of Heraclea in that 
district. Henry Louts. 

Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

arch 3. 


Canon M‘Clure. 


—___— 


Curious Markings on Chalk. 


Dr. AnpREws (Nature, March 13, p. 25) probably 
knows more about the natural forms assumed by 
chalk than I do, but I think, nevertheless, that the 
specimen described by me in the February issue of 
Man (p. 17, pl. B) cannot be disposed of quite so 
summarily as he supposes. And I would suggest that 
it is generally considered unwise, in such matters, to 
publish a definite opinion before an examination of 
the actual specimen has been made. 

It is my h that before long Mr. Gathorne- 
Hardy may exhibit his discovery at a meeting of 


46 NATURE 


| Marcu 20, 1919 


some learned society where those interested will 
have the opportunity of making such an examina- 
tion. J. Rem Morr. 


One House, Ipswich. 


Protozoal Parasites in Cainozoic Times. 


In the issue of. Nature for October 3, 1918 (p. 95), 
which has just reached me, is a note on Prof. T.D. A. 
Cockerell’s discovery of two new species of Glossina 
in the Miocene. shales of Colorado. It is said that 
“Osborn’s suggestion that many large Cainozoic 
mammals in America may have been destroyed by 
fly-borne parasites is rendered highly probable by the 
wider range of tsetse-flies now indicated by Prof. 
Cockerell.”’ ; 

I do not see that the conclusion is justified. The 
co-existence in space and; possibly, time of a species 
of blood-sucking fly and certain large mammals 


Fic. 1.—Cojata Pampa, wind-eroded rocks. 


affords no grounds for concluding that protozoal para- 
sites carried by the former destroyed the latter. Do 
blood-sucking flies in America at the present day 
destroy wild animals through the medium of the 
Protozoa they carry? 

I am unaware of any evidence at present that wild 
animals in Africa are destroyed by the Trypanosomes 
of which they are the hosts and Glossina the vector ; 
indeed, there is very definite evidence to the contrary 
that buck do- not suffer in the least from the con- 
tinued presence in their blood of Trypanosomes which 
are pathogenic to man and his domestic animals. 

What grounds, then, are there for the assumption 
that the adaptation of such Protozoa to their hosts 
was any less perfect in Cainozoic times than at 
present ? G. D. Hare Carpenter, 

Uganda Medical Service. 

Kome Island, Lake Victoria, January 12. 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103| 


From 


THE PERU-BOLIVIA BOUNDARY 


COMMISSION. 2 


HE search for a scientific frontier has taken 
men into many wild and unexplored regions. 

of the earth’s surface, and has, in the aggregate, 
helped in the accumulation of no mean amount 
of new geographical knowledge. Those familiar 
with the true foundations of the map of Africa 
know well that in many areas the surveys 
executed by boundary commissions are still the 
only authorities for geographical positions, and 
that the boundary surveyor was often the first 
white man to force his way into hitherto unknown 
parts. As, further, the surveyor brings with him 
both the equipment and the trained technical skill 
necessary to garner the very utmost amount of 


“ Peru-Bolivia Boundary Commission, 19t1—13.” 


detailed and trustworthy information in the course 
of his rapid traverse of the country, it follows that, 
next only to the closely settled districts, the 
boundary lines in Africa are now the best known 
regions of the continent. , 
The conditions in South America are somewhat 
similar, but, owing to the fact that most of the 
international boundaries are almost inaccessible, 
lying either on the great heights of the Andine 
Cordillera or hidden in the impenetrable 
forests of the Upper Amazon and its tribu- 


taries, the need for actually defining these 
frontiers on the ground has not generally 
1 ‘Peru-Bolivia Roundary Commission, 1911-13.” Reports of the British 


Edited for the Government 
Pp, xi-+242-Fmaps. | 


Officers of the Peruvian Commission. 
of Peru by the Royal Geographical Society of London. 
(London : Cambridge University Press, 1918.) 


aw 


a 


Marcu 20, 1919] 


NATURE 


47 


arisen as yet, except in places where the 
discovery of mineral wealth has compelled 
such definition. In the case of the Peru-Bolivia 
boundary, however, though evidences of rich 
mineral deposits are found by the most casual 
explorer, it was not the mineral so much as the 
vegetable wealth which was the final determining 
¢ause inducing the States concerned to attempt 
the settlement of a dispute dating back to their 
foundation. The rise in the value of rubber, 
the exhaustion of the more readily accessible 
rubber forests, and the consequent pushing out of 
the rubber-collector into more and more remote 


| fastnesses, brought forward the question of this 
» boundary, running for a large part of its length 


through either actual or possible rubber-bearing 


S 


Fic. 2.—Calijon from the Rinconada Glacier. 


) forest, as one imperatively demanding a final 
_~ solution. 


We may remark in parenthesis that there is 
another source of natural wealth, scarcely seriously 
taken into account yet, but which will have a 
vital influence on the future of civilisation, and 
with which boundary surveys, especially such as 
lie in mountain regions, are most intimately con- 
cerned. The wealth in question is that of natural 
sources of water-power.. What the aggregate 
horse-power now running to waste off the gigantic 
mountain system of the Andes amounts to Is 
beyond the range of human conjecture, but we 
may safely predict that within at most a genera- 
tion or two this power will be of enormous, 
realisable value. Boundary agreements of the 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


future may have to pay special attention to this 
point. 

It would be out of place to recount here the 
successive steps that led up to the appeal by the 
States concerned to the Royal Geographical 
Society to nominate officers to carry out the survey 
and demarcation, fully set forth in the volume 
under review. The work was almost completed 
in 1914, when the officers engaged were, of course, 
recalled for service. Two of them fell in.the early 
months of the war, and as the others were still 
engaged on service, and no date could be fixed 
for their release, it was decided in 1917 that the 
preparation and publication of their report should 
be -undertaken by the society under the editor- 
ship of Sir T. Holdich, assisted by Mr. Arthur 


From ‘“ Peru-Bolivia Boundary Commission, tot1~13.” 


Hinks. The splendid volume before us is, there- 
fore, due to the able labours of these editors, 
assisted in a large measure by the very excellent 
and exhaustive records kept by the members of 
the commission. We may safely say that no 
boundary has been described with more complete- 
ness, and it is to be hoped that this volume will 
form a model for the future. Our knowledge of 
Africa, for example, will advance by rapid strides 
if the demarcation of the new boundaries, pre- 
sumably called for within the next few years, 
results in any comparable addition to our geo- 
graphical knowledge, and is recorded in a volume 
of such permanent interest. 

In one point the Peru-Bolivia commission was 
exceptionally fortunate in that one of its members, 


48 


Major Toppin, was a trained naturalist, ina: was 
able to make the most of his opportunities. 
Several new butterflies and a new monkey were 
the permanent testimonials to his skill. One is 


rather inclined to lament that it is not always — 


possible to take the opportunity of a boundary 
survey and, by attaching, say, a naturalist, a 
geologist, and possibly a botanist to the com- 
mission, gain much knowledge without great cost. 
Doubtless this. practice might be often’ followed, 
-but it must be remembered that a boundary com- 
mission is always in a hurry; it never has enough 
time to carry out all the survey observations it 
would like, and routes, times, and halting-places 
_ must be regulated solely by survey considerations. 
It would, therefore, often result that the natu- 
ralist or geologist ‘would have to leave almost 
untouched the regions most fruitful of promise for 
him, and might return from the expedition with 
feelings of ‘disappointment at opportunities 
missed. 

We have no space here to enter upon any close 
discussion of the technical points raised in this 
report. The survey was of the class already fami- 
liar in similar undertakings, and was subject to the 
same obstacles as those found in previous surveys, 
both in high mountains and in dense forests: the 
difficulties of transport, the prevalence of mist 
and cloud, the impossibility of getting distant 
views from the constricted valleys, and, in the 
forest portion of the line, a horrible abundance of 
malignant insects. Once again, possibly for the 
last time, an effort was made to determine longi- 
tudes . by occultations, a method which cannot 
attain the precision requisite for such work, and 
should be entirely superseded by wireless signals, 
which can now be received upon instruments of 
almost any desired degree of portability. -In any 
case, astronomically determined positions are of 
little value as a check upon a triangulation even 
of the second order, and are of more interest to 
the geophysicist than to the boundary surveyor. 


This commission was fortunate in finding a well- 


established initial point for the astronomical 
work in the * observatory at Arequipa, the 
southern station of the Harvard College Obser- 
vatory. 

An interesting little note by Sir C. Close is 
embodied in the report discussing the gravity 
deflections in the boundary region, and showing 
that the local attractions are quite similar to those 
found in the region of the Himalayas near Mus- 
soorie and Dehra. The volume, produced in 
the accustomed high standard of the Cambridge 
University Press, is furnished with 
necessary Maps and a rich selection of illustrative 
plates. We can heartily commend it, both to the 


reader of the present day as an account of a highly - 


successful piece of geographical survey, and to the 
reader of the future as an imperishable record of 
the work that can be accomplished, in spite of 
innumerable difficulties and in face of great 
natural obstacles, by a small but thoroughly pro- 
ficient British survey party. H, . H. 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


NATURE 


all the. 


| practical and trustworthy. 


‘(Marca 20, +1919 


——— 


THE AIR FORCE ESTIMATES AND 
AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH. 


7: HE development of military aviation has been 
one of the wonders of the war, but we have © 


naturally been kept somewhat in the dark as to 
the exact extent of such development. while the 
war was still in progress. The veil has now been 
lifted, and Gen. Seely, in speaking on the Air 
Estimates in the House of Commons on March 13, 
has given us a striking summary of the progress 
made during the past four years. The fact that 
the expenditure on the Air Force has increased 
two-hundred-fold since the outbreak of hostilities 
is a sufficient comment on the enormous advances 
that have taken .place in the aeronautical world. 
Gen. Seely states that if the armistice had not 
been. signed, this year’s Estimates would have 
reached the sum of 200,000,000].—an amount 
which is practically four times our pre-war ex- 
penditure on the entire Navy! Even with the 
signing of peace in sight the sum of 66 , 500, 0001. 
is asked for, in order to ensure the maintenance — 
of the aerial supremacy which we have gained 
during the war. 


It is exceedingly gratifying to note that the 


true value of research is at last being appreciated, 
and the specific provision of 3,000,000l. for “civil 
aviation, experiments, and research’’ will be 
welcome news to those who hope for the scientific 
development of commercial flying. Gen. Seely. 
further points out that this sum does not by any 


means represent the total amount that will be 


spent on research beneficial to the civilian aviator, 
since the results of experiments carried out for 
military purposes and paid for out of the Army 
Estimates will be equally available for the im mproy 
ment of commercial machines. a ee 
The Government has decided that oe SEaisnot 
itself undertake commercial flying, but that it will 
do everything in its power to give encouragement 
and protection, and it is already announced that 
the Postmaster-General is prepared to give con- 
tracts to’ private firms which are able to offer 


approved machines for postal services. Moreover, 


the Government will place most of the military 
aerodromes of the country at the disposal of 
civilian pilots for a small fee, and this alone 
should do much to encourage civilian flying. 

In the course of his speech Gen. 
announced that an important invention in wireless 
telephony had recently been made, by means of 
which the wireless operator in an aeroplane 


was able both to send and to receive messages.- 
It was possible during the war for the leader of , 
| a scouting aeroplane squadron to communicate 


with the others, but it was not practicable to 
receive an answer. A vacuum valve generator 
was employed to generate smooth oscillations in 
the hanging aerial, and a vacuum valve magnifier 
with a crystal rectifier was used as the receiver. 


The experimental apparatus was in use in pre-war ~ 


days, but it required years of research to make it 
We congratulate the 


Seely. 


Fi 


- Marcu 20, 1919] 


NATURE 


45 


Board research department on having over- 
ne all the difficulties. 

‘The promise for the future of aviation is very 
ght, and the recognition of the necessity for 
1Ous research in the development of both 
itary and civilian aeronautics leaves little 
xt that the resources of scientific investigation, 
vhich have been of incalculable value during the 
far, will be fully employed in the solution of the 
oblems of the future. 


a ALUDVIG ‘sYLow. 
PHE death of Ludvig Sylow (September 7, 
4 1918), at the age of eighty-five, has removed 
‘eminent mathematician, whose career was in 
y ways remarkable. Sylow’s seventh pub- 
aper (“Théorémes sur les groupes de sub- 
tions ’”) occupies less than ten pages in vol. v. 
1¢ Mathematische Annalen (1872); this con- 
s the proof of his justly celebrated theorem 
t groups, which has perhaps done more than 
ther single proposition to advance our know- 
f groups in general. In spite of this great 
nt, Sylow had to earn his living as a 
adary-school teacher until he had served a 
F of forty years. Recognition came at last; he 


and filled the chair successfully for 


of interest to recall Sylow’s own 
f his theorem: “Si n* désigne la plus 
ssance du nombre premier n qui divise 
groupe G, ce groupe contient un autre 
» n*; si de plus nv désigne l’ordre du 
pe contenu dans G dont les sub- 
-permutables 4 g, l’ordre de G sera 
v(np+z1).’’ It should be noted that 
ves a proof that, if n* is the highest 
of n contained in the order of G, then G 

subgroup of order n°. 
‘rote a number of other papers, dealing 
ics as group-theory, solution of equa- 
cals, elliptic functions, modular func- 
In collaboration with Lie he undertook 
task of editing the second issue of 
works. In this the misprints and over- 
sights of the original edition are corrected, and 
a number of valuable notes and ER eter 

. B. M. 


s are added. 


‘ee 


NOTES. ‘ 


appointment of Dr. S. F. Harmer to succeed 
rus Fletcher as director of the Natural His- 
useum, South Kensington, is a happy solution 
question raised by the letter from twenty-three 
lists published in Nature of March 6, and com- 
ented upon by us in the same issue. Dr. Harmer 
is been 2: Had of the Department of Zoology of the 
useum since 1907, and he will retain this position 
il the end of next year. During this. transition 
riod Mr, C. E. Fagan, the assistant secretary, will 
assist him in ‘the control. of the museum, and, in 
' recognition of his valuable services, will occupy a 
NO. 2577, VOL. 103 | 


professor at Christiania at the age of | 


considerably improved position on the staff. Mr. 
C. Tate Regan has been appointed assistant keeper 
of zoology in succession to Mr. W. R. Ogilvie. Grant, 
who has retired. As the Trustees have appointed a 
distinguished naturalist to the directorship of the 
museum, the series of eminent scientific men who have 
occupied that post remains unbroken. It is the duty 
of men of science to guard jealously their claims to 
direct the affairs of scientific institutions, and to pro- 
test when any encroachment upon them is contem- 
plated. In the present instance Mr. Fagan was more 
than a purely lay administrator, and his scientific ser- 
vices have nm appropriately recognised by the 
Trustees. The tendency is, however, to place lay ad- 
ministrative officers in control of .State institutions 
concerned with scientific work, on the ground that a 
man of science cannot be a good administrator. 
Even if this general belief, cherished in the Civil 
Service, could be justified—and we do not accept it 
for a moment—the highest office in a scientific in- 
stitution should be held by a scientific man, and not 
by a lay official. That is the whole point of our 
contention, and we are glad that the Trustees have 
accepted what is the feeling of scientific men 
generally in regard to it by appointing Dr. Harmer 
~ the vacant post, which he is highly qualified to 
Il. 


Lorp SupE.ey is to be thanked for having brought 
the House of Lords to such a high appreciation of 
museums as educational instruments that, on March 12, 
in the face of some Government objections, it whole- 
heartedly agreed to his motion :—‘t That his Majesty’s 
Government ‘should, without further delay, reinstate 
the system of providing official guide-lecturers for the 
museums and picture galleries under the control of 
the Government, which, with one exception, has been 
in abeyance during the war, making such addition to 
the numbers and in the salaries and status of the 
guides as may be found necessary.’’ The Government, 
it seems, is prepared to reinstate the pre-war conditions, 
but is not prepared to increase the numbers or salaries 
of the guide-lecturers; neither does it act with prompt- 
ness in clearing the museums of alien departments. 
There can be no doubt as to the popular feeling in this 
matter, and when, twice within a fortnight, it is 
supported in the Upper Chamber by «men of such 
weight as Lords Crewe, Harcourt, Meath, Morris, 
Gainford, and Rathcreedan, then a Government which 
contains many sympathetic elements should surely 
be emboldened to spend the relatively minute sum 
needed to set all this valuable educational machinery 
in motion. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury 
urged that an increased number of guides would. 
permit the extension of co-operation between the 
British Museum and the primary schools through lec- 
tures to the teachers, who would then take their 
classes to the museum; there could also then be an’ 
extension of similar aid to schools of art and secondary 
schools. Incidentally, the Primate took occasion to- 
extol the merits of the British Museum guide-books, 
from which, he rightly said, visitors might. derive 
much advantage. Can he be aware that the General 
Guide to the Natural History Museum has been out 
of print for some years, and. that a sale of many 
thousands to the visiting troops and others has thus 
been lost? A new edition of this guide should be 
an early claim on the time of the new director. | 


Tue question of long-distance’ wireless telegraph 
communication is now engaging the attention of a 
Committee recentlY appointed by the War Cabinet, 
with Lord Milner as chairman. The need for action 


50 


NATURE 


‘ 


[ MARCH 20, 1919 


f 


has long been felt, and the recent traffic delays in 
cable messages have accentuated the position. It is 
scarcely likely that: the construction of stations will 
proceed on the lines decided upon some time before 
the outbreak of the war. For one thing, the develop- 
ments which are\said to have been made in long- 
distance wireless communications during the past four 
and a half years will bring about a modification of the 
engineering features of the original scheme, while the 
changed political situation will doubtless lead to some 
alteration in the location of stations. It is also a 
decided gain that some attempt at co-ordination is 
now being made in this country. Hitherto, while no 
fewer than five home Departments have been directly 
concerned in the matter, the Post Office has been the 
only Department to act for the State. The result has 
been long-drawn-out correspondence with other offices, 
very commonly culminating in nothing being done. 
Under the new plan each of the Government Depart- 
ments concerned will be represented on the recently 
appointed Telegraph Communication Board. Thus the 
individual delegates, meeting round a table, will be 
able to thresh things out comparatively quickly and 
in a far more satisfactory manner than hitherto. 


One result of the war is that the military objections 
to the construction of a tunnel between this country 
and France have been overcome, and the work 
may be sanctioned within a short time. In 1875 the 


‘Channel Tunnel Co. obtained powers for preliminary © 


works at St. Margaret’s Bay, Dover, and at the same 
time the French Submarine Railway Co. made 
surveys and started a heading at Sangatte. But in 
1883 a Joint Select Committee of the two Houses of 
Parliament decided that it was inexpedient that sanc- 
tion should be given for the construction of a tunnel. 
Investigations have, however, continued, the pro- 
moters believing that opposition would in time be over- 
come. The chalk cliffs on the two sides of the 
Channel are similar in all respects, and rest on a 
stratum of grey chalk 200 ft. thick, which is im- 
pervious to water. This overliés Gault, also im- 
pervious. The tunnel is to be constructed in the grey 
chalk, except that at one end it may possibly enter 
the Gault. The excavation is easy, and no excep- 
tional engineering difficulties are anticipated. Two 
parallel tunnels, 20 ft. in diameter, will be constructed 
for up and down traffic. One or both ends will be 
_earried some distance inland. The total length will 
‘be thirty-three miles, about twenty-four being under 
the sea. It is estimated that the tunnel can be com- 
‘pleted in six or seven years at a total cost of 
_20,000,0001. Electric traction will be adopted, which 
diminishes the difficulty of ventilation, and the transit 
will occupy about forty minutes. A small difference 
in the track gauge here and in France presents no 
difficulty. But the French loading gauge is wider 
than ours, so that some trains could not pass over 
our lines unléss an alteration is made on our side. 
The variety of loading gauges on different lines in this 
- country is very objectionable. 


Our contemporary the Chemist and Druggist for 
March 8 is dissatisfied with the attempt made in our 
article on ‘‘ The Profession of Chemistry” (February 27) 
to differentiate chemist and pharmacist. Exception is 
taken to ‘‘the desire to monopolise for professional 
chemists the title which, first of all, indicates the 
seller of poisons and dispenser of medicines. It is 
as unreasonable. to claim the monopoly of the word 

‘chemist.’ for a small class of persons as it would be 
to restrict the title ‘ engineer ’ to those who build a 
bridge or. the word ¢ doctor ’ to those men who hold a 
medical degree.’? Unreasonable or not, it has to be 
done, sooner or later, in the interest of the public, 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


not of “a smail class of persons.” English is a_ 
curiously varied in course of time and whilst rich 
in many ways, in others it is remarkably deficient. 
Eayolngically.: ‘apothecary ”’ is the keeper of a shop, 
‘pharmacist ’’ or  pharmaceutist ’* one who has to 
de with medicines ; the meaning of ‘‘ druggist” is clear: 
to everyone; “chemist” has no original meanin; 
Having the choice of three terms with definite, wi i- 
understood connotations, the sellers of drugs and 
poisons may surely be satisfied; they may well agree 
to relinquish the vague fourth term to those who are 
chemists in fact. ‘‘Doctor’’ is the equivalent of 
“ Dozent ” and well known to be a courtesy title like 
‘esquire,’ no more descriptive as applied to medical 
practitioners, though a volume might be written on its 
history and the strange and careless way in which a 
specialised meaning has been attached to it, whilst 
‘esquire’? has lost its original value. The medical 
man, it may be said, who is neither a physician nor 
a surgeon is even worse off than the chemist, having 
no name which is distinctive of his status. 


Tue lively discussion which was waged over the 
Foxhall human mandible in the sixties of last 
century is likely to be again revived by the adver- 
tisement inserted by Mr. Reid Moir in the personal 
column of the Times and in last week’s Nature. Mr. 
Moir, as is well known, has discovered and described 
many worked flints in the detritus bed which under- 
lies the Red ‘Crag of Suffolk, but no particle of man’s 
body has yet been found at the same geological horizon 
with the exception of the Foxhall jaw, which, it is 
alleged, was derived from the detritus or epproly bed. 
The mandible was in the possession of Roos 
Collyer, who described it in the Anshropologieal 
Review of 1867; Dr. Collyer is said later to have gone 
to the United States, and with him the disputed 
specimen disappeared. It will be interesting to see if 
Mr. Moir’s advertisement will succeed in recovering 
the missing mandible. Dr. 


the modern type, and is remarkably similar in form 
to the equally hotly contested Moulin Quignon speci- 
men found by Boucher de Perthes in the earlier 
Palzolithic strata near Abbeville in 1863. When Dr. 
Hugh Falconer and Mr. 
Moulin Quignon jaw to certain tests, they also applied 
them at the same time to the Foxhall specimen, and 
came to the conclusion, because of the amount of 
organic matter contained in them, that neither speci- 


men could be regarded as contemporary with the 
strata in which it was alleged to have been found. 


The criteria which they applied, however, cannot be 
regarded as definitely deciding the authenticity of these 
two human ‘“‘ documents.” 


THE opposition raised both inside and outside the 
House of Commons, by members of the medical pro- 
fession particularly, against the proposal in the 
Ministry of Health Bill to reconstitute the Medical 
Research Committee under the direction of a Com- 
mittee of the Privy Council rather than under the 
Health Ministry was apparently not without its effect. 
Dr. Addison has, indeed, now issued a memorandum 
on. the subject, setting out the advantages likely to 
follow the adoption. of the proposed scheme, and the 
disadvantages which would result from its ‘rejection. 
The. claims made on behalf of the scheme of recon- 
struction are briefly that, in the realm of medical 
research, there will be obtained complete concentration 
in a. central body acting for the United Kingdom as 


that, in respect of all medical research questions, a 


Strange language; the meanings of words are often — 


er ptey 


Collyer’s figure shows © 
very plainly that the mandible belonged to a man of © 


George Busk- subjected the 


_a whole, and not only for England and Wales, the — 
_ area in which the new Ministry will operate; also 


- 


CH 20, 1919 | 


NATURE — } 51 


exchange of knowledge will be secured, for the 
that the Privy Council is the only body having 
al range. Finally; under such a scheme, 
ttee would be freed from undue pressure by 
diate interests of any one Department, 
ly the Ministry of Health. So far as the 
concerned, the memorandum hastens to 
‘that there must be very special links as 
sen it and the Committee, and arrangements to 
these would have to be made. Another point 
hi prominence is given is that, even with a 
eenitess and special researchers, there 
9 limiting of the efforts of the Ministry in 
of scientific investigations, and at any time 
could and would be made through the staff 
the Ministry. The memorandum, which is signed 
‘Dr. Addison, is supported by a statement by Sir 
fl. Fletcher, the secretary to the Research Com- 
favour of centralisation,: for the reason 
y that researches carried out on behalf of one 
tt so frequently yield accessory results of 
thers. There was a considerable amount of 
‘upon the subject when the Bill came before 
Committee on March 13, and Major 
iged to accept an amendment making it 
addition to an independent Medical 
ittee under the Privy Council, there 
nite research department under the new 
Probably this is the best way out of the 
d both parties may be content to accept 
omise. The Standing Committee of the 
mmons adopted on March 18 an amend- 
s that all the powers and duties of the 
tion with respect to the medical in- 
eatment of children and young persons 
erred to the Ministry of Health. 


th is announced, at seventy-five years of 
. F. P. Washington, R.E., for many years 
th the Ordnance Survey, and from 1898 


R message states that the German 
decided to return to China the astro- 
mts which were transported from 
y in 1900. Negotiations have been 
ping of the instruments to China. 


al meeting of the Chemical Society 
Burlington House on ‘Thursday, 
ock, when the retiring president, 

ope, will deliver his address, and a 
election of the new council will take 
iniver dinner of the society will be 


A. Baugr left Washington early in March 

here he will organise an expedition, 
Frederick Brown, of London, will be a 
Magnetic and electric observations during 
eclipse of May 29 next at a station in South 
. Bauer expects next to proceed to South 
1¢ preange cri for similar observations during 
_ there. hile in South America he will 
is institutions, and return to Washington 


is announced, in his seventy-third year, 
ouis E. Levy, of Philadelphia, who took out 
the first patent granted to an American citizen 
field of photo-chemical engraving. Mr. Levy 
| medals from the Franklin Institute for his 
mtion of the “Levy line screen,” the ‘‘ Levy acid 
NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


f the Survey and Map Department — 


blast,” and the etch-powdering machine. His dis- 
coveries were also recognised by the expositions at 
Chicago in 1893, Paris in 1900, and St. Louis in 
1904. Mr. Levy had been president of the Graphic 
Arts Co., of Philadelphia, since 1908. 


Tue deaths of the following engineers are recorded 
in the Engineer for March 14:—Alderman Thomas 
Canning, associate member of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, who was appointed engineer and manager 
of the Newport Gas Co. in 1874, and held office up to 
the time of his-death; Mr. R. W. A, Southern, 
member of the Institution of Mining Engineers, a 
mining engineer well known in South Wales as a 
colliery manager, and in private practice; and Mr. 
G. H. Hill, member of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, and largely responsible for the water supply 
of Manchester, especially in connection with the 
Thirlmere scheme. 


THE Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry has 
awarded fellowships for post-graduate study in the 
universities or colleges indicated to Messrs. W. H. 
Gough and W. A. Haward (Imperial College of 
Science and Technology), Capt. L. J. Hudleston 
(Reading), Lieut. K. H. Saunders and Mr. Gordon M. 
Wright (Cambridge), Mr. P. N. Williams (Liverpool), 
and Mr. Dudley C, Vining (Finsbury Technical Col- 
lege). Through the generosity of certain leading 
firms, the institute hopes shortly to announce further 
appointments; those who have already provided funds 
for assisting the purpose of the institute are Messrs. 
Borax Consolidated, the Mond Nickel Co., and Lever 
Brothers. 


Tue council of the Royal Institute of Public Health 
is arranging for a conference in the Guildhall, 
London, on ‘‘ Problems of Reconstruction in Relation 
to Public Health’ on June 25-28. The opening meeting 
will be held in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion 
House on Wednesday, June 25, when the Lord Mayor 
of London “will preside. The conference will be 
devoted to the work of the Ministry of Health, the 
prevention and arrest of venereal disease, housing in 
relation to national health, maternity and child wel- 
fare, and the tuberculosis problem under after-war 
conditions. Full particulars may be obtained on 
application to the Secretary, Royal Institute of Public 
Health, 37 Russell Square, W.C.1. 


Tue Times of March 17 gives an account from its 
correspondent at Sydney of a remarkable Australian 
rainfall. It states that ‘‘the extraordinary rainfall at 
Melbourne threatens the greatest flood since 1891. 
The south-eastern corner of Victoria and New South 
Wales is almost engulfed. At-Port Melbourne fac- 
tories have been swamped.’ At the time of the 
report, March 7 (delayed), rain was still falling. ‘At 
Macedon 8 in. .were registered in twenty-four hours, © 
and other watersheds have been converted into lakes. 
Thousands of persons are homeless.. Thirteen inches 
of rain in twenty-four hours has practically drowned 
the township of East Bellingen, in New South Wales. 
Hs a pears, iv the damages are estimated to aggre- 
gate tens of thousands of pounds, the benefits from 
the breaking of the drought will be represented by 
hundreds of thousands.”’ 


WE regret to have to record the death on February 16, 
from pneumonia following influenza, of Mr. R. W. H. 
Row, lecturer in zoology at King’s College, London. 
Although only thirty-four vears of age, Mr. Row had 
already done much to advance the science to which 
he had devoted himself, both as a teacher and as an 


52 | 


| NATURE 


[Marcu 20, 1919 


4 


investigator; He had, partly in co-operation with 
‘Prof. Dendy, published several memoirs on sponges, 
on which he had become a recognised authority. Since 
1914 Mr. Row had been responsible for the section of 
the Zoological Record and International Catalogue of 
Scientific Literature dealing with this group of 
animals. After the outbreak of the war he devoted 
himself largely to protozoology from the pathological 
point of view, working under Sir Ronald Ross, and 
at the time of his death, in addition to his ordinary 
duties, he was in charge of the malaria laboratory at 
the 4th London General Hospital. Besides the routine 
work of blood examination, etc., Mr. Row managed 
to do a good deal of original work in this branch of 
zoology. He left much unfinished work behind him, 
and the loss to zoological science occasioned by his 
death is great. 


Tue Royal Geographical Society announces that the 
King has been pleased to approve the award of the 
Royal medals as follows:—The Founder’s medal to 
Col. E. M. Jack for his geographical work on_ the 
Western Front, and the Patron’s Medal to Prof. 
W. M. Davis, of Harvard University, for his eminence 
in the development of physical geography. The Vic- 
toria medal is awarded by the council to Prof. J. W. 
Gregory for his many and important contributions to 
geographical science; the Murchison grant to Dr. 
W. M. Strong, of the North-Eastern District, Papua, 
for his journeys and surveys in New Guinea; the 
Cuthbert Peek grant to Prof. Rudmose Brown for his 
geographical wo1k in the Antarctic and in Spits- 
bergen; the Back grant to the Ven. Archdeacon 
Stuck, of Fort Yukon, for his travels in Alaska and 
ascent of Mount McKinley; and the Gill memorial 
to Mr. W. J. Harding King for his investigations of 
desert conditions in northern Africa. 


Tue Times of March 13, under the heading of 
“Influenza Worse than Many | Plagues,” gives a 
startling statement from its Delhi correspgndent based 
on a Government report of the influenza epidemic by 
Major Norman White, who has just vacated the posi- 
tion of Sanitary Commissioner, which he had filled 
with distinction. ‘‘Major White declares that from 
the incomplete information available it would appear 
that no country has suffered as severely from the 
disease as India during the last quarter of 1918. 
Without fear of exaggeration, it can be stated that 
influenza was responsible for six million deaths, 
equivalent to more than half the mortality attri- 
butable to plague in the twenty-two years during 
which plague has been epidemic in this country. 
Five «million deaths occurred in British India, and 
one million in the native States.” Major White states 
that the incidence of the epidemic ‘‘was very high 
among the well-fed British troops, higher, indeed, than 
among the Indian troops.” In his report he says: “It 
can be stated without exaggeration that from 50 to 
80 per cent. of the total population have recently 
suffered from influenza.” 


Tue Registrar-General’s return for the week ending 
March 8 gives the following highly satisfactory state- 
ment :—‘‘ The influenza epidemic appears now to have 


passed its most severe stage, the number of deaths . 


registered in the ninety-six great towns having de- 
clined from a maximum of 3889 in the week ended 
March 1 to 3218 last week, and in London from 808 to 
597." The general health of London has also im- 
proved, the annual death-rate per thousand of the 
aggregate population having further decreased from 
32-4 in the preceding week to 26-6 in the week ending 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103| 


- started in London during the week ending October 12, 


March 8. The deaths from influenza are, however, 
still very high, being more than double those in any 
week during the summer. epidemic of 1918, and more 
than one-half of the total deaths in the eight weeks 
of that epidemic, also larger than in any week of any 
previous epidemic since 1890, 560 deaths in a singl 
week during the attack in 1892 being until the present 
epidemic the highest on record. The epidemie which 


1918, has now continued for twenty-two weeks, caus- 
ing 14,344 deaths out of 45,262 total deaths from all 
causes; the deaths, however, fell below too during 
each of the six weeks from the end of December last 
year to the commencement of February this year. 


On March 5 the Natural History Museum Staff 
Association held in the board room of the museum, 
by permission of the Trustees, its inaugural scientific 
reunion. The object of these meetings, which it is 
intended at first to hold about four times a year, is two- 
fold: in the first place, members of the staff will be 
afforded an opportunity of meeting one another and of 
seeing something of the worl done in ‘tments 
other than their own, and, in the second, scientific’ 
workers outside the museum, who are invited to 
attend, will have an opportunity of seeing some of 
he more interesting of the specimens which have 
been recently added to the collections, and also of 
becoming acquainted with some of the research work 
carried on at the museum. The number of visitors 
is necessarily limited, because the capacity of the 
board room—the only room available—is not great. 
Major E. Austen, of the Entomological 
Department, gave an interesting lecture on the anti- 
mosquito work carried out in Palestine during the 
campaigns of 1917 and 1918. The exhibits included 
the following :—A series of skulls of whales found 
round the British Isles, a case odin oe e de-- 
predations of marine boring animals, the Church 
collection of precious stones, a slice of the Skookum 
meteorite, specimens illustrating curvature in crystals, 
Carragheen moss and invalid dishes made with it, 
specimens showing mechanical adaptation, in labroid 
fishes, some of the suite of butterflies in the Dollman 
collection, German substitute tobacco, etc. _ os 

Tue British Association Fuel Economy Committee, 
which was originally appointed in 1915, and issued 
its first report in 1916, has, owing to the urgency and 
importance of the coal situation and fuel economy in 
connection with reconstruction problems, been re- 
appointed to continue its investigations upon 
various economic, scientific, and technical issues con 
nected with the production and utilisation of coal and_ 
other fuels. Prof. W. A. Bone has been reappointed 
chairman, with Mr. H. James Yates as vice-chairman, 
and Mr. Robert L. Mond as secretary. The general 
committee of thirty-three members includes representa- 
tives of the Association of British Chemical Manu- 
facturers, Coke-Oven Managers’ Association, Federa- 
tion of British Industries, Institution of Electrical 
Engineers, Institution of Gas Engineers, Institution of 
Mechanical Engineers, Institution of Mining and 
Metallurgy, Institution of Mining Engineers, Iron and 
Steel Institute, Society of British Gas Industries, and 
Society of Chemical Industry. The executive com- 
mittee, which consists of Sir Robert Hadfield, Sir 
Joseph Walton, M.P., Profs. W. A. Bone, Henry 
Louis, and W. W. Watts, Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw, 
Messrs. A. Hutchinson, Robert Mond, W. H. Patchell, 
H. Woodall, C. H. Wordingham, and .H. James 
Yates, meets in London on the second Wednesday in 
each month. The Committee is now compiling data 


{ 


* 


~ Marcu 20, 1919] 


NATURE 


53 


formation concerning a number of subjects of 
iblic interest, including, inter alia, such questions as 
onomic aspects of coal production in Great 
itain, (2) low-temperature distillation of coal, 
future standards for public gas supplies, and 
the proposed electric power scheme, etc., and 
®s individuals, firms, or institutions who may 
nformation of value to place it at the disposal 
mmittee. All -communications should be 
ed to Prof. W. A. Bone at the Imperial Col- 
f Science and Technology, South Kensington. 


regret to record the death on February 28, in 
fty-eighth year, of Mr. F.C. Forth, principal of 
Municipal Technical Institute, Belfast. Mr. Forth’s 
has removed from that city, and from Ireland 
ally, a- potent force in the promotion of scientific 
chnical instruction and training. On the passing 
Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) 
‘$99 the Corporation of Belfast took immediate 
inquire into the facilities for technical instruc- 
ting in Belfast and found them totally in- 
te, only five institutions existing with some 
or eight hundred students enrolled. It there- 
decided to appoint a principal and director of 
‘al instruction and to prepare a scheme for a 
ing, and in 1901 Mr. Forth, then vice- 
ie School of Technology, Manchester, 
ip. the post. An admirable site was secured, 
ith the aid of the new principal, whose know- 
md experience gained in Manchester proved 
service, a splendid building, standing on 
; of 5000 square yards in one of the prin- 
ques of Belfast, was erected, calculated to 
best interests of the great engineering, tex- 
‘other industries ofthe city. The foundation- 
id in November, 1902, and the building 
‘by the Lord-Lieutenant in 1907; and the 
“now an enrolment of 7ooo0 individual 
rt. Forth was a born teacher and 
to infuse his enthusiasm into both 
‘colleagues. In 1915 he was elected 
the Royal College of Science, Ire- 
in consideration of the manner in which, 
ir work as an educationist in the 
echnical instruction, you: have contributed 
idvancement of science in Ireland.” At 
-speciz ‘meeting of the Library and Technical In- 
iction Committee of-the Belfast Corporation a 
resolution was passed recording its sense of the 
ind loss sustained by the corporation and the 
generally in the death of the highly esteemed and 
itly successful principal of the Municipal Tech- 
titute, Mr. F. C. Forth. 


“MEETING of the illuminating Engineering Society 
. February 25, when the lighting of railways was 
cussed, was attended by representatives of a number 
| ee ays. Mr. A. Cunnington, lighting 

ne “the London and South-Western Railway, 
the introductory paper, remarked that by 
of available experience tentative standards for 
ting of platforms, goods sheds, and goods 
could now be formulated. Stations were divided 
hree classes, the specified illumination being 
, and 0035 foot-candle respectively, measured 

rizontal plane 3 ft. above the platform. In 
s sheds, values about twice as high were sug- 
. A number of special installations were 
described, including corridors, parcels offices, and 
signal-boxes. In the discussion, the importance to 
lway companies of employing an expert in lighting 
to deal with all problems connected with illumination 
was strongly emphasised. 
) NO. 2577, VOL. 103] 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

PHOTO-ELECTRIC DETERMINATIONS OF STELLAR MAGNI- 
TUDES OF PLANETS.—Astr. Nach., No. 4976, contains a 
paper by P. Guthnick on the application of this very 
accurate method to the determination of the stellar 
magnitudes of Saturn and Mars. The individual results 
show that, the probable error of a determination is in 
the neighbourhood of oo1m. ‘The results of a com- 
parison of Saturn with Pollux are given for four op- 
positions ; after allowing for the changing aspect of the 
ring they are practically constant, and show that without 
the ring the planet is just 1/3 mag. brighter than 
the star. As two of the oppositions were at sun-spot 
minimum and two at maximum, the inference is also 
drawn that there is no sensible variation of sunlight 
in the course of the cycle. Very numerous comparisons 
of Mars with standard stars were made; the results 
are grouped according to longitude of central meri- 
dian, and show that the planet is variable to the 
extent of 1/6 mag., according to the portion presented 
to us. The light-curve obtained is consistent for the 
same opposition, but varies from one opposition to 
another with the different pose of the planet’s equator 
and the amount of snow or cloud that is present on 
the disc. 


Nova Aguita:.—The Monthly Notices of the Royal 
Astronomical Society for December last contains 
papers on this nova’s spectrum by the Rev. A. L. 
Cortie and Dr, J. Lunt. The former reproduces six 
spectra photographed in June and July, which illus- 
trate the development of the hydrogen bands. Both 
papers give wave-length tables and_ identifications; 
lines due to iron, titanium, chromium, scandium, 
barium, helium, calcium, etc., are identified. Both 
also note that the line-of-sight velocities fall into 
two groups, one of the order of — 1500 km./sec., the 
other of the order of —800 km./sec. 

The same issue of the Monthly Notices contains a 
paper by Dr. A. A. Rambaut on the visual magni- 
tudes of the nova from June 9 to December 10; the 
table shows a well-marked periodic variation with a 
period of eleven days during July and August; after 
correcting for the progressive decline, the range from 
maximum to minimum was just half a magnitude. 


THe VARIABLES Or LonG PerrtIop.—Many astro- 
nomers have of late inclined to the theory that the 
red variable stars, of types M apd N, are dwarf stars, 
near the end of their career as suns, on which an 
incipient crust is forming. Mr. W. Gyllenberg, of the 
Lund Observatory (Arkiv fér Matematik, Astronomi 
och Fysik, Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, 
Band 14, No. 5), examines the question of their dis- 
tances by means of their proper motions. Contrary 
to the above dwarf theory, he finds that the stars are 
very distant, and must be classed as giants, their 
mean absolute magnitude at maximum (at a distance 
of Io parsecs) being —o-65, making them comparable 
in absolute lustre with stars of the types B8 to A2. 
The mean velocity in all directions comes out as 
37°77 _km./sec., in admirable accord with the value 
36:4 found by Mr. Paul W. Merrill (Astrophysical 
Journ., xli., 247) from motions in the line of sight. 

Adopting the above mean absolute magnitude, and 
plotting the distances of the stars from their bright- 
ness, they show greater extension in the galactic 
plane than perpendicular to it, which confirms the 
conclusion that they are distant. The denser parts of 
the system extend to 3000 L.Y. in the plane, tooo L.Y. 
perpendicular to it. The distances found for the M 
variables accord well with those previously ‘found for 
non-variable giant stars of type M. It thus appears 
that long-period variability is an incident in the early 
history of star-life. 


s 


4 


54 | 


NATURE 


[Marcu 20, 1919 


REPORTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN 
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 


HE scientific results of ‘the Australian Antarctic 
Expedition are being published with commend- 
able promptitude. Of the five parts recently received 
the most generally interesting is the report on the 
Brachiopoda by Dr. J. Allan Thomson, Wellington, 
N.Z. The Brachiopods recorded, though not many in 
number, are relatively rich in species, a new genus, 
Amphithyris (family Terebratellida), and new species 
of seven other genera being described. The author 
gives a summary of the known distribution of Brachio- 
pods in South Temperate and Antarctic seas, and dis- 
cusses the bearing of the facts on the theories of 
southern land connections, ‘‘ which it is one of, the 
aims of Antarctic expeditions to prove or disprove.” 
He points out that the known larve of Brachiopods, 
with the exception of those of Lingula and Discina 
(sensu lato), have no mouth during the free-swimming 
stage, and that they soon settle down. Consequently, 
the deep oceans are barriers which Brachiopods, the 
majority of which live on the submarine slopes of con- 
tinents and adjacent islands, and their larva cannot 
cross, and therefore cases of discontinuous distribution 
of these shallow-water forms have an important 
significance. 

Dr. Thomson considers there is abundant evidence, 
from the associated molluscan fauna, that the Pata- 
gonian (Miocene) of South America-and the Oamaru- 
ian (older Tertiary) of New Zealand had a much 
warmer climate than the present, and that the oc- 
currence of the same Brachiopod genera and species 
in the Oligocene-Miocene of the Antarctic strongly 


suggests that at this period the Antarctic seas were 


also warmer. Mr. Tate Regan, in his report on the 
Terra Nova fishes, inclined to the view that the coasts 
of Antarctica were washed by cold seas probably 
throughout the Tertiary period, but in Dr. Thomson’s 
view the geological evidence all points the other way. 

From a consideration of the distribution of the 
Brachiopods he arrives at the following conclusions : 
Connections—not necessarily land-bridges, but. chains 
of islands or shallow submarine ridges—must have 
existed between Australia and South Africa at some 
date prior to the Tertiary, by which the primitive 
genera of the Terebratellidz attained their present dis- 
tribution in South rica, St. Paul’s and Marion 
Islands, Australia, and New Zealand. The specific 
and generic distinctness of the recent New Zealand 
and Australian forms precludes any land connections 
between these areas in Pliocene or later times. The 
two groups of Terebratellidae concerned would seem 
to have originated on the coasts of Gondwana Land, 
on the remnants of which they now survive; the Ker- 


~guelen area apparently did not share in the connection 


with Gondwana Land. Connections between Aus- 
tralia, New Zealand, the. Macquarie Islands, Ker- 
guelen, Antarctica, and South America must have 
occurred in the early Tertiary, but New Zealand was 
not connected at the same time with Australia and 
Antarctica. The connections between New Zealand, 
Antarctica, and South America may have existed from 
an earlier period. It does not appear probable that 
Australia was connected directly with Kerguelen and 
Antarctica during the Cretaceous or early Tertiary. 
The southern connections were broken, much as at 
present, by Miocene times, and since that period there 
have been no renewed connections between the 
southern continents and island areas except, possibly, 
between South America, Antarctica, and the adjacent 
islands. 

Dr. W. G. Ridewood records (vol. iii., part 2), from 
off Adelie Land and Queen Mary Land, four species 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103| 


of Cephalodiscus—hodgsoni, nigrescens, solidus, and . 
s of 


densus—and gives details of the external feature 
the colonies and notes on the colour and structure 
of the zooids. For further details of these species 


reference may be made to Dr. Ridewood’s recent — 


report on the specimens of Cephalodiscus collected by 
the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, a notice 
of which will appear in another issue of NATURE. — 


“ 
t 


A brief account of the Euphausiacea and Mysidacea | 


is given by Dr. W. M. Tattersall (vol. v., part 5), and 
of the Cumacea and Phyllocarida by Dr. W. T. 
Calman (part 6). ; 
Prof. A. Dendy (vol. vi., part 1) reports on the cal- 
careous sponges. The Antarctic forms comprise two 


new species of Leucetta, a new species of Leucandra, © 


and a new variety of Grantia. In the account of the 
monaxon spicules of a _ variety of Leucosolenia 
botryoides from Macquarie Island, Prof. Dendy takes 
the opportunity of correcting an error in the late Prof. 
Minchin’s well-known memoir on the British species 
of this genus. 


of Leucosolenia were separable into two kinds, one 


very refringent, the other much less so, the refringent 
monaxons being fewer, straighter, more slender, and 
having the distal barb less distinct or absent. Prof. 
Dendy points out that the explanation of these differ- 


ences is simply that some of the monaxons were 


viewed as they lay on edge, while others were seen 


lying flat. 


NEW PROCEDURE AT AMERICAN 
MAGNETIC. OBSERVATORIES. 
N accordance with the usual practice of the United 


1915 and 1916, are dealt with in the Results of 
Observations at the magnetic observatories at Sitka 
and Honolulu, which have recently been published. In 
previous years the curves were read unsmoothed 
exactly at the hour local mean time. Commencing 
with 1915, the hourly value represents the mean 
ordinate for sixty minutes ending 
the 135th meridian at Sitka (135 
the 165th meridian at Honolulu (158° 3-8’ W.). 
value entered, for instance, under 2h. really belongs 
to 15h. Diurnal inequalities continue to be given, 
as in the past, only for 10q (quiet) days a month 
chosen locally, and for the 5q (international quiet) 
days, but hourly means are given for all days. The 


20:1! W.), and of 


——— 


with the hour of — 


States Coast and Geodetic Survey, two years, © 


adoption of mean ordinates instead of instantaneous — 


with what 


is in accordance 
it 


the usual practice. Unless 

lowed, all-day diurnal inequalities for 
months are apt to be very ragged. But the 
adoption of means for sixty minutes ending at the 
hour, instead of sixty minutes centring at the hour, 
is a practice not generally followed except in Ger- 
many. Even if the procedure had distinct advantages 
over the ordinary one, its spasmodic adoption by indi- 
vidual observatories or in individual countries has the 
serious drawback of introducing diversity where uni- 
formity is desirable. This is especially true of the 
international quiet days, the special object of which 


readings S 
probably is  fol- 


disturbed 


is to supply exactly corresponding data from different 


observatories. 


The advantage claimed for the new procedure is that 


it makes the day self-contained, whereas with the 
ordinary procedure the values for the first and last 
midnights depend, one on the last half-hour of the 
previous day, the other on the first half-hour of the 


is now — 


) Li a) RE EY a eR 


Minchin considered that the monaxons — 


The 


following day. This argument has much weight in’ 


the case of elements like rainfall or duration of sun- 
But in the 3 
case of magnetism the procedure does not really make 


shine, where we deal with aggregates. 


Marcu 20, 1919] 


NATURE 


55 


lay self-contained unless we neglect the n.c. (non- 
ct) changes, which are seldom really negligible. 
» changes should, in any case, be explicitly shown, 
y are aa in part of instrumental origin. 
“reference to them at Honolulu seems to 
fatement that they have been allowed for in the 
the 5q-day inequalities. At Sitka there is the 
statement that, so far as possible, days with 
. changes have not been chosen for the 10q 
t would be interesting to know how the n.c. 
s were found for the 5q days, and whether 
re entirely omitted for the 1oq days. 
idea of the size of the n.c. changes on quiet 
sually be derived from the size of the differ- 
en the mean daily values for these days and 
- From the twenty-four monthly means 
1916 given for all days and for the 10q 
nd for the mean algebraic excess of the 
over the former +6-oy in H (horizontal 
+5:4y in V (vertical force) at Sitka, and 
and. =1-1y in V at Honolulu. In D 
the n difference between the two sets 
as only about 0-05’ at both stations. 
give very nearly the same mean daily 
he 1oq days. We should naturally infer 
e n,c. change may be negligible in D, 
/no means negligible in H at either 
n V at Sitka. Confirmatory evidence is 
| the highly disturbed days, the charac- 
f which are usually the direct opposite of 
iet days. If we take as representing dis- 
five days of largest daily range in each 
id that on the average the monthly mean 
d from these days fall short of ‘the corre- 
day means by 14-4y in H and 15-3y in V 
chery in H and 2-3y in V at Honolulu. 
V is unusually large at Sitka, and 
mall at Honolulu, which, presumably, 
rge difference between the mean values 
5d days at the former station, and 
2 at the latter station. If a diurnal 
be derived from the 5d days, as 
eee. the n.c. element would 
of great importance at Sitka in H 


‘e wanting explanation is that the 
1own in the tables as days of 165° W. at 
‘as days of 135° W. at Sitka, whereas 

24-hour periods commencing at Green- 
it. It is to be hoped that this is only 
as when values belonging really to 
ed under the heading 2h., because 
disturbance is occasionally experienced 
ess than nine hours of the end of true inter- 
quiet days. Explanation on this point, on the 
Ses, en on the effect on the ranges of the 

ties consequent on the change of pro- 
be welcome in the next issue of these 

ons. C. CHREE. 


OREST RESEARCH IN EUROPE. 
SEFUL account of forest research in Europe 
a S. Howard has appeared in the Indian 
te September last. ‘‘ Forest research, in 
tances, necessitates observations over jong 
of time, longer than an individual man’s 
years, and over widely separated areas. 
institution is necessary, therefore, to direct 
s for the sake of uniformity, and to continue 
. despite the necessary changes in the research 
ersonnel.’’ Germany was the first . country to 
rganise research, this movement dating from 1868, 
m it was proposed at a meeting of prominent 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103 | 


_by the research staff at Eberswalde. 


foresters at Regensburg that the larger States, Aus- 
tria, Prussia, and Bavaria, should have independent 
research institutes. It was finally decided in 1870 that 
forest research should be properly organised, and that 
the research institutes in all the States were to be 
combined with the educational branch—that is to say, 
the president of the forest college was also to be presi- 
dent of the research institute. [In 1g12 all German 
States of importance had their forestry institutes (in 
each case combined with the college of forestry) united 
under the German Forest Research Association, which 
meets, as a rule, twice a year. The Prussian Research 
Institute, united with the Forestry College at Ebers- 
walde, has six branches, dealing with sylviculture, 
physical chemistry, meteorology, plant physiology, 
zoology, and mycology. 

Besides the headquarters at Eberswalde, there are ~ 
numerous experimental plots of trees all over Prussia. 
These were at first put under the local forest officer, 
but this proved.a failure; and for more than twenty 
years all work connected with the plots has been done 
The sylvicultural 
branch compiles yield tables and statistics, and has 
carried out investigations on exotic trees, root- 
formation, manures, technical properties of wood, 
seed tests, etc. It is to be noted that the tests of 
strengths of wood and the like are done by technical 
experts at Charlottenburg, and not by the Forest 
Research Institute. The meteorology branch is 
especially concerned with experiments on the influence 
of forests on climate. The plant physiology branch is 
purely botanical, and takes up subjects like the forma- 
tion of annual rings, the influence of locality on seeds, 
the influence of soil factors on trees, etc. The zoology 
branch is concerned with zoological researches, so far 
as they concern forests, and with control methods; 
the physical chemistry branch with the chemistry of 
soils, the formation of humus, the formation of pan, 
etc.; and the mycology branch with mycology in its 
relation to forestry and control methods. 

Forest research was organised in France in 1882, 
but was hopelessly carried out. Experiments were 
begun, but were usually badly organised and badly 
performed, and ceased absolutely between 1896 and 
1902. The research work proposed in France was to 
cost 12001. per annum. Germany has actually been 
spending 6o00l., Switzerland 2oo0l., and Sweden, 
roughly, 880l. a year. 

Mr. Howard gives also an account of the Inter- 
national Forest Research Association, which met at 
Mariabrunn in 1893 and 1903, at Brunswick in 1896, 
at Zurich in 1900, and at Brussels in 1910. Most 
European countries are members, but France is not, 
or, if she is, has taken no active part. The usefulness 
of these international meetings was undoubted. For 
example, it was soon found essential to have some. 
classification of thinnings, if results were to be com- 
parable. The Prussian classification was adopted in 
1CO3s | 


| 


THE CONSERVATION OF OUR CEREAL 
RESERVES.! 


Ts dangers to which grain stored under ordinary 
conditions is exposed may be classified under 
four heads:—(1) The attacks of rats- and mice, 
(2) those of insects: and mites, (3) those of moulds 
and bacteria, and (4) the process known | as 
“heating.” The amount of damage due to rats and 
mice is, no doubt, enormous, but might be avoided 
by any rational system of storage, and is a mattér 
1 Abstract of a lecture delivered at King’s College, London, on March 12s 


under the auspices of the Imperial Studies Committee of the University 
London, by Prof. Arthur Dendy, FBS 


56 


for legislation rather than for scientific investigation. 
The chief insect pests in this country are the two grain- 
weevils, Calandra granaria and C. oryzae, while in 
India two other beetles, Rhizopertha dominica and 
Trogoderma khapra, are also responsible for much 
direct injury. Experiments on the rate of multiplication 
of the weevils show that at suitable temperatures they 
breed all the year round, but in this country normally 
only in the warmer months, At about 28° C. a single 
pair of rice-weevils increased about seven-hundred-fold 
in four months. The accumulated excrement of the 
weevils attracts moisture and promotes decomposition, 
accompanied by the evolution of large quantities of 
ammonia, and in this way the destruction com- 
menced by the ravages of the insects is completed. 
The process of heating is the result of enzymic action 
in the wheat itself, sometimes inaccurately spoken of 
as respiration, though fermentation would be a better 
term, which increases with rise of temperature (up 
to about 55° C.) and moisture content (Bailey and 
Gurjar). In the eyes of the trade, heating appears 
to be a much more serious danger than weevilling. 
It is at present avoided by abundant ventilation, the 
grain being turned over as soon as the temperature 
becomes dangerously high, so as to cool it and carry 
off moisture. 

As an effectual means of preventing damage from 
all these sources, airtight storage should be resorted 
to. Unfortunately, however, considerable doubt has 
been thrown on the efficacy of this ancient method 
by a widespread belief in the ability of weevils to 
withstand such treatment. This belief rests entirely 
upon inaccurate observations. Thus we find that tins 
which are supposed to be hermetically sealed, and 
» look perfectly sound, are often leaky, as can easily 
be shown by placing them in hot water, when air 
bubbles out. Numerous experiments made at King’s 
College by the lecturer and his colleague, Mr. H. D. 
Elkington, who is responsible more especially for the 
chemical analyses, prove conclusively that all insects 
present are more or less rapidly destroyed when 
weevilly wheat is sealed up in airtight receptacles 
which it nearly fills. This method of treatment 
destroys thé weevils in all their stages, and is also 
fatal at any rate to adult mites. The same treat- 
ment also prevents the growth of moulds and the 
process of heating. Two Dewar flasks, filled with 
grain having a moisture content of 20-7 per cent., 
were incubated’ at about 28° C. One was merely 
plugged with cotton-wool and the other hermetically 
sealed. In the former the temperature gradually rose 
to 494° C., while in the latter it remained almost 
stationary. The life of insects and moulds and the 
process of heating alike depend upon the supply of 
oxygen, and where this is cut off no damage from 
these sources need be feared. 

It has been demonstrated experimentally, not only 
that weevils require an abundant supply of oxygen, 
but also that carbon dioxide, if present in sufficient 
quantity, has a directly poisonous action upon them. 
In pure, moist carbon dioxide they become motionless 
in three minutes, and can remain in this condition for 
as much as four days (at room temperature) without 
losing the power of recovery. A mixture of carbon 
dioxide with 20 per cent. of oxygen is far more fatal 
than pure carbon dioxide. This is probably because, 
in the absence of oxygen, their metabolism is more 
or less completely susperided, so that the carbon 
dioxide is unable to exercise its poisonous effect. In 
a mixture of 56-4 per cent. nitrogen, 20-36 per cent. 
oxygen, and 23:22 per cent. carbon dioxide weevils 
-became motionless in forty-three hours (at about 
30° C.), and after ninety-one hours’ exposure, though 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103 | 


t 


NATURE 


.bv storing for a suitable period before shi 


19-09 per cent. of oxygen still remained, none revived 
when supplied with ordinary air. rh eae 
When wheat is sealed up in a normal atmos ; 
carbon dioxide accumulates naturally owing to the 
so-called respiration of the grain, the rate of accumula- 
tion depending upon temperature and moisture condi- 
tions. At ordinary room temperature (July to Octo- 
ber) in three months 300 grams of English wheat, 
having a natural moisture-content of 15-9 per cent., 
gave off 586 milligrams of carbon dioxide, sufficient 
to raise the percentage of that gas in the air in the 
receptacle (which was nearly filled with wheat) to 
18-13. If insects also be present, the carbon dioxide 
accumulates more rapidly owing to the large amount — 
which they themselves give off. It thus appears that 


| MarcH 20, 1919 


in hermetically sealed granaries completely filled with 
grain there should be no need for any artificial addi- 
tion of carbon dioxide such as has sometimes been 
recommended, and, indeed, actually made, for the pur- 
pose of destroying weevils. Under proper conditions, 
which ought to be experimentally determined on a 
large scale, the grain must ‘become self-protective 
as regards weevilling, mildew, and heating, to say 
aang Dl aby oa mice, Any damage which might 
arise while the carbon dioxide was accumulating wo 
probably be negligible. oe } a 
The construction of airtight granaries or ‘silos is a. 
problem for the engineer, but there seems to be no 
insuperable difficulty in the way. If such granaries 
existed in the large wheat-growing countries the grain 
might be completely sterilised as regards insect-life 
* Pe a 
the very serious weevilling which often takes place ea 
board ship might be avoided. Moreover, it would be 
possible to equalise shipments all the year round and 


avoid the rush to get the grain away after harvest. 4 


Airtight storage would also, in all probability, afford 
by far the best means of maintaining eaeerok grain 
to meet emergencies such as war and failure of 
crops. baat 
Further details have been, and will be, published 
in the reports of the Grain Pests (War) Conmntetes of 
the Royal Society, under the auspices of which these 
Investigations have been carried out. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. Oe 


CamBRIDGE.—Mr. Joseph Barcroft, F.R.S., of King’s 
College, has been appointed reader in physiology; Mr. 
A. V. Hill, F.R.S., of King’s College, University lec- 
turer in physiology; and Dr. Hartridge, of King’s 
College, University lecturer in the physiology of the 
senses. a 

The adjudicators for the Adams prize have 
as the subject for the prize fot hae Sil seston 
“The Nature and Analysis of Optical Spectra.” 


LIvERPOOL.—The council of the University has 
accepted with great regret Prof. Herdman’s resigna- 
tion as from September 30 next of the Derby chair 
of natural history, which he has held since 1882. As 
announced in Nature of February 27, Prof. Herd- 
man will occupy the new chair of oceanography, with- 
out salary, for a period of one year from October I 
next, and this tenure will perhaps lessen the severity — 
of the wrench he must feel at severing his long pro- 


fessorial connection with the University. He will be 


greatly missed by the University staff and students 
but freedom. from lectures and administrative duties 
will give him much more time for research, to which 


ai EL EE LE EET OT eS 


he proposes to devote his remaining working years. 


\ 


NATURE 


57 


_ Marcu 20, 1919] 


hroughout his long period of service in the Uni- 
rsity Prof. Herdman’s interest in marine biology 
2anog has-made the department a very 
8 one, and established a tradition for it which 
ific men will hope to see maintained. In 1885 
ght together the local biologists and started the 
yerpool Marine Biology Committee, and a year 
ter the Liverpool Biological Society. The com- 
tee established itself in its first biological station 
fin Island, in Anglesey and fiva years later at 
in the Isle of Man, in a laboratory which 
‘continuously since its foundation, and has 
lecome very well known. In 1892 Prof. Herd- 
Se onal tl scientific adviser to the Lanca- 
sa_ Fishery mmittee, which established the 
fisheries laboratory at the then University Col- 
lege, and some years later the Biological Station and 
shery at Piel, in Barrow. As the result of all 

these activities the eres and fishery biology: of the’ 
off Lancashire, Wales, and the Isle of Man has 
ome better known than any other similar area 
. Two years ago Prof. and Mrs. 
an endowed a chair of geology at Liverpool in 
of their son George, who. was killed in the 

ve chair of oceanography recently estab- 

, by them will-be a most suitable means of main- 
and e: poang those investigations which Prof. 
reg has done so much to stimulate 


7 om ' 
ad a 


ON 


by: ic 


sirt . * 
t commemoration day exercises of the 
Niversity, it was announced, 


by the British Association 
. Buckmaster (chairman), Mr. 
, Mr. C. H. Bothamley, Dr. 
rof. Barbara Foxley, Dr. W. Gar- 
Coie pat Prof. H. B. Smith, Dr. 
nd Miss C. M. Waters, to consider the 
results of the ‘‘free place system’? in 
n England and Wales, under which 
sd grants are given to such schools con- 
ther, admitting 25 per cent. of pupils 


tary schools or such lower percentage 
the Board of Education, has issued an 

Suggestive report after exhaustive in- 
vorking of the system in various classes 
ban and county. The results of the 
Stigations go to show that pa i 
the whole bearing satisfactory fruit, enabling a 
co nsider. able number of children dttendidiy public ele- 
mentary schools, who in ordinary circumstances would 
cease their education at or below fourteen years of 
age, to continue it to their great advantage up to and 
<teen, and in some cases to pass into the uni- 
le committee makes certain specific re- 
tions for the improvement of the system, 
free places should not be awarded to 

above twelve years of age; the necessity 
good mid-day meal is enforced; in many cases 
enance. grants should also be given; greater 
at s should be offered for the effective support of 
-secondary-school children of exceptional ability to enter 
; e universities and technical high schools; power 
ould be given for the removal of children from the 
» place list who are reported for habitual laziness; 
award of free places should depend upon an oral 
well as upon a written examination; and finally, 
free place system should be made available for all 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103] . 


shou 


fie 
SRY 
as. 


classes of the community, say, under the condition that 
the candidates must have been educated for two years 
in a school classed by the Board of Education as 
“efficient.” The report is accompanied by interesting 
tabular statements illustrating the results of the in- 
quiries made. 


MIES., 


SOCIETIES AND. ACADE 


Lonpon. 

Royal Society, March 6.—Sir J. J. 
dent, in the chair.—L. F. Richardson :; (x) Atmospheric 
stirring measured by precipitation. The equation for 
diffusion is investigated in the general case in which 
atmospheric density and degree of turbulence must 
both be regarded as varying with height, and it is 
found that the stirring is best measured by the 
coefficient € in the equation 


Thomson, presi- 


Su ( Su\ . ~ Ou b%u 
8/3 sy, in preference to « in Tay Ye 
Here p is pressure, h height, and either entropy 
per unit mass, or mass of water per unit mass, or 
horizontal momentum per unit mass in a_ fixed 
azimuth. In place of entropy per mass we may, with 
pe ecg | take potential temperature. From esti- 
mates of precipitation and vertical gradient of water 
per mass of atmosphere, as means over the whole 
globe, it is found that € has the following mean 
values :— 
Height 
8500 metres 
500 
ot 


e 
3 to 180 cm.~? grm.? sec. ~* 
” la 140,000 5 3. ” 

Ms ..« possibly as low as 1000 or even less. 


The value at 500 metres is in fair agreement. with € 
as deduced from «x, calculated by Akerblom, by Hessel- 
berg, and by Taylor, for heights of a few hundred 
metres. The values of € at other levels are remark- 
ably smaller. (2) Measurement of water in clouds. 
Photometric methods enable an estimate to be’ made 
of the amount of water in clouds in terms of the 
diameter of the cloud droplets. For thin cloud, 
through which the sun can be seen, it is the contrast 
of brightness between the sky and the sun which is 
measured. For thick, uniform stratus it is the, total 
light transmitted to earth which is measured as a 
fraction of the incident sunlight. If the cloud were 
compressed into a homogeneous horizontal lamina, 
of water or of ice according to its temperature, the 
thickness of this lamina.» would appear to have the 
following values when expressed as a multiple of the 
diameter of the cloud droplets:—For cirrus, cirro- 
stratus, and cirro-cumulus, on the average about 0-5; 
for stratus which only just permitted the sun to be 
seen, 4:1, the sun’s zenith distance being 49°; for a 
strato-nimbus of ordinary appearance, 24. 


Aristotelian Society, March 3.—Prof. Wildon Carr in 
the chair.—Mrs. N. A. Duddington : Our knowledge of 
other minds. On the basis of a realistic theory of 
knowledge, our knowledge of other minds must be 
pronounced to be as direct and immediate as our 
knowledge of physical things. Mental states. ‘lived 
through” by one person may be discerned or dis- 
criminated another, Thus if we see someone 
weep we become aware of his grief simultaneously 
with his sobs, dejected attitude, etc.; the grief is 
revealed to our contemplation in precisely the same 
sense as the bodily changes are. We may sometimes 
infer people’s emotions from their bodily attitude, 
but if there were no direct acquaintance with other 
mental lives we should have no clue fér the inter- 


' pretation of their expressive behaviour, and it would 


58 


NATURE 


ult 


have no meaning for us. The existence of other 
selves cannot be inferred, as is usually supposed, 
from the analogy which their behaviour presents to 
our own, because (1) no priority attaches to the 
awareness of our own selfhood; (2) the alleged infer- 
ence would have to be made for the first time at an 
impossibly early age; (3) the behaviour of others 
presents, from the point of view of the percipient, no 
analogy to his own; and (a) if other selves were 


merely inferred entities, human affections and rela- 


tionships could not be what they are.. It is con- 
sistent with any theory of the ultimate nature of mind 
to maintain that the presence of other selves and the 
affective aspect of them can be directly apprehended. 


Mathematical Society, March 13.—Mr. J. E. Camp- 
bell, president, in the chair.—J. Hammond: The solu- 
tion of the quintic.—L. J. Mordell; A simple algebraic 
summation of Gauss’s sums.~Major P. A. MacMahon ; 
Divisors of numbers and their continuations in the 
theory of-partitions.—S. Ramanujan: (1) Congruence 
properties of partitions, (2) Algebraic relations between 
certain infinite products. 

‘Linnean Society, March 20.—Sir David Prain, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. Harold Wager: ‘The colour- 
sense of wasps. The experiments described -in this 
paper were made by observing the number of wasps 
flying towards, and settling upon, pieces of sugar 
placed upon sheets of coloured paper arranged in 
various ways. The results show that in seeking their 
food wasps (Vespa vulgaris) are guided by their: social 
instinct, their remembrance of locality, and their 
power to distinguish conspicuous colours or. colour- 
contrasts. They are.probably also guided by, smell, 
but no experiments were made to test this. Leaving 
out of account the probability that smell plays an 
important part in their activities, the experiments 
indicate that the governing principles which dominate 
wasps in their search for food are, first, the attraction 
exerted by the presence of other wasps; secondly, the 
tendency always to return to the same place; and, 
thirdly, the attraction due to conspicuous colours and 
colour-contrasts. 

CAMBRIDGE, 


Philosophical Society,, February 17.—Mr. C. T. R. 
Wilson, president, in the chair.—Dr. Doncaster : Note 
on an experiment dealing with mutation in bacteria. 
It was noticed that the recorded ratio of occurrence in 
cases of meningitis of the four agglutination-types of 
Meningococcus corresponded very closely with the ratio 
of occurrence of the four iso-agglutinin groups of blood 
in a normal human population. It seemed possible, 
therefore, that by growing Meningococcus of one type 
in media containing human blood of different groups, 
mutation to other types might be induced. Experi- 
ment showed that considerable differences in type of 
agglutination resulted, but it was concluded that this 
was caused by the sorting out of races of different 
agglutinability from a mass culture rather than by 
true mutation.—Dr. Shearer: Electrical conductivity 
of bacterial emulsions.—Miss M. D. Haviland: The 
bionomics of Aphis grossulariae, Kalt, and A. viburni, 
Shrank. A. grossulariae, a pest of currant-bushes, 
appears to be identical with A. grossulariae found on 
the guelder rose. Experiments to see how far the 
descendants of the original migrants can be success- 
fully transferred from the currant to the guelder rose, 
and vice versa, show that while the guelder-rose form 
can with some difficulty be cultivated on the currant, 


the currant form cannot be reared on the guelder rose. : 


—J. E. Purvis: (1) The conversion of sawdust into 
sugar. (2) Bracken as a source of potash.—S. 
Chapman: Terrestrial magnetic variations and their 
connection with solar emissions which are absorbed in 


NO. 2577. VOL. 103] . 


the earth’s outer atmosphere.—W. J. Harrison; The 
distribution of electric force between two electrodes, 


one of which is covered with radio-active matter. It — 


would appear from experimental results that the rate. 


_of ionisation per unit time due to an a particle is con- 


stant at all points of the path of the particle within 
the range of its ionising activity. It follows that, at 


a distance x from a large electrode covered with radio- 


active matter, the rate of ionisation is q,log(R/x), 


where R is the range of the particles. The differential 
equations involved are integrable in the case of the 


. Saturation current, 
have been calculated 


Dustin. 


Royal Dublin Society, February 25. Prof, co Joly 


_in the chair.—W, B. Wright: An analysis of the 


Paleozoic floor of north-eastern Ireland, with pre- 
dictions as to concealed coalfields. The considerations 
which led up to the present search for coal beneath 


and typical numerical solutions — 


[Marcu 20, 1919 4 


the basin of Lough Neagh are elaborated and sup- — 


ported by further evidence. These considerations were! 


originally set forth in 1917 in a memorandum from’ 
_the Geological Survey of Ireland to the Department 
for the Development. of Mineral Resources, ‘Ministry’ 


of Munitions. They are now extended to the predic- 


“tion of coal basins in ‘other parts of the concealed 


| area. 


certain well-marked north and south synclinal troughs. 


with the continuation of the central trough-valley: of — 


Scotland, and a distinct doubly synclinal trough with 


Caledonian trend lying further north. . 


td 


MANCHESTER. 


. 


Literary and Philosophical Society, Match ‘4.-—Mr. ae 


. 


Thomson, president, in the chair.—F. H. Carr:. 


post-graduate training of the works chemist. There 
“was scope for. institutions devoted primarily to the 


post-graduate training of chemical students who in- 
tended to specialise in the applied aspects of their 


science. In such institutions instruction would be 
given, not only’ on a wide variety of technical pro- 


cesses for the manufacture of chemicals, and in opera- 


tions in each technical department, from the drawing 
office and the’ power house to the special chemical 
plants, but also in the whole question of economic and 
statistical control of works processes. The chemicals 


' produced should cover an extremely wide range, and 


be such as might be required in relatively small 


quantities such as existing manufacturing firms would. 


not find it worth while to produce. In, this way the 
institutions in question might, in course “of time, 
accumulate stocks of chemicals comparable in variety 


he 


These basins are located at the intersection of | 


af 
C LP 5 ae 
"y ’ 


Sey | 


with those-in the possession of certain German firms — 


on the resources of which research chemists in all 
parts of the world have had to rely. 


SYDNEY. 

Linnean Society of New South Wales, November 27, 
1918.—Prof. H. G. Chapman, president, in the 
chair.—Dr. R. J. Tillyard: Studies in Australian 
Neuroptera. No. 6: The family Psychopside, with 
descriptions of new genera and _ species. The 


paper begins with a study of the wing-venation 
of Psychopsis elegans, Guérin, which is | com- 
pared with the precedent tracheation. of the pupal 
wing. From this it is shown that the family is 
characterised by certain specialisations not found in- 
other families, and that the cross-venation, which 
consists only of a variable number of gradate series, 
is to be considered as a comparatively late addition to” 
the original 
The character of the cross-venation is shown to be 


Prohemerobiid-like venational scheme. — 


essentially variable, and the classification of the family — 


NATURE 


59 


on it by Navas to be quite untenable. A 
subdivision of the Australian species into three 
a, based on quite new characters, is given, 
with descriptions of two new genera and two 
cies. A number of new facts are given about 
he very rare Psychopsis illidgei, Froggatt, including 

ares of this species at rest in two positions. The 
rs of the family are given in full, together 
scussion as to its affinities, fossil and recent, 
il bibliography for the Australian species, 
“now number eight out of a total. of sixteen 
“4 the world.—A. M. Lea: Descriptions of 
of Australian Coleoptera. Part xiv. 
and thirty-one species are described as 
Gu. Hall: new species or form of 
A single tree only has been seen, which 
d, as it has some of the characters of 
ks, especially in the seedling stage, yet 
them in others, in the mature stage, as 
, and timber.—Dr. R. J. Tillyard:” Aus- 
a De aes or alder-flies, with descriptions of 

nd species. The only known Australian 
= order Megaloptera is Archichauliodes 
Walker, belonging to the archaic family 
No species of the family Sialidz occurs 
al region, and the nearest known species 
Chile. In this paper two interesting new 
‘species. belonging to this family ‘are 
Maria Island, Tasmania, and ihe 
Tambourine, South Queensland. 
to the Chilian form, one by the struc- 
the other by its coloration. The 


¢ genus Sialis. The occurrence of these 
tralia affords further evidence of the 
Antarctic theory, since they could only 
‘the south.—Dr. J. M. Petrie: The 

hyl lzvoinositol in an Australian 
~ The endemic Australian plant 
aefolium, Desf. (fam. Sapindacez), 
yl ester of lzvorotatory inositol. 
ed was equivalent to 0-65 per cent. 
too® C.) leaves. This substance is 
eric with the pinite of Maquenne, 
hyl dextroinositol possessing a dif- 
oint and optical rotation. It is 
i with Tanret’s quebrachite, and 
vy recorded from three plants only— 

_ quebracho (Apocynacez), Hevea 
yhorbiaceze), and Grevillea robusta 
The occurrence of this compound is, 
dingly rare, and in great contrast to 
inactive inositol, which exists as a 
most plants. Heterodendron also 
nogenetic glucoside.—Dr. R. J. Tillyard : 

Australian Neuroptera. No. 7: The life- 
Psychopsis elegans, Guérin. The complete 
oceupies about two years, of which the 
is spent in the larval state. The eggs are 
on the bark of eucalyptus trees, and the 
rva lives in cracks or crannies of the bark, 
it attacks other insects, sucking them dry 
huge, calliper-like mandibles. There are 

rval instars. The full-fed larva is brownish- 
th whitish pruinescence; the hairs of the 
n are modified into peculiar star-like processes, 
h the author terms dolichasters and micrasters 
ectively, according to their form and origin. The 
h-parts and anal papilla of the larva are fully 
‘ibed. The general form of the larva is inter- 
Ee ate between the slender tvpe of the Hemerobiidz 
| and the stout form found in the Myrmeleontide and 
allies. The jaws are large, like those of the Myrme- 

itidze, but have no internal teeth. 


a NO. 2577) VOL. 103 | 


= 


nian species) is also closely related’ 


The cocoon, . 


which is spun from the anus, is a beautiful spherical 
object, resembling a pear!. The pupa is of the usual 
Planipennian type, with very remarkable mandibles, 
used for cutting the cocoon open. The emergence of 
the imago from the.pupa is fully described and figured, 
as are also the mouth-parts of the imago. The, paper 
concludes with a short discussion as to the potential 
economic value of the Psychopsidz as a_ beneficial 
group of insects, the conclusion being reached that 
experiments with these insects in orchards of old trees 
might help considerably in, reducing the codlin moth 
and other kindred pests—Dr. H. S. H. Wardlaw: 
Note on the temperature of. Echidna aculeata. <A 
series of some eight hundred observations of the 
rectal temperature of Echidna were submitted to 
Galton’s method of) statistical analysis. The most 
probable temperatures were :—Spring-summer period, 
morning, 30° C.; afternoon, 32-6° C. Autumn-winter 
period, morning, 29-79 C.;. afternoon, 32:3° C. The 
results show that the | temperature-regulating 
mechanism of Echidna only acts’ while. the body- 
temperature lies between 27-6° C. and 326° C. Out- 
side these limits Echidna . behaves’ as a poikilo- 
thermal animal.—F..H. Taylor: Contributions to a 
knowledge of Australian Culicidez. No. +: 4. 
Synonymical) notes are furnished. .The , Australian 
species of Anopheles - are tabulated... Ten species; 
referable to six genera, are described as new.—G. P. 
Darnell-Smith: (1). An account of some observations 
upon the life-history of Phoma citricarpa, McAlp., the 
cause’ of the ‘black .spot”’ of .citrus- fruit. ins New 
South Wales. ‘Black spot” is. a serious disease 
which develops,on the sunny side of trees, and upon 
the parts of the fruit exposed to sunlight. Two kinds 
of spores have been obtained—normal pycnospores, 
which germinate readily in suitable media, and “x” 
spores, which could not be induced to do so. The 
details of the formation of the pycnidia and pycno- 
spores have been worked out. . Spraying with 
Bordeaux, 6:4:50, followed up by sprayings with 
weaker solutions, controls the disease. 6) The 
occurrence of an inverted hymenium in Agaricus 
campestris. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Year-Book of the Royal Society of London. No. 23. 
Pp. 236. (London: Harrison and Sons, 191g.) 5s. . 

Records of the Survey of India. Vol. xi. (Supple- 
mentary to General Report, 1916-17.) Annual Reports 
of Parties and Officers, 1916-17. Pp. 115. (Dehra 
Dun: Printed at the Office of the Trigonometrical 
Survey, 1918.) 4 rupees or 5s. 4d. 

Commonwealth of Australia. Advisory Council of \ 
Science and Industry. Memoir No. 1. The Aus- 
tralian Environment (especially as Controlled by 
Rainfall). A Regional Study of the Topography, 
Drainage, Vegetation, and Settlement; and of the 
Character and Origin of the Rains. By Dr. Griffith 
Taylor. Pp. 188. (Melbourne, 1918.) 

The Physical Chemistry of the Proteins. By Prof. 
T. B. Robertson. Pp. xv+483. (London: Long- | 
mans, Green, and Co., 1918.) 25s. net. 

Neue Beobachtungen iiber den Erreger der Mau- 
lund. Klauenseuche die Entwicklung des Schmarotzers 
im Blut, Speziell. in den Roten. Blutkérperchen. 
Von Dr. Hrch Stauffacher. Pp. 62+ plates. Zurich : 
Polygraphisches Institut A.-G., 1918.) 8 franes. _ 

Coal-Tar Dyes and Intermediates. By E. de Barry 
Barnett. (Industrial Chemistry Series.) Pp. xviii+ 
213. (London: Bailliére, Tindall, and Cox, 1919;) 


tos. 6d. net. ; 
Verses from Fen and Fell. By. Thomas Thornely. 


“KV. 


“LINNEAN Society, at 5.—F. 


60 NATURE [Marcu 20, 1919 
Pp. x+08. (Cambridge: At the University Press, WEDNESDAY, Maxcu 26. re cage 
1919. ) 4s. 6d. net. INSTITUTE OF METALS, at 4.—Annval General Meeting.—D. Hanson and 


The Nature of Being. An Essay in Ontology. By 
Henry H. Slesser. Pp. 224. (London: George Allen 
and Unwin, Ltd., 1919.) tos. 6d. net. 

Transactions of the Bose Research Institute, Cal- 
cutta. Vol. i. Parts 1 and 2. Life Movements in 
Plants. By Sir J. C. Bose. Pp. xxvi+251+appendix 
(Calcutta: The Bose Research Institute, 1918.) 
Le. Tube Coolidge. Ses Applications Scientifiques, 


Médicales et Industrielles.. Par H. Pilon. Pp. 83. 
(Paris: Masson et Cie, 1919.) 4 francs net. 
Les Symbiotes. Par Paul Portier. Pp. xx+315. 


(Paris: Masson et Cie, 1918.) 5 francs. 

Immune Sera: A Concise Exposition of our Present 
Knowledge of Infection and Immunity. By Dr. 
Charles Frederick Bolduan and John Koopman. 
Fifth edition. Pp. viiit206. (New York: John Wiley 
and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.; 
1917.) ‘7s. net. 


Coal Tar and Some of its Products. By Arthur R. 


Warnes. (Pitman’s Common Commodities and Indus- 
tries.) Pp. xxii+105. (London: Sir Isaac Pitman 
and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) 2s. 6d. net. 


Home and Farm Food Preservation. By Prof. 
William V. Cruess. Pp. xxiv+276. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1918.) 8s. net. 
By 


The Human Skeleton: An _ Interpretation. 


Prof. H. E. Walter. Pp. xv+214. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1918.) tos, net. : 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, Marcu 20, 

Royar, INSTITUTION, ‘at.3.—Prof. C. H. Lees : Fire Cracks and the Forces 
Producing Them. 

Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Dr. C. Chree: Magnetic Storms of March 7-8 
and August 15-16, 1918, and their Discussion.—L. C, Martin :. The 
Transparency of Biotite to Infra-red Radiations. 

ewis: Notes on a Visit to Kunadiyapara- 
_ witta Mountain, Ceylon, with List of the Plants Observed and their -Altitu- 
dinal Distribution. —Miss May Rathbone: Specimens of Plants Baa 
by Formalin Vapour.—H. R. Amos: Wheat-breeding with Mr. W. 
Backhouse in Argentina, 

InsTITUTION oF MinING AND METALLURGY, at 5. .fo.—Sir Thomas Kirke 
Rose: The Volatilisation of Gold.—W. S. Curteis : Cobar Stope Measure- 
ment Methods. 

INsTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at. 6.—Discussion on G, L. 
Addenbrooke’s Lectures on Dielectrics in Electric Fields. 

Cuitp-Stupy Society, at 6.—Discussion opened by Mrs. K. Truelove: 
Training of the School Girl in Infant Care. 

Cuemicat Society, at 8.—T. M. Lowry and H. H. Abram: The Rotatory 
Dispersive Power "of Organic Compounds. IX. Simple Rotatory Dis- 
‘persion in the Terpene Series. 


FRIDAY, Marcu 21. 
Roya. INSTITUTION, at 5.30.—Prof. W. W. Watts: Fossil Landscapes. 
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—H.C. Armitage : Jigs, 
Tools, and Special Machines with their Relation to the Production of 
Standardised Parts. 


' INsTiTuTION oF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8, with Royal Society of 


Medicine (Electrical Section).—R. S. Whipple : (2) Electrical Methods of 
Measuring Body ‘lemperatures ; (2) The Electro-cardiograph. 


SATURDAY, Marcu 22. 
Royat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson: Spectrum Analysis and its 
Application to Atomic Structure. 


MONDAY, Marcu 24. 


Roya. Society oF ARTS, at 4.30.-—Prof. W.A. Bone: Coal and its Con- 
servation, : hie 
Roya GEOGRAPHICAL Socrety, at 8.—Capt. Alan Ogilvie: Macedonia. 


TUESDAY, Marcu 25. 


Rovat INSTITUTION, at 3: —Prof. A. ‘Keith: | British Ethnology—The 
People of Scotland. 

INSTITUTE OF: METALS, at.4 and 8,—Annual General Meeting.—Capt. 

. Bengough and Dr. O. F. Hudson: Fourth Report to the Corrosion 
Research’ Committee.—Dr. W. Rosenhain and D. Hanson: The Proper- 
ties of Some Copper Alloys.—Lt.-Col. C. ¥F. Jenkin: Metallurgical 
Information Required by. Engineers. 

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL. ENGINEERS, at 5. 30.—Further Discussion: J. 
Caldwell and H. B. Sayers: Electric Welding Developments in Great 
Britain and the United States of America.—W. S. Abell : Ppa on 
the Application of Electric Welding to Large Structures.—J. R. Smith : 
The Application of Electric Welding in Ship Construction and Repairs. 


NO. 2577, VOL. 103| 


na L, Archbutt ; The Micrography of Aluminium and its All pee See 
W. Ellis: Effect of Work on Metals and Alloys.—F. Johnson : The Influ- 
ence of Cold Rolling upon the Mechanical Properties of 


Copper.—At 8.—General Discussion on the Relation of Science to the 


Non-ferrous Metals Industry. Dr, W. Rosenhain: Science and Industry 
in Relation to Non-ferrous Metals.—W. R. corsa fi Fac: Relationship 
between the Laboratory and the Workshop.—F. A. H. La rry < 
The Scope of the Works Laboratory. 

Rovat Society or Arts, at 4.30.—Prof. A. H. Gibson : British Engineer- 
ing and Hydro-Electric Development. (The Training of Engineers.) 

GroLocicaL Society, at 5.30. 

Royat AERONAUTICAL Society, at 8.—Lt.-Col. T. R. Cave wer i Cave: 
Lighter-than-Air Craft. 


THURSDAY, Marcu 


27 
Roya INsTITUTION, at 3-— Prof. C. H. Lees : Fh ire Cracks and hes Wicce 
nt Dr. R. McCarrison : The. 
orphology d- 


Producing Them. 

Rovat Socirty, at 4.30.—Probable Pa 
Genesis of Cidema in Beriberi.— awkins : The M 
Evolution of the Ambulacrum in the Echinoidea. 

CHEMICAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.—Annual General Meeting. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, 1 at 6.—The late H. R. Constan- 
tine : The Co-ordination o h in Works and Laboratories. 

FRIDAY, Marcu 28. 

PuysicaL Society, at 5. —Discussion on Metrology in. the Industries. 
Introduced by Sir R. T. Glazebrook. 

we Peg ag oF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS chalce! agin Meeting), at 7.— 


Dr. J.. F. Crowley: The Organisation of Tech 
SATURDAY, Maxcu 
Royvat InsTITUTION, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson : ‘Shecrum soa bad its 
Application to Atomic Structure. 
CONTENTS. PAGE 
The Vegetable Oil Industries. By E. F.A. .... 41 
Temperature in China, ByC, E.B. ...,.... 42 
Our Bookshelf ta, td ae ae Sa - 43 
Letters to the Editor :— pon 
Globular Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and bie 
Prof. Frederick Soddy, F.R.S, . ff 43 
Graphical Methods in Nautical’ “Astronomy. at) 
~—. Goodwin $ te oe) 
~The Oldest Mosquitoes. “Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell . 44 


Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the — 
’ Total Solar Eclipse of May 295 1919--De, eenis, | 

A. Bauer .. 44 
A Proof that. any Aggregate can’ be "Well-ordered. - ee 


Philip E. B, Jourdain. 
‘Coal in Thrace, —Canon Edmund McClure; Prof, 
Henry Louis . . pig As 
Curious Markings on Chalk. ay: Reid Moir aoe 
Protozoal Parasites in Cainozoic Times. — ie, ‘Dz yet 
Hale Carpenter 46 - 
The Peru-Bolivia Boundary Commission. (Tus? 
trated.) By E. H. H. 46 
The Air Force Estimates and Aeronautical Research 48 
Ludvig Sylow. ByG.B.M.... ‘ of oid 
Notes. a erage os 
Our Astronomical Column :— - t 
Photo-electric Determinations of Stellar  Magnitudes rea 
Planets. ne ct epee : 2 i ee Roe ras ae 
Nova Aquilz . iano eS ictal 
The Variables of Long Period | . aie 
Reports of the Australian Antarctic Expedition: LS 6a 
New Procedure at American Magnetic Observa- ) 
tories. By Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S. LIEK Peo Pe ae RLige 
Forest Researchin Europe . . 55 
The Conservation of Our Cereal Reserves, By] Prof. 
Arthur Dendy, F.R.S. » i wal RS 
University and Educational Intelligence y iol te) ANSe 
Societies and Academies .-...:... oft BEN PEERY 
Books Received . i sci lek: © hi amen Stace geota, Be 
Diary of Societies .... . 0 ye 6 See ie ila AO 
‘Editorial and Publishing Offices: ; 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., — ACR 
._ ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, WC.2, 
Advertisements: and business letters to be addressed to the 


Publishers. as 


Fock 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. - 
Tetephone Number: GERRARD 8830. | hiv td 


engin ial 


; 


“ 


)>* THURSDAY, 


be ents about 


ay 


strength and precision of movement, 


NATURE 


61 


MARCH 27, 19109. 


5 en } TRANSLATED SENSE AND SENSES. 


i Human Physiology. Vol. iv. “The Sense- 
organs.” By Prof. L. Luciani. Translated by 
~ &. A. Welby. Pp. x+519. (London: Mac- 


een and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 21s. net. 
> name linked to a star seems certain 


' tlon from “tone ’ 


to “voluntary movement ’’ is 
through much x same scale as from “ subcon- 
scious ’’ to “conscious ’’ feeling. 

Perhaps it may be difficult to discover what all 


_ this has to do with the subject in hand, the 


fourth volume of Luciani’s ‘“‘ Human Physiology,’’ 
but not, I think, when the book is read, and it 
is well worth reading. The original work is well 


_ known as a comprehensive, scholarly, and inte- 


_ of long-continued remembrance,’ joined to | 


‘not quite so certain. 


3 is Luciani’ s with that of the cerebellum. No 


q one | can speak of Luciani’s cerebellum, since that 
_ would be unforgivably personal, but it is quite 


impossible to talk of the cerebellum without refer- 
ring ok ouee to Luciani. It is important to re- 
amembe when. dealing with Luciani’s state- 
e function of almost any part of the 
y, certainly of the nervous system. It is very 

‘tant hee have it in mind when considering the 

a ain the on various psycho-physical 
Ay , as in the “concluding, chapter of this 


it has been said might be considered 
ke of egotism, but that is not in the 
_ There is nothing in the book but the 

e range of truth examined 
ly by its author, and no egotism what- 
> point is this, that you cannot make 


"3 


has apparently no part whatever to 


‘an intimate acquaintance with the cerebellum, an 


lays of consciousness, without being 
with the value of nervous factors not 
‘ly concerned in displays of consciousness, 
t obviously controlling in some degree the 
esponsible for such displays. Progress 


eration for ‘ “subconscious ”’ nervous 


ve of ‘igid' definitions sufficient to allow 


+ 


e debate about “unconscious sensations 


ng 


Suds 


; it follows that they come into the 


“range of | mental life, and even constitute by far | 
the la 


rgést part of ‘the integral content of the 
aninid"! (p.' 440). 

| Now there is no formal connection bebbiden this 
passage and the cerebellum. 
“stateme 


mt as to certain general processes asso- 


tiated with other parts of the nervous system, but 
_ there is wisdom, in the writer’s opinion, 
¥. | pein when reading it, that the cerebellum 


in re- 


cog © soem no direct link with consciousness, 
at Luciani has probed the part it plays. 
He has shown that it acts as an intermediary in 

g and modifying that distributed 
Me >’? of the skeletal musculature which is the 
essence of posture and a necessary basis for the 
even of 
-woluntary movement. It is clear that the transla- 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


oS Somewhere between | 

extremes of permanent fame and evanescent | 
is the fate of a name associated as ad- | 
y with a part of the central nervous system | 


_ very head-piece. 
and f _ The temptation may soon become | 
“invincible to say that “these nervous processes 

renee fulfil the same functions as conscious sensory 


It is merely Luciani’s | 


resting text-book. It has now, in large part, 
been translated into English, and edited in an 
able fashion for the use of English readers: - In 
this anglicised form it is already widely appreci- 
ated, and it will be agreed that the ‘‘tone ’’ of the 
original, which might, indeed, have been gravely 
Aiepressed in the process, has. been well. main- 
tained. The cerebellum of the book, nowhere 
represented in consciousness, but everywhere 
evident in the characteristics of attitude, is as it 
was. That is to say, as a whole; but there are 
here and there parts where—well, perhaps any 
critical reader of the dioptrics of ‘the eyeball in 
this fourth volume will find reasons for expressing 
criticism. That part of the matte~ is exceptional 
in being not quite so good as the remainder. 

This fourth volume on the sense-organs should 
prove widely useful not only to students of physio- 
logy and medicine, but also to students of psycho- 
logy. As a clear and pregnant expression of know- 
ledge of these sense-organs to be found in a 
volume unburdened by the inclusion of other parts 
of physiology, there is at present nothing so good, 
perhaps not even the corresponding fourth volume 
of Foster, which will remain for long, like Ecclesi- 
astes, as a penetrating and abiding lesson in 
judgment—better than this, but which did not 
contain quite so much physiology. 

It is true that, in the writer’s opinion, the book 
is otherwise burdened by the concluding discussion 
on psycho-physical phenomena, but that is a 
matter which may be criticised better by students 
of psychology, by whom it may also be seen as 
the heel of Achilles, or perhaps surprisingly as a 
It is true also that there are 
various decisions which would not have _ been 
reached by other competent authors. It may or 
may not be the case that muscular sense has a, 
content which is nothing more or less than com- 
mon sensibility, and that the tectorial membrane 
is the primary resonator apparatus of the cochlea. 
There are many such conclusions, which might 
be discussed, and may need revision. It may 
be the case that there are complete neurones in 
the immediate vicinity of taste-buds; it is not 
the case that observers have found the radius of 


curvature of the anterior surface of the crystalline 


lens to be between 2°9 and 4’0 mm. -(p. 287); but 
what of it? There may be misjudgment, there are 
some errors, but there are everywhere knowledge, 
tone, and interest. 

The volume was well worth translating, and 
has been translated and edited very well. Here 
and there a statement issues as it would never 


_come from a writer of English; here and there 


a slip in the translation of a technical. term has 
E 


62 


NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 191g 


escaped. the editor; but generally the combined 
efforts of translator and editor have’ been most 
successful. As in the other volumes, the newly 
appended references will prove of considerable 
value. J. S. Macpona.p. 


SOUTH AFRICAN GRASSLANDS. 


The Grasses and Grasslands of South Africa. 
Prof. J. W. Bews.’ Pp. vi+ 161. 
burg: P. Davis and Sons, Ltd., 
7s. 6d. net. 

“pes little volume is a contribution to the study 

of South African plant ecology, a subject on 
-which Prof. Bews has already published several 
papers. _ In studying the plant ‘succession in the 


By 
(Pietermaritz- 
1918.) Price 


grasslands of South Africa, it was found necessary — 


to devise a'simpler means of identifying the species 


than that afforded by the key to the genera given | 


by Dr. Stapf in his ‘elaborate account of the 
grasses in the “Flora Capensis.’’ An artificial 
key was thetefore drawn up, and has been in- 
cluded in the present volume. The test of such 
a key is its valué to the working: field. botanist, 
and Prof. Bews states that it has met with the 
approval of his fellow-workers. Following the key 
are a number of ecological notes on the principal 
‘species in each genus, the genera being arranged 
in-alphabetical order. ‘These notes embody many 
of the author’s observations, his object being to 
set forth the principal facts that have been ascer- 
tained regarding the part played by the more 
important species in the grassland plant suc- 
cession, and ‘also by means of selected ex- 
amples to illustrate the general differences which 
are shown in morphological characters, and ae 
ticularly in leaf-anatomy. 

The study of a simple transverse section of the 
leaf of a grass may give more information as to 
its nutritive value than an elaborate chemical 
analysis of the herbage, for the latter will vary 
greatly according to the time of year, and even 
according to the state of the weather. Xero- 
phytic grasses, in which the leaves have to protect 
themselves against excessive transpiration, grow 
‘less quickly, and are not so valuable for pasturage 
, as the more ‘mesophytic types. A notable excep- 
tion to this rule is Danthonia purpurea, Haas 
grass, or hare grass. Although in general appear- 
ance this is a xerophytic plant, farmers are agreed 
that it is also a very nutritious species. It is low- 
growing, ‘being’ rarely more than an inch or two 
in height, with deep roots and numerous densely 
leafy shoots, and is peculiarly adapted to growing 
over the surface of hard-baked clay soils. It has 
become completely dominant in the grass veld 
for miles around Molteno, in the Stormberg 
region, near the eastern edge of the Karroo. 

The ecological notes are illustrated by some- 
what diagrammatic cross-sections of the leaves 
-of the more important species, which indicate 
especially the distribution of the hard, mechanical 
tissue. The author then gives a general sketch 
of, the, grasslands of South Africa and their 
development: Five main régions are considered 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103 | 


—namely, the south-western or Cape region, the, 


western region, the sand veld region, the Karroo 


and Karroid central region, and the eastern grass 
veld region, The boundaries of these regions: are. 
shown in a map which forms the frontispiece. 
Finally, a short section is devoted to some. 
economic questions concerned with grass-burning, 
stock-grazing, the feeding value of - natural 
grasses, the cultivation of grasses, and soil 
erosion. An appendix gives in tabular form a list 
of English, Dutch, Zulu, and Sesuto names. A 
striking feature is the large number of names in 
the Zulu indicating a remarkable. discriaaaampe 
of species. : C  irate. : 


COLLOQUIAL CHEMISTRY. — . 
Everyman’s Chemistry. 
' View and his Recent Work told : 

man. By Ellwood Hendrick. Pp. x+319: 
(London: University’ of Lito eae Ltd., 
1918.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 


or the ‘Lay- 


R. HENDRICK. has ooo an extremely 


original book. To use his own words; 


“The whole thing is. a. sporting proposition ° 


between you, the reader, and me. If I can hold 


your ‘attention, until you have read it. through, I 
It is only 
fair. to say, that, if the reader possesses ordinary 


shall have succeeded in my intention.’ 


intelligence, he will be able to pick up a fees deal 
of interesting information from the book, even if 


he comes. away from it with confused. ideas as te 


how chemists attain their results. 

The style is colloquial in the extreme, Ne no 
one need be. deterred from beginning the book 
by any fear of high-and-dry treatment, whilst the 
professional chemist will derive a good deal. of 
amusement from the manner in which facts are 
presented. A few of Mr. 
will. make clear what is meant: “Polygamy in 
Chemistry’’; “Nitrogen, its Satanic’ Tricks ’’; 
“The Old Horse of Chemistry ’’; “The Iron- 
master’s Torment and Why he Swears’’; “The 
Chemical Old Mare’’; “The Grand Old Tramp 
who Left his Mark’’; “The Red-headed — Halo- 


gens.’ 


It would be a mistake to suppose, however, 
-that Mr. Hendrick has not done a useful piece of 


work in writing the book. He has kept in view 
the fact that the man in the street is not particu- 
larly interested in theory, but prefers to learn 
something about practice; and it is safe to say 
that few popular books contain such a mass of 
examples of the application of chemistry to prac- 
tical problems. No one who reads this work can 


fail to appreciate the manner in which chemistry 


has permeated the whole of modern society. The 
uses of sulphuric acid, described on pp. 86-88, 
should awaken the layman to the fact that, from 


‘the time he turns on the tap of -his: bath in the 
morning until he finishes his breakfast, he is con- - 


tinually coming in contact with materials the pro- 
duction of which is ‘possible only owing to ‘the 


-employment ‘of sulphuric acid: And when prose 


Hendrick’s headings — 


4 


; 


The Chemist’s Point of © 


u. / Marcu 27, 1919] 


NATURE . 


63 


_ fails him Mr. Hendrick is by no’ means averse to 
ates in the aid of rhyme. af 
On the purely theoretical side Mr. Hendrick’s 
tment -of the subject is scarcely so satisfactory. 
$7 very doubtful if a beginner. would be much 
sr about the ionic. theory after reading 
‘viahtiokad and the description of the origin of 
eochemistry on pp. 244-45 scarcely does van’t 
grad whilst Le Bel is not pen mentioned 
it connection. 
t the present time, when it seems necessary 
the general public should appreciate what 
nistry does for them, even if they cannot 
tand how it does it, Mr. Hendrick’s book 
ou ry a very useful part; and it is to be 
d the demand for it among laymen will 
one. Admitting the limitation which 
hor imposed upon himself, there can be 
) that the book is excellent. 


Ome e 


oa OUR BOOKSHELF. 


- of the Eye. By Dr. W. Campbell 
. Pp. x+ 344. (Philadelphia and Lon- 
. B. Lippincott Co., 1918.) Price 18s. 


i sign that ever greater attention is 
iiceiiek: 1 preventive medicine, for pre- 
1 is better than cure. 
site when applied to many disorders of 
; apparatus. 
the eye is badly wanted—or, rather, it 
said, _ two such works are to be desired, 
almologists, and one for the general 
Posey’s ‘work fails to meet either 
tisfactorily, for it falls between two 
chapters on the structure of the eye 
of the eye are too elementary for 
logist, and scarcely intelligible 
. Moreover, the considerable space 
ted to many. ‘diseases. of which we do not 
know the causes, or are unable to prevent them, 
might have been better utilised in expanding parts 
re nearly related to what is commonly under- 
y the term “hygiene.” The chapter—by 
 authi or—on ‘school life is particularly good, 
the same may be said of the chapters on 
al illumination (by Dr. Herbert E. Ives) 
daylight illumination (by Mr. W. C. 
an architect). These subjects would have 
orne further elaboration. 
The author’s chapters on conjunctivitis and the 
"preventive measures to be adopted against con- 
_tagion, and on wounds and injuries of the eye, 
mirable. The chief industrial injuries are 
ed, and the means of protection against 
are illustrated by good photographs. There 
isa ‘most interesting chapter on blindness from an 
_€conomic and social point of view, and on the 
education and employment of the blind, by Mr. 
~O. H. Burritt, principal of the Pennsylvania In- 
_ stitution for the Instruction of the Blind. 
_ Dr. Posey.is a safe guide, though he makes 
some dogmatic statements with which all ophthal- 


mologists would not agree. We hope that a 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


The proverb is speci- 


A sound treatise on the - 


‘second edition will give him the opportunity of 
eliminating irrelevant material and expanding 
those parts which are more in accord with the 
title.: 


Elements of General Science. By Prof. Otis 
William Caldwell and Prof. William Lewis 
Eikenberry. Revised edition. Pp. xii+4o4. 
(London : Ginn and Co., 1918.) Price 5s. 6d. 
net. 


TuHose who are’ interested in the teaching of 
natural science are already familiar with the 
publications of Messrs. Ginn and Co. in con- 
nection with the elementary and general treat- 
ment of the subject. The ‘“ Elements of General 
Science,’’ by . Profs. Caldwell and Eikenberry, 
rapidly found favour in England among the many 
who were growing dissatisfied with the dry and 
formal teaching which has been all too common. 
The authors succeeded in being simple without 
being superficial, and, with the help of the pub- 
lishers, in producing a book which can be read 
with pleasure as well as with prott +s point which 
is so often overlooked. — 

The revised edition, which has been largely 1 re- 
written, is much bigger than the original one. 
Electricity and magnetism have now been in-. 
cluded. In the forty-eight pages devoted to these 
subjects there are to be found figures of lighting- 
circuits, watt-hour meters,’ motor-car © circuits, 
telephones, and transformers. Another thirty-five 
pages have been given to astronomy, with a 
series of excellent figures.. The problems of nutri-. 
tion and of food have received additional atten- 
tion, and it is entirely in keeping with the spirit 
in which the book is written that five excellent 
charts have’ been prepared’ showing the relative 
costs of equivalent food-values of different things. 
In this, as in many other ways, the relations 
between the studies and the problems of every- 
day life have been kept prominently in view. The 
teacher who uses this book is not likely to be 
bothered by the question, “ What is the use of 
learning this? ’’ And yet the authors cannot be 
accused of having neglected true education in the 
effort to interest. or amuse. 


The Year-book of the Scientific and Learned 
Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. Com- 
piled from Official Sources... Pp. viii+ 333. 
(London : Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1918.) 
Price gs. net.. | 


THE present is the thirty-fifth annual | issue 
of this-very useful work-of reference. Twenty-six 
societies not previously included appear in this 
edition, and the claims of music to be numbered 
among’ the learned societies have been recognised. 
The compilation constitutes a record of the work 
done in science, literature, and art during. the 
session 1917-18 by the various societies and 
Government: institutions, and deserves an import- 
ant place’ among the reference books of workers 
in science. The arrangement and method of ‘in- 
dexing adopted make refererice to the contents 
easy. 


64: 


NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 1919 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
{The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opini 
expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 
return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 
scripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No 
notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 
Globular Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and Radiation. 

Dr, SHapLeY makes the suggestion (NATURE, 
March 13) that known supplies of energy become 
adequate to maintain stellar and solar radiation 
through astronomical time if we can suppose that 
radiation is propagated only from matter to matter, 
and is not. radiated equally in all directions. In 
brief, we see the sun because the sun has in some 
way first seen us. Prof. Soddy points out (NATURE, 
March 20) that we have no direct evidence of loss of 
radiation into space; “experiment and observation 
justify only the conclusion that radiation is propa- 
gated between portions of space occupied by matter, 
. . . elsewhere it may not be propagated at. all.”’ 
Prof. Soddy is, perhaps, on safe ground as regards 
laboratory experiments, but it seems to me that astro- 
nomical evidence is against him. ; 

We see star clusters by light which has journeyed 
for 200,000 years to meet us; by what mechanism 
could this light calculate 200,000 years ago that ‘to- 
day. we should: be where we are? There seem to. be 


only two possibilities open: the cones of, light pro-. 


jected. from matter to-matter. may be.more than big 


enough -to- catch the matter aimed at, or light. may’ 
not travel'in straight lines, adjusting its course. as it~ 


proceeds on its voyage through space. 


Under the first possibility the whole advantage of ' 
We see, say, © 
to” stars, so. that, presumably, 10° stars see our sun. — 


Dr. Shapley’s hypothesis disappears. 


Suppose. our sun sends out 10° cones of light each big 
enough to be fairly. sure of catching.a star. Stellar 


velocities being- of the order of 10-* times that of © 


light, each cone must be of angle about 1o-* radians; 
and. 10° such cones just about fill up the solid angle 


of space. The hypothesis has lost its only advantage. | 


‘Suppose, .as an alternative, that the presence of a 
star in Some way guides the light from another star 


towards it...The path of a ray of light is‘no longer a. 
straight: line, but. a sort of “curve of pursuit.’* ..To - 
catch the hight froma star, we ought no longer to . 
point our telescopes 20-4”xsind forward along ..the. 
earth’s path in space, but_an equal amount backwards. | 


The aberration-correction becomes reversed, and all 


déterminations of parallax. proper motions, etc., become 
One puzzle might be solved, but at the cost ” 


illusory. 
of shattering almost the whole fabric of astronomy. 
Thus if Dr..Shapley’s very strong case for a long 
time-scale is accepted as proved, I think we must look 
for a new mechanism of production of energy; the 
problem is not solved by a mere rearrangement of the 
expenditure. In looking for possible new sources of 
energy, we ought to remember that our knowledge 
of physics is derived wholly from experiments con- 
ducted at the surface of a planet with the aid of light 
emitted from the surfaces of sun and stars. Our whole 
knowledge of physics is ‘‘surface-physics”; it is. the 
special physics of conditions in which radiation is free 
to scatter into space, so that radiation pressure is 
negligible. There may be a more general physics 
applicable inside a star, and this may contain sources 
of energy unknown to us. There is. for instance, a 
possibility I suggested in 1905, which Dr. Shaplev 
considers ‘‘bizarre.’’ Conservation of mass and. of 
energy may be only phenomena of “‘ surface-phvsics.”’ 
Inside a star, matter and energy may be interchange- 
able. The intrinsic energy of an electron being mC’, 
the transformation of 1 ver cent. of the sun’s mass 


into energy would yield up radiation enough for’ 
H. JEans:-. 


150.000.000,000 vears. 
March 22. 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


of the University Court, which allocated a large 


THE suggestion of Dr. Harlow Shapley and Prof. 
Soddy that radiation only occurs between portions of 
space occupied by matter is difficult to reconcile with 
the very considerable cooling by radiation that takes. 
place on a cloudless night, when, on the supposition 
in question, it should be almost negligible—tess,. 
indeed, than with an overcast sky. Sai 

Such a law of radiation would have other strange 
results equally inconsistent with experience, 

' Joun W. Evans.- 

Imperial College of Science and Technology, 

South Kensington, March 21.. ) 


5 
4 


Scientific Research at St. Andrews University. 

THE president of the Edinburgh Royal Society im 
his address alluded to in Nature of March 13 has. 
done full justice to the St. Andrews University 
Chemical Research Department, which owes its. 
prosperity to the munificence and the example of my 
late colleague, Prof. Purdie, and also to his relatives.. 
It likewise throughout has had the unvarying support 
sum. 
(more than s5oool.) from the Carnegie Trust Grant to: 


the University for its maintenance. 

But there is an older research department in the 
‘University of St. Andrews which has been overlooked. 
‘by. Dr. Horne, viz. that for research in marine zoology — 
and the fisheries at the Gatty Marine Laboratory, the 


oldest marine laboratory in Britain, and the scientific 


| work emanating from which will speak for itself. Its. 
trained workers hold, and have held, important posts: 
‘in the three centres of the kingdom and in the various: 


Colonies, as well as in foreign countries. That it 
should have been severed from connection with the 
Government by the Secretary for Scotland in 1896 
(after twelve and a half years’ labour), when the new . 
building was erected on University ground, seems a 
paradox when the heavy expenditure (which still goes. 
on) in subsidising the International Fisheries Council 
is remembered. ; rev aELH } 

Chemistry research, adequately endowed, can be 


carried. out, anywhere, whereas work in marine zoology 
rand. the. fisheries can nowhere be more successfully 
pursued than in the bay and on the shores of St. 


Andrews, where Prof. John Reid, the distinguished 
physiologist, first dealt with its riches. There the 


pulse of the North Sea is daily felt, and every student 


of ‘Nature is beckoned to engage in the elucidation of 
the endless variety of its fauna and flora. It is to be 


‘hoped that the University Court, which has closed the 


laboratory at present from motives of economy, will 
soon reopen it. W. C. McIntosu. 


Maceration by Tryptic Digestion. 

Wir reference to the paragraph on the method of 
maceration by tryptic digestion in Nature of March 6, 
p. 9, it may be of interest to your readers to learn 
that further work on the process has shown that 
equally good results are obtained by the use of Messrs. 


Allen and Hanbury’s Liquor Trypsini Co. This costs: 


only 3s. gd. ‘a\ bottle, and the requisite strength is 
obtained by adding 1 c.c. to a litre of water. The 
procedure is in other respects identical with ¢hat | 
previously described. The trouble of dissolving the: 
powder is ,thus avoided, and the cost is reduced from: 
1s. per litre to rather less than 3d., so that the method 
becomes practicable for use on a large scale. 
On the whole, the optimum temperature is a high 
one, about 55°'C., and this has the additional advan— — 
tage of somewhat reducing the unpleasant smell. 
; KaTHLEEN F, LANDER. 
_ Zoological Society of London, Regent’s  —.— 
Park, N.W.8, March 109. Bc. 


— 


MARCH 27, 1919] 


OPTICAL GLASS. 


as of the surprises of the great war has been 

the revelation to the majority of people of 
the extent to which a nation may be absolutely 
dependent for the conduct of the war on an in- 
dustry which, in its magnitude, may seem quite 
insignificant, but, owing to the technical experi- 
nce underlying it, cannot be acquired in a short 
Space of time. In the forefront of such vital indus. 
tries is the manufacture of optical glass. However 
great the other resources in men and material mav 
be, it would be quite impossible to wage successful 
warfare without adequate supplies of optical glass 
for binocular field-glasses, range-finders, artillery 
Sights, photographic lenses for aircraft, etc, [t 
is Of interest to trace briefly the history and 
practice of this important. “key’’ industry, and 
to consider how the nation will ; 
be situated as regards the supply 
of optical glass when peace is 
restored and it will again be in 
competition with German glass. 

The manufacture of homogene- 
ous glass suitable for optical in- 
Struments dates practically from 
the time when the achromatisa- 
tion of lenses became possible. 
Up to that time selected pieces 
of sheet glass served for the 
manufacture of the crude optical 
appliances then in use. Switzer- 
land was originally the home of 
the optical glass industry, when, 
at the beginning of last century, 
its manufacture was undertaken 
by Guinand, who discovered how 
to make glass homogeneous by 
stirring. For a short time the 
production of optical glass was 
carried on by Fraunhofer at 
Munich, and, about the middle of 
last century, Messrs. Chance 
Brothers, of Birmingham, with 
the assistance of M. Bontemps, 
who had worked in France with 
Guinand’s eldest son, commenced 
the manufacture of this material. Methods of 
manufacture have not materially changed since 
that date, but more uniform results are now ob- 
tained, in what was formerly a very hazardous 
process, by the use of gas furnaces, careful tem- 
perature control, and attention to detail in 
every direction. 

Optical glass is made by melting the necessary 
ingredients at a very high temperature in clay 
crucibles or pots. When the mass has fused to 
a clear liquid free from bubbles, the molten glass 
is stirred for a long time by a thick fireclay rod. 
The viscosity of the liquid makes perfect admixture 
by eddy currents and diffusion a slow process, 
and all the time the glass is exerting a corrosive 
action on the sides of the pot and stirrer, and the 
products of this action tend to contaminate the 
glass and produce striz. 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


NATURE 


O5 


When it is deemed desirable to discontinue the 
stirring process, the pot is allowed to cool. When 


cold, the glass in the pot is found to be much 
fractured, and falls to pieces when. the pot 
is “broken down.” The fragments of glass 
are heated until they soften, and then reduced 
to suitable shape by moulding. After being 
ground and polished, the lumps are exam- 


| ined for strie, and perhaps one-quarter of the 


mass may be found to be of good optical quality. 


| When optical glass is required in the form of 
| discs or prism blocks, selected plates are brought 
| to the required form by a_ second moulding 


process. 
The discs, etc., must then be annealed, or very 
slowly cooled, so that the stresses which would 


| be set up in the glass by rapid cooling may be 
| reduced to a minimum and have no harmful effect 


Fic. 1.—A stage in the manufacture of optical glass. 


On the right-hand side is a pot or crucible in 
which glass has been founced which has been allowed to cool and is now ready to be broken down. 
On the left hand will be seen a pot of glass which has been partially broken down. 


| on the performance of the optical component into 


which it is fashioned by the optician. 
The production of good yields of high-quality 


| glass, even of the oldest crown and flint types, is 


| ence. 


an operation which requires skill and long experi- 
Apart from this, the present very varied 


_ requirements of opticians necessitate the produc- 


tion of varieties of glass which are widely different 
in composition, and the manufacture of glasses 
having the optical constants requisite to meet the 
needs of the lens computer calls for expert 
scientific assistance. 

During the first half of last century the require- 
ments of opticians were fairly satisfied by a limited 
range of glasses. Scientific work on the produc- 
tion of new types was carried out in this country 
for many years by Harcourt and Stokes, but, 
though admirable in its scope, this work had a 


66 


NATURE — 


LMancH 27, 19 


somewhat limited end in view—namely, the reduc- 
tion of secondary spectrum—and met with no con- 
siderable success. 


Fig. 2, Lue of. crown glass, 28 in. in diame’er, made by Messrs, Chance 
rothers just before the war. 


The English firm and that of Mantois, of Paris, 
held the field up to about 1880, About: this time, 
owing to the happy col- 
laboration between the 
very distinguished op- 
tician, Abbe, and the 
able. chemist, Schott, 
extensive research on 
the subject of new op- 
tical glasses was carried 
eut in Germany. 

The advent of dry- 
plate photography and 
the special corrections 
desirable in camera 
lenses, as well as in 
microscopic objectives, 
gave a great stimulus to 
the work of these in- 
vestigators, and their 
researches, carried out 
with more perfect tech- 
nical appliances, had a 
wider aim in view than 
those of the English ex- 
perimenters, The results 
obtained: ‘were of such 
promise and importance 
that Government assist- 
ance: was forthcoming in 
_the setting up of works 
for the manufacture of 
new glasses. on a commercial scale, and_ the 
painstaking efforts of these men of science 
in overcoming the difficulties involved were 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103 | 


eventually: rewarded with well-deserved 


cess. 


suc- 


As.a result, opticians were compelled for many © 


years to go to Germany for glasses having special 
properties such as. were absolutely necessary for 
them in the design of the better types of certain 
optical instruments. 
important instruments during the latter part of 
last century were of German design, ‘the firms 


concerned naturally transferred almost the whole — 


of their orders from the English and French firms 
to Schott and Co., of Jena, and, in fact, so far 
as the military requirements of Germany were 
concerned, they were compelled to do so by the 
German Government. 

It may be said, however, that the products of 
the English and French firms, as regards the older 
varieties of optical glass, were never surpassed 
by the Jena firm. This is evidenced by the fact 
that the English and French firms produced the 
great majority of the large discs for the giant 
astronomical refracting telescopes constructed 
during the last forty years. At the British Scien- 
tific Products Exhibition recently held in London 
and Manchester, a fine disc of crown glass, 28 in. 
in diameter, which: was’ produced immediately 
before the war, was exhibited by Messrs. pampeg 
Brothers, 

The British dite: in particular, was | sb! in 
taking up. the manufacture of the newer types of 
optical glass, and had to encounter serious dis- 
advantages in coming late into the field in this 


Fic. 3.—The packing and dispatching department of Messrs. Chance Brothers’ works, showing a lage variety of 
moulded discs, prisms, etc., required for war purposes. 


respect, as also in being unable to obtain any 
Government assistance. ‘The great value of the 
previous production of optical glass in this 


And, as. many of the: more 


——— 


“Marcu 27; 1919 | 


ig 
oS 


NATURE 


67 


| country, however, was felt at once on the outbreak 
_ of war, when Messrs. Chance Brothers were able 
extend their resources, and, without outside 
assistance of any kind, to develop the manufacture 
ota the types of glass required by opticians, 
3 g some of the most extreme of the Jena 


ded programme of work undertaken in con- 
n with photographic lenses for aircraft. 
‘1916 it was thought desirable (partly as a 
ution against the results of possible aerial 
) that, for the manufacture of this important 
ial, the nation should not be dependent on 
: e source of supply, and the Derby Crown 
iss Works, Ltd., were encouraged to commence 
7 manufacture, and they have already been suc- 
ssful in producing a number of types of optical 
ass of good quality. Still more recently the 
United States, though, to a large extent, 
ependent on English and French resources for 
cal glass for war purposes, have commenced 
manufacture on their own account, and have 
achieved some success in this direction. 
are the demands of war on the optical 
industry that towards the end of hostilities one 
Britis Seapiees was producing twice as much optical 
ass é world’s total output previous to the 
ia.3, is considering, further, the position of the 
industry after the war, it is therefore obvious that 
there are resources in this country for the manu- 
facture of all the optical glass which will be re- 
fe by our opticians. Nor need there be any 
on eee ing the ranges of glass which 
ailable for the use of the lens designer. 
Ttahle exception, Messrs, Chance 
been able, by their previous experi- 
work of their research laboratory, 


eir optical constants, ‘cover the full 
es ‘mentioned: in the Jena list for 


er Petdlopment of ibe: optical glass 
Id appear to be well provided: for in 
practical research work carried out by 
icturer and of the more general work 
by the British Scientific Instrument Re- 
Association, recently formed under the 
nn of: the British Optical Instrument Manu- 
"Association. To maintain the supremacy 
n in regard to this manufacture, how- 
t only necessary to be able to produce 
al of good quality, but it is further 
‘that i it should be produced at prices which 
apete with those of foreign firms. With the 
time, which manufacturers will be ‘able to 
the subject with this end in view, there 
é no difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory 
“of, this point. 
wever large the possible output and however 
ect the quality of British optical glass, the 
future of. the industry can be assured only if British 
| opticians -are able to achieve and maintain 
_ Supremacy in home and foreign markets by excel- 
lence in the design and workmanship of their 
instruments of precision and by cheapness of 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


manufacture of the more common optical products. 
Fortunately, there has been full appreciation of 
this aspect of the situation, and in the Imperial 
College of Science and Technology there is now 
a Technical Optics Department, under the direc- 
tion of Prof. F. J: Cheshire, and with the courses 
of lectures given there, including those by so able 
a computer as Prof. A. E. Conrady, the depart- 
ment should greatly assist in ensuring that this 
country is well supplied with expert designers of 
optical systems.. The wide increase in member- 
ship of the Optical Society and the valuable papers 


contributed thereto by workers in the National 


Physical Laboratory and in the research depart- 
ménts of academic institutions and firms are also 
of happy augury for the future. 

Before the war, ‘computers designed lenses: to 
utilise existing Jena glasses of definite optical con- 
stants. It would be undesirable and unfair to 
British manufacturers to reverse this process com- 
pletely. Computers should be prepared to do a 
certain amount of recalculation, and so avoid im- 
posing on the manufacturers the wasteful task of 
producing a glass to imitate exactly the hazard 
constants obtained in the particular foreign melt- 


ing used previous to the war. 


SULPHURIC ACID AFTER THE WAR. 


es Departmental Committee on the Post-war 

Position of the Sulphuric Acid and Fer- 
tiliser Trades, which presented a report, with 
certain omissions and modifications deemed neces- 
sary in the national interest, in February of last 
year (Cd. 8994), has now issued an amended and 
complete edition (Cad, 23) in substitution for that 
paper. 

The changes are not numerous, although im- 
portant for the consideration of the matters with 
which the Committee was concerned. They relate 
principally to the’ pre-war production of sulphuric 
‘acid; to an.enumeration of the principal con- 
‘suming trades and their estimated annual con- 
sumption. prior to 1914; tothe sulphuric acid 
trade during the war, showing its enormous ex- 
pansion; to. certain statistical facts connected 
jwith the development of the zinc industry during 
‘the war, and its influence on the acid situation; . 
ito the probable post-war consumption of sulphuric 
‘acid; and, lastly, to.a list of acid factories owned 
or leased by. the Government, with their situation 
‘and output. 

Although certain of the matters now dealt with 
were probably known more or less accurately to 
‘German manufacturers who had pre-war business 
relations with ‘this country, or kept them-_ 
selves informed of its trade developments, it was 
obyiously ‘undesirable that many of the facts 
‘brought, to’ the. knowledge of the Committee 
should be published whilst we were actually. at 
‘war. Sulphuric acid is all-important asa prime , 
‘material in the manufacture of munitions, and it 
need scarcely be said that the enemy would have 
welcomed official information as to how far this . 
country was able to meet.the sudden and. unex- 


68 


NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 1919 


fetid demand on her resources occasioned by 
a struggle of such magnitude as that in which 
she was involved. The Germans began the war 
in the confident belief that the resources of all 
their enemies would be either quickly ex- 
hausted, or incapable of full, utilisation before 
the lightning-stroke they contemplated should 
have determined the issue. They will learn the 
extent of their miscalculation, at least as regards 
sulphuric acid in this country, should they care 
to study the figures which the Committee now 
makes known. 

The actual consumption of aniphitt acid in 
Great Britain before the war is not known with 
certainty, as no detailed statistics are available, 
but the Committee has been at pains to collect 
information from authorities, and gives the fol- 
lowing table showing approximate estimates of 
the annual pre-war consumption by the more 


important trades :— 
Tons equivalent 


Tons 100 per cent, 
chamber acid 


acid per annum 


ag ohne ene 300,000 450,000 
hate of ammonia 280,000 420,000 
tBescching powder, hydro- 
' chloric acid, alkali, and + 186,000 279,000 
alum : Se J 
Iron pickling 70,000 105,000 
Recovery of grease 20,000 30,000 » 
Copper. sulphate . 25,000 37,000 - 
Dyeing and pice heh 25,000 37,000 
Dyes .. Very small — 
Oil refining | 20,000 30,000 
Explosives 30,000 45,000 
“Tron pickling ’’ refers to the use of the acid in 
the tinplate and galvanising trades, and “recovery 


of grease’ to its employment in connection with 
the treatment of wool-washing liquors, etc., in 
the textile trades. These figures, although admit- 
tedly only approximate, are valuable as. showing 
the relative distribution of the main amount of 
sulphuric acid produced in this country. It will 
probably be news to many people that consider- 
ably more than half is needed for the manufacture 
. of fertilisers. 

In addition to the teades mentioned, sulphuric 
acid is used in a number of minor industries, but 
no exact estimate can be formed of the aggregate 
amount. The Committee is probably within the 
mark in assuming that the annual production in 
the British Isles before the war was about 
1,000,000 tons of 100 per cent. acid, or 1,500,000 
tons ‘of chamber acid. It considers that this 


quantity may also be taken as the national con-— 


sumption, since both the export and import of 
sulphuric acid were negligible i m amount. 

Sulphuric acid goes into industry of several 
degrees of strength, by far the largest amount 
being used in the form ‘of “chamber acid ’’—that 
is, as produced directly in the lead-chambers, and 
without subsequent concentration. The concén- 
trated acid of 95 per cent. strength was produced 
to the extent of 75,000 tons. What is known-as 

“contact acid ’’ or oleum amounted to about 
22,000 tons per annum. It is used mainly in the 
manufacture of explosives and dyes, and was pro- 
duced only by three firms. 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103| 


‘| Government in connection 


No estimate of the actual amount of sulphuric 


acid employed for munitions since 1914 is fur= 
nished by the Committee, but some idea of its. 


magnitude may be gained from certain figures. 
adduced by them to show the post-war position of 
the industry after allowing for a reversion to 
normal working conditions. 


Pre- war Post-war 
; (Tons 100 per cent. acid perannum), 
Oleum 22,000 450,000 
Chamber 1,040,000 1,265,000 | 
1,062,000 1,715,000" 
Equivalent. chamber | 
acid : 1,593,000 2,572,000 


It will be seen that the amount of “oleum ’’— 
the variety of special importance in the manu- 
facture of munitions—increased more than twenty- 
fold in the course of the war, and mainly during 
the last two or three years of it. But a consider- 
able amount of concentrated chamber acid was 
also gained by restricting supplies to manufac-— 


turers of superphosphates and to certain other 


Large oleum plants were erected by the 
with | 
factories, and the productive capacity of the plant 
either owned or leased by the Ministry of Muni- 
tions is estimated by the Committee at 315,000 
tons 100 per cent. acid, equivalent to 472,000 tons. 
chamber acid, per annum, or rather less than eee 
the gross estimated surplus. 


trades. 


In its previous report the Cominabie i con—° 
sidered what steps might be taken to safeguard. 


the sulphuric acid industry after the war in view 
of the position created by it. Not only has a large 


amount of new and valuable plant been erected 


—more than peace conditions can utilise—but a 
further extension of the industry is imminent, 

owing to the prospective development of zine pro- 
duction in this country, and the consequent neces- 
sity for dealing with the sulphurous acid produced 
in roasting the concentrates. Some time before 


the war Herr Hasenclever, a well-known German 
chemical manufacturer, in the Hurter lecture to 


one of the sections of the Society of Chemical 
Industry, pointed out what had been the result 
on the price of sulphuric acid of the action of the 
German Government in compelling the zinc manu- 
facturers of Silesia to condense their acid fumes: 
—an admitted necessity. 


apprehensive of a similar result here. There is. 
likely to be a glut of sulphuric acid and a serious. 


depreciation of prices for some time to come 


unless plant is scrapped or shut down. The most 


obvious remedy is a great extension of the fer- 


tiliser industry, but this is not immediately pos- 
sible, unless there is a more rapid development 
of the by- product coking industry, and a conse- 
quent increase in the production of ammonia, and 
larger available supplies of mineral phosphates. 


The Committee, of course, recognises this fact, . 
and in its present report it makes this addi-_ 
“That the Government | 


tional recommendation : 
should take immediate Steps by international com- 


It is quite evident from - 
the tenor of its report that the Committee is 


its explosive — 


ie Marcu 27, 1919] 


Md 


NATURE. 69 


' mercial treaties or otherwise to secure an effective 
and permanent control or command of an 
adequate supply of phosphate rock, and that 
_ arrangem A piiae be made in advance for. the 
_ importation of large quantities of phosphate rock 
immediately on the termination of the is af 
_. There is more in this recommendation than 
meets the eye. Certain of the forfeited Colonial 
possessions of the Germans contain valuable 
eposits of phosphate rock, and others are known 
hich ought to be, and doubtless would be, ex- 
oited if a demand were created. It is to be 
hoped that the Government may be in a position 
fo act promptly upon this recommendation, and 
thus enable at’ least some portion of the large 
and valuable plant created by the war to Be 
util sed _befc it is too late, for the benefit of 
em cal industry and the welfare of agriculture. 


z 
53 


aS 
dea — 


pa oe ee NOTES. 
__ Tue Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. is to be con- 
grat on having established experimental wire- 
_ less telephonic communication between Clifden, Co. 
_ Galway, in Ireland, and Cape Grace, in Canada. 
_ This is not surprising after the company’s feat last 
+ foe ables -ygreame wireless communication: between 
England and Australia—a distance of 12,000 miles. 
a The — 


ts which have been made in 
: valves—for instance, the reduction of the 
b ressure in the valve to the one-hundred-millionth 
_ of a millimetre of mercury—have increased their 
«ser ity enormously. In addition, by connecting 
_ them ‘* ‘ de”’ there appears also to be no limit 
_ to the sensitivity that can be attained. The Australian 
_ results were obtained by using three small Marconi 
cae. Wireless telephonic trans- 
nission is specially interesting, as it is free from many 
of the defects of ordinary. telephony, in which sound 
_ distortion presents serious difficulties over long cables. 
_ There seems no reason to doubt that in a short time 
Do eek opr ope aad be established between every 

yon th a Spe The necessity for well-thought- 
. international laws to regulate this traffic is there- 
__ Viscount Harcourt deserves the thanks of all 
_ interested in the restitution of our museums for his 

pers Mg: hc of the Government and for his 
letter to the T: of March 22.. In answer to his 
ee oun 19 he was informed that the 
Le 1 Museum aeasic be restored to the public in a 
_ few weeks. “Temporary buildings are to be erected 

_in the suburbs for the staffs now in occupation” of 
the Imperial Institute and the Tate Gallery, “but the 
_ néw accommodation cannot be available for at least 
_ six months.” The Education Department, it is 
_ expected, will soon return to Whitehall. There is, 


National .Portrait Gallery, Hertford House, or the 
‘galleries of the National Gallery and the 
British Museum. As regards the last institution, an 
article in the Times of March 21 did well to remind 
the public that the greater part of the old building 
_ is now accessible. The situation, no doubt, is difficult, 
as Sir Alfred Mond has explained in a long statement 
to thé Press, but the agitation has succeeded in 
speeding up the Government, and once more we may 
exclaim, “ nk God, there is a House of Lords!” 


5 


‘Tue ‘absence of recognisable meteorites from the 
series of stratified rocks is a notable fact, possibly 
due to the disintegration of the meteoric substance, 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


Se —— 


ee a 


@ however, ‘‘no immediate prospect” of vacating the’ 


which even in our museums displays a deplorable 
tendency to decay. The British Museum has, how- 
ever, recently acquired among slices and fragments of 
various recent falls or finds a_ slice weighing 
362-5 grams of the meteoric iron which was found 
in January, 1905, on Claim No. 7, Skookum Gulch, 
9% miles S.E. of Dawson, Klondike. This, as well 
as another meteoric iron found in 1901 on Gay Gulch, 
in the same neighbourhood, was lying deep down 
in .the so-called ‘‘ white-channel gravels,’ which are 
the oldest high-level gravels of the district, and ‘are 
believed by Mr. R. G. McConnell to be of Pliocene 
age or older. The original specimens are in the 
Museum of the Geological Survey at Ottawa, where 
they have been examined by Mr. R. A. A. Johnston 
(1915), who infers from their similar structure and 
composition that they formed part “of a_ single 
meteoric shower which took place back in Tertiary 
time.” 


An address on ‘‘Acute Pneumonic Tuberculosis ’’ 
will be delivered by Sir W. Osler before the Tuber- 
culosis Society at 8.30 p.m. on Monday, April 28. 


News has reached us of the death on March 8, at 
thirty-seven years of age, of M. Jacques Danne, editor 
of the well-known French journal Le Radium. 


We learn with regret from Tuesday’s Times that 
Sir E. C. Stirling, F.R.S., professor of physiology in 
the University of Adelaide, and director of the South 
Australian Museum, died on March 20 at seventy 
years of age. 


Next Thursday, April 3, Prof. A. Findlay will 
deliver the first of a course of two lectures at the Royal 
Institution on colloidal matter and its properties. The 
Friday discourse on April 11 will be delivered by Sir 
J. J. Thomson on piezo-electricity and its applications. 


Tue Paris correspondent of the Times announces 
the death on March ig, at seventy-seven years of 
age, of Prof. F. H, Hallopeau, member of the Paris 
Academy of Medicine, and author of a treatise on 
general pathology and numerous papers on thera- 
peutics and dermatology. at 


Tue death 1s.announced, in his seventy-sixth year, 
of Prof. Charles L. Doolittle, who was professor of 
astronomy at Lehigh University from 1875 to 1895, 
and at the University of Pennsylvania from 1895. to 
1912. Prof. Doolittle was treasurer of the Astro- 
nomical Society of America from 1899 to 1912, and 
was the author of notable papers on the variation of 
latitude, the constant of aberration, and related 
subjects. ‘ 


Tue Regional Association will hold its next con- 
ference at Malvern on April 9-16. The object of the 
conference is to study the Malvern region from the 
physical, historical, and social points of view and to 
facilitate the interchange of ideas of all who are 
interested in the study of their environment. A series 


‘of Jectutes and’ excursions has been arranged. The 
local dst dey Mr. E. W. Harris, The High School, 


Malvern. The first annual report of the association, 
a copy of which has been sent us from the office, 
11 Tavistock Square, W.C:1, shows that a consider- 
able amount of work has been done in the past year 
in spite of difficult circumstances. In many parts of 
the country the intensive survey of regions has been 
undertaken. It is hoped that some of these surveys 
will soon be ready for publication in view of their 
important bearing on local schemes of social better- 
ment and reconstruction. 
THe annual general meeting of the Ray Society 
was held in the rooms of the Geological Society on 
March 13, the president, Prof. W. C. McIntosh, in 


7O 


NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 1919 - 


the chair. Resolutions of regret at the death of Dr. 
F, Du Cane Godman, treasurer for fourteen years, and 
of Canon A, M. Norman, a former member of ‘the 
council, were passed. The. treasurer, Dr. 

Harmer, was congratulated upon his appointment as 
director of the Natural History Museum. It was 
announced in the report of the council that: vol.. iv. 
of the “‘ British Fresh-water Rhizopoda and Heliozoa,’’ 
by G. H. Wailes, was ready for. binding, and that 


the ‘‘ British Orthoptera,”” by. W. J. Lucas, and vol. i. 


ef the ‘‘ British Charophyta,” by James Groves and 
Canon Bullock-Webster, were in the press. Prof. 
E. B. Poulton. was elected a vice-president, and Dr. 
A. W. Alcock, Dr. G, B. Longstaff, and Mr. A. W. 
Oke were elected new members of the council. Prof. 
McIntosh, Dr. Harmer, and Mr. John Hopkinson 
were re-elected to their respective offices of president, 
treasurer, and sécretary. 


On March 18 the Illuminating Engineering Society 
Aeld its tenth anniversary dinner, the president, Mr. 
A. P. Trotter, presiding. The toast of the society 
was proposed by Mr. Thos. Goulden, senior vice- 
president of the Institution of Gas Engineers, and 
seconded by Mr. C. H. Wordingham, president of 
the Institution of Electrical Engineers, both of whom 
referred to the valuable, impartial platform which the 
society affords for the discussion of topics of common 
interest to both gas and electrical ne In 


replying to the toast, the president remarked that the — 


society’s activities have expanded continuously since 
its foundation, and it has frequently brought together 
those interested respectively in the design and manu- 
facture of lighting apparatus and those who use it. 
' Mr.:F. W. Goodenough proposed the toast of kindred 
societies; represented .at the meeting by the Royal 
Society, the Royal Society of Arts, the British Science 
Guild, the Council of British Ophthalmologists, the 
Royal Institute of British Architects, the Institutions 
of Gas, Electrical, and County and Municipal » En- 
gineers, and the Electrical Contractors’ Association, 
on behalf of which Sir George Beilby, Col. J. 
Herbert Parsons, and Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton 
replied. Mr. Gaster, in proposing the toast of ‘‘The 
Guests,"’ teferred especially to the important report 
issued by the Home Office Departmental Committee 
on Lighting in Factories and Workshops in 1915, 
and expressed the hope that in the near future there 
will be definite legislative reference to the provision 
of adequate lighting in factories in the interests of 
health, safety, and efficiency of work, In the United 
States such legislation has been adopted by five of 
the States, and it is to be hoped that this country, 
which took the initiative in this matter before the 
war, -will regain the lead. 


“In an article entitled ‘‘ International Use of Patent 
Searches,’ published in the Journal of the Patent 
Office Society for February last, Mr. Scott H. Tilly 


directs attention to a wish ‘expressed in an address” 


given by the director of the Canadian Patent Office 
to the employees of the United States Patent Office 
to the effect that the Canadian Patent Office might 
officially have the benefit of searches made in the 
United States in respect of any matter in relation to 
which applications are ‘also filed in Canada. It is 


argued that, since the great majority of applications’ 


filed in Canada are’ filed in’ substantially the same 
form in the United States of America, one search 
as to novelty should be’ sufficient; and further, since 


the facilities for search are better in the United States’ 


than in the Dominion, the single search suggested 
should, in the interests of economy and efficiency, be 
conducted at Washington. Mr. Tilly desires to see 


thé matter carried further still, and. suggests .that_it- 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103 | 


is worthy of investigation whether it could not be 
made profitable for Washington to report as to novelty, 
not only to @anada, but also to England and to the 
other British Colonies having patent systems. How- 
ever, as it is the standard of novelty accepted in any 


particular country, and not the form in which applica-. 


tions are filed there, that determines the value of the 
examiner’s work, no useful purpose would be gained 
by the adoption of the proposals for instituting a single 
search, The legal standard of novelty accepted in this. 
country has, from the inventor’s point of view, many 
advantages over the standard adopted in the United 
States; therefore. by resorting to the protection of the 
British patent law inventors in our Colonies stand to 
gain. Further, in cases where the Colonies are ‘un- 
able to provide for efficient search for their own pur- 
poses, the proper remedy seems to be for the Imperial 
Government to make suitable arrangements. for con-. 
ducting patent searches in London on behalf of those. 
Colonial Patent Offices which may desire to- avail 
themselves of the exceptional facilities existing in this 
country for such a purpose. 


Dr. W. H. Rivers has reprinted from the Bulletin 
of the John Rylands Library (vol. iv., 1918) a lecture 
entitled ‘‘Dreams and Primitive Culture.” He dis-: 
cusses the most essential feature of Freud’s theory, 
according to which “the dream as we remember it, 


and record or relate it—the manifest content of the ° 


dream—is the product of a process of transformation. 


By means of this process the motives producing the 


dream—the latent content of the dream, or the dream- 
thoughts—often find. expression in a form differing’ 
profoundly from that by: which they would be ex-: 
pressed in the usage of ordinary waking life.” The: 
next process, that of symbolisation, “implies a relation: 
between the underlying motive of the dream and the 
form-in which this motive is expressed, the relation’ 
being of such a kind that the image of the manifest: 
dream is a concrete symbol of the thought, emotion,’ 
or sentiment which forms its latent motive.” On» 
this analogy, among savage peoples, dramatic repre-: 
sentation goes far more deeply into the texture of) 
their lives than would appear if we attend only to its 
place in religious ritual. This would go some way to’ 
explain why rude rites and customs have their origin) 
in the unconscious, and it enables us to understand : 
why it is impossible, among peoples of the lower’ 
culture, to obtain any rational explanation of rites 
and customs, even when such explanation seems to, 
us to be obvious. . ged: 


In a recent issue of the Rivista di Antropologia 
Prof. Giuffrida-Ruggeri makes a contribution (‘Se i: 
popoli del mare delle iscrizioni geroglifiche apparten-' 
gano tutti all’ Italia’) to the much-discussed problem. 
of the identity of the Mediterranean peoples who took | 
part in the conflicts with Egypt during the Nineteenth’ 
and Twentieth Dynasties. Heagrees with A. J. Reinach: 
as to the history of the Etruscans. As Seneca wrote, : 
Tuscos Asia sibi vindicat. At the time of the great 
Mediterranean turmoil (thirteenth and twelfth cen-- 
turies B.c.) the ‘‘Tursha" or Etruscans were among- 
the people who set out from their Lydian home and : 
attacked Egypt. ‘They came to the Nile Delta with 
their women and children, and were evidently looking : 
for land to colonise, but were ‘thrown into the sea’? 
(circa 1260 B.C.) by the armies of Merenptah, and again | 
by Ramses III. (circa 1190 B.c.). These failures must : 
have diverted’ them in another direction, towards the! 
barbaric regions of the west. So it was that about» 
the ‘eleventh century B.c. their boats reached the’ 
western peninsula, the fabled Hesperia, and they 


occupied Tuscany.” . But. Prof. Giuffrida~Ruggeri dis-_ 


agrees with Reinach’s claim that their Lydian neigh 


/ 


ntry to occupy, strongly fortified, and inhabited by 
ce population.’ The Sardinians were a. Mediter- 
people who “provided war material: for the 


_ They took part in this attack with valour, 
as their descendants have recently shown in the 
of the Isonzo.” 


| Science (vol. xlviii., No. 
3) Mr. S. O. Most discusses the problems, methods, 
| results of the study of behaviour. He thinks that 
m time to time it is advantageous to trace the 
é of ‘scientific development and adjust plans for 


s the controlling . agent of. all activities—the 
t view. of. pre-Renaissance times—through the 
wenteenth-century belief in the purely mechanical 
ion, of men and animals—a belief which inspired 
uch research—to the nineteenth-century realisation of 
e complex nature of the problem. ‘The problem is 
Practical one, as is evidenced by the work of such 
sS as that of the anti-vivisectionists, who, 
th often inconsistent, yet base their activities on 
: of the likeness between animals and 
an with to pain, The author urges the claims 

4 comparative study of behaviour in spite of its 
imthropomorphic tendencies: He thinks that the 
ences between the mechanists and vitalists are 
ly verbal, the one believing that all reactions 
= completely determined by material configurations, 
the latter that the reactions are not thus completely 
_ determined, the differences, though, lying in an am- 
 biguous use of mechanical reduction. Whichever view 
, the scientific worker is in equal degree bound 
n by experimental methods every possible 
phenomena ending in reactions. Hitherto 
s to reduce animate responses to physico- 
cal principle have resulted in evidence which 
ows that a great majority of such responses are, in 
asure, m nically determined. To ascertain 
nt of this determination is an important 
n both for the vitalistically and the mechanis- 

‘men of science. 


F 


Lica 


a 


MA ver chal ae Ha 


issue of Reveille (No. 3) 


he . February 
ynomist”’ discusses ‘‘the cost of consumption.” 

he author points out that in ten years the deaths 
hao hibsccibonis in England and Wales are not far 
Short of the total deaths in the British and Dominion 
_ forces during the war. He pleads for the extension 
of colony treatment, such as obtains at Papworth, 
_ where the consumptive, after a period of observation 
in a sanatorium, is allowed by slow degrees to begin 
‘working, preferably at his old occupation, or, if that 
is unsuitable, at some new occupation which does 


if a suitable case, the patient is encouraged to settle 
on, or in the ee ners heod of, the colony. This 
means subsidised la 


e the ultimate gain by the reduced risk of infec- 
is very great. 

APER by Harriette, Chick, E. Margaret Hume, 
h F. Skelton, and Alice Henderson Smith on the 
vention of scurvy (Lancet, November 30, 1918) is of 
‘botanical as well ‘as medical interest. .‘* Lime- 


-scorbutic, dating from, the eighteenth century, and 
_there is every reason to believe that it was, in fact, 
le use of “lime-juice” which was responsible ’ for 
the disappearance of scurvy from the ‘British Navy 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


eration of the ‘ peoples of the sea’ who attacked | 
1250, December 135. | 


e future, He gives a historical review of the study | 
aviour ‘from the unscientific acceptance of the | 


not require too long a period of training. _ After a 
“v months, when ready to leave the sanatorium, and © 


ur, a costly matter, but probably | 
no more costly than allowing the patient to die, | 
whl 


hb f tati an . anti- 
tegen: ron. oe | highest degree (10) of the Mercalli scale, the destruc-., 


_ Marcu 27, 1919] NATURE 71 
bours, the Shardana, occupied Sardinia at the same | in the early part of i 
! i : > aad the t t . 7 
time. His reason is that Sardinia was ‘a very difficult | the end of that seiod. " hoses ean oer 


| explorers became sceptical about its va 
been subjected to much adverse criticism asa pro- 
phylactic or therapeutic agent in the late war. The 
authors found in animal experiments: that the current 
lime-juice is of very little value, but that lemon-juice 
is effective in preventing scurvy in uinea-pigs. The 
historical researches of Mrs. enderson’ Smith 
cleared up the puzzle. The original *“ lime-juice " 
| came from the Mediterranean, and was derived artly 
| from the sweet lime,(Citrus medica var. limetta , but 
| chiefly from the lemon (C. medica var. limonum); it 
| 

| 

| 


lue, and it has 


| was what we should now call “lemon-juice,”” About 
1865 the cultivation of the sour lime (C. medica var. 
acida) had become a considerable business in the 
| West Indies, and the Admiralty patriotically trans- 
| ferred its contracts from Malta and Sicily to English 
| firms; they got what we now call “ lime-juice,”” and 
| it was useless. In the same series of nutritional 
investigations made at the Lister Institute, Harriette 
Chick and Mabel Rhodes (Lancet, December 7, 1918) 
direct attention to. the fact that the most potent anti- 
scorbutics are all crucifers—cabbage, “scurvy grass” 
(Cochlearia), and ‘‘cresses" of various kinds; swedes 
are much more efficient than carrots (Umbelliferz) or 
beetroots (Chenopodiacez), re 


Tue efforts’ made ‘to introduce’ the use of bracken 
rhizomes as food for stock do. not receive: much en- 
couragement from the results! of experiments with 
pigs and poultry reported in Bulletin No. 89° of the 
West of Scotland Agricultural College. In the experi- 
ments with pigs an increased live-weight was cer- 
tainly secured by the use of the bracken rhizomes, 
but this ppmres only a very meagre return. - In 
the ‘case of poultry the results as indicated by egg- 
production ‘were entirely disappointing. In ‘both 
cases the experiments were admittedly not on a 
sufficient scale to warrant definite conclusions, but 
the outlook for the promotion of bracken to the 
dignity of a fodder crop does not appear hopeful. 


Mr. G. T. Moore (Annals of the Missouri Botanical 
Garden, vol. v., No. 3, 2 plates, 1918) gives an 
account of.a new wood-penetrating alga, Gomontia 
lignicola, found on a yellow-pine board in a fresh- 
water pond near Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the 
study of which has cleared up several points in the 
life-history of the genus. The plant consists of un- 
branched cylindrical filaments in which a striking 
appearance is produced by the concentration of most 
of the chlorophyll in the terminal cell, the remaining 
cells being so devoid of colour as to have the appear- 
ance of a fungal hypha. The plant is reproduced by 
zoospores, which are formed in large numbers in 
sporangia of extremely irregular outline, and either 
_ germinate directly to produce a new filament or form 
resting-spores, e latter are very irregular in size 
| and shape, brilliantly green and fuM of starch, and 
| may rest for months, or even years, before germina- 
tion. ‘pated 


— 

One of the most destructive of recent Italian earth- 
quakes, of which little was heard at the time, occurred 
in the Upper Tiber valley on April 26, 1917, at 
9.40 am. (G.M.T.). Though the area of damage, 
according to Prof. Oddone (Boll. Soc, Sis. Ital., 
vol. xxi., 1918, pp. 9-27), contains only about seventy- 
five square miles, there was within it a small district 
in which the intensity of the shock. surpassed the 


| tion of houses being as complete as at Messina in 
, 1908 and Avezzano in 1915. The,.epicentre. of, this 
| earthquake is in 43° 28-2’ N, lat., 12° 7-7’ E.. long., 


72 


NATURE 


| Marcu 27, 1919 


and it is evident that the focus was at a slight depth. 
Among the after-shocks was one of less, but still 
ruinous, intensity, which occurred on ‘April 27 at 
2.30 p.m, (G.M.T.). 


Mr. R. M. Dererey has sent us a copy of a paper 
contributed by him to the Philosophical Magazine for 
March, 1918, in which he discusses the temperature 
distribution in a cyclonic depression, and puts forward 
a hypothesis as to the causation of these depressions. 
Upper-air research by means of sounding balloons has 
shown that in the troposphere the core of a cyclone 
is cold relatively to the surrounding air, whereas at 
greater heights, in the stratosphere, the reverse is the 
case, the air being relatively warm. It is suggested 
that this warmth probably extends to the confines of 
the atmosphere. The author considers that the 
air which flows spirally inwards in the lower layers 
rises in the central region of the cyclone to great 
heights, flowing outwards in) the higher levels of the 
stratosphere. This circulation being postulated, it 
remains to find some means by which the column of 
rising air in the stratosphere may be warmed, and 
this Mr. Deeley ascribes to the action of a pencil of 
high-velocity cosmic matter which strikes and heats 
the outer part of the atmosphere in a localised patch. 
The heating is regarded as being produced rapidly and 
as dying away slowly. According to this theory, 
cyclones must travel with the winds of the upper 
atmosphere, which carry the heated core with them. 
No attempt is made to explain how a cyclone can 
persist for days, or even weeks, as it travels over the 
surface of the earth. ; 


At a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
on March 12 three papers were read on electric welding 
developments. There are three systems in general use. In 
‘spot’? welding the metals to be soldered together are 
placed in contact and an electric current sent between 
them. This: method is rapid and efficient, and is 
easily performed by unskilled labour. . In “‘seam”’ or 
line”? welding, mechanically driven roller electrodes 
are used; and in the ‘‘ carbon-arc” process the metal is 
melted by means of the electric arc. It was pointed 
out that electric welding would be particularly helpful 
in the automobile industry, as crank-shafts, broken or 
worn teeth of gear-wheels, and gear-cases can rapidly 
be renovated. In shipbuilding it was stated that elec- 
tric-arc welding has proved successful for forging, 
riveting, and caulking. It has been found possible to 
join thick steel plates by welding more economically 
than by riveting. Experiments showed that in the 
case of butt-welds the tensile strength of the joints 
was from go to 95 per cent. of that of the solid plate. 
In the ‘‘carbon-arc” process the carbon rod formerly 
used has now been replaced by an iron welding 
pencil, which is found to be far more suitable. 


-Tue March issue of the Geographical Journal con- 
tains a paper by Mr. E. A. Reeves, the map curator 
of the Royal Geographical Society, on ‘“‘A Trans- 
formation of the Magnetic Dip Chart.” 
formation carried out by Mr. Reeves consists in 
drawing lines through those places on the earth’s 
surface at which the axis of the dip-needle makes 
equal angles with tne axis of the earth instead of with 
the horizontal plane through the place of observa- 
tion. This plan gives more regular lines, which ap- 
proximate to circles having an axis inclined at 3° to 
5° to that of the earth.. In a contribution to the 
discussion on the paper Dr. Chapman pointed out 
that whatever axis were taken as that from which to 


measure the inclination of the dip-needle, the curves . 


of equal inclination would approximate to circles about 
an axis between that chosen and the magnetic axis, 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103 | 


' graphic axis. 


The trans- | 


so long as the earth approximated to a uniformly 
magnetised sphere. Dr. Chree also pointed out how 
closely the earth corresponds with a, sphere uniformly 
magnetised about an axis inclined at 12° to the geo- 
[ é The paper and discussion point to the 
desirability of taking as the axis of reference the 
magnetic rather than the geographic axis of the earth. 


‘‘ EXPERIMENTS with Clay in its Relation to Piles” 
was the subject of a paper by Mr. A. S. E. Ackermann 
read before the Society of Engineers on March to. 
The experiments described deal on a small scale with 
the resistance of clay to penetration by dises, pyramids, 
and cylinders. In one test a cylinder of clay 2 cm. 
in diameter and 68 cm. in length, fixed at one end 
and twisted at the other through 373°, recovered when 
released through 32°, which is taken to be a proof of 
the elasticity of clay. The resistance to penetration 
(without shock) increases as the water-content 
diminishes. If W+w is the resistance to penetration 
and V the volume of penetration, then for pyramids 
V=a(W+w)", where n is about 1-5. Inthe case of 


discs at critical loads the disc started and continued 


to sink in the clay, the pressure, taken to be 
the pressuré of fluidity, being on the average 
587 grams/cm.’, the water-content being 29 per cent. 
The general conclusions are:—(1) For tapered bodies. 
the load for a given penetration is proportional to 
the area of surface of contact; (2) it is much greater’ 
the less the percentage of water in the clay; (3) the 
pressure of fluidity is less when the percentage of 
water is greater; (4) tapered piles support a greater 
load than parallel-sided piles; and (5) pointed piles 
are more efficient than blunt. In the application of 
these results to practice it must be remembered (apart 
from the small scale of the tests) that the clay with 
which an engineer deals is less homogeneous than 
the puddled clay employed; that piles are driven by 
impact, which disturbs the earth round the pile; and 
that the important point is not the resistance when 
driving, but after a period when the earth is more 
or less resettled. The tests are, however, interesting 
to physicists and engineers. are 


A SUGGESTION was made a few days ago during a 
sitting of: the Coal Commission that if inighre | ages 
were to be paid to miners, manufacturers would 
driven to America or Sweden to seek the advantages 
of water-power. The allusion to Sweden is striking 


testimony to the rapid developments which aré now ~ 


taking place in the hydro-electric installations of that 
country. Engineering has from time to time pub- 
lished particulars of these enterprises (reference has 
also been made to them in these columns), and in its 
issue of March 7 it has a long article dealing with the 
impending extension of hydro-electric power schemes 
under the auspices of the Royal Swedish Waterfalls 
Board. A power station is projected in Lapland with 
a capacity of 192,500 kw., having its source in the 
chain of lakes, the lowest ‘of which, Storea Lulea, 
finds an outlet in the River Lule. The river is about 
100 miles in length, and debouches into the Gulf of 
Bothnia, just below the Arctic Circle. Two important’ 


falls on the river are the Porjus and the Horsprauget. | 


The former has already been utilised to a consider- 
able extent; the load, so far as three-phase current is” 
concerned, amounts to 15,000 kw., and when certain 
extensions have been effected will reach double that 
figure. The Horsprauget project will furnish an addi- 
tional estimated capacity of 192,500 kw. The falls, 
of which there are several in series, will be impounded. 
in a single installation by the construction of a high 
dam, which will have the distinction of being larger 
than any hitherto constructed in Sweden. It will be. 
1 kilometre (1100 yards) long and about 40 metres” 


: 


“Marci 27, 1919] 


NATURE 73 


ft.) above the ground at its highest point. By 
ering the water-level two metres, a supply of 
8,000 cubic metres (say 1,100,000,000 gallons) will 
vailable, which is sufficient to equalise load varia- 
-during a period of twenty-four hours. The 
will be designed as a composite structure, with 
al features to resist ice-pressure, which is, of 
a vital consideration in such high latitudes. 
egate surface area of all the lakes within the 
at area amounts to about 890 sq. km. 
Seng and the total catchment area to 
. (3805 sq. miles). 


R ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
AND Jupiter.—The planets Venus, Jupiter, 
are now finely displayed in the evening 


It will prove an 
g incident to watch the gradual approach 
planets until their conjunction on the night 
5, when they will be very little more than 
from each other near the time of their 
abou t 11.11 p.m. 
OF THE Jovian Famity.—Schorr’s comet 
dds another member to the ever-increasing 
short-period comets. Forty of these objects 
ously known, but fewer than half of this 
been fully confirmed by observations of 
urn to perihelion. Two orbits have been 
or Schorr’s comet which differ in the 
d, one giving 6-73 years and the other 
Definitive elements will, no doubt, be 
when the comet has passed beyond the 
further observations. 
CLusTeRS.—Dr. C. V. L. Charlier has made 
sation of the distances and configuration of 
leddelanden, Lund Observatory, ser. ii., 
Making the simple assumption that distance 
es inversely as angular diameter, he finds a 
yupi f the non-globular clusters strikingly 
r to that which he found some years ago for the 
This is a satisfactory confirmation of the 
re isly accepted conclusion that the non-globulars 
are intra-galactic objects. Since the centres of the 
" stem (non-globulars and B stars) are in the 
: on from the sun,.it is a reasonable 
tion that they are coincident, which , enables 
| of the non-globular system (at first left 
ry) to be determined. A second determination, 
ccordant with the first, is made by assuming 
nt of the system in a direction perpendicular to 
ane of the galaxy to be the same as that found for 
stars. In the galactic plane the distances range 
.¥., but the great majority are less than 
The greatest co-ordinates perpendicular to the 
e about 1600 L.Y., indicating the usually 
Cerri figure. It is evident that the 
of individual clusters cannot be relied on, 
t it is interesting to note that the distance of the 
it double cluster in Perseus comes out as 400 L.Y., 
h is close to the distance deduced for Nova Persei 
the rate of illumination of the surrounding 


B: Trea ing the globular clusters in the same way, Dr. 
_ Charlier finds a configuration similar to that found 
by Dr. Shapley, but on the question of scale he is in 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


strong opposition to him, insisting on the intra- 
galactic situation of the globulars, owing to their 
concentration in the great star-cloud of Sagittarius, 


and other features of their grouping. He is thus led 
to take the absolute magnitude of the brightest cluster 
stars as about +8, and to assert that the cluster 
variables are dwarfs, though the Cepheids with their 
similar light-curves are admittedly giants. Prof. 
Eddington’s researches make it unlikely that stars of 
small mass could attain a sufficient temperature to 
have a negative colour-index, such as Dr. Shapley 
found in many of the cluster stars. However, the 
results of the latter are of such a startling and far- 
reaching character that it is all to the good, in the 
interests of the attainment of truth, - that an 
astronomer ‘of Dr. Charlier’s eminence should hold a 
brief for the other side pending further light on some 
of the weaker links in Dr. Shapley’s chain of 
reasoning. 


WEATHER INFLUENCES ON THE WAR. 


pROEF: ROBERT DE C. WARD contributes an 

article on ‘* Weather Controls over the Fighting 
during the Autumn of 1918” to the Scientific. Monthly 
for January. This is the concluding communication 
of a series which has from time to time been noticed 
in Narore, and deals with the weather to the time 
of the signing of the armistice by Germany. The 
author states his belief that ‘tas a part of the scientific 
history of the great war, as full an account’ as 
possible should be kept of the meteorological condi- 
tions which affected the operations on all the battle- 
fronts.” 

The autumn of 1918 is stated to have been “in 
many respects the most critical season, meteoro- 
logically, of any period of equal length during the 
whole war.” It was clear that the Allies were deter- 
mined to force the defeat of the Germans whilst 
fighting weather lasted. The Allies, by pushing on, 
were gaining better ground and more shelter for their 
armies. 

At the commencement of September despatches 
mentioned the ‘unprecedented dryness”’ which for 
about a week favoured the movements of the Allies, 
but the second week of September experienced heavy 
storms, which retarded progress. Throughout the 
war as autumn advanced the fighting conditions were 
less favourable, and the Flanders mud had proved an 
almost insurmountable obstacle. The distribution of 
the rainfall throughout the year at the Western Front 
is similar to that over the south-east of England, 
where the heaviest rains occur in’ the autumn season, 
the average rainfall of October being equal to that 
of February and March combined. Add to these 
conditions the drop of temperature, which on the 
Continent is much greater than in the British Isles, 
and the colder weather brings more snow and slush, 
The rivers are not uncommonly in flood, and, wherever 
possible, the enemy caused artificial flood, hampering 
and impeding the movements of the Allies. 

Official despatches laid unusual stress on the un- 
favourable weather controls of the autumn, but 
probably much of this was dué to the intense anxiety 
of the Allies to crush the enemy beforé winter set in. 
All bad: weather was helping the enemy by delaying 
attack and enabling him to organise his retreat. The’ 
Monthly Weather’ Report of the Meteorological Office 
for September shows that the month was abnormally 
wet and cold, whilst in many parts of England 
‘the rainfall totals were the greatest ever measured, 
not only in September, but in any calendar month 
whatever.” The map showing the movements of 


74 


NATURE 


| MarcH 27, 1919 


depressions over the British Isles and the adjacent 
parts of the Continent indicates a north-easterly track 
for the storm areas, and the Western Front appears 


to have escaped the passage of the storm centres.: 


October was ‘dull, damp, and sunless.”’ The ‘rainfall 
was moderate, ‘but the number of rain-days was exces- 


sive ‘over the British’ Isles. | Similarly, unsettled 
weather . was, without doubt, experienced over 
Flanders. Notwithstanding almost incessant adverse 


weather controls, “there runs the splendid story of 
the advance ofthe Allied troops... one despatch 
(September 12) mentioned the pouring rains which 
forced the Allied airmen to cease their punishment of 
the Germans.’ The stormy and wet weather also 
greatly handicapped the activity of the Tanks. In 
the latter part of the autumn, and especially just prior 
to the armistice, fog was very prevalent, but it did 
not always prove adverse to the advance of the Allies, 
although at times it aided the retreating enemy, 
Short dry and fine spells intervening were very favour- 
able controls, aiding the advance of the Allies in every 
way, 

There was little activity on the Italian Front until 
late in October, and Prof. Ward states that ‘the 
reason for beginning the offensive at that time was 
doubtless to be sought in the political condition of 
Austria-Hungary.” Military operations on this front 
ended on November 4. 


In Palestine and Mesopotamia the co-ordinated move-_ 


ments of the Allied forces in the autumn led to the 
defeat of the Turkish armies, and Turkey was driven 
to surrender. 
It would be a valuable scientific asset to have the 
‘“Weather Controls’ by the author throughout the 
war brought together and published collectively. 
CG. Hi, 


THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL 
MUSEUM.} ; . 


‘T’HE: volume before us—the last report submitted 

by the late Dr. Rathbun as assistant secretary 
of the United States National Museum—contains no 
general observations of a striking character, but re- 
counts a large amount of valuable work. There is a 
long list of accessions, but the numbers have not 
been summarised. From among them it is not easy 
to make a selection, but the following seem to be of 
superior importance:—The Julius Hurter bequest of 


3575 reptiles-and batrachians, comprising the material . 


for Mr. Hurter’s ‘‘ Herpetology of Missouri’ (1911), 
as well as many genera and species new. to ‘the 
museum; all are good:specimens, and beautifully pre- 
pared. The Biltmore herbarium, or so much of it as 
was saved from the flood of July, 1916, presented by 
the widow of its founder, the late George W. Vander- 
bilt; the 25,000 specimens saved include many types 
of Crataegus species. The private collection of crypto- 
gams formed and presented by Prof. O. 
and numbering about 15,000 specimens. © The fine col- 
lection of meteorites brought together by Dr. 


Charles U. Shepard, and bequeathed by his son; it: 


represents 238 falls and finds, some of exceptional 
interest. Dr. Shepard’s extensive 


which is a conditional legatee: 

~ As Dr. Rathbun most truthfully says in his intro- 
duction, ‘‘the importance of public collections: rests, 
not upon the number of specimens, but upon the use 
to which they are put.” 
United States National Museum ‘pays great attention 


1 Report on the Progress and Condition of the United States National 


Museum for the Year ending June 30, 1917. 
Smithsonian Institution, 1918.) 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


Pp.- 184. (Washington: 


‘lections—namely, 


F. ‘Cook, » 


| collection of 
minerals and gems remains on deposit in the museum, » 


On the educational side the 


to the adequate selection, mounting, and labelling of — 
Of late it has done a good deal by way of 
models, We read here of a model showing the geology 


objects. 


of a coral island, beside which has been erected a real 


fossil coral reef obtained from the Carboniferous: rocks 
In the court containing the wood col-. 
lection are two new models of diverse character. One 


of Kentucky, 


is part of a national forest, on a scale of 1/300, and 
measuring 12 ft. by 15 ft., designed te show the 
various uses of such forests and their administration. 
The other illustrates a modern plant for the preserva- 
tive treatment of railway timber. Another model, 
16 ft. by 19 ft., reproduces the works of the Bingham 
Cafion Copper Property, where lean copper ore of 
the disseminated type is now being worked at a profit. 
Other models illustrate the manufacture of white lead, 


and the mode of occurrence, recovery, and preparation 


of tin, sulphur, asphalt, lime, and oil. These latter, 
with their associated exhibits, eighteen in all, have 
been planned to convey an understanding of the 
various industries based on the mineral resources of 
the country, Others are in preparation, and explana- 
tory bulletins are being widely distributed. __ 
Another valuable series of exhibits peculiar to this 
museum is the collection illustrating the history of 
photography from the earliest times. We allude to 
this here because the report records the death of 


Mr. Thomas W. Smillie, who since 1871 had been the . 


museum photographer. The enormous advantage to 
the educational and research work of a museum: in 
having, not merely a vhotographic laboratory, but also 
a trained man of science at its head, can be but dimly 


apprehended by museum-workers in this country, so 


far are they from any approach to this. 

This leads us to the. second great use of the col- 
as the basis of research. 
report contains, 


in part on the national collections.’’ A useful feature 
is the précis attached to many of the entries. In 


the account of work done we are glad to note the 
‘friendly co-operation between the National Museum 
of the United States and that of this country, as. 
exemplified in Mr. Oldfield Thomas’s study of the: 


South American mammals. 


Any comparison of the scientific output of these two. 
museums would be a difficult matter, but we cannot. 
refrain from noting that the purely natural history 


staff at Washington numbers fifty-two (exclusive of 
associates and honorary helpers), whereas that. at our 
Natural History Museum is only forty-two. 4 


I. 


WE meet to-day with happiness which six months 
ago would have seemed beyond. the bounds of | 
reasonable hope. . After anxious months the con-. 
fidently awaited victory, which last spring still seemed. 
far away, has crowned the cause of justice, truth, — 


and liberty. We in America rejoice that this. cause is 


our: cause, and that at the most critical time we were 
able to. render effective help to the staunch and brave | 
Allied forces. which had fought so long and so. nobly.» 
The object of this address isnot, however, to. 
reat war so for-. 
tunately ending, or to deal with the weighty inter- 
national problems now faced by the world, but rather _ 
having to. 


appraise the military issues of the g 


to bring before you other considerations, 
do with the advancement of science. - 


1 Presidential address to the America !Association for the Advancement ° 


of Science, Baltimore, December, 1918, by Prof, Theodore W. Richards, 


‘The 
in thirty-seven double-columned 
pages, a ‘‘classified list of papers based wholly or 


_ THE PROBLEM OF RADIO-ACTIVE 
2 LEAD. | re iees 


NATURE °° 


75 


cular subject chosen, namely, the problem 
sactive lead, is one of peculiar and. extra. 
interest, because it involves a readjustment 
argement of many rather firmly fixed ideas 
ng . chemical elements and ‘their mutual 
» as well as the nature of atoms. 
the last twenty years the definition of these 
S, elements” and ‘‘atoms,’”’ has been ren- 
ewhat uncertain, and bids fair to suffer even 
hange. Both of them are ancient words, and 
fen a century since had. acquired meanings 
from those of long ago, Thales thought of 
ement, and Aristotle’s elements—earth, air, 
*, and the quintessence, derived perhaps 
more ancient philosophy—were not plentiful 
‘ account for all the manifold phenomena of 
Democritus’s old idea of the atom was asso- 
the philosophical conception of indivisibility 
with the idea of chemical combination 
roportions. To-day many chemists and 
think kK that the chemical atoms of the last 
e no longer. to be considered as indivisible. 
e, the old Greek name ‘“‘ atom” is no longer 
ause it denotes indivisibility. Someone has 
Sly suggested. that the word ‘ tom ’—indi- 
ity—would be more appropriate! More- 
so-called atoms are really divisible,. we 
somewhat doubtful as to our definition 
e elements of the universe.. The reason 
turn of thought is due, as you all know, 
y of the unexpected and startling pheno- 
i 


have to deal with a substance directly 
1 the iconoclastic radio-active: changes— 
phenomena which cause us to stop. and 
definitions of atoms. and. elements. 
obtained from ‘radio-active minerals 
have resulted, together with helium, from 
ecomposition of elements of higher 
Sceptical at first, the whole chemical 
come to acknowledge that: the well- 
“helium (discovered by Sir William 
-three years ago) is one of the decom- 
sts of radium. Radium itself is a: sub- 
sh, in many respects, acts as an element, 
-its atomic weight, and must be: considered 
est member of the well-known calcium 
atoms appear to be so big and so com- 
tegrate because of lack of stability. The 
ion is slow, and not to be hastened: or re- 
any agency known to man; 1670. years 
_ for the decomposition of half of -any 
on of radium, according to the exact 
its of Profs. Boltwood and Ellen Gleditsch. 
er, we have reason to believe that this decom- 
1 proceeds in a series of stages, successive atoms 
m (five in all) being evolved with different 
of ease any given. atom of radium. In 
most—indeed, probably all—of the residual 
¢ radium appears to have been converted 
peculiar kind of metallic lead with which 
concerned to-night. The nature of. the end- 
ras first suggested by Boltwood, who pointed 
variable presence of lead in radium minerals. 
‘must accept a kind of limited transmutation 
elements, although not of the immediately 
le type sought by the ancient alchemists, 
sting and significant as all, this is, never- 
s the whole story has not. yet been told. Radium 
f appears to come from the exceedingly slow 
mposition of uranium, an inference drawn 
rom the fact that radium is found only in conjunc- 
tion with the uranium, which, even after careful puri- 
fication, soon becomes radio-active, and gives every 
indication of suffering slow disintegration. Moreover, 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103 | 


uranium is not the only other heavy element. which 
appears to be. capable of decomposing and. yielding 
elements of lower atomic weight. Another, thorium 
has a like propensity, although the steps in. this case 
are perhaps not so fully interpreted, or so generally 
accepted, In the process of disintegration all these 
heavy atoms yield strange radiations, some of them 
akin to, or identical with, X-rays, which. bear away 
that part of the colossal energy of disintegration not 
made manifest as heat. These facts have been proved 
beyond doubt by the brilliant work of Mme. Curie 
Sir Ernest Rutherford, and others. i 

The nature of the rays and of the highly interesting 
evanescent transition products and their relation to 
one another are too complex for discussion now. We 
are concerned rather with the 
permanent of the substances concerned, especially with 
the starting point, uranium (possessing the heaviest of 
all atoms), radium, and the lead which seems to 
result from their disintegration.. Omitting the less 
stable transition products, the most essential outcomes 
are roughly indicated by a sort of genealogical tree 
herewith shown :— ‘ 


Hypothesis Concerning the Disintegration of Uranium. 

Uranium : 
yeoo™ 3 Helium) ” 

Radium 
Y 1 Helium $8 Helium 

Emanation _ : 
Y 4 Helium 

Lead (Isotopic) 


Thus each atom of uranium is supposed to be con- 
verted into radium by losing three atoms of helium, 
and each atom of radium is supposed to be converted 
into a kind of lead by losing five more, as already 
stated. _ ; ! ee Ree ipa 

If uranium can thus disintegrate,’ should we call it 
an element? And should we call its smallest particles 
atoms? The answers depend upon our definition of 
these two words. If the word ‘telement”’ is supposed 
to designate a substance incapable of disintegration, 
apparently it should not be applied to uranium; 
neither should the word “atom” be applied to the 
smallest conceivable particles of this substance. But 
no one would now maintain that any element is really 
incapable of disintegration. A method of still retaining 
the terms, in this and analogous cases is to define an 
element as “a substance which has not yet been 
decomposed artificially "—that is to say, by the hand 
of man; and an atom as “the smallest particle. of 
such a substance, inferred from physico-chemical be- 
haviour.” The atom, then, is not to be considered as 
wholly indivisible, but only as indivisible (or, at least, 
as not yet. divided) by artificial means. For, as in 
the case of radium, the disintegration of uranium 
cannot be hastened or retarded by any known earthly 
agency. So long as it stays intact, the atom of 
uranium behaves quantitatively in the same fashion as 
any other atom; Dalton’s laws of definite and multiple 
combining proportions apply without exception ‘to its 
compounds. In this connection one should remember 
that the atomic theory as a whole, including Dalton’s 
and Avogadro’s generalisations, is not in the least 
invalidated by the new discoveries of radio-activity. 
On .the contrary, the atomic theory is entrenched 
to-day more firmly than ever before in its history. . 

Interesting speculations by Drs. Russell, Fleck, 


Soddy, Fajans, and others have interpreted in ex- 


tremely ingenious and plausible fashion the several 
transitory steps of the changes, and indicate the 


reasons why the end-products of the decomposition 


| of both uranium and thorium should be very sirtilar 


nature of the more ~ 


7 


76 


NATURE 


s 


[Marcu 27, 1919 


to lead, if not identical with it. Therefore, a careful 
study of the properties of lead of indubitably radio- 
active origin became a matter of great interest, as a 
step towards confirming these speculations, especially 
in comparison with the properties of ordinary lead. 
Such investigations should throw light on the nature 
of radium and uranium and the extraordinary changes 
which those. metals suffer. Moreover, by analogy, 
the resulting conclusions might be more or less ap- 
plicable to the relations of other elements to each 
other; and the comparison of this new kind of lead 
with ordinary lead might afford important information 
as to the essential attributes of elementary substances 
in general, in case any differences between the two 
kinds should be found. 
*.. Before the subject had been taken up at Harvard 
University chemists had already recognised the fact 
that the so-called uranium-lead is indeed qualitatively 
very like ordinary lead. It yields a black sulphide, a 
yellow chromate, and a white sulphate, all very 
sparingly soluble in water, just as ordinary lead does. 
Continued fractional crystallisation or precipitation had 
been shown by Prof. Soddy and others to: separate 
no foreign substance. Hence great similarity was 
proved, but this does not signify identity. Identity 
is to be established only by quantitative researches. 
Plato recognised long ago, in an oft-quoted epigram, 
that when weights and measures are left out, little 
remains of any art. Modern. science echoes this 
dictum in its insistence on quantitative data; science 
becomes more scientific as it becomes more exactly 
quantitative. 

One of the most striking and significant of the 
quantitative properties of an element is its atomic 
weight—a number computed from the proportion by 
weight in which it combines with some other element, 
taken as a standard. There is no need, before this 
distinguished audience, of emphasising the importance 
of the familiar table of atomic weights; but a few 
parenthetical words about their character is, perhaps, 
not out of place. As has been said more than once, 
the atomic weights of the relatively permanent 
elements, which constitute almost all the crust of 
the earth, seem to be concerned with the ultimate 
nature of things, and must have been fixed at the 
very beginning of the universe, if, indeed, the universe 
ever had any beginning, They are silent, apparently 
unchanging, witnesses of the transition from the 
imagined chaos of old philosophy to the existing 
cosmos. The crystal of quartz in a newly hewn piece 
of granite seems, and probably is, as compact and 
perfect as it was just after it was formed zons ago. 
We cannot imagine that any of its properties have 
essentially changed during its protracted imprison- 
ment; and, so far as we can guess, the silicon and 
oxygen of which it was made may have existed for 
previous zons, first as gas, and then as liquid. The 
relative weights in which these two elements combine 
must date at least from the inconceivably distant time 
when the earth was “ without form and void.” 

Although, apparently, these numbers were thus 
determined at the birth of our universe, they are, 
philosophically speaking, in a different class from the 
purely. mathematical constants such as the relation of 
circumference to the diameter of a circle. 3-141509... 
is a geometrical magnitude entirely independent of any 
kind of material, and it therefore belongs to the more 
general class of numbers, together with simple 
numerical relations, logarithmic and _ trigonometric 
quantities, and other mathematical functions. On the 
other hand, the atomic weights of the. primeval 
elements, although less general than these, are much 
more general and fundamental than the constants of 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


astronomy, such as the so-called constant of gravity, 
the length of the day and year, the proper motion of 
the sun, and all the other incommensurable magni- 
tudes which have been more or less accidentally 
ordained in the cosmic system. The physico-chemical 
constants, such as the atomic weights, lie in a group 
between the mathematical constants and the astro- 
nomical “constants,” and their values have a signi- 
ficance only less important than the former. — 

In the lead from uranium we have a comparatively 
youthful elementary substance which seems to have 
been formed since the rocks in which it occurs had 
crystallised. Is the atomic weight of this youthful 
lead identical with that of the far more ancient — 
common lead, which seems to be more neatly con- 
temporary as to its origin with the silicon and oxygen 
of quartz? | Pea 

The idea that different specimens of a given element 
might have different atomic weights is by no means 
new; it far antedates the discovery of radio-activity. 

Ever since the discovery of the definite combinin 
proportions of the elements and the ascription o 
these proportions to the relative weights of the atoms, 
the complete constancy of the atomic weights has 
occasionally been questioned. More than once in the 
past investigators have found apparent differences in 
the weights of atoms of a single kind, but until very 
recently all these irregularities have been proved to be 
due to inaccurate experimentation. Nevertheless, even 
thirty years ago the question seemed to me not de- 
finitively answered, and careful experiments were made 
with copper, silver, and sodium, obtained from widely 
different sources, in the hope of finding differences in 
the atomic weights, according to the source of the 
material. No such differences whatever were found. 


More recently Prof. Baxter compared the atomic 


weights of iron and nickel in meteorites (from an, 
unknown, perhaps inconceivably distant, source) and 
the same terrestrial metals. In these cases also the 
results were negative. Thus copper, silver, sodium, 
iron, and nickel all appeared to be perfectly definite 
in nature, and their atoms, each after its own kind, 
all alike. eae 
The general question remained, nevertheless, one of 
profound interest to the theoretical chemist, because 
it involved the very nature of the elements themselves ; 
and in its relation to the possible discovery of a 
difference between uranium-lead and ordinary lead it 
became a very crucial question. ik 
Early in 1913, when the hypothesis of radio-active 
disintegration had assumed definite shape, Dr. 
Fajans’s assistant, Max Lembert, journeyed to Cam- 
bridge, Mass., bringing a large quantity of lead from 
Bohemian radio-active sources in order that its 
atomic weight might be determined by Harvard 
methods, with the precision attainable there. The 
Carnegie Institution of Washington gave generous 
pecuniary assistance towards providing the necessary 
apparatus in this and later investigations. : 
The most important precautions to be taken in 
such work are worthy of brief notice, because the 
value of the results inevitably depends upon them. 
The operation consists in weighing specimens of a 
salt of the element in question, and then precipitating 
one of the constituents in each specimen, determining 
the weight of the precipitate, and thus the composi- 
tion of the salt. In the first place, each portion of 
substance to be weighed must be free from the sus- 
picion of containing unheeded impurities, otherwise 
its weight will mean little. This is an end not easily 
attained, for liquids often attack their containing 
vessels and absorb gases, crystals include and occlude 
solvents, precipitates carry down polluting impurities, 


substances cling to water, ahd solids, even at 
temperatures, often fail to discharge their im- 
soned contaminations. Especial care was taken 
at each specimen was as pare as it could be made, 

impurity in one would vitiate the whole com- 


the next place, after an analysis has once begun, 
ace of each substance to be weighed must be 
collec and find its way in due course to the scale- 
a. The trouble here lies in the difficulty in esti- 
iting, or even detecting, minute traces of substances 
ng in solution, or minute losses by evaporation 


f, ‘the i 
ef, “the whole truth and nothing but the 
the aim. The chemical side of a question 
far more intricate and uncertain than the physical 
tion of weighing. The real difficulties precede 
; of the substance into the balance- 


yn were observed. Thus the weight of 
‘the salt was found, and by difference the 
of the lead. From the ratio of weights the 
weight of lead was easily calculated. 
autcome of the first Harvard trials, published in 
brought convincing evidence that the atomic 
é specimen of uranium-lead from Bohemia 
found being 206-6 instead of 207-2—a difference of 
_ 0-3 per cent., far beyond the probable error of experi- 
ment. Almost simultaneously preliminary figures 
. de Honigschmid and St. 
z and by Maurice Curie, pointing towards the 


that of ordinary lead, the value 


Ms 
a ett a? 


interesting and convincing as it was, 
~ab ning. Other experimenters abroad 
confirr it, especially Prof. Hénigschmid, 
idied at Harvard and understood the neces- 
inements of analysis; and many new deter- 
have been made at the Wolcott Gibbs 
aboratory, with the assistance of Dr. 
Wadsworth and Dr. Norris F. Hall, 
ous samples of lead from  radio-active 
in widely separated parts of the world. 
E. R. Bubb and S. Radcliff, of the Radium 
0., of New South Wales, kindly sent a large 
ty of lead from their radium mines, and a par- 
y valuable specimen prepared from _ selected 
Is of pure mineral was put at our disposal by 
leditsch—not to mention other important con- 
from others, including Prof. Boltwood and 
illiam Ramsay. Each of these samples gave a 
nt atomic weight for the lead obtained from 
and the conclusion was highly probable that they 
contained varying admixtures of ordinary lead in the 
x i e plaggantaeae This was verified by the know- 
— ledge in at least some cases the uranium ore 
ually had been contaminated with lead ore. The 
purest Norwegian specimen thus acquired especial 
importance and significance, because it was only very 
slightly, if at all, vitiated in this way. As a matter 
_of fact, it gave 206-08 for the atomic weight in ques- 


-** No. 2578, VoL. 103] 


tion—the lowest of all. Here are typical results, 


showing the outcome; many more of similar tenor 
were obtained :— 
Atomic Weights, 
Common lead 709 79 : 
Bi 207°19 


: ‘ ; 206°32 
Australian radio-active lead toh taining \aoteen 20644 


probably 25 per cent. ordinary lead ... ) 206°33 
2 206 °36 
Purest uranic-lead... ws. see 20608 | 206% 
pe pon ea Xi { 206'09 | 206 08 
Ho6nigschmid, from similar pure material, had 


found res (206-05) agreeing almost exactly with 
the last value. One cannot help believing that this 
last specimen of lead is a definite substance, probably in 
a state almost pure, because of the unmixed quality 
of the carefully selected mineral from which it was 
obtained. 

A further question now arises: Is it a permanent 
substance—really an end-product of the disintegration ? 
Soddy’s hypothesis assumes that it is. The only im- 
portant fact militating against this view-is the ob- 
servation that uranium-lead is always radio-active, 
and hence might be suspected of being unstable.’ In 
various impure specimens, however, the radio-activity 
is not proportional to the change in the atomic weight ; 
hence the radio-activity is probably, at least in part, 
to be referred, not to the lead itself, but rather to 
contamination with minute, unweighable amounts of 
intensely radio-active impurities—other more transi- 
tory products of disintegration.* If weighable, such 
impurities would almost certainly increase, ‘not 
diminish, the atomic weight; hence their presence 
could not account for the low value. 

Let us compare the actual result for the atomic 
weight of this kind of lead with the theory of Soddy 
and Fajans. If this theory is sound, the simple sub- 
traction of eight times the atomic weight of helium 
from that of uranium, or five times the atomic weight 
of helium from that of radium, should give the atomic . 
—— of the lead resulting from the disintegration as 
follows :-— 


Hypothetical Calculation of Atomic Weight of 
- Uranium-lead. 


Atomic weight of uranium . =238718 
8 x atomic weight of helium «ee Sa oP 
.) ean 
Residue (lead?) ... | ‘ 206°18 = 206°18 
Atomic weight of radium . =225°96 
5 x atomic weight of helium ..» = 20°00 ton 
Residue (lead ?) 20596 = 205'96 
Average hypothetical value for lead... = 206°07 
Observed value for uranium-lead* ... = 206'08 


Difference 2%" i pen 2 ool 


The agreement is remarkably good. Each of the 
individual calculated values shows less than 0-05 per 
cent. deviation from the average, and the average 
itself shows essential identity with fact—a striking 
confirmation of the theory. This is, perhaps, . the 
most successful attempt on record to compute an 
atomic weight from hypothetical assumptions. 
Usually we are wholly at a loss as to the theory 
underlying the precise relationships, and must deter- 
mine our values by careful experiment alone. 


2 For this reason the term “‘ radio-active lead,” although it describes: the 
fact, is from a theoretical point of view perhaps not the best designation of 


either uranium- or thorium-lead; but the term is convenient, because it dis- 
tinguishes between these two forms and common lead. ; 

3 This is the Harvard result. If Hinigschmid’s value is given equa? 
pte os the average observed value would be 206°07, exactly identical with 
the hypothetical value. ; Af ae ee 


78 NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 1919 


a ae ine nama cate 


The value 206-08. for the atomic weight of lead 
has further support in the fact that it is more nearly 
half-way between thallium, 204, and bismuth, 208, the 
two neighbouring .elements ‘in the periodic system, 
than is the atomic weight 207-2 possessed by ordinary 
lead. 
(To be continued.) 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


CaMBRIDGE,—Mr. C. E. Inglis, fellow of King’s, has 

been elected professor of mechanism and _ applied 
mechanics in succession to the late Prof. Bertram 
Hopkinson. 


EpINBuRGH.—A gift of.10,oool. from a donor who 
desires to remain anonymous has been presented. to 
further progress in the study and teaching of some 
subject related to surgery by endowing a lectureship in 
orthopeedics. 

_ An offer of 15,0001, for the foundation of a chair in 

accounting and business method has been made by 
the following public bodies :—Edinburgh Chamber of 
Commerce, the Edinburgh Merchant Company, Leith 
Chamber of Commerce, Leith Shipowners’ Society, 
the Society of. Accountants in Edinburgh, and the 
Institute of Bankers in ‘Scotland. <A draft. ordinance 
for the foundation of this chair was submitted along 
with other draft ordinances for the foundation. of 
chairs in psychiatry, forestry, and zoology. 

A proposal to purchase a site for the extension of 
the University has been approved, 

Dr. A. E. Sprague has been appointed University 
lecturer in actuarial science. 

- Mr. A..S. Stenhouse and Major .Walter. Bisset have 
presented to the Geology Department valuable col- 
lections of minerals, rocks, and fossils. 


NortincHaM.—Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy, of Birming- 
ham University, has been appointed professor of 
economics and commerce at University College in 
succession to Prof. J. A. Todd, who has accepted a 
position under the Board of Trade. 


OxForD.—Two important professorships are at 
present vacant in the University, and in each case 
the electors intend to proceed to an election in Easter 
week. These are the’ professorship of experimental 
philosophy and Dr. Lee’s professorship of chemistry. 
The stipend attached to each chair is gool, a year. 
Candidates are requested to send in their applications, 
with such evidence of their qualifications as they may 
desire to submit, to the Registrar of the University, 
University Registry, Oxford, so as to reachvhim not 
later than March 31. Ten copies of the letter of ap- 
plication, and.of any testimonials submitted, should 
be sent. The duty of the professor of experimental 
philosophy, who will have charge of the Clarendon 
laboratory, will be: to give instruction chiefly on 
mechanics, sound, light, and heat. That of Dr. Lee’s 
professor of chemistry will be to give instruction 
chiefly in inorganic and physical chemistry. 

The numbers of undergraduates during the term 
just past have been about half the usual strength. 
It is expected that the normal numbers will be 
reached, and perhaps exceeded, in the term that begins 
on April 25. 


Dr. H. Princie, chief assistant to the professor of 
physiology and lecturer in histology in the University 
ef Edinburgh, has been elected King’s professor of 
the Institutes of Medicine in.the School of Physic in 
Treland. 


Tue New York correspondent of the Times an- 
nounces that Yale and Princeton Universities have 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


decided to abolish’ the: principle of compulsory Latin 
in the curriculum. ‘It will now ‘be possible ab fre 
any degree without that language, with the exception 
of the arts degree at Princeton. At all other examina- 
tions the candidates will be permitted to offer a 
modern language instead of Latin. Princeton will 
also abolish compulsory Greek in the examination 


for an arts degree. 


On March ig Mr.. Fisher, President of the Board: 
of Education, delivered a lecture arranged by the: 
Industrial Reconstruction Council on ‘t The Functions. 
of Government in Relation:to Education.” During. 
the course of his remarks Mr. Fisher said that in 
the near future it may be found possible to increase. 
Treasury grants to the universities and to extend — 
encouragement to. scientific research in all fruitful — 
directions.. We have now reached .a point in»educa-: 
tional development at which it is clear: that the uni-) 
versities will be compelled to accept a larger measure: 
of State assistance than has hitherto been afforded. 
to them to meet the needs in certain important. 
branches of scientific development. For instance, 
trained meteorologists are needed for aviation pur-. 
poses, trained marine physicists in connection with. 
submarines, and hydraulic engineers for the proper 
use of our waterways. What is the solution to the: 
many problems which present themselves? Mr. . 
Fisher has come to the conclusion that it partly 
depends upon the intelligent co-operation of the uni- 
versities themselves, but partly that intelligent co- 
operation must be assisted by the gentle and indirect 
pressure exercised by the distribution of Treasury grants. 
to the universities willing to receive them; and he 
intends, in collaboration with the Secretary for Scot- — 
land and the Chief Secretary for Ireland, to set up a, 
Committee which will distribute grants to universities 
in the administration of which there will be some | 
opportunity to give counsel to the universities as to a 


‘particular line of development in the pursuit of which” 


they are most likely to contribute to the common weal. 


4 c 5 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

LONDON. Peete tile ai 

Royal ‘Society, March 13.—Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. A, D. Waller: Concerning 
emotive phenomena. Part iii. : The influence of drugs 
upon the electrical conductivity of the palm of the 
hand.—Dr.. W.. L. Balls:- The. existence of daily 
growth-rings in the cell-wall of. cotton. hairs. - The 
probability that such growth-rings existed had been 
formerly deduced from studies upon the physiology 


‘and environment of the cotton-plant in Egypt; but, . 


since their’ thickness must be sub-microscopic, direct 
evidence was unobtainable until recently. By swelling: 
the wall in hydration following formation of cellulose’ 
xanthate, by counting the layers thus magnified in 
thickness, and by comparative studies on the fuzz- 
hairs, it is shown that each such ring corresponds with 
the cellulose laid down during one night’s growth. 
The: existence of variation as to kind or texture of — 
cellulose thus shown to exist within the thickness of 
the wall, repeated some twenty-five times in the adult 
hair, necessitates reconsideration of many chemical - 
and-physical aspects of cellulose problems. =~ 4 
Geological Society, March 12.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 
president, in the chair.—Lieut. E. H. Pascoe: The 
early history of the Indus, Brahmaputra, and Ganges. 
From geological indications the author concludes thai ~ 


‘the first effect of the commencement of the Himalayan 


uplift was the establishment of a great’ westward- 
flowing river along the southern face of the range, — 
for which he proposes the name of Indobrahm. The 


Marcu 27, 1919] 


eee ee 


NATURE 


distribution of Tertiary rocks on the northern side of 
: 3 range suggests that here also a westward-flowing 
river was formed, which'either discharged round the 
end of the range into the same sea as the Indobrahm, 
flowed westwards into the region of Turkestan 
id the Caspian Sea. The later history of the 
mage system consists of the capture of the upper 
rs of this river by a tributary of the Indobrahm, 
‘ing-back along the valley to form the eastward- 
“‘Tsangpo, now the upper waters of the 
utra, and the capture of the lower reaches 
y the Sutlej and in part by the Attock tribu- 
f the Indohrahm, to form the Himalayan portion 
‘Indus valley.. Meanwhile, on the southern side 
} range, some of the tributaries on’ the eastern 
‘of the Lower Indobrahm had cut back from the 
ad region and cut off the original bend near Attockk, 
form the present plains of the Punjab; and farther 
st a river cutting back along the present line of the 
tic delta and lower course of the Ganges and 
putra had captured the upper waters of the 
m to form the present Brahmaputra.. The 
em of capture had worked westwards, until 
aries of the Indobrahm had been successively 
from a westerly to an easterly drainage up to 
ding the Jumna. River—Dr...A. Smith 
‘ish-remains from the Upper Devonian 
yn -Sandstones) of , Woolacombe Bay 
. Thé remains were discovered by Mr. 
Paste ‘and noticed by him in the 
lagazine for March, 1919. 
orological Society; March 19.—Sir Napier 
ssident, in the chair.—Prof. L, Hill: Atmo- 
conditions which affect health. Numerous 
‘make records of barometric pressure, tem- 
rainfall, wind, etc., but. the question arises 
whether thete*are not other data of greater 
and interest which affect personal’ health 
and might be recorded.. In the past 
made of the chemical alteration of the 
ed places, and unsound views have 
ular. i he victims of the Black Hole of 
ed from heat-stroke, not from a poisonous 
the air by the exhalations of the crowd. 
ling and evaporative power of the atmo- 
id the radiant heat of the sun, or other 
diant energy, which affect our comfort and 
d it is these factors which require to 
by the student of hygiene. The dry- 
ten e does not suffice to indicate the cool- 
ing effect, because it is a static instrument averaging 
_ the influence of the environment, while the body is 
“a dynamic instrument keeping itself at a nearly con- 
body-temperature by the internal combustion of 
and by heat loss from the skin and respiratory 
brane, the heat gain and loss both being physio- 
lly controlled. It is cooling power acting on the 
irface, not temperature, which we require to 
and as the surface of the respiratory mem- 
is always wet, and the skin may be made rela- 
‘y or very wet by physiological control, evapora- 
‘cooling is of no less importance than cooling by 
vection and radiation. To estimate cooling power 
thor has introduced the kata-thermometer. 


ee say). Rarasi 

Academy of, Sciences, March 3.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair—M. Hamy: The study of the perturba- 
_ tions of the optical axis of a meridian telescope. An 
erent of two doubly reflecting prisms is 
descr , which its the. total value of the errors 
_ due to the imperfections of the telescope to be deter- 
- mined.—A. Rateau; The-successive states of a gas at 
ie pisascl: a receptacle which: is emptied by a 


eh ie Lada 1 
ake et 


. Blondel ; The free oscillations of alternators on 
NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


_station 


79 
a network at. constant pressure —E. Ariés:. The ap- 
plication to eight different substances of the formula 


which expresses the heat. of evaporation of a liquid. 
The substances chosen are carbon dioxide,: ammonia 
stannic chloride, methyl formate, and pentane and its 
three next higher homologues. A table is given show- 
ing the agreement between the calculated and pub- 
lished experimental values.—Louis Fabry was élected 
a correspondant for the section of astronomy in suc- 
cession to the late M, Backlund.—R, Garnier: The 
irceaaas singularities of linear differential equations.— 
J. Guillaume; Observations of the sun made at. the 
Lyons Observatory during the fourth quarter of 1918. 
The observations made on sixty-seven days during this 
quarter are grouped in. three tables showing . the 
number of spots, their distribution in latitude, and 
the distribution. of. the facul# in latitude.—L. 
Dunoyer and G, Reboul: The prediction of barometric 
variations.—G. Guilbert: The anomalies of ‘the 
meteorological station -of Skudesness (Norway). The 
of Skudesness is’ the only meteorological 
station in Europe where the known laws governing 
the direction and force of surface winds are frequently 
found to fail. The author sugges that the abnormal 
winds at this -station reveal. the’ existence of very 
distant cyclonic disturbances;, situated. west. of » the 
British Isles and. showing no indication here. “On 
certain days the data from the Skudesness station 
alone can be’ used ‘to‘predict the arrival of a storm.—- 
D. Faucher: Contribution to the determination of the 
lacustral. lévels ofthe lower valley of the Vardar.—S. 
Stéfanescu : The, transversal sections of the plates of 
molars.—Mme, Dolorés, Cebrian de Besteiro and M. 
Michel-Durand ; The influence of light on the absorp- 
tion’ of organic ‘material of the soil by plants. It has 
been: previously shown that ‘the pea cannot. adapt its 
chlorophyll assimilation to feeble illumination. It is 
now found to be equally incapable of increasing the 
absorptive power of its roots in such a manner as to 
extract from the’ soil a’ larger quantity of organic 
carbon.—J.. Eriksson: Biological. and systematic 
studies on the. Swedish Gymnosporangium.—F. 
Maignon: Study of the mechanism of the action of 
fats in the utilisation and assimilation of albuminoids. 
It has been shown in preceding communications that 
fats exert a double influence on the albuminoids of 
food; they diminish their toxicity and increase their 
nutritive power. The view is put forward that the 
fatty acids arising from the fats can combine with 
the amino-acid nucleus of a protein, thus leading to 
the formation of specific albumens. The author does 


not regard the view put forward by Crevat, J. Kuhn, 


and others that fats favour the digestion of albu- 
minoids by stimulating the secretion of digestive 
juices as sufficient.—A. Paillot : Parasitic coccobacilli 
of the caterpillars of Pieris brassicae. During the 
great invasion in 1917 by P. brassicae opportunity 
was taken fo isolate a certain number of parasitic 
micro-organisms. Details of five new species are 
given. 


BOOKS -RECEIVED. 
Manual of Vegetable-garden. Insects. By 
Crosby and M. D. Leonard. Pp. xv+391. 
York + The Macmillan. Co.; London: Macmillan. and 
Co., Ltd., 1918.) 12s. 6d. net. 
Fermat’s Last Theorem: Three Proofs by Elemen- 
tary Algebra. By M. Cashmore. Revised edition. 


Pp. 55: (London:. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) . 2s. 6d. 
net. 


e F, , » 5 ; . , . 

Army Gardens in France, Belgium, and Occupied 
German Territory. Their Making and, Management, 
with Plans and Directions Suited to the Garden Ser- 
vice of the British and American Expeditionary Forces. 


80 NATURE 


[Marcu 27, 1919 


By Georges Truffaut, with the collaboration of Helen 
Colt. Pp. 65. (Versailles: Cuvre des Pépiniéres 
Nationales du Touring-Club de France, 1919.) 

Botany: A Text-book for Senior ‘Students. By 
D. Thoday. Second edition. Pp. xix+524. (Cam- 
bridge: At the University Press, 1919.) 7s. 6d. net. 

The Principles of Mental Hygiene. By Dr. William 
A. White. With an Introduction by Dr.'S. E. Jelliffe. 
Pp. xiv+323. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; 
London: Macmillan and -Co., Ltd., 1917.) 10s. 6d. 
net. 

Eléments de Botanique. Par Prof. Ph. Van 
Tieghem. Cinquiéme Edition. Par Prof. J. 
Costantin. Tome i.: Botanique Générale. Pp. xv+ 
619. Tome ii. Botanique Spéciale. | Pp. xx+743. 
(Paris: Madedti et Cie, 1918.) 14 francs. 

- The New Physiology and Other Addresses. By 
Dr. J. S. Haldane. Pp. vii+156. (London: Charles 
Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 8s. 6d. net. 

Conscience and Fanaticism: An Essay on Moral 
Values. By George Pitt-Rivers. Pp. xvi+ri2. 
(London: William Heinemann, 1919.) 6s. net. 

The Elementary Nervous System. By Prof. G. H. 
‘Parker. (Paiheiennae on Experimental Biology.) 
Pp. 229. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippin- 
cott Co., 1919.) 2.50 dollars net. 

Formulaire de 1’Electricien et du Mécanicien. Par 
Hospitalier et Roux. Vingt-neuviéme édition par 
Gaston Roux. Pp. ii+1485. (Paris: Masson et Cie, 
1929-) 20 francs. 

My House in the World: Essays in Quiet. By 
eames Guthrie. Pp. 160, with ten drawings by the 
author. (London: Heath, Cranton, Ltd., n.d.) 5s. 
net. 

‘Annuaire de 1l’Observatoire Royal de Belgique. 
Publié sous la direction de G. Lecointe. Pp. x+532+ 
plates v. (Bruxelles: Hayez, Imprimeur de 1’Ob- 
servatoire Royal de Belgique, ror1s.). 

Annuaire de l’Observatoire Royal de Belgique. 
Publié sous la direction de Paul Stroobant. Pp. 
viii + 209. (Bruxelles: Hayez, Imprimeur de 1’Ob- 
servatoire Royal de Belgique, 1919.) 

Education: Secondary and University. A Report of 
Conferences between the Council for Humanistic 
Studiés and the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies. 
By Sir Frederic G. Kenyon. Pp. 47. (London: John 
Murray, 1919.) 1s. net, 

A System of Physical Chemistry. By Prof. W. C. 
McC. Lewis. Second edition. In three volumes. 
Vol. iii.: Quantum Theory. With two appendices by 
James Rice. (Text-books of Physical Chemistry.) 
Pp. viii+209. (London : Longmans, ‘Green, and Co:, 
1919.) 7S. 6d, net. 

_ A Handbook of Colloid Chemistry. The Recogni- 
tion of Colloids, the Theory of Colloids, and. their 
General Physico-Chemical Properties. By Dr. Wolf- 
gang Ostwald. Second English edition. Translated 

rom the third German edition by Prof. Martin H. 
Fischer. With numerous notes added by Emil 
Hatschek. Pp. xvi+284. (London: J. and A. 
Churchill, totg.) 15s. net. 

Molecular Physics.. By Dr. J. A. Crowther. Second 
edition. (Text-books of Chemical Research and En- 
gineering.) | Pp. ag oad (London: J. and A. 
Churchill, 1919.) 6s. net. 

Golden Days from the Fishing-Log of a Painter in 
Brittany. . By.-Romilly Fedden.. Pp. xviii+233. 
anton: -A,-and C.. Black,. Ltd., 1919.) . 7s. 6d. 


Nee Wiltam Va ee K. sO Be ER. S., Professor of 
Satins and Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the 
ey of Edinburgh.. A Chapter in Medical His- 

tory. By, Dr. A, Logan Turner. Pp. xv+514. 
(Edinburgh and London: William, Blackwood and 
Sons, 191g.) 18s. net. 


NO. 2578, VOL. 103] 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, Marcu 27. 


Rovat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. C. H 


Producing Them. 


ae rd | 


H. Lees: Fire Cracks and the Fie 


Rovat Society, at 4.30.—H. L, Hawkins : The Morphology and Evolution 
of the Ambulacrum in the Echinoidea.—Dr. R. Mcvarrison: The 


of (Edema in Beriberi. 


CHEMICAL SociETY, at 4.30.—Annual General Meeting. 
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6. the late H. R. Constan- 


tine : The Co-ordination of R 


FRIDAY, Marcu 28. 

PuysicaL Society, at 5-—Discussion on Metrology in the Industries. 

Introduced by Sir BT.  Gibaiaek. 

InsTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL EnGinEERS (Students’ Meeting), at erg 
Dr. J. F. Crowley: The Organisation of Technical Engineers. 


SATURDAY, Marcu 2 


Ce . 
Rovat InstiruTion, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson ; Spectrum Analysis and its © 


Application to Atomic Structure. 


MONDAY, Marcu 
Roya Society oF ARTS, at 4.30. —Prof. 


Food and their Connection 


with our Beoauesia Policy. 


TUESDAY, Arrive t. 
—Prof. A. Keith: British Ethnology—The 


Rovat INSTITUTION, at 3 
People of Scotland. 


WEDNESDAY, Apri 2. 


Roya. Society oF ARTS, 
Preparation of Flax, and 


at 


the Linen Industry. 


THURSDAY, Aprit 
Rova INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. A. Findlay : Colloidal Matter and its 


Properties. 


in Works and Laboratories. 


ba ty 


H. &. Armstrong: Problems’ of 


LINNEAN SOCIETY, road 5.—W. B. Brierley: An Albino Mutant of Botrytis 


cinerea.—Dr. J. F. Gilchrist : 


(alandii.—Montagu Drummond: The Ecology of a 


Palestine. 


—— Post-Puerulus anepe shaped 
Small Area in 


CuiLp-Stupy Society, at ‘6—Dr. E. Pritchard : Home v. Institutional 
Training of Young Children. 


INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Lt.-Col. — 


A. 


Cusins : The paiigine “wg of Sila Wireless during the bed rik 


CHEMICAL Society, at 
SA 


TURDAY, Apri 5. - 


G. 7. 


Rovat InstiTuTion, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson : ebeoels Analysis pester 


Application to Atomic Structure. 


PAGE 


_CONTENTS..: 
.Translated Sense and Senses. » By Prof) J.-S.) 
Macdonald, F.R.S. » 25200. DR Qf TGheEne © 61 
South African Giassiakas: a1 wal gash ey 62 
Colloquial Chemistry; Sli «noone > Nei ieee sara oe | Oz 
Our Bookshelf .,..°.... iidites ost Rees 4 SN ISTER 
Letters to the Editor: a 
Globular Clusters, Cepheid Variables, and Radiation. 
—J. H. Jeans, F.R.S,. ; Dr. John W. Evans 64 
Scientific Research at St. Andrews University. —Prof. 
. C. Mcintosh, RUSS le eee 64 
Maceration by Tryptic Digestion. —Kathleen F. 
Lander .. oy eg ta” Sis sea ear ee 64 
Optical Glass. (Zlustrated.) EEE RS PS iT Ls 1288 65 
Sulphuric Acid afterthe War ..... Ck i OT 
Noteso yn. HSS enh HRA a Sh Te a eee 69 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
Venus and Jupiter:is iicsic.is)). jeaveasmeeer seme) 23 
Comets of the Jovian Family... .. 2... nes 73 
Star Clusters ; Spat. rae ae © | 
Weather Influences on the War. By e H. tie. TD 
The United States National Museum . . 74 
The Problem of Radio-active Lead, I. By Prof, ; 
Theodore W. Richards |. ° 2 oe 74 
University and Educational Intelligences Bier, | 98 
Societies and Academies ....1...., A ae Pigs 
Books Recerved i635 A a am ay 79 
Diary of Societies ..... ese ee . 80 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Lrp., 


ST. MARTIN'S: 


STREET, LONDON, 


W.C.2, 


Advertisements: and business letters to be addressed to the 


Publishers. 


: Rditorial Communications to the ‘Editor. 
‘Telegraphic Address : Puusis, LoNDON. - 


Telephone Number: 


GERRARD 8830. 


' 


pis ? .—W. N. Boase: The Cultivation 2 
i 


NATURE 


81 


_ THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1019. 


ERVATION OF TIMBER IN 
wt Forest Records. Vol. vi., part iv. 
tther Note on the Antiseptic Treatment 


INDIA. 


ents.” By R. S. Pearson. Pp. vi+ii+ 
aps and plates. (Calcutta: Superinten- 
Government Printing, India, 1918.) 


TF rupees, or 4s. 6d. 

OUGH the main principles involved in 
e antiseptic treatment of timber as a 
f protecting it against décay induced by 
re invariable, their precise application is 
wily modified in detail with differences of 
aad of the timbers treated. In India an 
| factor intervenes in the necessity for 
taneous protection of wood from attacks 
P and. from termites in particular. 

| of climate in India introduce diffi- 
in the antiseptic protection of timber that 
; in cold-temperate regions. For in- 
2, aS Mr. Pearson notes, in hot, dry Indian 
ct the highly antiseptic lighter oils of raw 
evaporate more rapidly than in cooler 
that ordinary creosote-oil would appear 
‘eve well suited for the preservation of 
_in India as in England; accord- 
‘Pearson, with the support of pre- 
rather favours the usage of 
This relatively rapid loss of the 
tar-oils suggests that in India there 
penetration, or possibly injection 
antities, of tar-oils when compared 
European practice ; yet it is quite 
t the heavier oils remaining in the 
2 -more toxic at the higher tempera- 
than in Europe, in which case 


Ss 


id ‘evenness of penetration of the anti- 
i the amount of this injected, may thus 
increased importance in India. But these 
in the impregnation of timber, when pneu- 
sure is employed, are determined not 
“the nature and water-contents of the 
ut also by the temperatures at which the 
“is carried out, by the intensity, dura- 
and rate of application of the pneumatic 
ssure, and even by the gas-pressures prevail- 
“in the injection vessel before the admission 
expulsion of the antiseptic. Only the 
of: this branch of the subject as regards 
woods thas been touched. The modern 
ments we owe to Mr. Pearson, who con- 
| trials under varying conditions on. the 
‘ion of green oil mixed with “earth oil’’ 
uid fuel’’) into some dipterocarp 
veral other timbers. In an earlier paper Mr. 
arson described his experiments on the absorp- 
ia antiseptic solutions by a number of Indian 
mb ers treated © in hot or cold baths (“open 


Ss 


NO. 2579, 7 VOL. 103]. 


er, recording Results obtained from Past , 


and. 


Quite apart from any weakening of ‘the anti- 
septic by evaporation of its components, depth 
of penetration is of special importance where. the 
climate is hot and dry for prolonged periods and 
the treated wood is used out of doors—for in- 
stance, in the form of railway sleepers. In such 
places during drought the wood is particularly 
prone to develop splits, which not only cause 
mechanical weakness, but also provide points of 
entry for destructive fungi or insects. Mr. Pearson 
directs: particular attention to this danger of 
splitting, and to the consequent necessity for 
seasoning wood to such a degree of dryness as 
will correspond with the atmospheric humidity. He 
suggests the possible use of artificial seasoning 
(kiln-drying) when a considerable degree of dry- 
ness has to be attained. In this connection several 
difficulties call for investigation. It will probably 
be found that in very dry parts of India the wood 
is in moisture-equilibrium with the air when it 
contains as little as 6, or even less, per cent. of 
water; but under artificial seasoning to such a 
degree of dryness wood is apt to become brittle. 
Again, the question arises as to the course to be 
pursued when the climate includes sharply marked 
alternating hot dry and wet seasons. Both these 
difficult cases may perhaps be met more or less 
efficiently by using a sufficiently deep injection 
of solutions (say of tar-oils) that obstruct the 
interchange of moisture between wood and atmo- 
sphere, and consequently decrease Mrs, and 
splitting. 

When the climate is permanently or ‘abiodidaliy 
humid, soluble salt solutions, such as zinc chloride, 
will be washed out of exposed wood even more. 
rapidly than in this country; accordingly, Mr. 
Pearson tentatively concludes that such preserva- 
tive salts are unsuitable for use in sleepers in 
wet Indian climates. It appears possible that the 
use of zinc chloride to preserve railway sleepers 
in hot, dry climates may likewise be unsatisfac- 
tory ; for the dry sleepers, exposed to the direct 
rays of the sun, will be raised to temperatures that 
may be sufficiently high to cause the zinc chloride to, 
exercise its directly destructive action on the wood. 

It is clear that, in general, but particularly in 
extreme Indian climates, in selecting an antiseptic 
solution as a preservative of timber, it is impos- 
sible to rely merely upon the fungicidal or insecti- 
cidal efficiency of the fresh solution. Only pro- 
longed trials can solve the problems as to the 
depth of penetration and the amount of solution . 
that yield most satisfactory economic results. The . 
antiseptic most commonly used in England for 
railway sleepers and paving blocks, ‘“creosote- 
oil,’ is costly in India, where its antiseptic dura- 
bility is also dubious. Accordingly, Mr. Pearson’s 
experiments include trials with solutions ranging 
from various tar-oils and their derivatives to rock- 
oils, salt solutions (including zinc chloride and 
sodium fluoride), and mixtures of these, also a 
saccharine solution containing arsenic in solution. 

To determine all the unknown factors that will 
form the basés of the technically and commercially 
most satisfactory methods of preserving various 


F 


82 


NATURE 


[APRIL 3, 1919 


Indian timbers for divers uses would require years 
of work conducted by a number of investigators. 
Mr. Pearson’s is pioneer work rather aiming to 
. arrive at some practical conclusions within a time 
corresponding with the urgency of India’s needs. 
But it would appear eminently desirable to 
accelerate and extend Mr. Pearson’s work by the 
employment of a staff of investigating experts, 
in view not only of the results that he has already 
obtained, but also of the possibility that in 
India it may often be commercially more. profit- 
able to cultivate rapidly growing timber trees 
the wood of which is perishable and of low 
quality, but capable of being cheaply preserved by 
antiseptic treatment, than to grow trees of slower 
growth the timber of which is superior in quality 
and in ane PERCY GROOM. 


PROF. RIGHI’S RESEARCHES. 
Elettro-Atomici sotto lVAzione del 


I Fenomeni 


Magnetismo. By Prof. A. Righi. Pp. xvi+435. 
(Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, n.d.) Price 
17.50 lire. 


a this volume Prof. Righi gives a summary of 

his researches on the effect of a magnetic field 
on the electric discharge. These’ researches 
have been mainly concerned. with three effects: 
the change in the potential required to start 
the discharge, the change in the appearance 
of the charge at low pressures, and_ the 
mechanical forces acting on bodies. in the 
neighbourhood of the discharge. In all three 
branches of his study he has recorded a 
large number of interesting and suggestive facts, 
which deserve the close attention of all students 
of physics; if they have not received the attention 
they deserve, it is largely because Prof. Righi has 
tended to describe his work in terms of theories 
which others who have pursued parallel, investiga- 
tions have been unable to accept. 

A review is not a suitable medium for scientific 
discussion, and any detailed criticism of Prof. 
Righi’s views would be out of place. But perhaps 
it may be useful to record some questions which 
inevitably occur to a reader of the chapter which 
deals with the effect of the magnetic field on the 
discharge potential, for this matter has been dis- 
cussed less thoroughly than the theory of “mag- 
netic rays ” on which Prof. Righi bases his inter- 
pretation of the second group of phenomena. 

Prof. Righi found that a magnetic field, whether 
parallel or perpendicular to the electric field, may 
produce either an increase or a decrease in the 
discharge potential He asserts. that the 
“accepted theory,’’ which attributes the effect of 
the magnetic field to a change in the path of the 
ions, is inadequate to account for such a differ- 
ence in the sign of the effect. As a matter of fact, 
there is no accepted theory which predicts satis- 
factorily the discharge potential in terms of the 
paths of the ions, even when there is no magnetic 
field. Changes in the discharge potential due to 
added electric fields (such as are produced by 
bringing an insulated body near to one electrode of 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103 | 


‘of ionisation. 


a tube at low pressure) are at present inexplicable — | 


except in the most vague and general way ; so long 


as such changes remain unexplained, it is quite 
impossible ‘to prove that the change in the paths 
of the ions produced by a magnetic field must 


affect the discharge potential in one sense rather | 


than the other. Prof. Righi, on the other hand, 


asserts that a theory which considers only the - 


path of the ions after they are separated must 
predict that a transverse magnetic field will pro- 
duce an increase in the discharge potential. In 
order to explain the occurrence of a decrease. in 
certain conditions, an additional hypothesis is 
required; that which he suggests is based on the 
action of the field on the atom before it is ionised ; 


he suggests that the field increases the radius of © 


the electronic orbit in the atom, and so decreases 


| its stability. ' 
The first question which arises naturally is hibw 


Prof. Righi arrives at a result so directly contrary 
to that on which Langevin’s theory of diamag- 
netism is based; according to the new theory, all 
atoms ought to be paramagnetic. The second is 


why he assumes, without proof, that an increase in 


the radius of the orbit means decreased stability. 


The third is whether he has attempted to calculate ~ 


numerically the change predicted by his theory in 
the orbit; if he will do so, he will find that the 
change in the orbit produced by such fields as 
are concerned here is much too small to be likely 
to lead to any important change in the energy 
The fourth is why he has not 
attempted to apply one of the usual methods for 
measuring the energy required. for oo *P 
test his theory—and so on. 

To these questions no answers are given in the 
volume before us. The author seems to us gene- 
rally to be apt to seize with too great readiness 
on any explanation which will account for facts 
immediately under his notice, without considering 
with due care how it may fit in with facts less 
immediately obvious, and too ready to be content 
with qualitative explanations when quantitative 
explanations are required; for the same features 
are to be found in his treatment of the other two 
effects which he has studied, though they are less 
noticeable in his work on the “magnetic rota- 
tions’’ of bodies near or immersed in the dis- 
charge. They are less noticeable because the 
explanations which he offers are less novel. The 
phenomena which he describes are, as he recog- 
nises, direct consequences of the fundamental laws 
of electromagnetism; the criticism here would be 
rather that he treats individually and with unneces- 


sary detail facts which are all illustrations of a 
In particular, the 


single recognised principle. 


explanation which is offered of the Hall effect, on 


the analogy of the “magnetic rotations,’’ appears 


/ 


to differ in no essential way from that expounded | 


in many text-books. 


Perhaps a criticism of this kind is unjust, for. 


Prof. Righi explains that he is not writing for the 
expert, but for the reader who wants to bring 
his knowledge of physics up to date. He inserts 
an introductory chapter for the benefit of such a 


NATURE 


83 


*, giving a brief history of the whole develop- 
it of electrical theory during the past century. 
always hard to lay down pregisely the limits 
knowledge of the general reader; we confess 
at we should be surprised if anyone could be 
vered who could find both something new in 
[ chapter and something comprehensible 
‘others ; but on this matter the opinion of 
ictised a writer as Prof. Righi is not lightly 
disputed. - However, we must insist that, in 
ing the general reader, an author under- 
kes ce ain responsibilities. If he addresses an 
tpert audience, he can do no harm to anyone but 
mself if he does not give as much weight and 
minence to the views of those who differ from 
» his own; if he addresses those who are 
ts, he has not the same liberty of choice 
matter. Judged on this principle, Prof. 
treatise will scarcely pass the test; we 
think he offers his readers a fair chance 
ing between him and his critics. 
excellent quality of type and paper, 
that Italy is free from war-time 
which affect our own publications 
. But, then, what excuse is to be 
the absence of an index or any 
immary of contents? N. R. C. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Theoretical and Practical, including 
of Pharmacy. By Prof. Edsel A. 
Pp. vi+267. (New York: John 
Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and 
1917.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 


this little work is to present in as 
possible essential facts which every 
uld know. The book is divided 
ons, viz. arithmetic of pharmacy, 
r , and practical pharmacy. The 
weights and measures, and contains 
arithmetical calculations of a very ele- 
ire. Theoretical pharmacy is discussed 
pages, which, it must be admitted, 
very meagre allowance if the subject 
treated in any detail; that, however, is 
he case, as it is intended that the book 
be used in conjunction with the United 
Pharmacopeeia or the National Formulary. 
al pharmacy is dealt with in a_ similar 
; formule for the various preparations 
ered are not given, the author confining 
f to notes on the precautions to be taken, 
ions that occur, and so on. 

work contains a good deal of information 
small compass, and it certainly comprises 
‘essential facts that every pharmacist should 
‘It is not, and apparently is not intended 
a work from which phafmacy should be 
, but is rather a summary of facts such as 
t would take note of during a course 
sctures and demonstrations in pharmacy. 
Elementary students and students revising their 
work before examination would undoubtedly find 
_ NO. 2579, VOL. 103| 


Afforestation. By John Boyd. Pp. 39. (Lon- 
don: W. and R. Chambers, Ltd., 1918.) Price 
Is. net. 

In this small brochure Mr. Boyd deals with the 
afforestation question as it now presents itself to 
this country. As he correctly remarks, if, after 
the troubles we have experienced during the past 
four. years in providing the timber required for 
effectively waging the war, we have not learned 
our lesson we are not likely ever to do so. 
After briefly describing the extensive forests 
which existed in Scotland, now replaced by bare 
hill- and mountain-sides, the author points out 
the great dependence of the community upon the 
products of the forest, both in their everyday life 
and in industries. The great value of forestry to 
agriculture, and the manner in which the small 
holding can be placed on a sound footing by being 
associated with forestry, are dealt with in some 
detail. Mr. Boyd, with considerable practical 
experience of the trouble caused, speaks with 
authority on the game question in its application 
to forestry, and his remarks on rabbits, black 
game, red deer, and so forth are worthy of study. 
Some practical suggestions are made with refer- 
ence to the ground to be taken up for planting, 
natural herbage forming a guide for the classifica-.. 
tion of areas. ‘The author concludes with a few 
notes on various trees likely to be useful for 
afforesting waste lands. 


A Manual of Elementary Zoology. By L. A. 
Borradaile. Second edition. Pp. xiv +616. 
(London: Henry Frowde, and Hodder an 
Stoughton, 1918.) Price 16s. net. 


In this new edition there are, besides smaller addi- 
tions, three new chapters dealing respectively 
with protozoa as parasites of man, with nema- 
todes, and with cold-blooded vertebrates. In the 
first of these chapters a short account is given of 
Entameeba, Balantidium, Trypanosoma, and 
Plasmodium, and of their modes of transmission. 
There would seem *to be ‘no sound reason for 
employing the name Entamoeba dysenteriae in-_ 
stead of the well-known E. histolytica, especially 
in a junior students’ text-book. In the chapter on 
nematodes the author gives an account of | 
Ascaris, a summary of the principal types of life- 
history met with in the group, and a short state- 
ment of the special characters of parasites. In 
the account of Filaria bancrofti it should have 
been stated that the larve taken up by mos- 
quitoes finally reach the labium . (proboscis), 
and not the salivary glands (as_ stated on 
p- 304). In the chapter on cold-blooded verte- 
brates the figure of the cranial nerves of the skate 
is not correct in certain particulars. The outer 
buccal nerve (part of the seventh cranial nerve) 
is labelled wrongly as the maxillary branch of 
the fifth nerve, and the real maxillary is not 
labelled. The direction of the internal mandibular 
nerve and the external mandibular are not well 
shown. But these are only small blemishes. The 
book is excellently illustrated and written with 
a broad outlook. 


~ 


84 


NATURE 


[ApriL 3, 1919 


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 Colour of the Scales. of Iridescent Insects in 
5 Transmitted Light. 


CurIOUsS as it may seem, the origin of the brilliant 
metallic and iridescent colours im birds and ‘insects 
has never been satisfactorily explained, though it is 
generally supposed among naturalists and others that 
they are in some way produced by the interference of 
light at the surfaces of thin plates, as in the soap- 
bubble. 

Nevertheless, various other explanations have been 
put forward, and Michelson, with the weight of his 
great authority, decides unequivocally that they are 
due to selective reflection at the surface of a very 
opaque film, as in the case of metals or dry films of 
aniline dyes. For this conclusion he relies upon the 
“rigorous optical test of the measurement of the 
phase-difference and amplitude ratios” when polarised 
light is reflected. This view has, however, by no 
means gone unchallenged by Lord Rayleigh, Mallock, 
and others. ; 

Whatever the truth of the matter may finally prove 
to be, both those who uphold the theory of selective 
reflection, and those who uphold the theory of inter- 
ference, emphasise the fact that the light transmitted 


through the structures must be complementary to the 


light which is reflected. 

Thus Michelson says: ‘In the cases which could 
be investigated for this relation (unfortunately rather 
few) the transmitted light is complementary to that 
which is reflected’; and Mallock says: ‘‘In cases 
where the structure is transparent it transmits the 
complementary colour with nearly the same intensity 
as the colour reflected.” Probably the theory of selec- 
tive reflection would require the transmitted colours 
to be more: vivid than a theory of ‘thin plates’’; and. 
as Lord Rayleigh has said, the transmitted colour of 
the surface layer of beetles’ wings (or Emailschicht of 
Biedermann, which he obtained by maceration in 
HNO,, etc.) “is not nearly so full as it would be if 
due to anything like an aniline dve.”’ 

In spite of what is said by Miéhelson and Mallock, 
there are a number of iridescent scales in Lepidoptera, 
Hypolimnas bolina, etc., which, though perfectly 
transparent, are absolutely colourless. There is the 
still more anomalous case of the two surface layers 
of scales of Morpho achilles, and other similar species. 


_I should be greatly interested if any of your readers 


could offer a probable explanation. The appearance 
of these scales is as follows:—They are perfectly 
transparent, closely striated, very thin (probably not 
much more than 0-5), and by reflected light they are 
a bright light blue, which is practically unaltered by 
the angle of the incident light. In situ. they show 
faint diffraction colours due to their striation. But 
the point to which I wish to direct attention is that, 
when examined by transmitted light under the micro- 
scope, they still have-a blue colour. which is, if any- 
thing, more saturated than that shown by reflected 
light. This colour, though not unlike the ‘optical 
blue’”’ of the sea and other fine suspensions, cannot 
be due to a similar cause, since the light transmitted 
is not red. It is clearly visible with a Zeiss 
AA objective, but practically invisible with higher 
powers—DD, etc. Moreover, if the scales are 


examined with an AA objective, and the condenser: 


racked down, the blue colour will gradually disappear 
NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


as the condenser is raised until it becomes invisible 

with critical illumination. These scales have, as a 
matter of fact, been mentioned by Biedermann, but 

he entirely fails to notice their significance. cla me 
H. Onstow. — 

3 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge, March 15. Sit 


ty 
t 


Matter and Radiation. Ads 
Tue theory that, matter only radiates ene to 


matter, as suggested by Dr. Shapley and Prof. 


in their interesting letters (March 13 and 20), would 
certainly solve the great problem of solar energy, and 
is in many ways attractive.’ But is not the evidence 
against it very strong? Amongst various arguments — 
that may be advanced against it, let us consider that — 
of the difficulty of reconciling it with the existing 
surface temperature of the earth, f 
It is evident that there is an approximate balance 
between the radiation received. by the earth from the- 
sun and that lost, the latter being = slightly larger 
owing to the heat conducted outwards from the centre. 
The mean temperature of the earth is about what we 
would expect on the assumption that it is receiving 
heat at a known and measured rate from the sun 
and radiating it uniformly in all directions in accord- 
ance with Stefan’s law. The fraction of the total solid 
angle which is subtended by matter is apparently | 
almost infinitesimal, yet the quantity of heat radiated _ 
agrees with that deduced from experiments in which 
the radiating body is entirely surrounded with matter. © 
If we assume that surrouriding matter only influences 
the distribution, and not the total flux of radiation, we 
are led into all sorts of further difficulties. For 
example, a large part of the radiation from the dark 
side of Venus would have to be directed towards the 
earth, so that the radiation received from Venus 
should be comparable with that received by Venus , 
from the sun. eye Sy 
Another way of turning the same argument is to 
consider an isolated solar system. No heat could 
escape, so it would resemble a system in a perfectly 
reflecting envelope. Equilibrium would then only be 
reached when all the members had attained the same . 
temperature. The isolation of the actual solar systent 
in space should certainly be sufficiently close to ensure 
that its members would attain a temperature approxi- 
mating to that of the sun. ; Lit 
It is possible that this argument is not new, and 
that there may be some way of evading it, but, as it - 
appears to be difficult to do so, I think it is worthy _ 
of consideration. Horace H. Poors. — 
Physical Laboratory, Trinity College, 
Dublin, March 26. 


. 


National Fisheries. . t 


In Nature of March 13 is published a paragraph - 
on British fisheries in which the following passage | 
occurs :—‘' To the trade, fish that is scarce and dear - 
is easier to handle than, and at least as profitable as, 
fish that is cheap and plentiful. From the point of 
view of the consumer and of the State, chea food, a. 
large and prosperous fishing population, and, if pos- 
sible, some revenue, ought to be the objects of recon- ~ 
struction of the industries concerned.”’ si 

The note suggests an antithesis which has no 
foundation in fact. The fishing industry—producers, . 
research workers, and the ‘trade’’—hases the claim 
for reconstruction. which this association has voiced, 
on the fact that it desires to supply the nation with © 
cheap fish. But cheap fish can be supplied only when 


plentiful catches and regular catches are assured, and © © 


to ensure regularity—that is the real crux—without  ‘ 


NATURE 


85 


ving the existing fishery law and administration 
No one interested in the development of 
th fisheries believes in the economic fallacy con- 
d in the first sentence I have quoted. from your 
a Le: quote Mr. Secretary Cecil in 1563 :—‘‘The 
of the decay of fishing must be the lack of the 
g, which must be divided into ij partes, 
ing of fisshe in ye Realme, and not selling of 
Both these causes have operated during the 
itis Our purpose to remove them both. As this 
always understood, I shall be glad if you will 
this declaration, which can. be 
* on behalf of every branch of the fishing 
which the nation owes its freedom in 1919, 
id in 1588. G. C. L. Howe. 
nal Sea Fisheries Protection Association, 
mc <i aigg Hall, E.C.4, March 24. 


' sited 


me with Capt. Howell, and think that 
shery reconstruction, in the national 
iS arked out by the lines of the propaganda 
be cal Sea Fisheries Protection Association. 
if it should appear that anything in the 
pe vard in the Times correspondence and 
isrepresented in the note in Nature of 

bu it seemed to me that Lord Dunraven’s 

: such an antithesis as that to which 
that fish which is scarce and dear 
ore = pro table and more easy to handle than 
eal and abundant, and that while the 
dition might possibly be preferred by the 
ting , the latter condition is that which is 
ie to the a 7s a —_ and to the 
n particular n order to make it impos- 
2 former condition might be established. 
en seems to suggest some form of 
of the fisheries ; this would also, he hopes, 
_ The National Sea Fisheries Protec- 
, on the other hand, seeks to secure 
t by its advocacy of a strong Imperial 
a sounder method. it seems to me, for 
> revenue would be a prolific fishery 
ining its individuality; and largelv- in- 
rn = orts would be preferable to Lord 
a imports. The note was intended 
scriptive, and so my personal opinions 


46 
con 


Tue WriITER OF THE NOTE. 


Rees to Prof. disuie for his interesting 
, March 20, p. 45). 
ed the coal to be anthracite on account of the 
aat the use of the bellows extinguished it, 
2nco s oe age -  Peggwase coal 
% 5 ott oxygen e high temperature 
Phe Britt % Gutitectea would not be 
feted. ng to the cold blast. 
igraphical description does not apply to 
A ne 
is. another ‘‘wonder" cited by Antigonos that 
sible bearing on, the coal district of Thrace. 
s Eudoxos as saying: ‘‘It is related that in 
iracian Sea, at the mountain which is called 
d, during certain times bitumen (asphaltos in the 
is borne on the surface 
ie Mare Thracicum in  Riepert’ s atlas extends 
‘Thrace north of the Hellespont to the coast of 
z The “ Sacred Mountain ” is probably Mount 
, Which i in vulgar speech is still called ‘‘ Hagion 
Matty Epmunp M‘Cvurg. 
80 Eccleston Square, March 24. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


| 


towards 


eos Mtb a OF re ae 


MAN without a purpose,”’ said Carlyle, 
“is like a ship without a_ rudder.’ 

What is true of an individual is in this case true 
of a community: a people without a common 
purpose can make no permanent progress. It 
must: stagnate and ultimately disintegrate. In 
the last resort a free people can only be held 
together by either of two means: custom or com- 
munity of purpose. It is not difficult to see that 
anything—and not least the machinery of Govern- 
ment—which facilitates the coherence of free 
people, whether in a single State or in a world 
commonwealth, and their co-operation towards 
the fulfilment of a common purpose, makes for 
the welfare and advancement of mankind. 

During the war many English. customs have 
been broken down, but the consequent tendency 
disintegration has been more than 
counterbalanced by the increased sway of a com- > 
mon purpose. Higher efficiency and more rapid 
progress have consequently become apparent in 
multifarious departments of the national life, as, 
for example, the exhibition of British scientific 
products held in London last summer, and re- 

peated this winter in Manchester, has shown in 

the case of scientific industry. But with the sign- 
ing of the armistice community of purpose began 
to lose its hold, and disintegration threatens to 
set in. Labour leaders are warning the nation — 
against it, and leading articles in the Times are 
echoing and emphasising their warnings. 

How is this danger to be avoided? New habits 
and customs take time to form. Moreover, as 
we may perhaps learn from the Americans, bond- 
age to custom causes many of the evils that result 
from other kinds of fetters. So the prosperity, 
progress, and even preservation of the State 
demand, above all, community of purpose. Per- 
haps spiritual ideals alone can supply it, and the 
essential emotional drive towards its realisation. 
But, whatever the purpose be, some central 
Government is. needed to plan and to direct the 
advance towards it. This—and not merely to 
police the route—is the function of the Govern- 
ment of a State. 

In the past, of course, this function is very far 
from having been fulfilled, whether by Ministers 
of the Crown, who determine policy, or by the 
permanent Civil Service Departments, which pursue 
it. When Mr. Gladstone entered Parliament in 
1832 he thought his first concern would be with 
questions of the succession to certain unstable 
European thrones. A dozen years later, after 
a close connection at the Board of Trade with the 
leaders of British industry and commerce, he held 
a very different view. But it has taken a long 
time for these industrial statesmen, these leaders 
of British activity outside the House of Commons, 
to see in the Government and its principal Depart- 
ments the natural centre and focus of their activi- 
ties in the service of the State. The process ‘is 
not yet complete; nor have some captains of 


1 Report of the M =e of Government Committee. Ministry of Recon: 
struction. (Cd. 9230.) (H.M. paeiaee Office. *) Price 6d. ne 


s 


86 


‘ 


NATURE 


[Apri 3, 1919 


industry yet recognised that they are in business — 


primarily to serve their fellow-men, and not for 
private profit. They have looked upon the 
Government Departments with distrust, avoided 
their co-operation for fear of their control, and 
thought of them as circumlocution offices bound, 
and anxious to bind, by red tape. 

It can scarcely be denied that hitherto many 
Government Departments have. not been so much 
concerned with pointing out the line of progress 
and making it the line of least resistance as with 
hedging it about with restrictions. The functions 
assigned to the different Departments of State 
have, in many cases, been so multifarious that 
it has been impossible for the permanent heads 
of these offices to know their job, or explain it 
to the Minister who is responsible for it to Parlia- 
ment. So it happens from time to time that 
Ministers are made to display, across the floor 
of the House of Commons, an abyss of ignorance 
that would be comic were it not so fraught with 
dire consequences. Departments, being aware of 
this risk, have been afraid of exposing their igno- 
rance. Deficient in knowledge, they have sought 
to evade rather than to remove difficulties. Thus 
has come to pass the hand-to-mouth existence of 
some Government Departments. They have 
aimed at sending a deputation away smiling, or 
at avoiding a question in the House, rather than 
at mastering their business and convincing the 
public of the wisdom of their policy. Moreover, 
their duties being too big, they have often simpli- 
. fied their problems by reducing them to writing, 
and have afterwards ignored the more compli- 
cated reality. They have been content to ad- 


minister printed regulations, and almost to forget - 


the thing itself. So it has even happened that 
a permanent Civil Servant, desirous of spending 
a few weeks away from Whitehall in intimate 
personal contact with the real thing, has been 
told by a superior officer that he was not con- 
cerned with the thing itself, but with the papers 
about the thing ! 

' The impossibility of expert knowledge of so 
many different matters as some Departments have 
had to administer has tended to put-expert scien- 
_ tific knowledge—and not of physical science alone 
—at a discount throughout the Civil Service. Not 
wanting. knowledge, they have sought for 
ability, and have attracted many of the ablest 
students of Oxford and Cambridge into their 
service. Since the nature of the case has pre- 
vented these able young men from becoming 
expert, and so has, in a large measure, wasted 
their abilities, the increasing drain upon the uni- 
versities’ output of first-rate men was, just before 
the war, becoming a menace to the country. On 
the other hand, the very able men who formed 
the highest ranks of the Civil Service were ready 
to administer anything, ready to move (like 
Cabinet Ministers) from education to Admiralty, 
or-from the Board of Trade to the India Office. 
Men of like ability have achieved magnificent 
success in India and the Colonies. But in White- 
hall it would be possible to combine expert know- 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] . 


ledge with ability, and so vastly to increase the 
efficiency of the machinery of Government. 

To effect the necessary change, Lord Haldane’s 
Committee proposes that the business of the vari- 
ous Departments of Government shall be dis- 
tributed so far as possible according to the class 
of service with which they are concerned. © . 

In accordance with this principle, the Govern: 
ment is to guide, and not merely to regulate, the — 
progress of the community. To this end it is to 
have more, instead of very much less, relevant 
knowledge available than any individual or group © 
of individuals. This knowledge is to be provided — 
by a Department of (1) Research and Information, — 
which will continuously acquire knowledge and 
prosecute research in order to furnish a proper 
basis for authority. The information required by 
the Royal Commissions of the future will be ready 
to their hand, instead of, as at present, having 
to be reassembled by each new Commission that 
may be appointed. Moreover, each other Depart- 
ment of State is, the Committee recommends, to 
have its own special department of inquiries to 
keep in touch with the central Research Depart- 
ment, and to supply to the heads of its own office. 
and to the public the kind of information which > 
Joan and Peter’s guardian, in Mr. Wells’s 
recent volume, sought in vain at Whitehall, 
Again, the heads of each Department are advised 
to set aside certain regular times for looking 
ahead and framing a policy of progress that might 
well be recommended to many heads of extra- 
Government concerns. mae ie 

In order that citizens may be efficient workers 
for the common purpose (and that means, for the — 
most part, efficient ministers to the needs of their 
fellows), they need education; healthy conditions 
of life (which mean adequate town planning, 
housing, medical service, health insurance, and 
the like); food, clothing, and other consumable 
goods (which mean adequate production, distribu- 
tion, and transport); suitable regulation of condi- 
tions under which they work in the service of 
their fellows; and protection from the interference 
of hostile persons at home and abroad. With the 
provision of these further services the Committee 
proposes that the following Departments shall be 
respectively concerned :—(2) Education; Fe 
Health; (4) Praduction; 3 Employment; (6 
Justice; (7) National Defence; (8) Foreign and 
External Affairs. He 

Since the Minister of Production cannot super- 
vise privately controlled industry and commerce, 
and also direct competing services which the 
Government is providing on its own account, 
there must also be a Department of (9) Supplies 
to fulfil this latter function. And,, finally, since 
the State must cut its coat according to its cloth, 
there must. be a Department of (10) Finance. 

The reorganisation of the Civil Service so as to 
form the ten Departments named in the Com- 
mittee’s report would bring the leaders of national | 
life outside Government circles—the statesmen of 
industry and commerce—into closer touch with 
the Government to the advantage of both; just — 


Apait 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


87 


educators Gieietout the country already co- 
with their friends at the Board of Educa- 
whom, more and more, they look upon as 
gues who share their interests and spend 
elves in the same service. Thus will every 
in life come to be regarded as a branch of 
service. Just as the Board of Education 
by the Teachers’ Registration Council 
advisory body, so the joint standing indus- 
puncils that are being established according 
Whitley Committee’s report may, before 
become advisory bodies to the new Minis- 
f Employment, Production, and Supplies. 
the reform of the machinery of Government 
sed by the Committee would, moreover, 
it possible for all the higher officers of 
Departments to be experts in their respec- 
essions. They would then be better able 
intelligently for a definite purpose than 
sible for mere administrators of miscellane- 
ulations. We have advisedly stated that 
higher staff of each of the new offices 
be expert j for the Committee, taking the 
tion as a model, in many respects, 
at the new Departments should be, would 
be content with expertness on the part 
pec ‘torate alone. We believe, on the con- 


oa 


5 = 


of the activities with which their 
mt is concerned, and of the men who are 
onsible for these activities in the 
sting, however, as we do, that the 
s of the reformed Departments shall 
rt knowledge, ‘we are far from under- 
the extreme importance of continuing 
nly the ablest men for work of the 
sion. But we maintain that, unless 
w years of their appointment they show 
‘becoming expert in the work of their 
| gree they should be retired 
ie Service. Able, detached, and serene has 
typical Civil Servant of the past. No 
must be the Civil Servant of the future. 
intellectual discipline must continue to 
ed as a necessary preliminary to enter- 
gher division of the Civil Service. But, 
ing detached, he must make his work 
hobby. He must know: his job and love 
“Without passion,’’ said Lord Haldane years 
to the Eidents of Edinburgh University, 
ot! “a3 great is, or ever has been, accom- 


Lord ‘Haldane’ s Committee recognises that a 
‘more expert Civil Service would require increased 
rliamentary control if the danger of bureau- 
; is’ to be avoided. It suggests that 
ment might retain the necessary control by 
, ating a series of standing committees, each 
_ concerned with the activities of one of the ten 
ee Departments. It should, however, be borne in 
mind that neither this nor any other means of 
_ Parliamentary control will be satisfactory unless 
_ the personnel of the ‘House of Commons is equal 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


| to these new duties.? In this connection it is well 
worth considering whether at least half the mem- 
bers of the House of Commons, instead of only 
the university representatives, should not be 
elected on an occupational, instead of on a resi- 
dential, franchise. As a rule, people engaged in 
the same branch of national service have in these 
days far more in common with one another, and 
would take far more interest in a member who 
represented them in Parliament than the miscel- 
laneous folk whose only link is that they chance 
to reside in the same neighbourhood. 

Lord Haldane’s Committee has little to say upon 
the application of its principle to local govern- 
ment. Since the destruction of School Boards 
in 1902, most of the functions of local govern- 
ment have been performed by county, county 
borough, and borough councils, the concern of 
which is not with any particular group of services, 
but with particular groups of people. We are 
far from desiring the resuscitation of the old 
School Boards, or the establishment of small ad 
hoc bodies for the local control of other services. 
But we would point out that subdivision of local 
responsibility for every form of national service, 
according to borough boundaries, and sometimes 
according to narrower boundaries still, has an 
injurious effect upon the efficiency of some of 
these services quite comparable with that of the 
present subdivision of responsibility among the 
different offices in Whitehall. Particularly is this 
the case with education. The local organisation 
of education cannot be satisfactorily effected by an 
authority that is responsible for part only of one 
complete organism centred in the local university 
or—as in the case of Manchester: and Liverpool 
—universities. Responsibility for the administra- 
tion of education throughout such an area might 
well be entrusted to a department of each of some 
ten or twelve provincial governments that would 
be the supreme authorities for the manifold activi- 
ties of the various minor local authorities in their 
respective areas. In short, it is as important to 
apply the principle of Lord Haldane’s Committee 
to local government as to central government. 
But it will be possible to do so only by enlarging 
the areas for which the local governments are 
responsible. 

It remains to add that the transition from war 
to peace, which renders the reorganisation of some 
of the machinery of Government inevitable, is the 
proper time for making the further changes 
recommended by Lord Haldane’s Committee. 
Their need is urgent. 


SIRE, C. STIRLING, C.M.G., F.R.S. 
Te death on March 20, in South Australia, of 
Sir Edward Charles Stirling, professor of 
physiology at the University of Adelaide, and 
director of the South Australian Museum, deprives 
Adelaide of one of its best-known figures. 
Sir Edward was the eldest son of the Hon. 


% An article in the 7imes of January a1, corrected on January 24, has 

pet out that the new House of Commons contains not one Fellow of the 

ed Society who is not either a university member (Sir Joseph Larmor 
Sir Watson Cheyne) or a Privy Coancillor (Mr. Balfour). 


88} 


NATURE 


a \ 


(Arrit 3, 1919 


Edward Stirling. He was born in 1848, and: his 
early. education» was obtained at St. - Peter’s 
College, Adelaide. Later’ he went to Trinity 
College,. Cambridge, where he took honours in 
natural science. He completed his medical educa- 
tion at St. George’s Hospital, where he later 


occupied the positions of house surgeon, assistant | 


surgeon, teacher of operative surgery, and _ lec- 
turer in physiology. He became a F.R.C.S. in 
1874. In 1877 he married the eldest daughter of 
the late Joseph Gilbert, of Pewsey Vale, and four 
years later returned to: Australia. Sir Edward’s 
activities in Adelaide, where he spent the re- 
mainder of his life, were manifold. For a time 
he practised surgery, and became a surgeon at. the 
Adelaide Hospital and lecturer in surgery at the 
University. ‘From 1883 to 1886 he was member 
for North Adelaide in the House of Assembly. 
In 1887 he presided over the Section of Surgery at 
the Second Intercolonial Medical Congress. In 
1889 he was president of the South Australia 
branch of the British Medical Association, and in 
the following year held the presidency of the 
Royal Society of South Australia. 

Most of Sir Edward’s scientific work was pub- 
_ lished in the period 1888-1902, during which time 
he wrote several interesting articles for NATURE. 
His interests were many, and he made important 
contributions te science in zoology, paleontology, 
and anthropology. His best-known work was on 
the marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops) (1888), 
ot: the anatomy of the female organs of genera- 
tion of the kangaroo (1889), and various important 
observations on remains found at Lake Callabonna, 
which were published between 1893 and 1902, and 
concerned Diprotodon, Genyornis newtoni, and 
Phascolonus gigas. 
ethnologist the Horn Scientific Exploration Expe- 
dition to Central Australia, He was made a 
_ fellow of, the Royal Society in 1893, 
_C.M,G. in the same year, and for his services to 
science received a gold medal from the Queen of 
Holland. He. was knighted in 1917. 

Among the numerous institutions in Adelaide 
with which Sir Edward was associated there .are 


two that owe much to his energy and ability—the. 
University, where he was lecturer, and afterwards | 


professor, .of physiology, and the South Australian 


Museum, of which he was for many years director. © 


His death will be deeply felt by a wide circle of 
people who knew him as a vigorous and kindly 
personality and as a staunch and loyal friend. 


NOTES. 

THE Berliner Tageblatt announces that Herr Hans 
Bredow, an éngineer who was formerly a director 
of the Telefunken Co., has been appointed Direetor- 
General of the Imperial Postal Department, and at 
the same time it directs attention to the fact that this 
is, so far as it knows, the first occasion on which a 
position held in Germany, as a rule, by lawyers: and 
bureaucrats has been filled by the appointment of an 
engineer. Whilst it is true that since the institution 
of the Reichspostamt, on January 1, 1880, as the 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


‘March, 1849, to carry on the telegraph services 


In 1894 he accompanied as. 


created | 


—— 
’ 


Imperial, Department responsible for posts and tele . j 


graphs no engineer has occupied the chief admini 


trative position of Secretary, of State (the former title _ 


wits 
of the permanent head of the Department), on the 
other hand it has to be borne in mind that technically ° 
trained men have, from the earliest days of tele-~ 
graphy in Germany, held important. administrative - 
posts in the Telegraph Department. For instance, 
the members of the Commission for the Administra-— 
tion of the State Telegraphs, appointed in Prussia in 
» COn- . 
sisted of an artillery colonel as chairman, and of an~ 
engineer and a postal inspector. In later times many 
of the important administrative posts in the Reichs- 
postamt have always been held by technically trained ° 
men. It can be said generally that on the continént 
of Europe there has at all times existed a greater 
appreciation of the technically trained man in_ the 
public services than is the case in this country. Many 
instances could be quoted of engineers holding, on 
the Continent, the chief administrative positions in 


the public Departments, such as railways, posts and 


telegraphs, etc.. wherein the work is largely of a 
technical nature. The example of foreign countries 
could in this respect be followed with great advantage 
to the public services in this country. Se 


| 


Tue rumours for some time current that Sir Robe 
Morant was to take the chief post at the new Mi 
of Health have proved to be correct. 
tage of the approaching retirement of Sir 
Monro, Permanent Secretary to the Local Govern-— 
ment Board, Dr. Addison has appointed Sir Robert 


Morant an additional Secretary to that Board, and © 


has designated him First Secretary. of the Ministry of © 
Health, when formed. Secretary to the Board of 
Education when the changes rendered necessary by 
‘the introduction of school .medical inspection were 
made, and first chairman of the National Ht 

ance Commission, Sir Robert Morant seems fated to 
be called upon to play a prominent part when organisa- 
tion or reorganisation is needed. That he is well fitted 
for the task is certain. There are, however, other - 


. : 


advantages than those arising from his own. 


tions attending the appointment of Sir Robert Morant. i 
‘Associated with him in his work he is to have Sir 


George Newman as Chief Medical Officer and Mr. 

John. Anderson. as Second Secretary. Both these 
gentlemen have worked with Sir Robert Morant before, | 
Sir George Newman at the Board of Education, where 
he was Medical Officer, and Mr. Anderson at the 


Insurance Commission, where he acted as secretary. _ 


It was inevitable, no doubt, that the chairman and. 
secretary of the National Health Insurance Commis- . 


‘sion and the Medical Officer of the Board of Educa-. | 
By of. 


tion should be accommodated at the  Minist 
Health, but it is fortunate for Dr. Addison that the 
holders of these positions should be such men as_ 
those named. yo 


Tue number of clinical themometers tested at the , 
National Physical Laboratory since the introduction 
of the Clinical Thermometer Order of October last ' 
has this week reached the total of half a million. 
The equipment for carrying out this work at Ted- 
dington has been increaséd to such an extent that the. 
number of instruments tested per week is consider- 
ably in excess of those dealt with in any year under 
the older conditions for the certification of clinical — 
thermometers. At the present time it is found that 
the number of clinical thermometers which do not’ 


comply. with the provisions of the Order amounts to — 
about 4 per cent. of the total received. The propor-  —— 


tion, however, varies greatly for the different makers; ' 
for one firm, the output of which is large, the average . 


ealth Insur- at 


: 
' 


Taking van 
+ antag ae 


Pte = 
‘J ; 


NATURE, 


89 


of ‘rejected instruments has exceeded 25 per 
some time past. Further, of the numerous 
‘clinical thermometers which ‘have been 
from chemists and_ stores throughout the 
try, the number of unsatisfactory instruments 
between g and to per cent. It is of interest to 
tt the French Government has recently issued 
ee rendering compulsory the testing of all 
thermometers sold in France. The limits of 
opted are in agreement with those in force in 
intry, but the French decree very considerably 
the types of instruments which may be offered 
ecial thes meeting of thé Geological 
on March 26, the following resolution 
as carried by 55 votes against 12 :— 
desirable to admit women as fellows of 
_ In submitting the motion, Mr. G. W. 
resident of the society, said :—‘‘It will 
e recollection of most of the fellows 
tion, of the admission of women to candi- 
= fellowship ‘of the society has been raised 
one ‘occasion in the past. It was con- 
9 and 1901, and, again, more sys- 
- 1908-9, when a poll of the fellows 
d three special general meetings were 
conclusive results. It is generally recog- 
course of events since these dates has 
nged the situation. Women have been 
Our meetings as visitors, and we have 
ples of their Gualifications for fellow- 
ellent papers which they have from time 
ributed to the Ba The value of these 
een appreciated by all geologists, and has 
Hitacknowledges by the council in its 
fore, in the opinion of the council, it 
asonable to maintain a sex-bar against 
tes for the fellowship of the society, 
ered by the council to submit the 
| resolution for your consideration.”’ 
of the Royal Microscopical Society on 
Col. Clibborn made a proposition ‘that 
uld at once take measures to design 
ritish standard microscope. He sug- 
e stand should be designed, not as a 
but so as to admit the successive addi- 
ndard parts ; (2) all fittings, other than 
be standardised; (3) each part should 
material best.suited to the strains and 
undergo ; and (4) the design should aim 
alance of the moving body in all posi- 
ity, uniformity of movement round 
by the moving body, and artistic 
ld not require clamping. Attention was 
aluminium-bronze and rubel-bronzé as 
suitable than brass to secure rigidity 
also to die-casting as a means of pro- 
gs in unlimited number, and requiring 
chinery. The manufacture should be 
precision tools and precision grinding to 
‘so that all the parts of all instruments 
iterchangeable. It is to be noted that in 
ritteée of the British Science Guild drafted 
tions for six types of microscopes’ (see 
of the British’ Science Guild, January and 
er, 1916). This does not appear to be referred 
HE ttustees of the British Museum have decided 
t henceforth for the rest of his official career Mr. 
E. Fagan’s title shall be Secretary of the Natural’ 
Departments, British Museum. 


e regret to announce the death on*March 29, at 
ighty-six years of age, of Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


ieennceiiieebentien aT ene alk 
ees 


Pa A ' 
nat ACK 
- at 
Fe 


distinguished by his work in applied electricity and 
other branches of physics. ase i 


THE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 
will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 8 and g. 
On the opening day the Hesdeiner medal for 1919 will 
be presented to Prof. Cav. Federico Giolitti, of Turin, 


Tue Silvanus Thompson memorial lecture of the 
Rontgen Society will be delivered by Prof, W. M. 
Bayliss on Tuesday, May 6, at the Royal Society of 
Medicine. The subject will be “The Electrical 
Changes in Active Tissues.”’ 


ACCORDING to a paragraph in the Times Trade 
Supplement for March 29, the National Council of 
Scientific and Industrial Research in Canada has pro- 
posed, with the approval of the Dominion Government, 
to establish a Scientific Research Bureau on the lines 
of the Bureau of Standards at Washington. 


At the annual general meeting. of the Chemical 
Society, held.on March 27, Sir James J. Dobbie was 
elected: as president in succession to Sir William J. 
Pope, Dr. H. J. H. Fenton and Prof. James Walker 
were elected as vice-presidents, and the new ordinary 
members of council are Prof. F. E. Francis, Mr. J. 
Addyman Gardner, Dr. C. A. Keane, and Sir Robert 
Robertson. 


APPLICATIONS are invited by the Royal Society for 
the two Mackinnon research studentships which are 
awarded annually for research in ay anteaiticay, 
chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and physics, and 
(2) anatomy, botany, palzontology, pathology, physio- 
logy, and zoology. The scholarships are each of the 
value of 1501. Applications must be received not later 
than June tr. , 


SUMMER time in Great Britain came into force on 
Sunday, March 30, and will continue until the night 
of September 28-29 next. In Canada a motion to 
institute summer time this year was defeated in 
the Dominion House of Commons on March 27, 
while the British Columbia Legislature has passed a 
Daylight Saving Bill, operative from March 29. 
Much confusion must result from these different — 
decisions. The railways of Canada have put summer. 
time into operation, and so have the chief cities and~ 
towns, but in rural districts the old standard will be 


maintained. > 


WE learn from Science that Mr. Secretary Lane 
has appointed a Commission of mining and metal- 
lurgical experts to visit Europe to observe and assist 
reconstruction methods in the devastated regions. of 
France and Belgium. The members of the Commis- 
sion are Dr. F. G. Cottrell, chief metallurgist of 
the U.S. Bureau of Mines (chairman): Mr. G. S. 
Rice, chief mining engineer of the Bureau; Prof. 
F. H. Probert, consulting engineer of the Bureau and 
professor of mining in the University, of California; 
Mr. R. H. Cameron, consulting chemist of the 
Bureau, and Mr. H. S. Gale, of the U.S. Geological 
Survey. Se 


In accordance with the express wish of the late Dr. 
John. Foulerton, his executrix and sole legatee has 
transferred to the Royal pie 20,0001. National War 
Stock, the interest upon which is to be employed by 
the president and council in making awards to 
students, especially younger students, of sufficient 
amount to enable them to devote themselves, under. 
the supervision and control of the president and 
council, to original research in medicine, to the im- 
provement of the treatment of disease and the relief 
of human suffering. All awards are to be subject to - 
the conditions that members of both sexes are to he 


t 


go 


NATURE | 


[APRIL 3, 1919 


7 
a 


equally eligible, and that every candidate must show 
that he or she and his or her father and paternal 
grandfather are of British nationality; but, subject to 
these conditions, the’ awards may be made by the 
president and council in such manner and upon such 
terms and conditions as they may from time to time 
determine at their discretion. 


By the untimely death of M. Jacques Danne, an- 
‘nounced in Jast week’s NaTuRE, science loses one of 
its earliest workers in radio-activity. M. Danne was 
~ associated with Prof. Curie in researches upon the 
physical properties of radium ‘emanation and the 
active deposit therefrom; they found the law of decay 
of the latter when a body is exposed fora long time 
to the emanation, and recognised-that a complex series 
of events was here in operation. .M. Danne was the 
director of the laboratories at Gif, which are a model 
of their kind. They consist of a number of small 
buildings designed to serve the purpose of radio-active 
‘research, and to provide the accurate measurements 
and chemical analyses required in the process of ex- 
traction of radium from the crude ore; this latter is 
carried out in a factory near by. The laboratories 
possess a library which contains copies of practically 
all the purely scientific work published upon radium 
-and allied substances. M. Danne was the editor of 
Le Radium, the only journal of its kind dealing with 
all the aspects of the physical and chemical properties 
‘of the radio-active bodies.. He was a man of extra- 
ordinary energy, and accomplished work of much 
value in radio-active fields. 


A FURTHER paper on the etiology of influenza by 
the late Major Graeme Gibson, in association with 
Major Bowman and Capt. Connor (see NATURE, 
March 13, p. 31), is published in the British 
Medical Journal for March 22, p. 331. © The 
experiments recorded consisted of (1) the inocula- 
tion of animals with sputum from cases of 
influenza, (2) the inoculation of animals with blood 
from cases of influenza, (3) passage of the virus from 
animal to animal, and (4) cultural experiments and 
inoculation of cultures into animals. Of five monkeys 
inoculated with sputum collected at an early stage 
of the disease and filtered through a filter-candle, four 
gave positive results and one was negative. Positive 
results were also obtained with some rabbits and 
guinea-pigs, but not with mice. Experiments with 
blood were not very successful. The pathological 
lesions in the experimental influenza in the animals 
closely resembled those seen in the lungs of man. 
A minute coccoid micro-organism was grown by 
Noguchi’s cultural methods from (a) the kidney of 
infected animals, (b) the filtrates of lung-tissue, and 
(c) the filtered sputum from cases of influenza. In 
view of these findings, the authors conclude that the 
organism isolated is capable of passing through a 
filter-candle, and that it is, in all probability, the cause 
of influenza as seen to-day. 


Marcu closed with very wintry conditions over the 


British Isles, frost and snow occurring generally. 


During the early hours of Saturday, March 29, the 
heaviest snowstorm of the winter was experienced. 
In Scotland railway traffic was delayed, and the fall 
of snow is said to have been the heaviest experienced 
for years over the Irish midlands and the west. The 
snowstorm was due to the passage of a subsidiary 
cyclonic disturbance up the English Channel. Very 
heavy snow fell in London from 2.30 to 7. on Satur- 
day morning, the depth amounting to 9 in. in some 
of the metropolitan suburbs, and at some places in the 
South of England the depth exceeded a foot. Snow 
has often fallen later.in the winter or spring, and in 
1917 much snow fell both in March and April. At 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


/ ae 4 
Greenwich the latter half of March was 7° colder 
than the first part of the month. The mean tempera- — 
ture for the whole of March was 40-9°, which is 1° 
below the average for seventy-five years to 1915. It 
is 2° colder than March, 1918, but 2-4° warmer than 
March, 1917. Frost was registered on the grass this — 
year at Greenwich on twenty-four nights, and with 
only one exception after March 12. The total rainfall 
for the month measured 2-91 in. (to the evening of 
March 31), which is exactly double the sixty years’ 
average. The duration of bright sunshine during the 
month was eighty-nine hours, and there were only six 
sunless days. ae 


x 


SomE disconcerting possibilities are indicated in 
some notes by Mr. A. Philpott. on birds introduced — 
into Southland, New. Zealand, which appear in the — 
New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 
(vol. i., No. 6). According to the author, in this dis- 
trict the introduced birds are now “‘much more. pro-— 
minent than. the native birds.” Some of the -latter, 
he assures: us, are still plentiful enough, and will 
probably continue to hold their own. It is devoutly to 
be hoped that this surmise will prove to be correct. 
But the dispossessed species can never be eo: 
and they were infinitely the more valuable. Among 
the introduced species Mr. Philpott makes special 
mention of the starling, which, we are informed, is a 
useful bird, but not nearly so plentiful as it used to 
be. As it-seems to ‘be changing its nesting habits, 
there is a grave danger that a reversal of its rate of 
increase will in- the near future have to be recorded. 
The Australians have learnt, by bitter experience, the 
folly of introductions of this kind. There the starling 
has become a pest, defying all attempts to reduce its 
numbers. 


A 


ANATOMISTS and_ paleontologists will indeed be~ 
grateful for the studies in comparative myology and _ 
osteology which Messrs. W. K. Gregory and C. L. 
Camp have just published. in the Bulletin of the 
American Museum of Natural History (vol. xxxviii., 
art. 15). Not only have the authors given a very 
exhaustive account of the muscles of the shoulder 
girdle and pelvis in a number of reptiles, birds, 
and mammals, and the homologies of these muscles; 
they have also essayed the difficult task of recon- 
structing the musculature of a number of primitive 
fossil reptiles. Only those who have some practical 
acquaintance with dissections of this kind can appre- 
ciate the immense amount of labour which they must 
have expended to produce results so striking. A large 
number of very beautiful diagrams add still further 
to the value of this work, of which they may be 
justly proud. 


In the report on the Agricultural Department, 
Grenada, 1917-18, an account is given of further 
experiments with a parasitic fungus, Sporotrichum 
globuliferum, on the cacao thrips (Heliothrips rubro- 
cinctus). The trees were sprayed with a powdered 
mixture of flour and fungus-spores suspended in water 
in the proportion of from 20 to grams of the 
powder to 3} gallons of water. The observations are 
not yet complete, but the experiment has demonstrated 
(1) that the fungus was readily distributed amongst ~ 
thrips in the field, (2) that under favourable conditions .... 
of atmospheric humidity the fungus caused the death _ 
of large numbers of both young and adult thrips on 
the inoculated trees, and (3) that the fungus spread 
by natural agencies to trees outside the inoculated - 
area. It remains to be determined whether adequate 
control. of thrips can be secured by the use of this 
fungus, and how far the activity of the fungus is 


Apri 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


gi 


_by climatic conditions ; there is also the ques- 
as to the economic production of inoculating 
fal in quantity. ; 


SEVERE earthquake was felt over eastern Bengal 
Assam, most of Burma, and in north-east India 
west as Lahore on July 8, 1918. Capt. Murray 
, who has investigated the earthquake on behalf 
+ Geological Survey of India, has published an 
ing summary of his results (Records Geol. 
ndia, vol. xlix., 1918, pp. 173-89). Without 
lary Warning, the earthquake occurred at about 
m. (Indian standard time), at a time when 
people were out of doors, so that. the loss of 
exceedingly small. The epicentral area lies 
idred miles to the south-east of that of the 
a earthquake of 1897, the centre of this 
in the Balisera Hills, about 33 miles south 
railway at Srimangal. Nearly all brick build- 
@ destroyed in the area of greatest intensity, 
fault-scarps were formed, though there was 
lifting and fissuring of the surface material 
on of water and sand. Making use of 
well-known method, Capt. Stuart estimates 
focus was at a depth of eight or nine miles. 


r article on the progressive desiccation of Africa 
South African Journal of Science (vol. xv., 
2 E. H. L. Schwarz discusses at length the 
ydrographical systems of that continent. 
gineering works are proposed which the 
elieves would have a beneficial effect on 
Africa. One is a dam across the Cunene River 
Kinga, in Angola, some 250 miles from the 
‘the other is a dam across the Selinda River or 
ae a few miles above its confluence 
Zambesi. These weirs would restore to 
imi its old area, fill up the Etosha pan, and 
nuch of the Makarikari depression. This, 
- believes, would result in a greater 
dity which would have the effect. of 
to the Kalahari desert; otherwise he 
t conditions gradually spreading through 
ica. Possibly Mr. Schwarz takes an unduly 
view of the future of the country, and 
' do not agree with him in his con- 
the agricultural conditions in the Karroo 
for the worse within recent times. It 
ment whether the creation of such 
Jake would have the desired effect 
e climate, even if the scheme were 
ut the paper is valuable for the facts 
ns and the important issues which it raises. 
QUANTITATIVE examination of the relation of rain- 
configuration in certain localities of the British 
thas been made by Mr. Carle Salter, and was 
t of a lecture to the Institution of Water 
_ The paper is now published by the institu- 
‘separate pamphlet. Rainfall may be 
as convectional, cyclonic, or orographical. The 
two types are only slightly affected by con- 
of the land, but an examination of a rain- 
lr f the British Isles shows that orographical 
predominate in the course of the .year. In 
ographical rains are most frequent, and in 
See es faerice, while apparent, is not so well 
_ Unfortunately, mo records exist of the 
: amount of rain which falls annually over 
1 in the neighbourhood of the British Isles. 
cords of this nature, if available, would give a 
ure of the amount of non-orographical rain 
which falls over the land generally. An examination 
of data from stations near séa-level shows that eleva- 
tions of only a few feet affect the amount of rainfall. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


The rate of increase per too ft. of altitude varies 
within wide limits. It is lower on slopes parallel 
to the prevailing winds than on slopes at right angles. 
On fairly steep ridges close to the sea the maximum 
rainfall often occurs slightly on the leeward side of 
the crest. These and other cases Mr. Salter dis- 
cusses at length with a wealth of illustration from 
the records of the British Rainfall Organisation. It 
is unnecessary to point out the great importance of 
researches of this nature in relation to problems of 
water-supply. 


THE evidence of complete combustion of coal i§ to 
be sought in the flue-gases. According to the Coal 
Age for November 21 last, these gases, when the com- 
bustion of the coal is complete, consist in part of 
carbon dioxide, of which there should be not less than 
16 per cent. When the flue-gases show by analysis 
less than that percentage, too much air has been 
allowed to pass through the furnace. Even if we 
admit one-third more air into the fire-box than is 
theoretically necessary for complete combustion, the 
escaping gases should contain from 20 to 22 per cent. 
of carbon dioxide. In practice every pound of coal 
burned requires for its complete combustion 200 cu. ft. 
of air. When burned under such conditions, a pound © 
of coal should develop 13,000 B.Th.U. 


In a paper read to the Institution of Electrical 
Engineers on February 27 Drs, Barclay and Smith 
discussed the determination of the efficiency of the 
turbo-alternator. The American Institution of Elec- 
trical Engineers gives a conventional theoretical 
method of computing the losses, but it is known in 
certain cases to lead to very erroneous results. The 
authors have found out, by experiments carried out 
at Messrs. Vickers’s works, that the alternator losses 
can be determined conveniently and accurately under 
actual load conditions by measuring the amount of 
heating undergone by the air used for ventilating the 
alternator to keep it cool. The method is practically 
the same as that described by Sir Richard Threlfall 
to the institution in 1903. The main improvements 
lie in the methods of measuring the quantity and 
temperature of the air. In the discussion we were 
surprised to hear that the ‘stray losses ’"’—that is, the 
losses not taken into account in the usual conventional 
way of testing—sometimes amounted to 40 per cent. of 
the total losses. We should have thought that the 
cause of this must be fairly self-evident. 


A coaL meter for boilers, made by the Lea Recorder 
Co., Ltd., of Manchester, is described in the Engineer 
for March 14.. This meter is intended for boilers fitted 
with chain-grates. The amount of fuel passing under 
the fire-door depends upon the depth, i.e. the thickness 
of the fire, and the velocity of the fire-grate, and both 
these variables are taken into account by the 
mechanism of the meter, which somewhat resembles 
that of the well-known V-notch recorder for water 
measurement made by the same firm. Tests have been 
made at the works of Messrs. Browett and Lindley, 
and are said to be satisfactory. The makers give a 
guarantee of accuracy to within 5 per cent. 


An illustrated article in Engineering for February 28 
gives an account of submarines built for the British 
Navy during the war by Messrs. Vickers. Fifty-four 
boats in all were built and commissioned in a po 
of fifty-one months; of these the details of the K type 
are specially interesting. These vessels have a sub- 
merged displacement of 2570 tons, and are 339 ft. 
long by 26 ft. 8 in. beam. The double-hull principle 
is embodied in a modified form. The speed is twenty- 
four knots on the surface, the power being obtained 
from twin sets of geared steam turbines, which 


\* 


~ 


for 1919”; 


92 


NATURE 


[Apert 3, 1919. 


develop a shaft horse-power of 10,500. Steam is 
obtained from two boilers of the Yarrow type, working 
at 235 lb. per sq. in. The turbine machinery is supple- 
mented by an 800-brake-horse-power heavy oil engine 
of the Vickers submarine type, which is coupled to a 
dynamo of the open single-armature design. The tur- 
bines are reserved for higher speeds only, whilst the 
dynamo, in addition to charging batteries, supplies the 
main motors with power for cruising at economical 
speeds. For submerged work the motors develop a 
total horse-power of 700 per shaft, and give a speed 
of nine knots. The motors drive the shafts through 
helical gearing. The storage battery for the use of 


_ the motors is divided into three groups of 112 cells 


per group. 


Tue following works are in the press for publica- 
tion by the Carnegie Institution of Washington :— 
“The Cactaceze: Descriptions and Illustrations of 
Plants of the Cactus Family,’’ N.°L. Britton and 
J. N. Rose, 4 vols., vols. i. and ii.; ‘*A Biochemic 
Basis for the Study of Problems of Taxonomy, 
Heredity, Evolution, etc., with Especial Reference to 


the Starches and the Tissues of Parent and Hybrid 


Stocks, and to the Starches and the Hemoglobins of 
Varieties, Species, and Genera,” E. T. Reichert; “A 
Biometric Study of Basal Metabolism in Man,” J. A. 
Harris and F. G. Benedict; ‘‘ Distribution of Vegeta- 
tion in the United. States, as Related to Climatic 
Conditions,” B. E. Livingston and F. Shreve; ‘‘ The 


‘Ecological Relations of Roots,” J. E. Weaver; and 


‘The Carbohydrate Economy of Cacti,’ H. A. Spoehr. 
Mr. Edward Arnold’s latest announcements’ include 
the concluding volume of ‘Principles of Electrical 
Engineering and their Application,” Prof. G. Kapp; 
‘‘Air Navigation: Notes and Examples,’’ Capt. S. F. 
Card; ‘‘Tacheometer Tables,” Prof. H. Louis; and a 
revised and enlarged edition of the translation, by Dr. 
G. W. O. Howe, of Dr. A. Thomalen’s ‘* Text-book 
of Electrical Engineering.” Messrs. Hodder and 
Stoughton are publishing. ‘‘Automobile Repairing 
made Easy,” Capt. V. W. Pagé, and a new edition 
of the same author’s ‘“‘The Modern Gasoline Auto- 
mobile: Its Design, Construction, and Operation.” 
Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son promise ‘ Aero- 
plane Construction,” S. Camm; ‘Oils, Fats, and 
Waxes,’”’ Dr. G. Martin; ‘‘ Streamline Kite Balloons,” 
Capt. P. H. Sumrer;. ‘“‘The Engineer’s Year-Book 
and a revision,. by H. H. P. Powles, 
of ‘Clark’s Mechanical Engineer’s Pocket-Book.”’ 
Messrs. Gauthier-Villars et Cie (Paris) have in pre- 
paration part iii. of Prof. E. Rothé’s ‘‘Cours de 
Physique,’ dealing with ‘‘ Aérodynamique’’; vol. iii. 
of ‘‘C£uvres d’Halphen”’ is in the press for appear- 
ance with the same publishers, and vol. iv. 
preparation. 
{ 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Comet 1914¢ (NEujmiN).—A definitive orbit of this 
comet is contained in Publication of the Stockholm 
Observatory, vol. x., No. 6. The comet was dis- 
covered on 1914: June 24 by M.. Neujmin, of the 
Simeis Observatory, Crimea, and fifty-one observa- 
tions on thirty-six nights between that. date and 
December 22, the majority of which were made at 
Mount Hamilton and Vienna, have been used to 
determine its orbit. 


_ for remark are that the orbit is hyperbolic, the eccen- 


tricity being 1.00367 +0-000296, and that the perihelion” 
In spite of the 


distance is exceptionally large—3-747. 
fact that the arc of ‘the orbit comprehended in the 


investigation is only 33° or 34°, the author, Mr. John 


Svardson, is satisfied that the hyperbolic character 
of the orbit is real. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103} 


is i: 


The points that specially call 


The large perihelion distance is’ 


equalled» only by the comet of 1729, and: there are 


other resemblances between the orbits of the two 
comets—a fact which had been. previously noticed. — 
The elements found by Mr. Svardson are given below — 


with those of the comet of 1729 for comparison, — 


1gt4c * 1729 " ate 
2 =1914 July 30°158 Berlin M.T. 1729 June 13 27 Paris M-T.* 
f 2 ° lg u" ug 


Qasita (oe oko 2” RRR Res 
% = 270° 18! 26°7” 3107: 38, OF RE Ae 
Ci” (DB a" 17°15 18 
7 =3°747131 4043496 ra 
é = 1'003672 110050334, j.. 


COMET 
No. 5 (vdl. x.) contains a definitive orbit of this comet 
by Mr. Rosenbaum. The orbit seems to be hyper- 
bolic, eccentricity 1000235, but the author is not 
satisfied that this is real. It may be remembered that 
in the middle of May the comet was observed to have 
two nuclei visibly separated, and Mr. Rosenbaum 
suggests that it is necessary to treat the observations 
before and after the disruption as distinct orbits. - 


Tue CEPHEID VaRIABLES.—The characteristics of the 
variable stars of which 6 Cephei is the type furnish 
a problem which is occupying many minds: aed 
variation is regular and continuous, and the rise to 
maximum is usually more rapid than the fall to 


minimum; (2) they show variation of radial velocity _ 


with the period of the light changes; (3) their spec- 


tral class varies with the period, advancing towards ~ 
M as the period is longer, and also with the light — 
variation, the stars being redder at minimum than | 
at maximum; and (4) the period of light variation | 


has a marked correlation with the mean absolute 
magnitude of any star. It is found difficult to pro- 


1g15a (MELLIsH).—Stockholm Publication — 


| 


pound a hypothesis that will account for these and — 


other characteristics. There is good reason for think- 
ing that the Cepheids are not binary stars. It has 
been suggested that they are rotating bodies hotter 
and brighter on one side than on the other, but this 
fails to fit the facts, and a third hypothesis, known 
as the pulsation theory, which supposes that the 
Cepheids are gaseous bodies alternately expanding 
and contracting is now under discussion. The Monthly 
Notices of the R.A.S. for November and January con- 
tain a thermo-dynamical investigation of this” ry by. 
Prof. Eddington, who discusses successfully the initial 
difficulty that the dissipation of energy would not. 
permit the action to continue, and concludes that the 
hypothesis leads to results in agreement with observa- 


\ 


tion in respect of (1) the absolute value of the period, 


which can be determined theoretically with small un-. 
certainty; (2) the corrélation of ‘spectral type with 
absolute magnitude; and (3) the asymmetric form of 
the velocity curve. 


WAR WORK OF BRITISH CHEMISTS. 


f eae anniversary dinner of the Chemical Society, 
was held at the Connaught Rooms on March 27, ° 


Sir William J. Pope presiding. In proposing the toast 
of the Chemical Society, Lord Moulton stated that our — 
real enemy in the war was Germany—the nation that — 
had devoted itself par excellence to chemistry. Ger- 


many did not declare war until her installations for 
‘the production of ammonia and of nitrates in vast 
quantities were complete. Emboldened by the enor- 
mous preparation made for the supply of munitions, 
by the advances made in artillery, and by the decision 
to use poisonous gases, Germany thought she had but 
to strike a heavy blow and world-supremacy was hers. 


Lord Moulton then contrasted Germany’s state of © 


preparedness in 1914 for the production of munitions 


with that of England. Chemists were justified in’ 
claiming that it was they who had had to resist Ger- — 


NATURE. 


$3," 


d it was marvellous to think that, owing to 
bnse, by the time the war was at its height 
id was Germany’s equal, if not her superior, in 
‘warfare. The nation must not again be cut 
| the essential means of defence, for the possi- 
of war must always be remembered. To the 
st the future prospects are limitless; the dis- 
new substances, the shortening of processes, 
all these lie in his hands. The Chemical 
doing valuable work because it exists for 
a cement Of chemical science. Lord 
referred to the valuable services rendered 
try by Sir William Pope in the problems 
with explosives, in the production of 
ses, and in the realm’ of photography. 
$, Sir William Pope stated that the 
ered some 3500 members, and though 
ly eighty years of age, it was not 
ecrepitude. It was still prepared to pro- 
methods for stimulating scientific work 
effort. He referred to Lord Moulton as 
hemical manufacturer of this or any other 
emists feel honoured at having been made 
I part of the stupendous weapon for destruc- 
forging of which Lord Moulton had played 
rt. All the resources of science had been 
war without scrutiny of cost, and the 
worth the expenditure. Unless the 
are used in the struggle before us to 
promote, not only applied, but pure 
our country will fall behind. It lies 
‘to aletermine to what extent science 
coming great wave of intellectual and 
ss throughout the world. The nation 
to pour out treasure into our educa- 
nts for securing the potential young 
country and of directing it into scientific 
id money must be poured into our uni- 
ses to stimulate scientific research. 
= or applied knowledge, the dividend 
rmous. The great object we have in 
crease of human knowledge, and this 
only by the expenditure of large sums 


trong, in proposing the toast of “* Our 
” referred to previous exchanges 
en French and English chemists, 
was the first time that the French 
iety had been officially represented at our 
ner, he hoped that it would become a 
in the future. In replying, Dr. C. 
ad the great pleasure felt by himself 
aes in being invited to take part in 
> function held by the Chemical Society 
‘or they realised that such an invitation 
er seal on the bond of sympathy existing 
vo nations. | . . 
t then provosed ‘ His Majesty’s Forces,” 
Lt.-Gen. Sir W. T. Furse, Master of the 
., made acknowledgment. ; 
s J. Dobbie, president-elect, in proposing 
“The Guests,” referred to the pleasure 
felt in seeing such a representative gather- 
;, and though it might seem difficult to 
all into one toast, owing to the interests 
sresent being so diverse, the chemist had been 
associated with them all during the period 
. The Right Hon. Herbert A. L. Fisher, 
ding for the Board of Education, referred to 
ce of science in national education. Though 
had arrears to make up and wanted more money, 


: battle had been won. He was of the opinion 
- unless the country was provided with a large 
generous scheme of education, a number of 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


e teachers, and more learners for science, in the, 


talents which might be educated to a high pitch of 
accomplishment would be lost. Unless the com- 
munity realises that science has its message, its value, 
that it ought to be encouraged, and that no money 
spent on scien¢e is wasted, science will never be in a 
satisfactory and wholesome condition. Sir Aston. 
bere replied for Art, and Sir J. J. Thomson for 
cience. 


ENERGY TRANSMISSION. 


Beye or three years ago a Rumanian engineer, | 
Mr. Constantinesco, brought to this country a 
remarkable new method of transmitting energy. A 
pipe filled with water or a similar fluid is used. 
Vibrations of the nature of sound-waves are produced 
mechanically at one end of the pipe, and the energy of . 
these is recovered at the other end as mechanical 
energy. As there is no general movement of transla- 
tion of the mass of fluid, little is lost and the efficiency 


‘of transmission is high. The energy recovered can 


be applied to any mechanical operation. The method 
has been said to be an alternative to electrical trans- 
mission, and, in a sense, this is true. Certainly jit 
will find a field in which it will compete with other’ 
modes of doing work at a distance. — 

Researches have been going on during the war, and 
many devices have been perfected.’ But it has been 
necessary to observe secrecy as to what has been done 
and what is contemplated. It is known that one im- 
portant invention made possible by the Sonic system 
of transmission is the cc. synchronising gear on aero- 
planes, which arrests the action of a machine-gun 
while a propeller-blade is in the line of fire, so that 
2000 bullets per minute can be discharged through a 
propeller revolving at 1000 to 2000 r.p.m. 

From a statement in the Times. of March 27 it 
appears that works have been established at West 
Drayton by the Government which will serve as a 
laboratory to enable Mr. Constantinesco to develop his: 
inventions. These works were recently visited by 
Queen Mary, the Queen of Rumania, and a distin- 
guished company, who followed with great attention 
a demonstration of the applications of the new 
system to various industrial purposes. Although little 
has so far been made public, it is known that Mr.. — 
Constantinesco has shown remarkable ingenuity and 
patience in devising means for applying the Sonic 
system to industrial operations, and he has accom- 
plished enough to prove that his method is of the 
highest possible interest. 


THE PROBLEM OF RADIO-ACTIVE 
LEAD. 
Il. 


I? appears, then, that 206, the value pertaining to 
uranium-lead, is a very reasonable value. 

But, as has been repeatedly pointed out, ordinary 
lead, constituting the vast bulk of the lead in the 
world, has without doubt a much higher atomic” 
weight, 207-2, not to be expected from either of the 
lines of reasoning just given. In order to test the 
uniformity of this circumstance, Baxter, with the help 
of one of his assistants, investigated ordinary lead — 
from non-uraniferous ores from many parts of the’ 
world, and discovered that the constancy of its quanti-. 
tative behaviour is as striking as that of copper or: 
silver. His figures agreed very closely, within the 
limit of error of experimentation, with those obtained | 
asa part of the present comparison of the two kinds 

| Presidential Address to the American Association for the Advancemen 


of Science, Baltimore, December, 1918, by Prof. Theodore W. R 
Continued from p. 78. . 


a4 


NATURE 


[Apriz 3, 1919 3 


of lead, so that there could be no question as to lack 
of identity of methods or precautions. 

_ Before leaving the subject of the relative atomic 
weights of these two types of lead, it is not without 
interest to note the exact absolute weights of the 
atoms. If, as we have excellent reason for believing 
on .the basis of the brilliant work of Prof. R. A, 
Millikan, a so-called gram-atom (the atomic weight in 
grams) contains 606-2 sextillion actual atoms, the 
weights of the atoms of the two kinds of lead must be 
respectively 342 and 340 septillionths of a gram. ‘Their 
extreme smallness as regards bulk may perhaps best 
be inferred from the consideration that the smallest 
object visible as a point in the common microscope 
has a diameter probably about one thousand times as 
great as an atom of lead.” 

_Evidently, on the basis of the quantitative results 
just exhibited, we must admit that there is at least 
one real difference between radio-active lead and the 
common metal. Are there other differences? 

A question as to the density of each substance, and 
therefore as to the bulk occupied by the respective 
atoms, at once arises. Since the atom of uranium- 
lead weighs less than the other, it must occupy less 
space,- supposing that it has the same density; or 
else it must have less density, supposing that it should 
occupy the same space. The identity of the chemical 
behaviour of the two types of lead suggests the 
probability of the latter alternative, and this was, 
therefore, assumed by Soddy; but experimental proof 
was evidently desirable. Therefore an extended in- 
vestigation of the density of the various kinds of lead 
was carried out likewise in the Gibbs Memorial 
Laboratory. As a matter of fact, the densities of 
the several specimens were found to be very nearly 
proportional to their atomic weights; that is to say, 
the bulk of the atom of radio-active lead is almost 
exactly the same as the bulk of the atom of ordinary 
lead, although the weights of these atoms are so 
markedly different. 


Densities and Atomic Volumes. 


weight; Dee ae 
Pure uranio-lead 206-08 11'273 18-281 
Australian mixture ... 206-34 11-289 18-278 
Pure common lead ... 207-19 11°337 18-277 


_A distinctive property of elementary substances, 
which has always been supposed to be concerned more 
or less definitely with the atomic weight, is the 
spectrum, depending upon the wave-lengths of light 
emitted by the vapour. But, surprisingly enough, the 
spectrum lines produced by these two sorts of lead, 
‘when heated to the high temperature of the electric 
arc, are so precisely alike, both as to their wave- 
lengths and their intensities, that no ordinary 
spectrum analysis shows any difference whatever. 
This has been proved by careful experiments at 
Harvard and elsewhere. A and B were from two 
different specimens of radio-active lead, C from 
ordinary lead, all very carefully purified. The range 
covered is about from 3000 to 2000 wave-length—far 
in the ultra-violet. Very recently Prof. W. D. 
Harkins, of Chicago, and two assistants have de- 
tected, with a very extended grating spectrum, an 
exceedingly minute shift (o-o0o1 per cent. of the wave- 
length—an amount far too small to be shown by the 
spectra exhibited) of one of the lines. The wonder is, 
not that there should be a difference, but rather that 
they should be so very nearly identical. Evidently 
the very considerable difference in the atomic weight 


produces only a barely perceptible effect on the wave- - 


2 If the smallest object visible in a microscope could be enlarged to the 
width of this printed page, the atom; in it wouldappear about the size of the 
dots on the letters 7, or the periods, in the type above. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


lengths. of light emitted by the several isotopic forms. 
of a given element, although a less difference in 
atomic weight between two different elements (for — 


example, cobalt and nickel) is concomitant with utterly 


divergent spectra. 


Another . very interesting question, involving the 


relations of substance both to light and to wei (or 


rather density), is its refractive index. All the formule 


relating to molecular refraction involve the density of 
the substance concerned. In the case under considera- 
tion, do the differing weight’s of the atoms, and there- 
fore the differing densities of the same compounds 
of the two kinds of lead, affect the refractive indices 
of the salts? Is the refractive index of a given salt 
of radio-lead identical with that of the same salt 
of ordinary lead? Evidence on this point would 
go far to decide whether density or atomic volume is 


the more important thing in determining refractive 


index. A very careful study carried out with the help 


of Dr. W. C. Schumb at Harvard has, within the - 


past few months, shown that, as a matter of faet, the 
refractive index of ordinar 
with that of the nitrate of uranium-lead within one 
part in nearly twenty thousand--.a result which shows 
that density is a less important factor in determining 
refractive index than had been previously assumed. 

Both these conclusions cencerning light—that 
drawn from the spectra and that drawn from the 
refractive 


innermost nature of the atom. That part of the atom 
which determines its weight seems to have, at least 
in these cases, very little effect on that part of the 
atom which determines its behaviour towards light. 
Immediately connected with the question of density 


of the solid salts is the question as to the densities — 


of their saturated solutions, as well as to the extent 
of saturation. Fajans and Lembert had recently 
obtained results probably indicating that the molecular 
solubility of each kind of lead is the same, and that 


the densities of the solutions are different, the density — 
an 


of the radio-lead solution being less to 
extent consistent with its smaller molecular weight. 
These results, however, left much to be desired in 
the way of accuracy, and needed verification. There- 
fore, a very careful investigation, begun at Harvard 
with the assistance of Schumb, before the appear- 


ance of Fajans’s publication, furnished valuable know- — 


ledge on this point. 
Solubility of Two Kinds of Lead Nitrate.* 


lead nitrate is identical 


— 


indices—have a yet more far-reaching — 
interest, for they give us a further clue as regards the 


Common lead  Uranium-lead ~ 


Per cent. salt in saturated 

solution (25-00°) ... 37:°342  .  37:280 
Grams lead per I00 grams 

water re os sae (AQP OSE 37130 
Molecular solubility per 1000 

grams water Be 17993 17989 


Here, again, differences in weight alone are mani-— 


fest, and these are proportional to the differences in | 


the atomic weights; the molecular behaviour is 


essentially identical in the two sorts, 


weights. 


from the impossibility of separating the two kinds of 


The identity in solubility might also be inferred 


Hence a differ- 
ence in density between the two solutions must exist, ts 
exactly consistent with the difference in the atomic — 


lead from each other by fractional crystallisation. 


This was predicted by Soddy, and tested by him and 
by others. Various vain attempts have been made to 


separate the different kinds of lead from one another, 


3 The uranium-lead.uSed in these determinations was a specimen from 


Australia having the atomic weight 206°41, not quite like the earlier sample, — 


but not different in important degree. 


/ 


95 


d can separate them, since the properties o 
different kinds are so nearly alike,” The leit 
empt at the Gibbs Memorial Laboratory involved 
jousand fractional crystallisations of the Aus- 
Tead nitrate, which is believed to contain both 
y and uranium-radium lead. The extreme 
of the crystals (representing the least soluble 
if any difference in solubility might exist) 
within the limit of error the same atomic weight 
extreme fraction of the mother liquor (repre- 
‘the most soluble portion), thus confirming 
« of others in this direction. 
‘wires constructed of two different metals are 
d the junction is heated, an electrical potential 
pmotive force is produced at the junction. 
‘ty , then, to be a highly interesting 
-in order to find out how great may be 
ity of the two kinds of lead. In fact, 
of. radio-active lead and ordinary lead 
= Gibbs laboratory gave no measurable 
tric effect, the wires acting as if they were 
the same identical substance, although the 
shts and densities were different. No other 
e of this sort is known, so far as I am 
melting points of the two kinds of lead * 
se found, with the assistance of N. F. 
identical within the probable accuracy of 
‘T) 


pece all these results together into one 
hat we may better grasp their combined 
‘up in a few words, the situation appears 
t least two kinds of lead exist—one, the 
‘metal disseminated throughout the world, in 
ores; another, a form of lead ap- 
duced by the decomposition of uranium, 
“one of the intermediate products. If 
of consideration the probably inessential 
radio-activity, the two kinds are very 
exactly, alike in every respect except- 
eight, density, and immediately related 
nvolving weight, such as solubility. 
‘appears to be a third variety, with 
ons. Shall we call these substances 
nts, or the same? The best answer is 
posed by Soddy, who invented a new name 

them “isotopes” of the same element. 


son of Properties of Different Kinds of 
Fs Lead.* 


Common Mixture — Uranio- Percentage 
lead (Australian) lead difference 
A B Cc -B _ 

. 207°19 ©206°34 206'08 0°42 0°54 
11°337. _11'280 11273, (0°42 0°56 
18277. 18278 = 18°281 O'OI 0°02 

: 600°53 600'59 — SORE! + 
37°281 = 37130 — o“4r — 
Pers. 37514 ool — 

ff _— “= — 9000 — 
e-length — — 0°00 0°00 


every new fact concerning the behaviour of 
ents gives a new possible means of discover- 
nething about their nature, and since these 
are of an especially significant kind, the anomaly 
more than passing interest, and may be said 
nstitute one of the most interesting and puzzling 
ions now presented to the chemist who looks 
he deeper meanings of things. 

For the 


sake of better ¢ cison, the values given are all those found 
since they all davoteed nearly the same material. The results of 
elsewhere, so far as they cover the same ground, are essentially 


“No. 2579, VOL. 103 | 


Many new queries arise in one’s mind from a study 
of the data. Among them is a question as to the 
nature of ordinary lead, which possesses a less reason- 
able atomic weight than the radio-active variety. Why 
should this state of things exist? j 

Ordinary lead may be either a pure substance or 
else a mixture of uranium-lead with lead of yet 
higher atomic weight, perhaps 208. The latter sub- 
stance might be formed, as Soddy points out, if 
thorium (over 232) lost six atoms of helium, and he 
and Honigschmid have found quantitative evidence of 
its existence in thorium minerals. 

After reviewing all the data, Prof. F. W. Clarke 
has brought forward an interesting and reasonable 
hypothesis explaining the difference between the 
several kinds of lead. He points out that, whereas 
we have every reason to believe that uranium- and 
thorium-lead are the results of disintegration of 
heavier atoms, ordinary lead may be imagined to be 
the product of a far earlier synthesis or evolution 
from.smaller atems. The hypothesis might be sup- 
ported by the analogy of the synthesis and decom- 
position of organic substances, which by no means 
always follow similar paths; it seems to be con- 
sistent with most, if not all, of the facts now known. 

On the other hand, may not the uniformity of 
ordinary lead and its difference from either of the 
radio-active leads be almost equally capable of inter- 
pretation in quite a different fashion? Whenever, 
in the inconceivably distant past, the element’ lead 
was evolved, it is scarcely to be supposed that 
uranium-lead and thorium-lead could have been 
entirely absent. The conditions must have been , 
chaotic and favourable to mixture. When the two 
or more forms were mixed, none of the processes of 
Nature would separate them. Therefore they must 
appear zons afterwards in an equably mixed state 
on earth, constituting our ordinary lead.. There may 
have been more than two forms of lead; but two 
forms, one possessing an atomic weight 206, and 
the other an atomic weight above 208, would 
account for all the facts. The identity in nature of 
all the common lead on earth might indicate merely 
that at one time all the matter now constituting the 
earth was liquid or gaseous in violent agitation, so 
that all the kinds of lead were thoroughly commingled 
before solidification. This explanation, if it could be 
confirmed, would furnish important evidence con- 
cerning the early history of planets. So far afield 
may a difference in weight amounting to two units 
in the twenty-fourth decimal place, between two kinds 
of atoms so small as to be far beyond the possible 
range of our most piercing means of actual observa- 
tion, carry the inquiring investigator ! 

The true answers to these questions are not to be 
found by speculation such as that just detailed, how- 
ever suggestive such speculation may be. They are 
to be found by careful observation. For example, 
the doubt as to the nature<of ordinary lead can be 
decided only by discovering whether or not it may be 
separated into two constituents. Since weight (or 
mass) is the quality distinguishing between the several 
isotopes or kinds of lead, weight (or mass) must be 
made the basis of separation. Hence the only hope 
of sonata ors of lead lies in the method of- 
fractional diffusion,. as has been already suggested by 
many other experimenters on this subject. Promising 
preliminary experiments preparatory to such an under- 
taking have already been begun at Harvard, and 
before long more light may be obtained. 

The idea that other elementary substances also ge | 
be mixtures of two or more isotopes has been ad- 
vanced by several chemists. Especially if ordina 
lead should really be found to be thus complicated, 


96: 


NATURE 


[ApriL 3, 1919 


I 
many, if not all, other elements should be tested in 
the same way. The outcome, while not in the least 
affecting our table of atomic weights so far as prac- 
tical purposes are concerned, might lead to highly 
interesting theoretical conclusions. 

How can such remote scientific knowledge, even if 
it satisfies our ever-insistent intellectual curiosity, be 
of any practical use? Who can tell? It must be 
admitted that the relationship is apparently slight as 
regards any immediate application, but one can never 
know how soon any new knowledge concerning the 
nature of things may bear unexpected fruit. Faraday 
had no. conception of the electric locomotive or the 
power plants of Niagara when he performed those 
crucial experiments with magnets and wires that laid 
the basis for the dynamo. Nearly fifty years elapsed 
before his experiments on electric induction in moving 
wires bore fruit in a practical electric lighting system ; 
and yet more years before the trolley-car, depending 
‘equally upon the principles discovered by Faraday, 
_ became an everyday occurrence. At the time of dis- 
“covery, even if the wide bearing and extraordinary 
usefulness of his experiments could have been fore- 


seen by him, they were certainly hidden from the , 


world at large. 

The laws of Nature cannot be intelligently applied 
until they are understood, and in order to understand 
them many experiments bearing upon the fundamental 
nature of things must be made in order that all may 
be combined in a far-reaching generalisation impos- 
sible without the detailed knowledge upon which it 
rests. _When mankind discovers the fundamental laws 
underlying any set of phenomena, these phenomena 
come in much larger measure than before his con- 
trol, and are applicable for his service. Until we 
A understand the laws, all depends upon chance. Hence, 
merely from the practical point of view, concerning 
the material progress of humanity, the exact under- 
standing of the laws of Nature is one of the most 
important of all the problems presented to man; and 
the unknown laws underlying the nature of the 
elements ‘are obviously among the most fundamental 
of these laws of Nature. 

Such gain in knowledge brings with it augmented 
responsibilities. Science gives human beings vastly 
increased power. This power has immeasurably 
beneficent possibilities, but it may be used for ill as 
well as for good. Science has recently been blamed 
by superficial crifics, but she is not at fault if her 
great potentialities are sometimes perverted to serve 
malignant ends. Is not such atrocious perversion due 
rather to the fact that the ethical enlightenment of a 
part of the human race has not kept pace with the 
progress of science? 
high-minded enough to use the bountiful resources of 
Nature, not for evil, but for good, in the days to 
come ! 


UNIVERSITY AND: EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE, 


Bristot.—In the university courses for training 
engineers in the United States and Germany a certain 
amount of business training is given, with the result 

‘that in these countries there are many more engineers 
directing and administering engineering concerns than 
is the case in Great Britain. At the suggestion of the 
Dean of the faculty of engineering of the University, 
Dr. Wertheimer, the Senate has now decided that in 
future the curriculum for the B.Sc. degree shall include 
attendance at a course dealing with book-keeping, 
methods of administering and organising works, ele- 
ments of commercial law, depreciation, estimating, 
costing, and the writing of specifications. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103 | 


May mankind be generous and. 


CamBRIDGE.—Major H. McCombie, 


to a fellowship at King’s College. 


Lerps.—The council of the University has accept 
with regret the resignation of Dr. C. Lovatt 


lecturer th 
chemistry in Birmingham University, has been elected 


vans, 


professor of experimental physiology and experimental _ 


pharmacology, who is leaving the Leeds Medical 
School at the end of June next in order to undertake 
research work in the Department of Pharmacology and 
Biochemistry of the Medical Research Committee. 


Lonpon.—Capt. J. R. Partington has been ap- 
pointed as from April 1, ftg19, to the newly estab- 
lished University chair of chemistry tenable at East 
London College. In r910 Capt. Partington was elected 
Beyer research fellow of the University of Manchester, 


and in 1911 he was awarded an 1851 Exhibition scholar. 


ship. From 1911 to 1913 he studied under Profs. 
Nernst and Planck at Berlin. 
assistant lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry at 
Manchester, and, having served in the rev ition 
1914-16, he was recalled to take charge of es i 
the Ministry of Munitions Inventions 

His principal publications are ‘t Higher pike ete 

for C hemical Students ’’ and ‘“‘ A Text-book of oe 


# dynamics.” 

It can now. be announced that the anonymous 
donor who in 1911 presented to the University the 
“sum of 30,0001. for the erection of a school of archi- © 


tecture, a department of eugenics, and © oa 
studios at the college is Sir Herbert H. Bartlett, 
The School of Architecture and the Departaieiat a of 


Eugenics have been already completed, and the Sculp- 


ture Studios, towards the cost of which Sir Herbert 


Bartlett. has. presented an additional sum of 1 
will be put in hand. immediately. 

An offer by Mr. G. S. Baker. of 5ool. for the penned 
tion at University College of a prize for the en- 
couragement of botanical research to be n after 
his daughter, the late Dr. Sarah M. Baker, an old 
student and member of the staff of the college, has 
been accepted by the Senate with thanks. 

Owing to ill-health, Prof. Vaughan Harley has 
resigned’ the. chair of pathological chemistry, sung 
he has held for, twenty-three years. 

The degree of D.Sc. in biochemistry has been c 
ferred on Mr. E, C. Grey, an internal student, of ie 
Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, for a thesis 
entitled ‘The Enzymes of B. coli communis.’ 


Mr. A. P. McMULLEN, senior science master, Royal 
Naval College, Dartmouth, has been appointed Adviser 
on Education, Admiralty. 

Tue Pharmazeutische Zeitung reports the following 
changes in German botanical chairs :—Prof. | wig 
Jost, of Strasburs, succeeds at Heidelberg Prof. G. 


Klebs, who died last October in his sixty-first year, 


and*Dr. W. Ruhland, of Halle, succeeds Byer “von 
Vochting at Tiibingen. 


Ir is announced in Science that the Ciknests Cor- 


poration of New York has voted a grant of 100,000. 
to the Medical Department of Queen’s Universi 

Kingston, Ont. 
will of Dr. James Douglas, New 
tional on an additional 100,000, being raised. 


Tue committee of the Summer School of Civics 
and, Eugenics has arranged to hold its second school 
in August next, during the first two weeks. 
centre selected for the meeting this year is Cam- 
bridge. 


dealing with the scientific bases of educational and 
social work, and the lectures of the second week 
with special applications of’ civics and eugenics 


. The’ 


In 1913 he was appointed — 


ee 


This grant is related to that in t e : 
ork, and is condi- 


The programme will fall into two portions, — 
the first week being devoted to a preparatory course 


APRIL 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


97 


the work of the teacher and social worker respec- 
_ All communications should be addressed to the 
stary, Summer ool of Civics and Eugenics, 
’s Inn Fields, London, W.C.2. 


‘ 2 are about to be submitted to the Senate of 
ie University of London, in the interests of de- 
ed officers and’ men, of released war-workers 
ler persons, proposals for starting next session 
the University a special two years” course of 
ensive study for intending journalists, and for 
a University diploma in journalism to be 
“after examination to students taking the 
burse. The proposals have been drafted by 
ee formed of leading members of the Uni- 
ity of London under the chairmanship of Sir 
ney Lee, Dean of the faculty of arts, in conference 
h the chief officers of the Institute of Journalists 
_tepresentatives of the Appointments Department 

linistry of Labour and of the Board of Educa- 
Persons interested in the matter are invited to 
sate, by letter only, with Sir Sidney Lee at 
versity of London, South Kensington, S.W.y, 
ace the words “Courses for Journalists” on 
of the envelope. 


JETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


) Lonpon. 
er 20.—Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 


chair.—Dr. C. Chree: Magnetic 
March Ad and August 15-16, 1918, and 
ussion., The storms were of the same general 
‘one which occurred on December 16-17, 1917, 
d was di: ed in a previous paper; but, unlike the 
evious storm, they both had conspicuous S.C.’s 
udden commencements”’). The movements con- 
ig the S.C. on August 15-16 were unusually 
their oscillatory character was very pro- 
court and Eskdalemuir. In both cases, 
n of December, 1917, disturbance was 
at Eskdalemuir than at Kew, especially 
‘force. The declination changes at the 
tather a close resemblance, but the 
other elements differed at times not 
e, but also in general character. The 
t Agincourt on March 7-8 was similar 
y to that at Eskdalemuir, but conspicuously 
2 many details. There were some exceed- 


ge and ra 


at Agincourt, the range of 
oo 2° 5’, as compared 
K - artin: The transparency of 
infra-red radiations. 


re Tables and curves 
g the variation in transmission of biotite with 
-length at various temperatures are given, and 
in possible explanations are examined. , The 
neral nature of the effect is a halving of the trans- 
ssion for a rise in temperature of about 200° C. 

arch 27.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the 
ir—H. L, Hawkins: The morphology and’ evolu- 
1 of the ambulacrum in the Echinoidea.—Dr. R. 
rrison: The genesis of oedema in beri-beri. 

ical Society, February 28.+-Prof. C. H. Lees, 
ent, in the chair.—P.:R. Coursey: Simplified 
nce calculations, with special reference to thick 
e method of -calculation “advocated in the 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


for various coil thicknesses. By the aid of a single 
sheet of curves giving values of these correction 
factors the inductance of any form of coil likely to 
be met with in practice may be readil calculated, 
using only one simple standard formula a! all cases. 
—Dr. R. Dunstan: Acoustic experiments in connection 
with whistles and flutes. Experiments were made 
with hollow spheres, cylinders, and cones with. holes 
of various sizes and in various positions. Bernoulli’s 
theorem, which pen the wave-length of the sound 
produced by a cylindrical pipe in terms of the length 
of the pipe and an end-correction depending on the 
diameter only, was shown to be inadequate for prac- 
tical purposes, the pitch depending on many other 
factors, such as the wind-pressure, the size and shape 
of the blow-hole, etc. Cylindrical flutes appear to 
require an end-correction which—within certain limits 
—is’ equal to D?/d, where D is the diameter of the 
pipe and d the mean diameter of the mouth-hole 
(which is. often oval in shape). In the shortest flute 
experimented with, which was only } in. long, Ber- 
noulli’s theorem would give the wave-length as 2 in., 
whereas it was actually 14 in. The conclusions drawn 
from the experiments are that in blowing across a 
hole in a hollow body a force existed on an elastic 
substance. The result is a “spring back,” which 
produces an aerial throb, puff, or pulsation. The 
frequency of the pulsation is determined by relations 
between the dimensions of the instrument, the size 
of the hole, the wind-pressure, etc. Any resulting 
sound has its wave-length determined by the frequency, . 
and not primarily by the dimensions of the instru- 
ment, as in the usual text-book treatment.—G. 
Brodsky: A new polariser. In the course of ri- 
ments with polarisers built of piles of glass plates 
disadvantages due to bulkiness of the apparatus and 
loss of light had to be overcome. The idea occurred 
to the author to place the pile of plates between two . 
prisms of the same glass in such a manner as to 
(a) reduce the length of the polariser by one-half; 
(b) utilise the full aperture of the pile; and (c) get 
rid of all reflected light. Results obtained with experi- 
mental prisms were so good that they could be con- 
sidered a very. fair substitute for Nicol prisms of 
corresponding size, and the very small amount of 
light escaping through crossed prisms (which could be 
reduced further by additional plates) is for most pur- + 
poses negligible. There would be no difficulty in. 
building such polarisers to any required size, as all 
the material consisted entirely of glass in unlimited 
quantities and at a reasonable price, and it was hoped 
that this invention (British patent No. 121,906) would 
be used for many purposes. Experiments with piles 
of glass plates showed a very large discrepancy be- 
tween the calculated and observed angle for best ex- 
tinction. Whatever the glass used, and whatever the 
quality of the surface, this discrepancy came con- 
sistently to some 10°. whereas thin microscope-cover 
plates were found to be useless. There seemed to be 
still an interesting field for investigation as to the 
conditions affecting the surface of glass plates used 
in polarisers. 


Aristotelian Society, March 17.—Dr. G. E. Moore, 
president, in the chair.—A. E. Heath: The .scope of . 
the scientific method, Though the man of science makes 
a conscious effort to avoid anthropocentric bias in- his - 
treatment of any field, this does not mean that he 
is confined to non-human fields. 


98 


NATURE 


[ApriL 3, 1919 


mule, of an unanalysed. field of “primary fact.” 
This is accomplished by the setting up of appropriate 
conceptual constructions by the two processes of ab- 
straction and of generalisation by analogy, the method 
being sterilised: by constant reference back to primary 
fact. (2) It is then shown in detail that such syn- 
thetic ordering of a primary field is both possible and 
helpful in biology, political theory, history, and 
zsthetics, though in the more concrete fields only 
qualitative treatment is as yet possible. (3) Finally, 
it is contended that the business of philosophy is the 
analysis of the primary data accepted uncritically in 
each field. Its method is thus a “reverse scientific 
method.” One is ready to increase hypothetical 
entities for the purposes of economical description, 
according to Mach’s principle; the other limits entities 
to those left after radical analysis, 
Ockham’s principle of parsimony. The two principles 
are not contradictory, but complementary. 


Linnean Society, March 20.—Sir David Prain, presi- 
dent, in the chair—F. Lewis: Notes on a visit to 
Kunadiyaparawitta Mountain, with a list of the plants 
obtained and their altitudinal distribution. This 
curious mountain is nearly due west of the sacred 
‘“Adam’s Peak,’’ and rises abruptly to an altitude of 
5186 ft. above the sea, and is surrounded by forest. 
The summit is small in extent, surrounded by preci- 
pices, in the path of the south-west monsoon, which 
strikes on this isolated peak and by its force dwarfs 
the vegetation on it. The rainfall on the eastern base 
is about 230 in. per annum, and on the western side 
about 330 in. yearly. The flora appears to be largely 
endemic, animal life is practically absent, and wind 
transport of seeds of those plants which are on the 
summit seems unlikely. Forty-nine plants were col- 
lected on the mountain-top in one day’s visit, and 
were determined at Peradeniya, and the names are 
“appended to the paper; of the forty-nine, ten only are 
found outside Ceylon, the remainder being endemic.— 
Miss M. Rathbone: Specimens of plants preserved by 
submitting them to the action of formalin vapour. 
plants preserved in this way, the microscopic characters 
of the tissues and the form of the flower and relation- 
ship of its parts are less altered than in dried speci- 
mens, whilst for travellers the specimens are lighter 
and moré convenient to carry than plants preserved 
in spirit—H. R. Amos: Wheat-breeding in Argentina. 

‘he paper deals with work done by Mr. W. O. Back- 
house and the author in breeding wheats suitable for 
the country and its diverse climates, the northern 


portion being warmer than the southern, which is 


subject to occasional frost; consequently their require- 
ments are not the same. Results were described of 


crossing “ Barletta’’ and ‘ Rieti,” both commonly cul-. 


tivated forms in the Argentine, with a Russian variety, 
others between a Chinese form and ‘ Barletta,” with 
the view of obtaining forms immune to rust and not 
liable to shell out the grain on harvesting. 


Mineralogical ‘Society, March 18.—Sir William P. 
Beale, Bt., president, in the chair.—L. J. Spencer : Curva- 
ture in crystals. 
of many different kinds, and due to as many different 
causes. Numerous examples, figured in the literature 
and illustrated by specimens in.the British Museum 
collection of minerals, are grouped under the head- 
ings: Curved crystallites and feathery microlites, 
capillary habit, aggregations of crvstals, interfacial 
oscillation, vicinal faces, bent crystals and plastic de- 
formation, twisted crystals, and cylindrical (?) and 
spherical (?) crystals (a supposition leading to a 
reductio ad absurdum).—Lieut. A. B. Edge: Siliceous 
sinter from Lustleigh, Devon. The district round 
Lustleigh, near Bovey Tracey, is mined on a small 
scale for a very fine quality of micaceous hematite, 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


according to 


In 


The curvature of crystals is evidently — 


which occurs there in well-defined lodes traversing y 
At the Plumley. Mine (now disused) on 
the walls of one of these lodes is found a peculiar ~ 


the granite. 


banded material, somewhat resembling lithomarge or 


halloysite, which on analysis proved to be a siliceous. 
sinter or opal, with an approximate percentage com- 


position of silica 70, water 21, hematite 6, alumina, 
soda, and potash 3, and a low specific gravity 1-73. 
It is hard and compact, and shows a beanhaen 
banded structure, the layers being tinted to raryine 
degrees by limonite and finely divided flakes of 
micaceous haematite. “The general appearance of the 
material and the presence of delicately. overfolded 
ripples in the banding suggest that it was originally 
deposited on the walls of the lode in the form of a 
jelly, and solidified by loss of water. Such loss edn- 
tinues at a very slow rate when specimens are kept 
in a dry atmosphere, and after some years the surface 
becomes soft and powdery. The sinter is very fragile, 
breaking conchoidally even’ when most carefully 


handled; this may be caused, by the shrinkage strains =: : 
athiss 94 


set up during solidification. The source of 
hydrated silica is rather doubtful; it probably formed 
part of the aqueous injection which deposited the 
hematite, but may possibly have been leached from 
the granite during the formation of the lode.—A. F. 
Hallimond: An anorthic metasilicate from acid-steel 
furnace slags. A description of the slags will be com-- 
municated to the Iron and Steel Institute. 
stance is a metasilicate of iron, manganese, calcium, 

and magnesium, and appears as flat, elongated — 
crystals, with the following characters :—Forms — 
b(o10), m(110), M(1i0), P(1i2), Z(10i), (310), con-— 
stants a 99° 37, 8 110° 57’, y 82° 3% 5@8 On Gane 
1-156: 110-407; perfect cleavages parallel to m and M, 
mM =95° 93’; colour clear amber-vellow, not pleo-— 


chroic; optical characters, 2V=653°; negative, B= 


1-701; axial plane nearly normal to the cleavage zone; 
extinction on a, 5°; acute bisectrix nearly normal to— 
a.—Dr. T. Prior: The meteorites Adare and 
Ensisheim. The percentage amount of nickeliferous 
iron, and the ratio of iron to nickel in it, were found 
to be respectively 18 and 13 in the case of Adare, and 
33 and 33 in the case of Ensisheim, which results | 
support the view that in chondritic meteorites the less - 
the amount of nickeliferous iron, the richer it is in 
nickel.—Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith: A students’ gonio- 
meter. This instrument, which was made by Messrs. 


J. H. Steward. Ltd., is of the type in which the — 


direction of reference is given by the reflection. of 
some distant object in a mirror, and in which the 
axis of the graduated circle is horizontal. 
socket joint provides the mirror with all the necessary 


adjustments in direction, and it is also movable — 


vertically in the plane of the axis of the circle. The 

crystal-holder is provided with a simple and convenient 
form of adjustment, which enables a crystal to he 

measured, as regards one half, without removal from 

the wax. i 

setting of the crystal in.the axis of the circle. spss 


Zoological Society, March 18.—Mr. A. Ezra in the 


chair.—H. R. A. Mallock : 
mechanics.—H. F. Blaauw: 
gazella at Gooilust. 
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, March 20.—Mr. 
H. F. Marriott. president, in the chair.—Sir Thomas | 
Kirke Rose: The volatilisation of gold. It is now — 
well known that gold is volatile at temperatures not 


Some points in insect — 


far above its melting point, both in vacuo and at 


“E 


atmospheric pressures, and researches have shown _ 


that the factors affecting volatilisation, apart from 

time, temperature, and amount of exposed surface, — 
are (a) the composition of the bullion, (b) the com-— 
position of the gases in contact with the gold, and — 


The sub- | 


A ball-and- 


A pointer on a swinging arm facilitates the _ . 


The breeding of Oryx 


is hte 


+ 


“ ji 


ee 
bs 


—-- 


SD Retna 


< 


4 
at 


z 
. 


i 


sensitive reaction for copper. 


Sue Aprit 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


99 


_ (c) the movement of these gases over the surface of 
the metal. Nevertheless, the results of these re- 

searches do not agree, and in order to obtain further 
data the author instituted experiments described in 
_ this paper. He deals in detail with the apparatus em- 
ployed and the methods adopted in pursuing his 
ivestigations, and gives the following conclusions as 
the result of his work :—(1) The true volatilisation of 
gold is so small as to be negligible at the temperatures 
of industrial melting furnaces, say 1000° to: 1300° C. 
It is difficult to measure with accuracy the 
infinitesimal amounts volatilised_ at these tempera- 
“tures. (2) It is probable that the nature of the atmo- 
sphere, provided that it is maintained unchanged, has 
no effect on volatilisation. Even in a strong draught 
the amount volatilised remains exceedingly small. 
Cerfain gold alloys, when molten, take up oxygen 
m atmospheres containing it, and will afterwards 
; irt or effervesce in a reducing atmosphere until the 
oxygen has been removed. Similarly, hydrogen, and 
in a less degree carbon monoxide, are occluded by 

uch molten alloys, and the metal then spirts in an 
sing yp ail In spirting, showers of 
iles of the alloys of all sizes are thrown up, and 
‘smaller ones, éspecially those of less than 
m. in diameter, are carried away by any 
10wever slight, and are difficult to, recover. 


copper also spirt freely. (5) It is this action which 


‘causes the unrecovered losses in melting such alloys 
in crucibles without a cover of slag.—W. S. Curteis : 


Cobar stope-measurement methods. This paper deals 
with the methods adopted in measuring the stopes of 
the Grez bar Mine for the purpose of working out 
‘the pay-sheets of the miners fortnightly, in place of 
the former practice of paying in a final settlement 
‘when the ore was withdrawn from the stope. With 
‘this end in view two different methods were em- 
ployed, according to the form and peculiarities of the 
stope outline, and the author sets out the two systems 
of calculation in great detail, accompanied by sketches 
in elucidation. It is found that the measurements 
required for this purpose are also capable of being 
“utilised 


d for other purposes, including the calculation 
ee es be ‘ oe 


Ba Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, March 10.—M. _ Léon 


‘ Guignard in the chair—L. Lecornu: The flow of 


eee 
.. 


ds. A discussion of a-. theorem published by 


 Hugoniot .in 1886.—_M. Hamy: The study of 
the perturbations of the optical axis of a 


meridian telescope. An account of the method of 
determining the constants defined in a previous com- 
-munication.—L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy: A very 
Application to the 
analyses of ashes and arable earths. The reaction 


r 


| is based on a blue coloration developed by traces of 


3 Skeid ‘salts by the action of a ferro-cyanide in 

presence of a trace of a zinc salt. Iron interferes, 
iat Betails of its method of removal are given. The 
solution can detect 1 milligram of copper in a litre of 


_ solution.—H. Parenty: A steam expansion controller, 


e reduced pressure increasing with the amount 


& required by the main.—G. E. Hale was elected a 
_ foreign associate in succession to A. von Baeyer.—J. 


# 
* 
Fs 


Drach: The integration, by quadratures, of the 
DY ee d’y/dx?=(F(x, y).—P. Fatou: Singular lines 
of analytical functions.—G. Julia: A general. property 


“J 


_ of entire functions related to Picard’s theorem.—A. 


> 


PT 
ef 
"3 
¥ 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


Buhl ; The exchange of the parameter and the argu- 
ment. Analogies with the reduction of double 
integrals of the second species.—F. Michaux: Emis- 
sive theories and the Doppler-Fizeau principle. The 
fact that the Doppler formula is verified when the 
wave-length is measured by an interferometer is not 
in agreement with the theories of Tolman and 
Thomson-Stewart, but is in accord with either the 


theory of Ritz or that of Lorentz.—J. Rey: The 
physical | 5 ghey of petrol vapour. For a_ petrol 
density of 0-8 at o° C. the characteristic equation of 


the vapour is sensibly of the form p(v+a)=RT, 
where a is 0-024 and R 5-09. <A formula is also 
deduced for the flow of superheated petrol vapour.— 
E. Cornec; The spectrographic study of the ashes of 
marine plants. A list is given of nineteen elements 
recognised by the pi cota in the ashes of sea- 
weed. Gold, bismuth, gallium, and germanium exist 
only in the state of spectroscopic trace. The elements 
not previously recognised in marine plants include 
antimony, germanium, glucinum, titanium, tungsten, 
and vanadium.—A. Bigot: The geology of the Col du 
Cotentin.—P. Guérin: Urera humblotii and its affini- 
ties —H. Coupin: The absorbing power of the root- 
tip. Contrary to the view currently held, the tip of 
the root can absorb water in sufficient quantity to 
produce germination.—M. __Molliard : Egg-albumin 
constitutes a sa food for Isaria densa.—G. 
Rivigre and G. Bailhache: Amygdalopersica formonti. 
—J, Chifflot: The secretory canals of some Ges- 
neracez, and in particular of those of Monophyllaea 
horsfieldii.__M. Mirande: The cytological formation 
of starch and of oil in Chara.—A.. Lécaillon: The 
changes observed in the reproduction and develop- 
ment in Chinese polyvoltin sillkkworms when trans- 
ported and raised in France. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 

Pensions for Hospital Officers and Staffs. Report 
of a Sub-Committee of the Executive Committee of 
King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London. Pp. v+ 
273. (London: C. and E. Layton.) 7s. 6d. net. 

Manual de Fabricantes de Azucar de Cafia y 
Quimicos Azucareros. Por Dr. G. L. Spencer. 
Traduccién autorizada de la 6° edicién Inglesa, pes el 
Dr. G. A. Cuadrado. Pp. xvii+617. (New York: F. 
Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London : Chapman and Hall, 


Ltd.) . 23s. net. : 
Analytic Geometry. By Prof. M. M. Roberts and 
Pp. x+245. (New York: J. 


Prof. J. T. Colpitts. 
Wiley and Sons, Ine. ; London: Chapman and Hall, 


Ltd.) 7s. 6d. net 

Practical Pyrometry. By E. S. Ferry, G. A. Shook, 
and J. R. Collins. Pp. vii+147. (New York: . J. 
Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London : Chapman and Hall, 
Ltd.) 7s. net. 

Practical Physiological Chemistry. By Prof. P. B. 
Hawk. Sixth edition. Pp. xiv+661+vi plates. 
(London: J. and A. Churchill.) 21s. net. 

Food Control Mismanagement: The Tragedy of 
Milk Production. By Prof. R. Wallace. Pp. 40. 
(Edinburgh: Oliver and Bovd.) 6d. : 

Democratic Ideals and. Reality: A Study in the 
Politics of Reconstruction. By H. Mackinder. 
Pp. 272. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd.) 7s. 6d. 


net. 

National Life from the Standpoint of Science. By 
Prof. K. Pearson. Third issue. Pp. 106. (London: 
Cambridge University Press.) 1s. 6d. net. 

The Function of Science in the Modern State. By 
Prof. K. Pearson. Second edition. Pp. vii+97. 
(London: Cambridge University Press.) 2s. net. 

Elementarv Mensuration, Constructive Plane Geo- 
metry, and Numerical Trigonometry. 


- 


< 


By P. Goyen. . 


Pp. viii+ sha 


100 


NATURE 


[ApRit 3, 1919 


(hadanie Macmnilies ad Cé., Lita) 
3s. 6d. 
Mathematical Papers for Admission into the Royal 


_ Military Academy and the Royal Military College, and 


Papers in Elementary Engineering for Naval Cadet- 
ships, July and November, 1918. Edited by R. M. 
Milne. Pp. 36. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 
Is, 3d. 

Prothése Fonctionnelle des Blessés de 
Troubles Physiologiques et Appareillage. 
Ducroquet... Pp. ii+235. (Paris: 


Guerre. 
By Dr. 
Masson et Cie.) 


5 francs. 
_. Lectures-on the Philosophy of Mathematics. | By 
J. B. Shaw. Pp. vii+206. (Chicago and London: 
~The Open Court Publishing Co.) 6s. net. 
. The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency. By 
Prof, F. S. Lee. Pp. vii+119. (London: Longmans 
and Co.) 5s. net. 

Animal Parasites and Human Disease. By Dr. 
A. E. Chandler. Pp. :xiiit+570. (New York: J. 


meee 


Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 


London: Chapman and Hall, 
Ltd.) 21s. net. 


Notes. Problems, and Laboratory Exercises in 
Mechanics, Sound, Light, Thermo-Mechanics, and 
- Hydraulics. By. Prof. H. Dunwoody. Pp. v +369. 
(New York: J. Wiley and. Sons, Inc.; London : 
Chapman and Hall. Ltd.) 13s. 6d. net. 

-», The Development of Forest Law in America. By 
J.P. Kinney. Pp. xvilit+254+xxi. (New York: J. 


Kinney. Pp. xix+279+x. 


138. 6d; net. 


- INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, 


Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, 
Ltd.) 11s, 6d. net. 

_. The Essentials of American Timber Law. By 1. P. 
(New York: J. Wiley and 
Sons, Chapman and. Hall, Ltd.) 


tec. ndon : 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY. Apr 

Roya InstiTuTION, at 3.—Prof. A. Findlay: " Colloidal Matter and its 
Properties. 

Rovar Society, at 4.20.—Dr. T. R. Merton and Prof. J. W. Nicholson: 
Note on the Intensity Decrement in the Balmer Series.—Prof. E. W 
Brown: The Determination of the Secular BS pep sortie of the Moon’s 
Longitude from Modern Observations.—Dr. W. Rosenhain ‘and S. L. 
Archbutt: The Inter-crystalline Fracture of Metals under Prolonged 
Application of Stress.—Dr. J. R. Airey : Zonal Harmonics of High Order 
in Terms of Bessel Functions. 

Linnean Society, at 5.—W. B. Brierley: An Albino Mutant of Botewiis 
cinerea.—Dr. J. D. F, Gilchrist: he Post-Puerulus Stage of /asus 
Jalandii.—Montagu Drummond: The Ecology of a Small Area in 
Palestine. 

Cui_p-Stupy Society, at 6.—Dr 
Training of Young Children. 


. E. Pritchard: Home v. Institutional 


at 6.—Lt.-Col. A. G. T. 
Cusins : The Development of Army Wireless during the War. 
CHEMICAL Society, at 8. 
SATURDAY, ApRiL's. 
Royat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson: Spectrum Analysis and its 
Application to Atomtic Structure. 


MONDAY, Aprit 7. 


- Roya Society or Arts, at 4.30.—Prof. H. E. Armstrong: Problems of 


Food and their Connection with our Economic Policy. 
Society or ENGINEERS, at 5.—Prof. J. Young : Modern Explosives. 
Rovat GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, at 8.—Miss Czaplicka : Poland, 


~ ARISTOTELIAN Society, at 8.—A. F. Shand: Value in Relation to 


Emotion. 

Society or CuemicaL InpustrRY, at 8.—E. A. Alliott: Drying by Heat 
in Conjunction with Mechanica! Agitation and Spreading.—Dr. P. 
Spielmann and F. Butler Jones: The Estimation of Carbon Disulphide. 
A Critical Fxamination of the various Methods usually Employed.—Dr. 
P. E. Spielmann and Dr. S. P. Schotz:' The Estimation of Thiophene. — 
Dr. P. E. Spie)mann and H. Wood: The Estimation of “ Free Carbon ” 


in Tar and Pitch. : 
TUESDAY, ApRIL 8. 


~ Rovar INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof A. Keith: British Ethnology—The 


People of Scotland. 

RoyaL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 5.—Lieut. KE. W. P. Chinnery: 
Reactions, of Certain New Guinea Primitive People to Government 
Control. 


- Zoovocicar Socigty, -at 5.30.-—Dr. F, BE. Beddard : Three Foetal Sperm- 


InsTrruTion oF Civit. ENGINEERS, at 5.30.—G. Hughes: 


Whales.—L. T. Hogben: The Progressive Reduction of the Jugal in the 
Mammalia.—G. A. Boulenger: Description of Two New Lizards and a 
New Frog from the Andss of Colombia. 

The Electrical 


and Mechanical Equipment of the All-metal Cars of the Manchester-Bury 
Section, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.—F. E. Gobey : All-metal 
Passengar Cars for British Railways. 

IL1.UMINATING ENGINEERING SOCIETY, at 8.—J. B. Fagan 
Colour in Relation to Stage Production. 


NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 


: Light and 


Rovat InsTITUTION, at 3.—Sir J. J 


WEDNESDAY, Apri 9 

InstITUTION or Naval, ARCHITECTS, at 1x a.m. * The R sae 
of Durham, K.G.: Presidential Address.—Sir Philip’ rane "Sheth 
British’ Navy on August 4, 1914, an 3 Some Matters of Interest in Connec 
tion with their Production.—Sir E. H. Tennyson d’Eyncourt: 
Construction during the War.—S. V. Goodall: The Naval Construct 
Corps of the United Statés Navy. 

pig esd Society oF ARTS, at 4.30.—Prof. L, E. Hill: Housing afi loft 

ortality. 

GeotocicaL Socigety,.at 5.30.—W. Whitaker: The Section at Mi sthis 
Heath (Surrey), with Remarks on Tertiary Pebble-beds and on at 
Flints.—G. MacDonald Davies: Petrological Examination of the B at 
Worms Heath. 


Royat AERONAUTICAL SocrzTy, at 8.—Col. H. G. Lyons: ‘The Supply : 
of Meteorological Information for Aeronautical Purposes. 
THURSDAY, Arrit 10. pecers ie 
isantrosen OF ‘Nava. ”ARCHITECTS, at 11 a.m.—A., E.; Seaton: The 


Work of the British Marine Engineering Design-and- Constraction Com- 
mittee.—Signor S$: Orlando : Italian Two Floodable Compartment Cargo — 
Steamers Built during the War.—Sir E. H. Tenn 
Graham : 
Merchant Ship Construction.—At 3.—C. I. . Campbel 
of Airship Construction.—W. L. Scott: Concrete SO bataioe to 
United States of America.—At 7.30.—The 
and. Stanley S$. Cook: Investigation into the Causes of C 
Erosion of Propellers.—J. H. Gilson : The Michell Thrust Ble 
reeay INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. A: Findlay + Colloidal Mastar-and its 
roperties. 
ae or MIniInGc AND METALLURGY, at s.—Major HL Standish — 
: The Work of the Miner on the Western Front. — 
Fheew oh HistTorIcav Society, at 5.—R. A. Gregory : Science in the History 
of Civilisation. 


ent 


ion and 


son, d’E) and T. ” 
Some Recent Developments towards a Riya ye tion of — 


i 


f 


4 


‘the 
Hon. Sir C. A, Parsons 


INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—R. J. Kale: ‘Mote on ' 


Surface Condensing Plants, with Special ° Reference, to 
of Large Power Stations. Bes 
Optical Socrety, at 7.30.—J. W. French: The Unaided Bye sor, Smith: 
The Spacirig of Glass-working Tools. yagtart 
FRIDAY, ApRIL tk ort wits 
InstituTIon OF NAvaL ARCHITECTS, .at.11 am.—W. H.. 
Experiences with Electric Welding in Warships.—Dr. ; ae 
Further Experiments on the Stre-s Determination i ivi F So 


A. T. Wall: The Tonnage of Modern pepe © neat: : 
Model Experiments on the Effect of Beam on whe Be ciamce Models. 
esi ee hip i 


Ship Forms.—J.. Semple : Some Experiments on Full Car; 

RoOvAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5 

Roya. IwnstiTUTION, at -5;30.—Sir J. J. Thomson: Pic leity and 
its Applications. . 

SATURDAY, ApRit 12. 

i Thomson: S 

» Application to Atomic Structure. a ee 


rn? Us 
a 


CONTENTS. . 

Preservation of Timber in India. ee Pr 

Groom ... : 
Prof. Righi’s Researches. By N, R. 1: é 
Our Bookshelf { os 


Letters to the Editor:— ay) Fee re 
The Colour of the Scales of Tridbaenigs Inkeots | in) 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Lip, 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 
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Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic’ Addiess : Puusts, Lonpon. Ligh Dn 
Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. Lae ) 


nts 


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Transmitted Light.—The Hon. H. Onslow .. 84 
Matter and Radiation.—Horace H. Poole — ee (84. 
National Fisheries. —Capt. G. C. L. Howell ; uae 3 
' Writer of the Note . . arr ery 
Coal in Thrace.—Canon Edmund M‘ Clure | Crwtt BSe 

The Machinery of Government . . cies) eee 
Sir E. C. Stirling, C.M.G., F.R.S. By C folie oh eRe 87 
Notes . : bs Saab stly 1. Oe 
Our Astronomical Column :— ‘ eo hee 
Comet 19144 (Neujmin) 2.2 ci ae es ey eit el 7 92 
Comet 1915@ (Mellish) » <5. 05:3 cn Geen eerste 
The Cepheid Variables: . © « © 4. + fe shin «1192 
War Work. of :British Chemists. 574 eyee Oe 
Energy Transmission . . CEE HEEL Oe 

The Problem of Radio-active Lead. II. By Prot, ; 
Theodore W. Richards . bein.) dione sy 
University and Educational Intelligence . ‘as ato ae, 
Societies and Academies. .... Men aac MG: F 5 
Books Received: ..°. i 8 ag et eee 
“Diary: of Societies 25s (20. irae a) ae ea ee 
(INDEX. ) [ cae, iy 


1Ol 


- THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1919. 


7 aaa ae 
MODERN OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS. 
“Theory of Modern Optical Instruments: 
Reference Book for Physicists, Manufac- 
ers of Optical Instruments, and for Officers 
the Army and Navy. By Dr. Alexander 
: Translated from’ the German by 
Emsley and W. Swaine. With an ap- 
x on “Rangefinders.’”’ Pp. xii+ 376. 
don: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 
) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
‘book before us is of special interest, 

@ it is the first of several German 
optical subjects which were selected 
on into English by the Standing Com- 
Glass and Optical Instruments, ap- 
‘December, 1916, by the Advisory 
Scientific and Industrial’ Research. 

n be but little doubt that Dr. Gleichen’s 
included by the Committee primarily on 
he unusually complete descriptions and 

of modern optical instruments which 


greater part of the volume. Its title is, 
fact, sc mewhat misleading, for the theoretical 
bes not go beyond elementary principles, 


eb OP Sa ite teats pe ; 
: ned any means exhaustive even with 
e. To be really useful, a theory 

optical instruments must deal chiefly 
errations, and especially with those of 
as ae? ay OW 
é For with regard to telescopes a 
Ider Steinheil is still true, that ‘‘ all 
s of these instruments have aimed, 
9F unconsciously, at making them 
h regard to microscopic lenses the 
S to increase the numerical aperture 
| the useful field without loss of 
with photographic objectives fine 
dom from distortion, rapidity, and 
of wide angle are the principal 
nd subjects of competition. In every 
epends almost entirely on skilful 
' the higher aberrations and on the 
types in which these are of sufficiently 
“magnitude. On this important subject the 
De. ne is practically dumb. 

the eighty-four pages devoted to the 
nentz theory, we find chap. vi., in which the 
an eye is very fully and clearly dealt with. 
PO seburns to this important subject in 
ip. Xv., in which the more elaborate aids to 


o 


: are also reviewed in a very lucid manner. 
he description of telescopes is found in 
>. ix. Prismatic instruments naturally receive 
attention. Designers will welcome the large 
ver of different types of erecting prisms, of 


ch clear illustrations are given, but will look 


ta and for a discussion of the conditions: on 
_ which perfect results depend. : 
_ Rangefinders are dealt with in chap. xi. 


| It 
Brat 
Ls: NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


ie a 


vision are described, and ophthalmo- | 


will be taken for granted that German instru- 
ments monopolise the author’s attention. This 
deficiency is very fully rectified by an ap- 
pendix to the book, in which the translators (both 
of whom are members of Messrs. Barr and 
Stroud’s ‘staff) give a full and excellent account of 
British rangefinders. This appendix’ concludes 
with a description and illustrations of a captured 
German rangefinder made py Goerz. 

Chap. xii. will be welcomed by English 
opticians, because it gives useful information on 
cystoscopes, which up to the time of the outbreak 
of war were practically a German monopoly. 

The chapter on the microscope is too short to 
do justice to this instrument. 

Photographic objectives are the subject of 
chap. xiv. This chapter contains a large amount 
of useful information and numerous detailed 
formule of actual lenses—mostly modern—which 
will provide interesting material for study by 
designers of such instruments. 

A curious and possibly significant omission in 
the book is that there is no definite mention at 
all of submarine periscopes; there is only: a 
vague hint on p. 160 that they “may have a 
length of several metres.’’ 

It will have been gathered that the work, whilst 
not quite answering to its principal title, contains 
a large amount of information not otherwise 
readily accessible, and that it should therefore 
prove of value as a reference-book. Its utility in 
this respect is enhanced by a bibliography and 
a very complete alphabetical index at the end. 

The translation is very well done, and, in addi- 
tion to the appendix already mentioned, the trans- 
lators have inserted numerous notes at the ends 
of various chapters and at the foot of pages, all 
of which are to the point and of decided value. 

. Av E.C. 


THE.USEFULNESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 

(1) Present-day Applications of Psychology, with 
Special Reference ‘to Industry, Education, and 
Nervous Breakdown. By Lt.-Col. Charles S. 
Myers. Pp. 47. (London: Methuen and Co., 
Ltd., 1918.) Price 1s. net. 

(2) War Neuroses. By Dr. J. T. MacCurdy. 
With a Preface by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. 
Pp. xi+132. (Cambridge: At the University 
Press, 1918.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 

[* evidence be required as to the threadbare - 

condition of the old gibe at psychology as 

a statement of obvious facts in unintelligible 


_ language, we have. it in abundance in these books 
_ by Col. Myers and Dr. MacCurdy. For, while the 


vain for details of the essential constructional | 


clarity of the authors’ expression is obviously the 
natural outcome of a firm grasp of their subjects, 
the facts which they present are probably far from 
obvious to the mind which is not conversant with 
the rapid progress of present-day psychology. 
Moreover, these unobvious facts are not mere 
freakish curiosities, but important strands in the 
material of our social life. 


G 


102 NATURE [APRIL 10, 1919 | ) 


(1) For example, Col. Myers, in discussing the 
important problem of the length of the working 
day, does more than state the proved fact—once 
apparently so paradoxical, to-day merely an item 
in an alert mind’s common sense—that diminu- 
tion of hours of work may be followed by increase 
of output; he gives an analysis of the physio- 
logical and psychological factors affecting work, 
an account which explains convincingly how this 
may come about. We are also reminded of the 
necessity for helping people to realise the principles 
underlying efficient work, and to see the distinc- 
tion between “shorthand methods of work ’”’ and 
“speeding-up.’’ This education is noted as 
urgently desirable for both employers and em- 
ployees. 

In a condensed, but highly suggestive, form 
such problems as the investigation of individual 
differences, the selection of workers for special 
tasks, and the modern conceptions of the nature 
and treatment of nervous breakdown are discussed 
in a way which should convert many to the study 
of modern psychology. The success attending the 
early treatment of cases of mental and nervous 
disorder arising in our armies is graphically 
described, but we are reminded that “hitherto in 
this country, during peace-time, such neurasthenic 
patients have had no treatment beyond a bottle 
of medicine at. the out-patient department of a 
neighbouring general hospital. They have not 
been admitted to a general hospital unless they 
have shown some functional paralysis, nor to an 
asylum until their condition has become one of 
certifiable insanity.”? 

(2) In his treatment of the nervous breakdowns 
of the war, Dr. MacCurdy lays welcome stress 
upon a part of this subject which has tended of 
late to become overshadowed by others. Wide- 
spread interest has been shown in the striking 
“objective’’ disturbances of the war _ psycho- 
neuroses-——the blindnesses, deafnesses, mutisms, 
paralyses, and contractures—and by their equally 
dramatic cures. Dr. MacCurdy, however, does 
not forget that there exists another large class, 
the “anxiety neuroses,’’ whose mental sufferings, 
although (perhaps -because) they do not express 
themselves in obvious bodily disturbances, equally 
call for skilled treatment. He offers an interesting 
and important speculative analysis of the causes 
which lead to these two different groups of dis- 
ability, the “conversion hysteria’? and the 
“anxiety neurosis.’’ The whole book is an ex- 
pression of his sympathetic understanding of the 
mental factors which make for success or failure, 
not only in war, but also in peace. 

The wealth of psychological material contained 
~in these two books, and the convincing evidence 
of its usefulness, adequately support Col. Myers’s 
plea for “institutes of applied psychology in each 
of our largest cities, which may serve as centres 
for attacking these practical problems with the 
“help of experts trained both in psychology and in 

the particular branch in which its help is needed, 
and with the active, enlightened sympathy of the 
general public.’’ 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


A MELANESIAN DICTIONARY. 


Dictionary and Grammar of the. Language of — 
Sa‘a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands. By Walter 
G. Ivens. With appendices. Pp. vii+249+11 
plates. (Washington: Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, 1918.) . |e 

“THE Soloman Islands form the racial centre 

of the Oceanic world. On the south are 
the Melanesians, on the east the Polynesians, — 
whilst westward the Melanesians blend with the — 

Papuans, and northward the Micronesians link — 

both Melanesians and Polynesians to the Indo- — 

nesians. In the Solomons, also, are found remnants — 
of a more primitive people who occupied the — 
islands before their present inhabitants came from 
the west. But, although: thus important, the 
peoples of this region have received comparatively 
little attention from anthropologists, and there 
are only partial records of customs, languages, 
and folk-lore. In this dictionary Dr. Ivens has 
put together his collections of words in repre- 
sentative languages of one part of the Solomon 
group. These are the Sa‘a, at the southern end 
of the large island of Malaita, and the Ulawa (Con- 
trariété Island of the charts), about thirty miles — 
to the east of Sa‘a. Both languages come from 
a common stock, and the author has found it 
quite practicable to adjust grammar and dictionary — 
to the same method of arrangement. The 
language fairly represents the speech of the 
island of Malaita, and, with the Tolo and Lau 
spoken to the north, forms a transition between, 
the languages of San Cristoval and those of 

Guadalcanar and Florida. ee 
The Sa‘a-English part of the dictionary com- 

prises 113 two-column pages of small but very dis- 

tinctly printed type, with twenty pages of English 
index. Several subjects of interest are dealt with 
in the appendices. There is a combined grammar 
of the languages and an account of Melanesian 
linguistics, which, besides a general description, 
deals with such practical matters as the learning 
of the languages and translation work. Here the 
author points out the relation between Melanesian 
and Polynesian, and rejects the theory that Mela- 
nesians have adopted Polynesian words and _ 
forms of speech. He supports the view that the 
languages belong to the same family, the Mela- 
nesian being the older and less worn type. This 
will be evident to the student using the Sa‘a 
dictionary. Though examples such as mad, eye, 
i‘a, fish, might be thought loans from Polynesian, © 
which has the words as mata and ika, other 
words, as, e.g., teru, bone needle, ute, rain, tala, 
path, show no trace of borrowing from the Poly-. 
nesian equivalents au, ua, and ala, because they 
have developed—according to fixed laws—from 
originals which are found even in Indonesia, as, 

e.g., jarum, ujan, jalan. Sa‘a turns j into t, while 

Polynesian loses both the 7 and the +. Bn 
Another linguistic problem which this dictionary 

may help to solve relates to the connection of the 

Solomon Islands with New Guinea, The Sa‘a 

phonology is similar to that of New Guinea, espe- — 


Apri 10, 1919 | 


ane GR 


ally about Hood Bay, where the names Bula‘a 
Aula are suggestive of Ulawa, and of Pulu- 
On the coast of Malaita. The New Guinea 
father, ma, eye, vio, hungry, mauu, sleep, 
sar in Sa‘a as ama, maa, hi‘olo, and ma‘uru, 
there are agreements in grammar as well as 
cabulary. 
e are but two of the 
by the 
book. 


points which may 
purely linguistic portion of Dr. 
The other appendices deal in a 
‘way with Melanesian customs and with 
romantic history of the Melanesian mission 
d the “yacht ”’ cruises of its apostles Selwyn 
feson. There is a chapter on the “black- 
of the labour traffic, and also an account 
Santa Cruz Islands, so tragic in geo- 
and missionary history. 
’s book will be exceedingly useful to 
Melanesian history and languages, 
general reader will find in his sup- 
a great deal of most interesting in- 
bout a region which, although so close 
t southern commonwealth, is singu- 
<nown. SipnEy H. Ray. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 

the Doctrine of the Trinity. By 
A. McDowall. Pp. xxvi+258. 
: At the University Press, 1918.) 


, “Evolution and the Need 
Stewart McDowall sought 
necessity for a teleological inter- 
he evolution-process. He continues 
urous thinking, which is always 
nd his aim is to restate the doctrine of 
in terms that are consonant with 
ht, or with certain lines of modern 
truth of a doctrine does not stand 
's, with the terminology in which it 
and he considers the doctrine of the 
ecie evolutionis, so to speak. 
om a theistic position, recognising 
God as the Ground of Reality, Mr. 
uinks of the material universe as the 
hich a certain definite purpose is 
_ ely, the development of personality. 
1 unique end which justifies the whole in 
the Giant Reptiles, for instance, did 
rding to our author, Man is in eternal 
% ady, and his nature and experience are the 
‘same as God’s, differing only in degree. The 
psychologist divides the mind-states into cogni- 
ion, affection, and conation; the philosopher 
yses human personality into three constitu- 
will, intellect, and emotion; the theologian 
ives God as Father, Son, and Spirit. What 
2 of the developing personality of man must 
e a fortiori true of the developing personality of 
d. Hence the evolutienary re-formulation of 
the doctrine of the Trinity. 
_ Such with all the injustice of condensation is the 
author’s central thesis. To the conventional 
physiologist who sums up man as mechanism, it 
will doubtless appear highly metaphorical, but he 
NO. 2580, VOL. 103 | 


NATURE 


103 


might be none the worse for carefully studying, for 
instance, Mr. McDowall’s very competent discus- 
sion of Freudian psychology. We have much 
doubt, however, whether the author really answers 
his own question in regard to the whole evolution- 
process: “Could the stages, even the human 
stage, be passing time-phases in the development 
of something far greater than we can even begin 
to understand? ”’ 


A Manual of Geometrical Crystallography. Treat- 
ing solely of those Portions of the Subject 
useful in the Identification of Minerals. By 
Prof. G. Montague Butler. Pp. viii+155. 
(New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; Lon- 
don: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1918.) Price 
7s. net. 

In this elementary text-book the information is 

given mainly in the form of a series of definitions, 

and is not easy to follow, even with some previous 
knowledge of the subject. A beginner, especially 
one attempting to work alone, would very likely 
soon become hopelessly confused. The book is, 
however, no doubt intended for the author’s own 
students in the University of Arizona. The vari- 
ous hemihedral and tetartohedral “divisions ’’ of 
each system are developed by the older method 
of suppression of certain faces or groups of faces 
of the holohedral form, and little use is made of 
the more important ideas of symmetry. The 
number of the planes of symmetry appertaining 
to each division is, however, clearly stated; but 
reference to axes of symmetry is omitted, except 
in the incorrect definition: “A symmetry axis is 
a line or direction perpendicular to a symmetry 
plane and passing through the centre of the 
object.’’ Another definition runs: ‘A _ hemi- 
morphic crystal is one in which the law of axes is 
violated ’’; and such crystals are disposed of in 
some other division. Including hemimorphic 
crystals, twenty-two of the. thirty-two possible 
crystal-classes are dealt with, but, since for some 
of them there are no examples amongst minerals, 
the statement on the title-page is rather beside 
the point. Precise instructions for “orienting 
crystals ’’’ are repeated under each crystal-class, 
but, strange to say, few of the text-figures are 
set quite straight on the page. By an unfortunate 
error the title of the book appears on the cover as 
“Geometrical Chrystallography.’’ 


Highways and Byways in Northamptonshire and 
Rutland. By Herbert A. Evans. With illus- 
trations by Frederick L. Griggs. Pp. xvi+ 367 
+map. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
1918,) Price 6s. net. 

PERHAPS no two counties in England have pre- 

served their old-world charm so well as Northamp- 

tonshire and Rutland. A great deal of the daily 
traffic between London and the industrial North 
and between London and Scotland passes through 


| them without leaving any impress upon their 


placid existence. Industry has not supplanted 
agriculture in these two counties; they still retain 
the characteristics of England of a century or two 
ago. Mr. Evans has not aimed at writing a guide- 


104 


NATURE 


[APRIL 10, 1919 


book or a complete account of the geography and 
history of Northamptonshire and Rutland. He 
leads his readers in rambles through the country- 
side, dwelling principally in his descriptions on 
church architecture and_ historical anecdote. 
Modern developments find little place in the book, 
and the scenery and physical features are only 
lightly touched on. It is a book written by an 
archeologist for leisured readers of a like mind 
to whom Northampton and Rutland are native 
shires. Judged from that point of view, it is well 
written and full of interest. More than a hundred 
drawings by Mr. F. L. Griggs ably illustrate the 
volume, and there is a well-executed ey 


LETTERS. TO THE EDITOR. 


[The Editor dees not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- - 


pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 


return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 


scripts intended for this or any other part of > Nature. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | . 


Marine Research at St. Andrews. 
In his letter published in Nature of March 27 
Prof. MelIntosh states that, while the country is 
spending large sums of money on’ international 


marine investigations, the (Gatty Marine Laboratory | 


ef St. Andrews is closed for lack of.funds.. He also 
points out that the Gatty Marine Laboratory and its 
predecessor. at St. Andrews were the institutions 
where many marine zoologists, now occupying im- 
portant positions here and in the Colonies, received 
their training. 

In. spite, however, 
laboratory has _ been 


of the manner in which the 
ignored by the Government 


Departments which might have been expected to give 


it support, it has been the centre for important marine 
research, the results of which must be appealed to 
and recognised long after much of the undigested 


material accumulated under more pretentious condi- 
tions has been buried under thick layers of dust on | 


Government shelves. It is certainly a pity that. in 
this colintry the three Government Departments . con- 


cerned with marine investigations work independently | 


of one another, and that each in turn is prepared to 


adopt a similar policy with reference to the marine | 


laboratories. 

The marine laboratories have claims which, at the 
present time when schemes of reconstruction are 
being. considered, should not be forgotten+-first, . 
useful adjuncts of the biological teaching of our. 
universities; secondly, as centres for training those 
who are to take part in marine investigations; and, 
thirdly, as institutions where marine investigations 


_ are carried out, often to a large extent by voluntary | 


workers. 

“Surely, then, before the Government enters upon 
schemes of investigation, whether national or inter- 
national, involving the expenditure of large sums of 
public money, the first endeavour should be to see 
that those institutions which have already proved so 
valuable are maintained and developed to ‘their fullest 
extent. MEEK. 

~ Dove Marine Laboratorv, Cullercoats, 

Northumberland, March B¥. 


The Machinery of Government. 

TRE quotation from Carlyle with which the article 
on .the above subject opens in Nature of April 3 is 
singularly appropriate—‘A man without a purpose is 
like a ship without, a rudder ”—and the comments of 
the writer are very useful. I add another quotation 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


no doubt, 


‘Greek. name 


from a more obscure source: ‘A man of great know- 
ledge and unweariable perseverance can really, b 


constantly pressing. upon Ministers and Departments, — 
do more than a tired and harassed official to eed 
t 


There is a substratum of truth in 


public ends.” 
The Minis- 


The State Department lacks initiative. 


ter’s time is taken up in assisting to run the political - 


machine, in doing what is brought to him from se 
Department, and in seeing through such thin 

may arise in Parliament in connection with his | ag 
try. The Department itself is engaged in administra- 
tive work, and has little time, or perhaps little in- 
clination, for devising reforms in the interests of the 
industry it represents. It may be argued by the 
Department that such is not the work of an adminis- 
trative Department; and those relying on a 

ment for taking the initiative in any reform ‘should 
consider whether they are entitled to do so. 


No one should know better the wants of an industry 


than the more intelligent and far-seeing among | the 
people who carry it on, and it is for “them to see 
that some means is provided for direct access to the 
Department for suggestion and consultation. _ This 
can .be done by. the appointment of an ad 

council as suggested in the Report of the Mz 
of Government Committee. It is a matter of th 
highest importance to the industries of this eo at 
that when a Department is approached with this en 


in view it should receive the suggestion with ss | 


pathy. 
The methods of appointing the members _ of an 
advisory council should be such as to secure, “so. far 
as possible, the appointment of men in whom those 
in the industry have’ confidence. One 
Mi: ue (Branper. 
paar ee oR 
''Visnallontion of Features. :: IGE ae: 
_ May I direct the attention of readers ‘oh bianathte 
to a strange trick that I have found my FORUTORY:; to 
play me for many.years? It occurs in tl 
eon of visual impressions (“ visuali 
aces 


be 


face not seen for some time, and that I recollect the 
lower: lip to be ‘slightly. pendulous, while the nose is 
large and rather prominent—well, I can visualise each, 
separate feature correctly, but, so soon as I at a i 
to visualise the face as a whole, the’ feature 
grotesquely exaggerated, so that the lip (to t 
above case) appears as a huge, pendulous, q 
natural growth, and the nose as an ein 4 


and grossly unreal structure: ieareG 


“My meaning may not be very clear to all, but if any 
i oher readers have had similar experiences, they; Wi 
understand it. There is possibly some 
scientific explanation forthcoming ; f so, I should be 
glad to hear of it. EF. bis ho . 
Hodgsonites, Charterhouse, Gaaatieing , 
Surrey, March 109. 


The ‘* Atom.”’ 

‘“To-pAY many chemists and physicists think that 
the chemical atoms of the last century are no longer 
to be considered as indivisible. In that case the old 
‘atom’ is no longer fitting. because it 
denotes indivisibility."”. The above sentences are quoted. 
from the presidential address of Prof. T. W. Richards, 
published in Nature of March 2 


Fifty years ago Prof. Brazier taught us, his students’ . 


at Aberdeen University, very emphatically that the 
word ‘‘atom’? must be taken in its primary Greelx 
meaning of uncut. undivided—not as indivisible, but. 


as what had not hitherto been divided. . This we ae 


before the discovery of radio-activity.° 


oA oh. of 


Suppose, now, that: I am attempting to. visualise = 


1 


APRIL 10, 1919] 


105 


THE DOMINION OF CANADA’S 


TELESCOPE, 


ee OCH the reflecting telescope of the 
* Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Vic- 
toria, B.C., is exceeded in size by the 
foo-in. Mt. Wilson reflector, now 
completed, it has had the distinction of being 
for some months the largest in operation in 


72-IN. 


by 


the world. The Government of Canada is to 


be congratulated on carrying through to comple- 
tion during the war this great undertaking, 


Fic. 1.—The observatory building from the south. 


which gives every’ promise, so far as quality 
and efficiency of the equipment are concerned, 
of being a very large factor in astronomical 
research. 

_A preliminary description of the mounting of 
this telescope was given in Nature of Feb- 
rary 15, 1917, but its final completion last May, 
and its continuous use since then in. regular 
Observational work, merit a short statement of 
the quality of the optical parts and of the work 
being done and proposed to be done with this 
splendid instrument. 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


NATURE 


| until April, 1918. 


nearly | 


The mounting was completely erected in its 

dome and building on Observatory Hill (Fig. 1), 
about eight miles north of the city of Victoria, in 
October, 1916, but the principal mirror and other 
optical parts of the telescope were not finished 
The delay was due partly to 
the impossibility of obtaining a large disc of glass 
for an auxiliary flat to be used in testing the figure 
of the paraboloid, and partly to the increased diffi- 
culty in figuring caused by the presence of the 
central hole in the main mirror. However, the 
figuring was finally completed early in April, 
1918, and on testing the mirror 
at the centre of curvature by 
visual measurements of the 
radius of curvature of several 
zones of the surface, and also by 
means of the Hartmann method 
of extra-focal photographic ex- 
posures, the whole surface was 
found to be remarkably close to 
the required theoretical form. 
The deviations of any part no- 
where correspond with a greater 
longitudinal aberration at the 
principal focus than o-25 mm. 
(o-or in.), and this for a median 
zone. This is equivalent to a 
lateral aberration of less than 
one-tenth of this amount, or toa 
circle of confusion less than one- 
thousandth of an inch in dia- 
meter, which, bearing in mind the 
size of the mirror, is a remark- 
able perfection of figure. 

The mirror with other optical 
parts, which arrived in Victoria 
on April 29, was installed and 
collimated and the first star spec- 

- trum obtained on May 6. Con- 
sidering the size and hitherto un- 
tried features of the telescope, 

this speaks well for the care used . 

in the design and construction of 
both optical parts and mounting. 
The instrument has been used 
continuously since, mostly in ob- 
taining stellar spectra, and has 
given the utmost satisfaction. 

The tests of the figure of 


the mirror were obtained in 
the optical shop under con- 
stant temperature conditions, and 
it was of interest to determine its  be- 
haviour under average observing conditions 
in its dome. Although one- of the reasons 


for the choice of Victoria as a site for the tele- 
scope was the low diurnal range of temperature, 
the total range in twenty-four hours rarely exceed- 
ing 5° C., yet it was soon seen that even a 
smaller change than this introduced considerable 
aberration in the figure of the mirror. Hartmann 
tests made after a daytime rise of about 5° C, 
showed a longitudinal aberration, under correc- 
tion, of nearly 3 mm., as compared with o'25 mm. 


106 


NATURE 


' [APRIL 10, 1919. 


under constant temperature. A similar test after a 
daytime rise of about 15° C. showed longitudinal 
aberration of only about o°5 mm. This corre- 
sponds with a very good figure, and it was evident, 
if the best results were to be obtained, that some 
means should be adopted for reducing the change 
of temperature around the mirror. This was 
effected by permanently covering the closed sec- 
tion of the tube, consisting of two steel castings 
weighing more than 10 tons, with felted cotton 
about 2 in. thick. The space between the back 
and edges of the mirror and the bottom and sides 
of the cell was also packed with 
this felt; and a removable pad 
placed on thin boards laid across 
the top of the closed section, 
when the mirror is not open to 
the sky, completes the enclosure 
of the mirror. 

During the daytime rise of 
temperature in the dome the 2 
tons of glass in the mirror and 
the 10 tons of steel in the centre 
section and cell of the tube are 
protected by this heat-insulating 
material, with the result that the 
change of temperature around 
the mirror is very slow. This 
change .amounts to only about 
one-third of that in the dome, 
and does not often exceed 1° C., 
with the result that the aberra- 
tion is always so small as to be 
negligible in increasing the size 
of the star image in comparison 
with the enlargement caused by 
atmospheric disturbances. The 
quality of the optical parts and 
their performance since the insu- 
lating cover was applied leave 
nothing to be desired, and 
although only a few direct photo- 
_graphs. at the principal focus 
have yet been made, the defini- 
tion is superb, the smallest 
images being but slightly more 
than a second of arc in diameter. 
For use with the spectrograph a 
Cassegrain combination is em- 
ployed: the principal mirror of 
72-in. aperture and 30-ft. focus, 
and the convex secondary of 
20-in. aperture placed about 


were so designed and constructed as rigidly and yet, — 
flexibly to carry the optical parts in their correct — 
relative positions, and the mechanism so arranged — 
as to enable the telescope to be pointed quickly and 
accurately to the desired position, and then 
to follow accurately the apparent motion of the 
star. This has been effected in the telescope in 
a remarkably efficient manner, and I have.no hesi-. 
tation in saying that this mounting sets a new 
standard for convenience and accuracy in opera- 
tion. The telescope is set and guided by electric 


power having three speeds in each co-ordinate : 


Fic. 2.—The telescope from the north-west. 


- 
ene . 


Pt i ATR 
a Os See ee 4 
eae ER apE 


et 


pve 


a quick motion of 45° per minute, a fine setting — 
motion of ro’ per minute, and a guiding speed 
of o'5’ per minute, one revolution in 8 minutes, . 


7 ft. within the principal focus. The resulting 
equivalent. focal length is 108 ft., and it is 


sufficient evidence.of both the optical quality and 


res 


b 
al 


Ps 


the seeing conditions to say that frequently the 
greater part of the star image appears to be lost 
in the spectrograph slit, which is o°3 mm. wide, and 
that a spectrum, of linear dispersion 35 A. to the 
mm, at Hy, of a star of 7°0 magnitude can be 
obtained in 20 to 25 minutes under average seeing 
conditions. 

However good the optical parts, effective work 
could not be done unless the mechanical parts 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


36 hours, and 30 days respectively. The quick 
motion and clamps are operated from duplicate 
switchboards on each side of the south pier (one of. 
these can be seen in Figs. 2 and 3), while the fine 
setting and guiding is done from a small, portable, 
board carried by the observer. No fine-cireles are 
provided, but the coarse circles are graduated to . 
minutes of time in R.A., and'to 5/ in declination. 
In consequence, the telescope can be set easily and 


oi elias 
: 


stars brighter than, say, 7°5 


AprIL 10, 1919] 


NATURE 


107 


quickly to within less than 2! of the catalogue 


position, and identification is muchimplified and 
charting becomes unnecessary generally for any 

: magnitude. The 
following given by the clock is remarkably smooth 
and accurate, without a trace of any periodic 
or other drift in the image, even with the great 
focal length of 108 ft.; the guiding for the 
spectrograph is hence very easy. The slit of the 


_ spectrograph subtends angular dimensions 3” by 
_ 03”, and so accurate is the driving, and so small 
and sharp the image in good average seeing con- 


Fic. 3.—The telescope from the south-west. 


’ ditions, that, unless the clock is set to drive slightly 
fast or slow, so that the image drifts slowly from 


one end to the other of the slit, the star spectrum 


would be too narrow or too unevenly exposed to 
be measurable. 

_ Although the telescope can be easily operated 
by one person, ordinarily the observer is assisted 
by the night engineer, and it is a sufficient com- 
mentary on the perfection of the design and con- 
‘struction, and on the smoothness, ease, and 


accuracy of operation, to state that the average 


time required to change from star to star in 
NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


making spectra, the time from the end of one 
exposure to the beginning of the next, is less than 
three minutes, and if the stars are not far sepa- 
rated in the sky, frequently only two minutes. 
When a single person is operating, these times 
are increased about 50 per cent., and I do 
not believe, notwithstanding the 45 tons weight 
of moving parts of this telescope, that one of one- 
fifth the aperture is generally handled so expediti- 
ously. 

I should not be doing what is right and just if 
I failed to express my appreciation of the suc- 
cessful efforts of the builders of 
this telescope to make an instru- 
ment unequalled in quality, accu- 
racy, and convenience. The 
John A. Brashear Co. for the 
optical parts, and the Warner 
and Swasey Co. for the mount- 
ing, have undoubtedly added 
materially to their already high 
reputation by their marked suc- 
cess in this great instrument, 
and my gratitude and that of all 
interested in the progress of 
science is due to them for the 
spirit in which they attacked the 
problems that confronted them, 
and by their refusal to be satis- 
fied, no matter what the cost, 
by anything but the best pos- 
sible. 

As previously intimated, the 
greater part of the observing 
time of the telescope since com- 
pletion has been. occupied in 
making star spectra, 1186 spectra 
of stars, on the average fainter 
than the 6th magnitude, having 
been obtained by December 31, 
1918. As a by-product in the 
measurement of some of these 
spectra, thirty spectroscopic 
binaries have been discovered. 
The present spectroscopic observ- 
ing programme, arranged in co- 
operation with Mt. Wilson, con- 
sists of about 800 stars from 
Boss’s “Preliminary General 
Catalogue,’’ the purpose being 
to determine the radial velocity 
of all the stars in the catalogue 


not previously observed and 
within reach at the observatory and at Mt. 
Wilson in the shortest possible time. In 
addition, considerable time has been _ spent 
on a _ piece of work for the late Prof. 
Pickering, of Harvard, obtaining direct photo- 
graphs of the Harvard regions with and 


without a parallel wire grating for the purpose 
of extending the magnitude scale in these regions 
to the faintest possible stars. Other work will, 
of course, develop as time goes on, but in the 
meantime, and considering the small staff—-only 
the director and Dr. Young being at present avail- 


tos 


NATURE 


[Apri 10, 1919 ) 


able—it was felt that the time of the telescope 
would be better devoted to these two pieces of 
direct, useful, and much-needed work than if it 
were used in miscellaneous researches which, 


though possibly more interesting, would certainly’ 


not be so generally useful in. the advancement of 
the science. J. S. PLASKETT. 


MEDICAL 


USE OF ANIMALS IN 
RESEARCH. 


WV THEN a Bill to prohibit experiments on dogs 

was before the House of Commons. in 
1914, a memorial signed by more than three 
hundred eminent physicians, surgeons, and other 
representatives of medical science, protesting 
against the measure, was addressed to the Home 
Secretary. The strong conviction was then ex- 
pressed that the Bill would inflict very severe 
injury, not only on medicine and surgery, but 
also on. the study of the diseases of animals; 
and the memorialists added: ‘‘We think.that we 
have some right to ask you to oppose this attack 
on the advancement of medical science and prac- 
tice, especially as the Final Report of the Royal 
Commission on Vivisection does not advise the 
prohibition of experiments on dogs. We are 
absolutely certain that such experiments are 
necessary for the complete study of many prob- 


THE 


lems of physiology, pharmacology, and patho- 


logy.”’ 

The second reading was carried in the House 
of Commons before this memorial was presented 
to the Home Secretary, but the Bill was with- 
drawn in June, 1914, after a number of amend- 
ments. to the principal clause had been carried 
in the Standing Committee appointed to consider 
it. The subject. has, however, been raised again 
by the introduction of another ‘Dogs’ Protection 
Bill,’’ which received its second reading in the 
House of Commons on March 21, and passed 
through the Grand Committee stage last week. 
Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer, Dr. T. Lewis, Prof. 
E. H. Starlitig, and Prof. Leonard Hill have 
stated the case against the Bill in letters to the 
Times, and we may be permitted to recall a con- 
vincing article by the first-named in Nature of 
May 7, 1914, where it is shown that the prohibi- 
tion of the employment of dogs for certain investi- 
- gations would put a complete stop to the progress 
of physiology i in Great Britain. 

The position now is much the same as in 1914, 
and Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer’s forcible state- 
ment in our columns of the case against the Bill 
is as applicable to the new measure as it was to 
the old. After the brilliant successes achieved 
during the war by physiological and scientific 
medicine in the preservation of life and the pre- 
vention of suffering in our armies, it might have 
been thought that the agitation against medical 
experiments on animals would have received its 
death-blow. But there are some people who. are 
incapable of learning, and the passage of the 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


ee ae 


~ 


Dogs’ Protection Bill through the Grand Com-= 


mittee stage suggests that many of them are con= 
gregated in our legislature. 

Do the supporters of the Bill really imagine 
that, since it has been proved possible to slaughter 
millions of human lives and to subject men and © 
women to slow death by starvation, brutality, — 
and disease, the value of human life has really — 
become lower than that of a dog? For it must 
be remembered that the prevention and cure of 
disease are possible only by means of an accurate 
knowledge of the functions of the body, and that, 
with regard to these functions, there is scarcely 
any fundamental truth which has not been estab- 
lished by experiments on dogs. The oO 
heart and its nerves, the circulation of the 
the nature of respiration, the processes o di 
tion, the chemical changes which the food u 
goes in the body, the functions of the kidney 
of the liver, and the action of the in =. 
tory glands, have all been revealed by such e 
ments. And, although corroborative experiments. 
have ‘been carried out’ since amaeemee animals, 
these would have been in many cases impossible — 
if the principles had not first been established by 
the use of dogs. If these animals had been ex- 
cluded from experiment, few of these facts would 
have been found out, nor would the knowledge 
and power gained thereby have been applied for 
the benefit of man. 

Why is the use of dogs so essential in medical 
research? No one will dispute that, to gain a 
knowledge of living functions, recourse must be 
had to living animals, and those animals must 
be such as can be kept in comfort and arin 
within the precincts of a laboratory. The ordinary 
farm animals are therefore excluded by this face 
alone, altogether apart from the difficulties pre- 
sented, so far as medicine is concerned, by the wide 
differences which exist between their digestive 
processes and those of man. 

For a vast number of experiments, viz. the 
greater part of those necessary in research on 
infective disease, the smaller animals—mice, 
rats, guinea-pigs, and rabbits—can be employed. 
In these experiments it is chiefly necessary to 
decide whether the injection of a given organism 
or microbial poison is followed by death or sur- 
vival. As soon, however, as it becomes neces- | 


sary to analyse the processes occurring im 


separate organs, e.g. the heart, the kidney, etc., - 
it is essential to make use of larger animals, 
and the limitation mentioned above confines these — 
to dogs and cats. Cats are used wherever pos- | 
sible. But the delicacy of their tissues, the small 
size of their organs, and the marked differences — 
which exist between their food habits and those 
of man render it necessary to employ dogs for 
many important lines of research. Thus it comes. 
about that the greater part of our knowledge of . 


the heart’s action, of the production of lymph and 


the causation of dropsy, of the nature of diabetes, 
and of the fate of different kinds of food in the 
body, is owing to experiments on dogs, and would 
are 


-ApRIL 10, 1919 | 


NATURE 


109 


shave been discovered if the use of dogs had | 
a pee ited. 
1 the advances in medicine of recent 
a ‘have been so marked, much remains to be 
vered. If this Bill is allowed to become 
‘all research in this country into such prob- 
iS as the causes and treatment of diabetes, of 
it’s disease, of heart disease, of dropsy, of 
rders of the stomach and intestines, and many 
will be hampered to such an extent that 
‘in our knowledge will come to an end, 
‘so far as it can be attained by observa- 


fii 


bition of the use of dogs would be 
Sastrous for the progress of* surgery. 
m mental advances made during the last 
years, which have proved of such ines- 
ilue not only in civil practice; but also 
ing t h be thin in the treatment of our wounded 
er. _were achieved in the first instance by 
experiments on dogs. By such experi- 
as first shown to be possible to excise 
f the alimental canal, to make openings 
part to the other in order to relieve 
, tO remove part or the whole of the 
4 ns, to implant bone and tissues so as 
sfects, to deal fearlessly with the cavity 

to sew up wounds in the living and 
, to restore continuity of wounded 
and to perform many others of the 
‘the triumph of modern surgery. 


Pe 


yiate even a fraction of the pain 
which are all around us. But all 
s direction would be hampered, and 
ught to a standstill, if the Dogs’ 
Bill is allowed to become law. _ 

uld the Bill diminish by one jot any 
S ect iedtleted by dogs. Under the law 
esent stands, the infliction of pain on 


ms now in force, the animal has to be 
full’ influence of an anesthetic during 
tion, and to be killed before re- 
sciousness. Or, if the object of the 
nt requires that the. dog should be 
to survive, it must be at once killed 
| anesthetic should pain supervene at any 
r the operation. — 
regulations can be justified on purely 
' grounds, since the existence of pain 
an experiment is a disturbing factor, which 
lot only an unnecessary complication, but may 
eal aaibee the whole result of the experiment. 
Th only effect of the Bill, therefore, so far as 
'$ are concerned, would be that a few more of 
e stray and homeless dogs that are now used for 
er! t would be added to the 20,000 or more 
fhich are killed by suffocation during each year 
the Dogs’ Home at Battersea. 
_ We cannot believe the Government is so in- 
different to the advancement of medical science 


experiments on human patients them- | - 


discoverer’ very prominently into notice. 


y and the human suffering which it aims at alleviat- 
ing that such an act of folly as is contemplated in 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103 | 


the Bill now under consideration will be per- 
mitted to be placed on the Statute Book because 


_ of the importunity of certain private members who 


disregard all that scientific knowledge of disease 
has to tell them. The Bill is down for the Report 
stage om May 23, and we look to Ministers to 
exert themselves sufficiently on that day to protect 
us from such a pernicious measure. 


SIR WILLIAM CROOKES, O.M., F.R.S. 


HE few remaining British men of science 
whose memories extend back to 1862, in 
reviewing that long period of the past, never 
lose. from the mental vision one remarkable 
figure. The occasion of the International Ex- 
hibition in that year afforded an opportunity by 
which a young English chemist sprang into 
sudden fame. The discovery of a new element, 
however remarkable its properties, would, per- — 
haps, “not have proved sufficient to rouse the 
interest of a mid-Victorian public, but the 
method of spectrum analysis used in its discovery 
being then new, coupled with the award of a 
medal to the exhibit, brought thallium and he 

e 
great scientific career thus begun nearly sixty 
years ago is now closed by the death of Sir 


William Crookes on Friday, April 4, not only 
full of years and honours, but also busy in the 


| laboratory to the last. 
re remains to be achieved in order to | 


Crookes was born on June 17, 1832. At an 


-early age he entered as a student at the newly 
instituted Royal College of Chemistry in Oxford 


Street, where he remained for some years under 
Hofmann as demonstrator and assistant. Here 
he found an atmosphere favourable to the develop- 
ment of his talent for investigation, but it is 
remarkable that the study of organic chemistry, 
the chief direction followed by Hofmann and his 
pupils, never seemed to attract him specially, and 
many years afterwards he was not ashamed to 
confess an almost entire ignorance of the work 


which had occupied so large a number of 


chemists, especially after Perkin’s discovery of 
the dyes and the general adoption of Kekulé’s 
theory of benzene. His earliest paper records 
his discovery of the seleniocyanides in 1857, and 
he was then occupied for a time by the develop- 
ments then taking place in the processes of photo- 
graphy. The discovery of thatfium by the appli- 
cation of the spectroscope gave him occupation 
for several years, but after completing the study 
of that element and its compounds it became 
evident that his preference lay in the direction of 
phenomena outside the range of ordinary chemical 
investigation, and that his researches would be 
pursued along no conventional lines. In passing, 
it ought to be mentioned that he was instrumental 
in securing’ the application of the powerful disin- 
fectant properties of carbolic acid or phenol 
dunt the disastrous spread of the cattle plague 
in 1 
Meanwhile, Crookes was hard at work on facts — 


110 


NATURE 


[APRIL 10, 1919 


of his own discovery relating to attraction and 
repulsion accompanying radiation, and in 1873 
he astonished the world by the invention of the 
radiometer. Probably no discovery within our 
time has given rise to more speculation or has led 
to a more remarkable development of ideas con- 
nected with radiation, and though Crookes did 
not furnish the true explanation of his instrument, 
he contributed a large number of experiments 
which assisted in its ultimate recognition. 

From the phenomena shown by the radiometer 
was an easy step to the study of electrical dis- 
charges in, high vacua, and henceforward his work 

on what he called “radiant matter ’’ furnished the 
starting-point for many of the famous discoveries 
by others which have led to a coinpletely new 
field of physics and an utterly novel view of the 
ultimate constitution of matter. Crookes’s study 
of the rays from the cathode in a vacuum tube in 
which the gas was rarefied beyond a certain limit 
led him to consider that the flying particles repre- 
sented an ultra-gaseous condition which he re- 
garded as a fourth state of matter. This view, 
which at the time was rather unfavourably _re- 
ceived, has been completely justified by further 
investigations, though his idea of the mass of the 
radiant particles has had to be modified. 

About 1885 Crookes became interested in the 
phosphorescent spectra of solid bodies, and espe- 
cially in_those of the so-called rare earths. This 
led him to engage in very lengthy series of ex- 
periments on fractionation, and attempts at the 
resolution of mixtures of these substances into 
their constituents, and so he was led into the 
conception of what he called meta-elements. He 
supposed that some oxides, like yttria, might 


consist of molecules so nearly alike in properties 


and mass as to be indistinguishable from one 
another, and inseparable by any known process. 
‘Accordingly, these substances were represented 
in the periodic scheme of the elements as cluster- 
ing into groups near to certain values of atomic 
weights. Crookes also devised a spiral model 
which has become very familiar for displaying 
the relations of the elements to atomic weight in 
connection with the periodic law and for illus- 
trating his own views as to the “genesis of the 
elements.’’ The definition of the term “element ”’ 
in chemistry, and the characterisation of the 
recognised elements, formed the subject of his 
two presidential addresses to the Chemical 
Society in 1888 and 1880. 

During the subsequent thirty years of his life 
Crookes was much occupied with further experi- 
mental work on questions cognate to these 
subjects. | His familiarity’ with spectroscopy 
enabled him to pursue successfully an inquiry into 
the preparation of eye-preserving glass for spec- 
tacles, the results of which were published in the 
Philosophical Transactions so recently as 1914, 
and have led to valuable practical results, espe- 
cially in the case of workers in glass and others 
exposed to furnace glare. The primary object 
was to find a glass which will cut off as much as 
possible of the heat radiation, but the experiments 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


were extended to the search for glasses opaque to | 
More than three hundred different 


the ultraviolet. 
glasses were investigated, and the compositions 


of nineteen which have been proved useful are 
given in the memoir. ; 


It would be impossible in the short space at 


our disposal now to complete the list. of Sir 


‘William Crookes’s various spheres of activity, 
but mention must not be omitted of some of: his 
publications. 
News, of which he continued to be proprietor and 
editor to the end of his life. His famous British 
Association address at Bristol in 1899 on “The 


Wheat Problem ’’ attracted for many years con- 


siderable attention from economists and agricul- 
turists, arfd his visits to South Africa in 1896 and 
in 1905 led to the publication of a small work on 
diamonds, which has had a large circulation. To 
these may be added the volume entitled “Select 
Methods in Chemical Analysis,’’ which is full of 
useful information, and has passed through four 
editions, as well as several other books of a 
technical character. 

Crookes was a man of extraordinary genius 
and immense physical activity, of which his 
copious published work is evidence. A man of 


his temperament and his remarkable independence 
of view in regard to the range of scientific i inquiry 


and the proper attitude of the scientific investi- 
gator would naturally be led to look attentively 


at subjects of all kinds, some of which might be. 


regarded as suspect by other people. It is, of 
course, well known that he took part in many 
inquiries concerning psychic phenomena, 


he recorded certain’ experiences of his own. 
These, however, are subjects on which there is 
itoo much difference of sentiment and of opinion 
jto be further considered now; they must be left 
to be handled by the biographer. 
scientific world now feels is that it has lost a 
gieat pioneer worker in the field of natural know- 
ledge. . 

It is needless to add that honours of all kihiis 
fell thick on Crookes. He was elected into the 
Royal Society in 1863, and the Royal, the Davy, 
and the Copley medals were awarded to him by 
the society, of which he finally became president. 
He also served as president of several other 
societies, including the Chemical Society, the 


British Association, and the Institution of Elec- 


trical Engineers.. He received a gold medal and a 
prize of 6000 francs from the French Academy of 
Sciences in 1880,.and in 1899 the Albert medal 
of the Royal Society of Arts was awarded to him. 
The Order of Merit was conferred on him in 1910. 

It may be of interest to some readers of 
;NATURE to be reminded that in the series of 
“Scientific Worthies ’’ issued by this journal was 
published on November 7, 1907, an appreciation 
of Crookes’s scientific work from the pen of a 
distinguished physicist, Prof. P. Zeeman, of 
Amsterdam, which affords an estimate of the 
value of his work by a highly competent authority: 

W.. A,’ T. 


In 1859 he started the Chemical 


and. 
that he published a book on spiritualism, in which — 


All that the 


4 


NATURE 


Iii 


_ Apri 10, 1919] 


NOTES. 


Much regret to record the death on April 2, 
y-three years of age, of Sir James MacKenzie 
on, the distinguished ophthalmic surgeon and 
gist. Sir James Davidson received his early 
n in Buenos Aires. He came to England as 
h, and entered for medicine at Aberdeen Uni- 
_ He also studied at Edinburgh and London. 
* graduation at Aberdeen in 1882 he became first 
stant to the professor of surgery there, and later 
on “cag pamr ge SF He was also ophthalmic 
to the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, and the 
ck Children’s Hospital, and physician to the 
(sy! The experience gained as an 
mic surgeon in Aberdeen exercised a great 
on his work when he came to London. In 
Ontgen’s discovery of X-rays was announced, 
ha ristic energy and commendable fore- 
ir James Davidson ‘at once grasped the signi- 
of this discovery in relation to medicine. The 
ear | him making a pilgrimage to Wiirz- 
_interview Réntgen. After removing to 
(897 he became radiologist to Charing 

ital and to the Royal London Ophthalmic 
_ At a later date he became consulting radio- 
both these institutions. Henceforth Sir 
avidson’s whole energy became absorbed in 
vork, and he quickly took a leading position 
the pioneer workers in X-rays and radium. 
training in ophthalmology led him to grasp 
re of X-rays in this branch of medicine, and 
y in the localisation of foreign bodies in the 
and eyeball; the method elaborated by him, and 
asso with his name, became recognised 
standard one, and upon it all the modern 
» based. He also advocated the practice 

ic radiography. He received a knight- 
-and at the time of his death held the 
ast-president of the Réntgen Society 
irv consulting radiologist to the London 
‘Command. The development of  radio- 
and radiotherapy are intimately bound up 
“name of MacKenzie Davidson, and he was 
in America and on the Continent as the 
iologist in this countrv. By his death 
has lost a distinguished exponent of 
mique, an original worker of the highést order, 
an enthusiastic advocate of its future in medicine 


e 
_ 


ret to learn that Dr. William Allen Sturge 
ir in his sixty-ninth year. Dr. Sturge 
Dor in stol, and graduated as M.D. in the 

ity of London, but spent the greater part of 
sional life at Nice, where he was a highly 
edical practitioner. While on the Riviera 
much of his leisure to collecting and 
' ancient Greek vases and other objects of 
art, and eventually extended his interests to pre- 

archzeol He collected flint implements 
rench caves and other Continental localities, 
$s return to England in 1907 he chose his 
‘at Icklingham, Suffolk, where he could 
one of the richest districts for flint implements 
‘country. He also acquired specimens from the 
ons of William Greenwell, Worthington Smith, 
| Brown, and others. Dr. Sturge contributed 
al papers to the Proceedings of the Prehistoric 
ciety of East Anglia, of which he was one of the 
inders and first president in r908. He also did much 
oo mae ed our knowledge of the Stone age by his 

mulating help to fellow-workers. Dr. Sturge’s great 
lection of stone implements is bequeathed to the 
sh Museum. 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


WE learn from the Biochemische Zeitschrift that 
Prof..R, Kobert died at Rostock on December 27, 
1918, at sixty-four years of age. Prof. Kobert had 
taught pharmacology, physiological chemistry; aad the 
history of medicine and pharmacy in the university of 
that town since 1899. After having studied medicine 
at Halle he became assistant to Schmiedeberg at 
Strasburg in 1882. The latter’s pharmacological in- 
stitute, founded a little earlier, was at that time the 
only laboratory of its kind in Germany, the others 
being at Dorpat and Vienna. In 1886 Kobert suc- 
ceeded Buchheim as professor of pharmacology at 
Dorpat, where he dabei then was professor of 
pharmacy, but the Russification of the university in 
1897 terminated the work of its German teachers, 
including Kobert. The deceased was a prolific author 
of compilations on pharmacology, toxicology, etc., and 
of papers on ergot, the saponins, the vegetable 
hemolysins, and other subjects. 


Str AucKLAND GEpDDEs, Minister of National Ser- 
vice and Reconstruction, has resigned his office, and 
will return to McGill University, Montreal, where 
he will succeed Sir William Peterson as principal. 
He was professor of anatomy at the University when 
the war broke out, and stipulated, on accepting the 
chair, that in the event of hostilities he should be at 
liberty to resign without notice. His connection with 
the University was not, however, broken; for the 
governors did not accept his resignation, and he has 
been on leave from his chair throughout the war. 
When he became Minister of National Service it was 
on the understanding that he should be free at the 
end of the war to devote his life to politics or return 
to university work. The Prime Minister has testified 
that Sir Auckland Geddes’s work during the war 
‘has been of inestimable value to the country”; and, 
as principal of MoGill University, his services to 
scientific education and advancement are likely to 
have an equally strong influence upon the destinies 
of the Dominion and the Empire. 


Dr. E. J. Russert has been elected a foreign 
member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agricul- 
ture, Stockholm. 


Mr. R. A. Grecory has been elected a member of 
the Athenzum Club under the provisions of the rule 
of the club which empowers the annual election by 
the committee of ‘‘a certain number of persons of dis- 
tinguished eminence in science, literature, or the arts, 
or for public services.” 


Tue death occurred on April 2, at eighty-seven years 
of age, of Dr. Edward Liveing, emeritus registrar © 
of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and 
the author of a volume on “ Magried: A Contribution 
to the Pathology of Nerve Storms.” 


ACCORDING to the Miinchener medizinische Wochen- 
schrift, the Griesheim-Elektron Chemical Works now 
manufacture an almost pure calcium hypochlorite 
under the name “hyporit."". This contains 80 per cent. - 
of available chlorine (as' compared with 36 per cent. 
in the best bleaching eateet, and is a stable white 
powder dissolving readily in water to a ve faintly 
alkaline solution, which can be used instead of Dakin’s 
solution for the irrigation of wounds and for other 
purposes. The impurities are a small quantity of 
calcium chloride and very little lime. This is the first 
stable solid hypochlorite manufactured on a large 
scale. 


A Rep Cross Conference is now being held at 
Cannes. On April 5 the delegates, presided over by 
Dr. Herman Biggs, Public Health Cotmmissioner, 
New York State, discussed the desirability of setting 


pf 


Ii2 


NATURE. 


[APRIL 10, 1919 


up immediately a Central Health Bureau with the 
view of linking-up the various national Red Cross 
societies in a health crusade throughout the world. 
The proposal was very favourably received, and was 
supported, among others, by Sir Robert Philip (Edin- 
burgh), Profs. Baduel (Florence), Roux (Paris), Ken- 
wood (London), Sir Ronald Ross, Col. Cumming 
(U.S. Public Health Service), and Prof. Kabishima. 
Such subjects as standardisation of nursing methods 
and the training of nurses, training of public health 
personnel, combating tuberculosis, as well as the pro- 
motion of research, were considered by the various 
speakers to come within the limits of such a crusade. 


WE are glad to note that vigorous protests have 
been raised in the Times against the suggestion, 
emanating from Toronto, that aeroplanes should be 
used for the purpose of driving caribou by . the 
thousand into corrals, where they might conveniently 
be slaughtered. The carcasses thus obtained were to 
. be used for increasing the meat supply of Canada 
and for export. If such a scheme were ever sanc- 
. tioned the caribou would speedily share the fate of 
the American bison. The further suggestion that air- 
men. might destroy wolves and feral dogs by machine- 
gun fire does not:sound very practicable, but these 
deadly weapons could, and probably would, be used 
against the caribou. It is devoutly to be hoped that 
no more will be heard of this proposal, which has 
given offence to all true sportsmen, as well as to 
those who are concerned with the conservation of wild 
animals. fake 


In this first Easter vacation after the cessation of 
hostilities the Port Erin Biological Station is almost 
as fully occupied as in pre-war days. About fifty re- 
searchers and senior students are working there some 
time during the latter part of March and April, includ- 
ing four professors and half a dozen demonstrators, 
with groups of students from London, Manchester, 
Liverpool, Cambridge, and Reading. Prof. Benjamin 
Moore, with three other biochemists, is engaged on a 
research on photosynthesis in relation to the alkalinity 
of the sea. Most of the others are on faunistic or 
morphological work. Fortunately, the weather has 
been favourable for work at sea, and for shore-col- 
lecting during the low spring tides. In the plankton 
the vernal phytoplankton maximum has appeared. 
Coscinodiscus has been in abundance during the latter 
part of March, and now Chetoceras is in ‘evidence. 
The Manx summer. herring have made their appear- 
ance close inshore unusually early; a few hundred 
may be caught any night in Port Erin Bay, but a 
more notable catch of half a dozen mease was secured 
a few miles along the coast on one of the first nights 
in April. 


‘“TueE Function of Science in the Modern State’’ 
and ‘‘ National Life from the Standpoint.of Science ’”’ 
are the subjects of two papers contributed some years 
ago by Prof. Karl Pearson to the Eugenie Lecture 
. Series (Cambridge University Press). 
has done well to republish these papers in view of the 
altered circumstances of the nation since the war and 
the necessity for recognising as soon as possible a 
better theory of the State than was previously avail- 
able, especially for the employment of scientific method 
in the organisation of every department of business, 
of administration, of education, and of progress in 
invention and discovery. The executive must be freed 
from the dominance of minds trained solely on litera- 
ture and jurisprudence, for in the future the struggle 
for existence will not necessarily be settled in favour 
of the biggest or the richest or the best-armed nation. 
Everything will be determined by organisation of the 
brain-power which the nation possesses, and by 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


the importance of preventing so far as possibl 


among the intellectual classes and encouragement of - 


casts for the twenty-four hours commencing: 


' Atlantic. 


Prof. Pearson | 


teaching the leaders, as well as the people at large, to” 
prepare for the difficulties of new environment. Prof. 
Pearson discusses these problems in an interesting 
way from the point of view of eugenics and the prin- 
ciple of evolution. Hence he lays’ great emphasis on 


deterioration as. the result’ of deficient reproducti 


the inferior stocks. In these two pamphlets there is 


much food for thought for every man and woman, ~ 
and they should be read by everybody. iz 


A CONSIDERABLE change is made in the | Daily ; 


Weather Report of the Meteorological Office from 
April 1. 
expanded, and was more complete than im pre-war 
times; the information, however, was not su to 


During the war the weather information — 


the public, but it was widely distributed to the — 


Services and eagerly used. Since the free 
weather information, subsequent to the armistice, 
some idea could be formed by the public of the 


of — 


increased activity of the Weather Office: The change — 


now effected is, in a measure, very drastic. Instead 
of the Daily Weather Report containing home and 


foreign stations, with maps for edch hour at which — 


observations were made, there are now three separate 
reports: the British Section, the International 
Section, and the Upper Air Supplement. 
British Section and the Upper Air S 3 
issued in lithographic form in the forenoon 
observations, and ‘the International Section is issued 
early on the following day. The British Section gives 
detailed observations from observatories of the 


. Meteorological Office and stations of the Air Ministry 
18h., and: other Meteoro- © 


for th.) v7i: 1h.,. and 
logical Office stations for 7h. and 18h., previously 
included in the Daily Weather Report. It also gives 
a full-page weather-map, 
Azores, and a large part of western Europe, also fore- 
at 3 p-m- 
for twenty districts covering the British Isles. The 
Upper Air Supplement gives maps: of the British 
Isles with winds at the surface and at elevations of 


of the day’s © 


including Iceland, the ~ 


1000, 2000, 5000, 8000, 10,000, and 15,000 ft. for | 
afternoon, evening. and morning. The International — 


Section practicaily covers western Europe and the 
Mediterranean ‘with observations for evening and 


morning, and there are two full-page weather-maps. — 


Provision 


is made for wireless reports from the 


A MEMORANDUM on the share of ‘‘colonies’’ (institu- 
tions for training and for employment) in the treat- 


ment of tuberculosis by Mr. 


issued by the Local 


J. E. Chapman has been — 
overnment Board (Reports on 


Public Health and Medical Subjects, No. 122). Colony — 


treatment is intended to secure for selected patients — 
| beneficial results of a more lasting nature than can be © 


obtained by sanatorium treatment alone. In the earlier 
colonies the work provided was mainly of an agricul- 
tural character,° but as few patients continue this 
occupation after discharge, more recently established 
colonies aim to fit the patient for an occupation that 
will be continued. ‘The whole subject is adequately 
considered in this memorandum, which is illustrated 
with figures of two types of cottage homes suitable for 
a colony. . Nye 4 


“Tue Lessons of the War and Some New Prospects | 


in the Field of Therapeutic Immunisation” was the 
subject of an important lecture by Sir Almroth Wright 


delivered before the Royal Society of Medicine ‘on — 


February 25 (see Lancet, March 29, p. 489). The 
natural defences of the body against, and in the — 
presence of, infections were fully dealt with, and a 
number of ingenious experiments detailed in confirma-_ 


A 


oe 
_ ApRIL 10, 1919] 


NATURE 


113 


m of the views expressed. The anti-tryptic power of 
wh ole: ome” blood and the leucocytes are the great 
fensive mechanisms, and the treatment of septic 
1 should aim at bringing these into action. A 
hod of *“‘immuno-transfusion ” for the treatment cf 
wounds was also described, in which blood from 

is, after withdrawal, first allowed to act upon 
fest a given quantum of the infecting micro- 

, after which the treated blood is injected into 


poRT by King Edward’s Hospital Fund for 
on “ Pensions for Hospital Officers’? has been 
he inquiry was held by a sub-committee 
of Mr. W. J. H. Whittall, Mr. H. L. 
pkinson, and Sir William Collins. The final re- 
mmendatic _of the first two members is that pen- 
hould be provided by means of insurance 
; for by joint contributions of employers 
es, much on the lines of the Federated 
ation scheme for University colleges. Sir 
sents on the ground that a scheme based 
insurance companies is not the only 
1 of the problem, and that alternative 
be considered at a conference of 
ntatives which it is proposed to 
ss the whole question. 


STS who are interested in migration 
ith interest in British Birds for March 
vations by Mr. D. G. Garnett on birds 
j stern Atlantic and the English and 
’s Channels from August to October, 1917. 
‘definitely established that there is a route 
migrating birds which extends down the 
ish coast, across the approaches of St. 
thannel and the English Channel, to the 
France. It is now suggested by Mr. 
‘as a consequence of his observations, 
evidence to show that there is yet another 
wersing this, and extending from the south 
eland to the west coast of Spain. 
he gi pa mallard ducks of the United 
rms the subject of a very valuable Bulletin 
‘issued by the United States Department of 
The author, Mr. W. L. McAtee, set 
task of discovering the food preferences 
for the purpose of obtaining informa- 
ald be put to good purpose in establish- 
: farms and increasing the stock of wild 
of their great value as food. Though 
, Mr. McAtee points out the extreme 
e birds as exterminators of mosquito 
eriments on enclosed water with captive 
‘that in this regard they are far more 
n goldfish, which were used in a control 
Hence, he remarks, these birds are of 


value in keeping down mosquitoes in 
at would be extremely costly to drain. 
sting summary of suggestions as to the 
of rapidly increasing the produce of food- 
adia by methods within the power of the 
' Department bas been issued (Bulletin 
the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa. 
n consists of a collection of notes sub- 
representatives of the Department in 
us’ parts of the country, and, although there is 
lly considerable variety in the specific proposals 
individual areas, it is interesting to note a 
il agreement that the most effective means of 
cul a rapid increase in the output of food-crops 
S in the dissemination of improved strains of seed. 
or Bengal alone it is estimated that the substitution 
the pure line Indrasail developed by the agricultural 
station at Dacca for the local varieties of transplanted 


NO 2280 vot. 102! 


rice commonly used would lead to an inerease of 
500,000 tons of rice. Similar improvement of the rice 
crop is also being effected in the Central Provinces, 
Madras, and Burma. In the Punjab special atten- 
tion has been directed to wheat, and two varieties 
which have been found to give from half a maund to 
three maunds per acre more than local varieties are 
now being extensively developed. Similar improve- 
ments in wheat output are also being effected in the 
Central Provinces. In many of the reports emphasis 
is placed upon the improvement which might be 
effected by better methods of cultivation alone, and 
by more active participation of the large landowners 
in the cultivation of their land. More abundant and 
efficient irrigation is also emphasised as a_ special 
need of certain areas. There would appear to be 
little prospect of increase, however, by the use of 
manures or by the substitution of food-crops for 
fibre or other non-food producing crops. 


WE have received a copy of a booklet entitled 
“Decimal Coinage and British Commerce,” by Mr. J 
Gall Inglis. The author advocates a decimal system 
of coinage alternative to that proposed in the Bill 
which was introduced in the House of Lords last 
year. His scheme involves the decimalisation of the 
shilling and half-sovereign, instead of the sovereign, 
while retaining the latter as a coin, but not as a unit. 
The shilling would remain as at present, but the 
new penny would be one-tenth of a shilling, and 
divided into ten ‘‘mils.”” Mr. Inglis points out that 
for business purposes it is mecessary to take into 
account the relative amount of chixical work involved 
in our present system and in the proposed decimal 
schemes, and he has constructed a table showing that 
the amount of phase ee with the decimal half- 
sovereign would be less than is now necessary, and 
considerably less than with the decimal sovereign. 
He urges the importance of preserving the shilling 
as the indispensable pricing unit. A short account is 
also given of a scheme for decimalising our weights 
and measures on a metric basis. The booklet, which 
is published by Messrs. Gall and Inglis, Henrietta 
Street, Strand (price id.), is noteworthy for its 
original and practical outlook, and will appeal to 
those interested in the question of decimalisation. 


In 1917, for the first time, the annual meeting of 
the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science 
was divided into a business meeting held in Septem- 
ber and a ‘science convention held in November. 
According to the report of the association for 1917, 
recently received, the division proved an unqualified 
success. Nine physical, four chemical, and seven 
biological papers were read at the convention by the 
staff and students of the association, and they con- 
stitute, with the report, a volume of more than 
150 pages. The association is doing much to en- 
courage research in India, and the conditions of ap- 
pointment of their professor of physics will serve as 
a good example to many institutions in this country. 
He is required (1) to devote himself to original re- 


, 


search in his subject, (2) to stimulate and guide 


research by advanced students, (3) to superintend the 
formation and maintenance of the physics laboratory, 
and (4) he is under no obligation to share in the 
teaching of the M.A or M.Sc. classes of the uni- 
versity. This professorship is held by Prof. Raman, 
while Sir P. é Ray holds the corresponding one in 
chemistry. 

Tue February issue of the Journal of the Chemical 
Society contains an_ interesting gone by Mr. R. 
Wright on “The Effect of some Simple Electrolytes 
on the Témperature of Maximum Density of Water.” 
The author confirms Despretz’s law that the lowering 

f 


J 


114 


NATURE 


[APRIL 10, 1919 


of the temperature of the point of maximum density 
of water caused by the addition of a solute is directly 
proportional to the concentration of the latter. Mr. 
Wright further shows that the lowering of the tem- 
perature of the maximum density of water produced 
by a highly ionised binary electrolyte is composed of 
two separate independent effects, one due to the acid 
and the other to the basic radicle, and can therefore 
be calculated by the addition of two moduli to the 
lowering produced by a molecular solution of a chosen 
standard substance. The standard substance chosen 
was normal hydrochloric acid. The acid salts of the 
dibasic acids behave normally, but the neutral salts 
and the salts of bivalent metals do not conform to 
any simple. rule in their effect on the temperature of 
maximum density. The feebly ionised organic acids 
show abnormal effects, but their highly ionised salts 
behave in the normal manner. 


CONSIDERABLE interest is attached to the compara- 
tively rare alkaloid hyoscine or scopolamine, owing 
to its use in the treatment popularly known as ‘‘ twi- 
light sleep.’? The hyoscine of commerce, extracted 
from solanaceous plants, is lzvorotatory, but an 
optically inactive form produced by the action of dilute 
alkali on the naturally occurring alkaloid is known. 
At a meeting of the Chemical Society on April 3 Mr. 
Harold King, of the Wellcome Chemical Research 
Laboratories, described the resolution of this optically 
inactive hyoscine into the well-known lavo- form and 
the hitherto unknown dextro- form. On _ hydrolysis 
l-hyoscine yields l-tropic acid and an optically inactive 
amino-alcohol, oscine. Mr. King has also resdlved 
the latter into its optically active components. Since, 
therefore, tropic acid and oscine each contain an asym- 
metric carbon atom, and are each capable of existing 
in three forms, two active and one inactive, the 
possible combinations of these various forms may give 
rise to ten, or possibly eleven, isomeric hyoscines. It 
becomes of interest to ascertain which of these forms 
are represented by the two optically active hyoscines 
already known. This question is still under investiga- 
tion, but Mr. King pointed out that as benzoyl d-oscine 
gives optically pure d-oscine on hydrolysis, it seems 
probable that the known hvoscines contain inactive 
oscine, the optical activitv being due to the lavo- and 
dextro-tropyl radicles respectively. 


On taking over the duties of the chair of metal- 
lurgy in the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, last 
September, Prof. Cecil Desch devoted his introductory 
lecture to a review of the aims of a Glasgow School of 
Metallurgy. In this address Prof. Desch laid emphasis 
upon a change in the methods of industry which has 
recently been taking place. He quoted’ from Prof. 
Patrick Geddes, who has proposed to divide the indus- 
trial age into two periods, which he has called the 
‘“palzotechnic’’ and the ‘‘neotechnic.”’ In the earlier 
_ of these the aim of industry was merely the accumula- 
tion of material wealth. Natural resources were 
squandered recklessly, the one consideration being 
their rapid conversion into marketable products. 
Human life was disregarded, the cheapest labour 
being utilised without reference to the standard of 
life. In England this was essentially the age of coal. 
Fuel was cheap and abundant; no care was exercised 
in its use, and our scenery was disfigured by smoke 
as the manufacturing districts spread over the country. 
Housing conditions were such as to accommodate the 
largest number of persons on a given area at the 
lowest possible cost, and the results are to be seen 
in the squalid industrial regions of Manchester, Shef- 
field, the Black Country of the Midlands, and Glas- 
gow. It is, however, being slowly realised, both by 
the employers of industry and the workers themselves, 
that all natural resources must be used with the 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


utmost economy, ‘ 
health and comfort considered in the devising and 


planning of works, and the erection of squalid dwell- 


ings. crowded into a minimum of space must give 
place to town-planning on a scientific and sound basis. 
The symbol of the palzotechnic age was the furnace 
fired with raw coal; that of the neotechnic age is the 


electrical power-house with its clean atmosphere and 


white-tiled walls. Prof. Desch is to be commended 
on having laid such emphasis on a matter of vital 
importance to the future of the country. 


Copirs have reached us of Nos. 2 and 3 of the 
Children’s Newspaper, a weekly periodical edited by 
Mr. Arthur Mee, and published by the Amalgamated 
Press, Ltd. Mr. Mee was editor of the ‘‘ Children’s 
Encyclopedia” and ‘‘ Harmsworth’s Popular Science,”’ 
both of which are among the best works of their 
class. The new periodical shows the same interest in 
scientific matters and originality in presenting them to 
juvenile readers. Its aim is to give “the story of the 


-world to-day for the men and women of to-morrow,” 


and we are glad to see that the world includes Nature 
as well as man. We should like to think that when 


the boys and girls who now derive pleasure and profit 


from the newspaper published especially for them 
become adults they will expect like fare to be provided 
in the public Press. The Children’s Newspaper will 


be a valuable aid in this direction, and we cordially © 


welcome it. 


Messrs. A. and C. Black, Ltd., will publish shortly 
a book on ‘Cerebro-spinal Fever,’’ by Drs. C. 
Worster-Drought and A. M. Kennedy. ‘The authors 
were responsible for the treatment of the disease 
among the troops in the Woolwich military district. 
The following works have been arranged for appear- 
ance in the University of Chicago Science Series 


(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; London: 


The Cambridge University Press):—‘‘ Black Body 
Radiation,’ Prof. C. E. Mendenhall; ‘‘ Mechanics of 
Delayed Germination in Seeds,” W. Crocker; ‘‘ The 
Rigidity of the Earth and of Materials,” Prof. A. A. 
Michelson; and ‘Linear Integral Equations in 
General Analysis,” E. H. Moore. The new list of 
Messrs, Longmans and Co. includes ‘The Design of 
Propellers for Aircraft,” H. C. Watts; ‘‘The Design 
of Aero Engines,’ Major A. T. Evans and Capt. 
Adams; ‘‘ Engineering Machine Tools and Processes,’ 


A. G. Robson; ‘The Principles and Practice of Elec- 


trical Testing,’ R. G. Allen; and ‘Garden First in 
Land. Development,’ W. Webb. 


Life,” the Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher. 
‘Barnet House Papers’’). 


Tue latest catalogue (No. 387) of Mr. F. Edwards, 
83 High Street, Marylebone, W.1, appears at an 
opportune moment, seeing that it deals with books 
relating to Europe. It is historical and descriptive, 
and conveniently arranged according to the various 
countries of the Continent. Doubtless it will be of 
interest to many readers of Nature at the present 
time. Copies are obtainable upon application. 


(No. 4 of 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


Tue Aprit Metgeoric Disptay.—The shower of 
Lyrid meteors in April dates from antiquity, and some 


of the early displays appear to have been of an excep- 


tional and striking character. In 1803 a brilliant 
exhibition was witnessed in America, and in 1851 it 
was repeated in Indian skies. In 1863 its visitation 


as viewed from England was conspicuous, if it lacked 


the grandeur of old-time spectacles. It is evidently 
not a phenomenon with attractive features which we 
can await with confidence every year as in the case 


unnecessary destruction avoided, 


Mr. H. Milford. 
announces ‘‘The Place of the University in National 


Yt at 


ST as en ie ee rn 


NATURE 


115 


August Perseids. It is rather an event with 
ities which cannot be definitely predicted be- 
it is affected by irregularities not fully understood. 
j it must be confessed that the shower pro- 
meteors and disappointment. However, 
¢ astronomers anticipate its brilliant revival at 
=, and watch the spring skies with a keenness 
merits success. 
meteors are due on the night of April 21, when 
in will be at her last quarter, and does not rise 
ty an hour after midnight. But it will be 
_watch on the preceding night also, and 
after midnight are likely to be the most 
the radiant point at 271°+33° being at a 
greater altitude than in the evening hours. The 
tive stage of the shower is limited to a few 
the whole duration is much longer, and 
ends from April 18, when radiation is 
33°, to April 26, when it has advanced 


ION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL AND Civit Day. 
Commissioners of the Admiralty have 
ions to the Superintendent of H.M. 
anae Office that in the Almanac for 1925 
be considered as beginning at midnight, 
astronomical agree with the civil day. 
has been resolved on after consultation 
Astronomical Society, which issued a 
Superintendents of the. ephemerides of 
nd to the represeritatives of other bodies 
ions and suggestions. It appears that 
be made chiefly in the interests of 
find it more convenient to have the 
em in use for purposes of navigation 
ary life on board ship. It may be remem- 
orous attempt to secure this unification 
astronomical day was made about the 


TON OF. Binary Systems.—Mr. J. H. 
: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astro- 
7 for December, 1918, examines some 
s of double-star orbits. While in the 
the angular momentum is too small for 
hhave broken up through rotation, in 
of binary systems it is too large for 
happened. ‘Tidal action cannot increase 
m by more than some 60 per cent. in 
equal masses (Russell). Large alterations 
tus rectum, and hence of period, cannot, there- 
arise from the mutual action of the stars. 
iods have retained approximately their 
es throughout the star’s career (this hypo- 
jected), or there must have been sensible 
from other stars. This leads Mr. Jeans 
sting conclusion that the stellar system 
ly of about 1/1000 of its present volume. 
ests that the outward movement may still 
ogress, and notes the observed excess of 
al velocities as evidence of this. In its 
dressed condition mutual encounters of 
vould have been frequent. ~ Incidentally, he 
0-637 as a mean value of eccentricity of orbits 
luced by encounters. This accords well with 

¢ acts. , 


‘is advisable to direct attention to one sentence 
the summary. Mr. Jeans says:—'‘The dwarf 
ars’ have wekciiive which show no preference for 
ular directions in space, and there seems to be 
correlation between the magnitude of their veloci- 
es and the parts of the universe they occupy.” But, 
n fact, we are acquainted only with those dwarf 
M stars that are in close proximity to the sun; for 
_ such stars are intrinsically so faint that they do not 
_ appear in our catalogues at all if they are distant. 
[ NO. 2580, vor. 103] 


-y 
: 


-AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. 


HOTOGRAPHY from the air reached a wonder- 
ful. degree of excellence during the war, as is 
demonstrated by the pictures that have been published 
and shown at various exhibitions; but for obvious 
reasons the instruments used for this work have only 
quite recently been made public. The experts who have 
compared the various lenses suitable assure us that 
those made by English opticians were found to be not 
only equal to those of Zeiss and Goerz, but markedly 
superior to them. With regard to cameras, the editor 
of the British Journal of Photography has had an 
opportunity of seeing the whole range of cameras 
used by the Royal Air Force, and describes them in 
an article in his journal of March 21. Within a few 
months of the beginning of the war the value of 
aerial photographs began ‘to be recognised, and 
specially made cameras were first used early in 1915. 
The first camera was of a very primitive type, and 
fitted with a Mackenzie-Wishart adapter for 5x4 
plates. Early in 1916 a magazine-changing arrange- 
ment was used with the plates in metal sheaths, the 
foremost—that is, the lowest—plate being pushed 
sideways after exposure into the receiver by a hori- 
zontally moving metal plate. So far the cameras were 
of wood, but in 1917 a metal camera was introduced, 
and the changing done by pulling a cord instead of 
pushing a metal plate. = 
The next improvement (early in 1917) was to pro- 
vide a mechanical method of changing, the motive 
power being produced by a ‘small propeller, which’ 
was brought into action by simply releasing a Bowden 
lever, the shutter being automatically actuated at the 
same time and by the same means. In 1918 this 
camera was further improved in several ways.. The 
shutter was made replaceable by another, if necessary,’ 
as on account of derangement, and lenses of focal 
lengths from 4 in. to 20 in. might be used on the’ 
same camera. Among other patterns was one, first 
used in 1916, which would take a continuous series of 
photographs, up to 120, on a roll of film. The ex- 
posures were made automatically at intervals corre-' 
sponding with a certain number of revolutions of the 
propeller, and by means of a small supplementary 
lens each negative had recorded on it the height of 
the machine and its compass bearings. Major C. W.: 
Gamble, of the R.A.F., in a lecture before the Optical 
Society on March 13, after describing the various 
cameras used, said that, although the most rapid 
plates were desirable so that exposures might be 
made late in the day and when the light was poor, 
it was found that the density-giving capacity of the 
plate was of at least equal importance. As time pro- 
gressed the tendency was to use panchromatic rather 
than orthochromatic plates, and, finally, three-fourths 
or more of the plates used were panchromatic, a suit- 
able light-filter being employed. 


NEW KNOWLEDGE OF A PUZZLING : 
GROUP OF GYMNOSPERMS. 


THe abundance of large fronds in Rheetic, Jurassic, 

and Wealden rocks, closely resembling in habit 
those of some recent Cycads, and the occurrence of 
hundreds of petrified trunks in Jurassic and Neo- 
comian strata in North America and, in smaller 
numbers, in many other parts of the world, have led 
palzobotanists to speak of these periods as the “age 
of Cycads.” It is, however, a remarkable fact that 
the reproductive shoots of these Cycad-like plants 
differ very widely from the corresponding organs in 
the true Oieads: had we possessed no knowledge of 
the vegetative organs, the reproductive shoots would 


116 


NATURE 


[APRIL 10, 1919 a 


mot have been styled ‘reaiean.s The differences 
between the reproductive organs of the recent and 
extinct forms find expression in the reference of the 
Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous plants to a separate 
group, Bennettitales, the existing cycadean genera 
being included in the Cycadales. 

._ Dr. Marie C. Stopes has recently made two im- 
portant contributions to our knowledge of the Ben- 
nettitales in a paper published in vol. ccviii. of the 
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, con- 
taining descriptions and many admirable illustrations 
of a new ‘species of seminiferous cone and a cone- 
bearing stem. The new cone, named Bennettites 
albianus, was discovered in the Gault of Folkestone by 
Mr. G. C, Walton. A French specimen of Ben- 
nettites was described some years ago by Prof. Lignier 
from beds in Normandy, believed by. him to belong 
to the Gault, but with that exception all Bennettitean 
cones are from Jurassic or Wealden strata. The 
preservation of the English species is unusually good; 
the type-specimen is a portion of the broad domical 

ex of a cone about 120 mm. in diameter, containing 
several hundred seeds, many of them with embryos. 
In general plan it agrees with previously described 
Bennettites cones; each seed is closely invested by 
seven interseminal scales, with expanded and laterally 
confluent truncate apices, forming a strong protective 
covering to the surface of the ‘‘fruit.” It is sug- 
gested that the lacunar tissue surrounding the stalks 
on which the erect exalbuminous seeds are borne, 
and the tubular cells of the arillus-like basal cup in 
which each. seed is embedded, drew up and retained 
water like the water-storage tissue of a bog moss, thus 
keeping the interior of the fruit moist. It is pointed 
out in support of this ingenious view that the seeds 
are deficient in vascular-conducting tissue. 

The careful and detailed investigation of the com- 
plex structure of the seeds does not afford support 
to the view advanced by some writers that the Ben- 
nettitean seed agrees closely with that of Gnetum, 
nor are any new facts brought to light which favour an 
alliance between Bennettites and the Angiosperms. 

It is probable that the plant which bore the cone 
described by Dr. Stopes was one of the latest. repre- 
sentatives of the Bennettitales; the habit and the 
anatomical characters of the vegetative organs were, 
in the main, retained by the Cycads as we know them 
to-day—a small group, for the most part tropical in 
their distribution, and probably of comparatively 
recent origin. On the other hand, it has yet to be 
shown that the complex reproductive shoots of Ben- 
nettites gave rise to any direct descendants. 

The thorough examination by Dr. Stopes of the 
Lower Greensand stem named by Carruthers Ben- 
nettites maximus shows that it agrees anatomically 
with other species except in the absence of any un- 
doubted secretory cells in the ground-tissue of the 
stem and leaf-bases. The abundance of thick-walled, 
pitted cells, or ‘‘transfusion elements,’ which physio- 
logically may represent secretory cells, is a charac- 
teristic feature. The most important point made Ly 
the author is that Bennettites maximus bore bi- 
sporangiate cones similar to those described by 
Wieland from America, and differing from the ap- 
parently unisexual cones previously recorded from 
Britain. A. C. Sewarp. 


EDUCATION AND SCIENCE IN THE 
CIVIL SERVICE ESTIMATES. ; 
i Meibn Estimates for Civil Services for the year 
ending March 31, 1920, amount in Class IV. 
(Education, Science, and Art) to 41,251,610l. The 
following are among the Estimates :— 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103 | 


United Kingdom and England. a 
Compared 
Service 1919-20 with 1918-19, 
£ ae ; 
Board of Education 31,353,111 12,2 eet . 
British Museum ; ay 209,714 3572 
Scientific investigation, etc. 113,974 591733 | 
Department of Scientific and Bs 
Industrial Research |... 242,815 ¢ 
Universities and Colleges, sas te 
United Kingdom, and 
Intermediate Education, OER 25S a 
Wales % ve ag 945,700 624,000 
Universities, etc., special vey a 
grants it a ae 500,000 470,000 
: Scotland. igh Con { 
Public education 4,677,220 en 
Ireland. K 
Public education 2,721,356 19,45 
Intermediate education 90,000, 
eee 9 art 190,498 et ei 27,105 . 
Universities and colleges . 85,000 "11,350 _ 


Details of some of Gibsl Estimates of. particular i a 


interest to men of science are as follows : SRSA Se 
EL cbeby 


SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS, Bw? ih sate ea 


Royal Society : Pre THs yes 
(i) Grant in aid of (a) scientific in nh Harta ai 
tions undertaken with the pate shag Fas 3) 
committee appointed for e a 
jf (4000!) and (2) scientific a \ 
oool. 5 i 
(ii) Graiie in aid of salaries ‘and other ex. h ohh a 
penses of the derienei: iiss! = ‘at, oft Sire i 
Eskdalemuir ... et 1600 
Meteorological Office... MQ ei 47,000 
Royal (Geographical Society, é ye 
Marine Biological Association of the United 
Kingdom ... ray ast coe Saijode 
Royal Society ‘of Edinburgh ‘ia ae Gaiev® ‘Ges 
Scottish Meteorological mit ib. Of ye OS 
Royal Irish Academy tk OLE, Got 
Royal Zoological Society ‘of Ireland 00 500 
British School at Athens 3} iat $. 81272) 
British School at Rome... Waid lay ie eae 
Royal Scottish Geographical Society et 1. 20 RBOS 
National Library of Wales 2 dai «- | 8,900 
National Museum of Wales’: ab EH 
Grant in aid of the expenses of fieert museum > 4,000. 
Special building grant in aid . ba ss 20,000 
Solar Physics Observatory did hart pease 
School of Oriental Studies _... in ws) 4y00O 
North Sea Fisheries Investigation .... ... 1,250 
Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau ... see 11,000 
Edinburgh Observatory ... oe oak) Lege det Ogee 8 
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL’ Rasies te a 
Salaries, wages, and allowances 11,870 
Travelling and incidental expenses 


Grants for Investigation and Research: 
(1) Grants for investigations carried out by 
learned and scientific societies, etc. ... 13,570 

(2) Grants for investigations directly con- Sis 
trolled by the Department of Scientific 


and Industrial Research ... 
(3) Grants to students and other Persons, 
engaged in research 


(These grants will be distributed by : a3 
Committee of the Privy Council, on the 
recommendation of an Advisory Council, 
to promote the development of scientific 


sprilisy ivr th 


emcee RNa 


eerily JA Nee ei oD 


——— 


iii 
saptind Fa sienes 


Samah 


| Apri. 10, 1919] 


NATURE 117 

he ndustrial okhenk! t. the United & UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, IRELAND. 5 
ton’ get de be subject to such Queen’s University of Belfast 18,000 
s as the Committee may think University College, Dublin 32,000 
necessary.) University College, Cork 20,000 
Research Station ... 12,775 | University College, Galway 12,000 

Soadinan Laboratory + 154,650 Netcom by aki of Ireland and University 

ollege. Dublin , 1,000 

IES AND COLLEGES, UnrirEp KINGpom. Additional grant towards increasing ‘the re- 

é £ sources of petyersiy Sone Galway 2,000: 
8,000 bp i oars 
ye UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
4,000 INTELLIGENCE. 

2,000 CaMBRIDGE.—The Cavendish professorship of experi- 
2,000 | mental physics, recently vacated by the Master of 
2,000 | Trinity, has been filled by the appointment of Sir 
2,000 | Ernest Rutherford. This office carries with it the 
siti ‘ bel 2 2,000 | direction of the Cavendish Laboratory. An adequate 
4 ties, grant in ai ah d) sec- continuation of the very remarkable line of occupants 
£ vadditic A (Scotland) Act, of this important position, represented by the names of 
* itional grant in aid, Ps Clerk Maxwell, Rayleigh, and J. J. Thomson, has 
4,000 | thus been secured. 
the Univer sity Colleges Grants At the same time the University fortunately con- 
Ore ee the in Tat tinues to be in a position to profit by the services of 
auc fon v eges in Great Sir J. J. Thomson on an honorary basis. A special 
education of a university professorship of physics without stipend has been 
_and sciences and techno- , created for him, and accommodation and resources will 
fi ie 210,000 | be provided, so far as finances permit, for the pro- 
Saag of the Univer- secution of his scientific work and his activities in the 
ales, South Wales stimulation of research in physical science. 
and Aberystwyth It is hoped that the University will very soon find 
Ys id f th "12,000 | itself in a position to embark upon the structural 
ie a 4 € expenses of the develooments which will be required in order to take 
+ Wale s the University full advantage of this great accession of strength in 
“AD outh Wales and the most fundamental of the sciences, and to maintain 
‘gute (25001., the repute and activity of the Cavendish Laboratory 
£1251. respectively) | 20,500 | at the level that the national interest in the coming 
apd et ae Imperial time will more than ever demand. 
Pasa a taineins Be TS Lonpon.—The Ramsay Memorial eatainitien tae 
‘oame ties - United | offered to the University a:sum of not less than 
Ae 25,0001. towards. the foundation of. a laboratory of 
‘ “531,500 | chemical pnginocrinia at University Coheee: ‘The 
‘ Senate has gratefully accepted the offer, >. is 
v a versities and Colleges .... 916,000 alinting a site for the purpose. 
_ SPEctaL GRANTS. 
Pe  rgx9-20 wi _. Increase On the invitation of the governors of Birkbeck Col- 
aid of * tege, London, Lord Haldane has accepted the position 
Colleges, of president of the college, in succession to the late 
een nara y* i ig ts from the Dixon Fund of 
PPLICATIONS for grants from the Dixon Fund o 
sl Rain ae Agree ree Rory the University of London for assisting scientific in- 
“are in need of special assistance in vestigations must reach the Academic Registrar of the 
may, so far as possible, resume their University before May 15 next. 
favourable conditions, and may not Tue Lindley studentship in physiology will shortly 
extraordinary expenditure in- | be awarded by the University of London. It is open 
ion of their activities | to students qualified to undertake research. Applica- 
e war. The special | tions must be made to the Academic Registrar, the 
id for 1918-19 were provided to meet par- | University. of London, South Kensington, before 
urgent cases in which some measure of | April 30._ 
on onlay or og bind ‘until the a cn of A COMMITTEE of the» Royal ‘College of Physictaria 
3 grave permanent detriment | of London,and of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
the: institutions concerned. England. will shortly appoint a Streatfeild research 
; without ibsvern for other Government Departments | scholar in ‘medicine ‘and surgery. The annual value 
sea ees st Ps, agp Air Ministry, 36.350; | of the scholarship is about 25o0l., and the tenure three 

2 eas and Pastges for special investigations years, at the discretion of the committee. . Applica- 

flee a tions, stating the nature of the proposed research. the 

Taxation (Scotland) Account under Section 2 (2) of the place where it is to be carried out, and the status of 

and | Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, 1892. ' the applicant, should be sent to the Registrar, Roval 
— 60,000/. will be devoted to grants in aid of technological | Collese of: Physicians of London, Pall Mall East, 
tastier whl Creat Brovicted im Class IV, 18; is intended to | 5-W.1, marked.“ Streatfeild Scholarship.” ry 
pe heey Nae a en pase ont OF be Scar Mr. Arruur’ HENDERSON, secretary’ of the pe 
athe ear i oe are of University Institutions in the } Party, appeals i in the Times Of seri 8 } nirttng large. “ak 


NO. 2 580, VOL. 103] 


118 


NATURE 


[APRIL 10, 1919 


i 


immediate increase in fhe Exchequer grants to uni- 
versities and university colleges. The financial posi- 
tion of our universities in comparison with those of 
the United States and Germany was surveyed in an 
article in Nature of August 15, 1918, and is stated 
in detail in a report published by the British Science 
Guild on ‘Industrial Research and the Supply of 
Trained Scientific Workers.’”’ The main facts stated 
by Mr. Henderson are given in these publications, and 
are familiar to most of our readers, but they cannot 
be brought under the notice of the public and our 
legislators too often. 


Miss Maup Marcaret Gipson has placed in the 
hands of the Royal Society of Medicine a sum of 
money sufficient to provide a scholarship of the yearly 
value of about. 250l. for medical research by women, 
in memory of her father, the late Mr. William Gibson, 
of Melbourne, Australia. The scholarship will be 
awarded from time to time by the society to qualified 
medical women who. are subjects of the British 
Empire, and is tenable for two years, but may, in 
special circumstances, be extended to a third vear. 
The scholar will be free to travel at her own will for 
the purpose of the research undertaken by her. There 
will be no competitive examination, nor need a thesis 
or other work be submitted. Applications -must be 
sent in not later than May 3. Particulars may be 
obtained from Mr. J. Y. W. Macalister, secretary of 
the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, W.1. 


SCIENTIFIC workers who are endeavouring to secure 
professional recognition by Government through a new 
degree to be granted by our higher technical institu- 
tions will be much interested in Prof. Camichel’s 
account of what is proposed in this direction in France 
(Revue générale des Sciences, January 30, 1919). M. 
Pottevin has introduced a Bill in the Chambre des 
Députés for the establishment of autonomous technical 
institutes in connection with existing universities, the 
rector of the university being president in each case 
of a council which is to include representatives of the 
teaching staff, the Ministry, the departments, the 
municipalities, associated or private benefactors, 
chambers of commerce, and local workmen’s organisa- 
tions. It is proposed that these institutes should have 
power to grant degrees in applied science in the name 
~ of the State, such degrees, unlike those of the uni- 
versities, carrying ‘Government sanction for profes- 
sional practice, as is already the case in the safe- 
guarded degrees in medicine, advocacy, and pharmacy. 


A Bit has been introduced in the United States 
Senate to create a Department of Education with a 
Secretary of Education, and granting money for 
educational purposes in co-operation with the States. 
The Bill proposes to distribute money to the States 
on condition that they raise equal amounts for the 
same purposes. It authorises an annual appropria- 
tion of 20,000,0001., to be apportioned among the . 
States for the following purposes :—(1) To encourage 
the States in the removal of illiteracy, 1,500,000l. 
(2) To encourage the States in the Americanisation 
of foreigners, 300,000l. (3) To encourage the States 
in the equalisation of educational opportunities, and 
for the partial payment of teachers’ salaries, providing 
better instruction, extending school terms, and other- 
wise providing equally good schools for all children, 
10,000,000l. (4) To encourage the States in the pro- 
motion of physical and health education and recrea- 
tion, 4,000,000l. (5) To encourage the States in pro- 
viding facilities for preparing and supplving better 
teachers, 3,000,000l. According to the New York 
Tribune, there are 700,000 illiterate males in the 
United States between the ages of twenty-one and 
thirty-one unable either to understand the principles 


for which they were called upon to fight or to read 
NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


the Constitution they were expected to defend. There 
are at the present time in the United States 8,592,000 
illiterates and persons unable to speak English, of - 
whom 1,006,000 live in New York State and 621,000 
in Pennsylvania. The’ Bureau of Education has 
reported that the average annual salary paid to 


American teachers in 1918 was about 126l., which is — 
about 49l. less per annum than the average wae paid 
to charwomen in the United States Navy Yard. 


Lt OSPR S 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, April 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, 
in the chair.—Dr. JT. R. Merton and Prof. J. W. 
Nicholson: Note on the intensity decrement in the 
Balmer series. Twelve members of the Balmer series 
of hydrogen have been observed in vacuum tubes con- 
taining a trace of hydrogen in helium at a pressure of 
41 millimetres of mercury. In contrast with the diffuse 
appearance. of the last of these members in pure 
hydrogen, they were observed in the present instance 
as sharp, though faint, lines.. A quantitative com- 
parison of the intensity distribution in these tubes with 
that in tubes containing pure nydroHee water-vapour, 
and a mixture of hydrogen and helium at low pres- 
sure has shown that the visibility of the higher 
members of the series in the high-pressure tubes is 
most probably due to the fact that the energy under 
these conditions is concentrated within narrow limits 
of wave-length, instead of being distributed through a 
broadened line the energy-content of which is, in fact, 
greater. The observed results seem to be incompatible 
with the quantum theory of the hydrogen spectrum 
developed by Bohr.—Prof. E.. W. Brown.: The deter- 
mination of the secular accelerations of the moon’s 
longitude from modern observations.—Dr. W. Rosen-_ 
hain and S. L. Archbutt: The inter-crystalline fracture 
of metals under prolonged application of stress. The 
authors’ observations have. shown that in a number 
of metals, including lead, mild steel, and an alloy 
of aluminium with zinc and copper, the prolonged 
application of stress will, in certain cases, produce an 
abnormal type of fracture in which the crystals become 
separated from one another, instead of being broken 
or torn across in ‘the normal manner. An exact simi- 
larity to this tvpe of fracture is found in the “season 
cracking” of brass. In the latter case the applied 
stress is an internal one arising from elastic deforma- 
tion. The authors base an explanation of this type of © 
fracture on the hvpothesis, formerly advanced by one — 
of them and widely accepted among metallurgists, 
that the constituent crystals of metals are held together 
by thin layers of an amorphous inter-crvstalline 
‘“cement,” the properties of which resemble those of — 
a greatly under-cooled liquid.—Dr. T. R. Airey: Zonal 
harmonics of high order in terms of Bessel functions. 


Physical Society, March 14.—Prof. C. H. Lees, 
president, in the chair—C. C. Paterson and N. 
Campbell: .Some characteristics of the spark dis- 
charge and its effect in igniting explosive mix- 
tures. The obiect of the investigation was to 
determine the relation between the electrical charac-_ 
teristic of a spark discharge and its power of igniting 
explosive mixtures. The. results show that the igniting 
power of a spark increases with both the capacity 
discharging andthe spark potential, and that the 
energy required for ignition decreases rapidly as the 
spark potential increases. Various other properties of 
sparks are described. 

J MANCHESTER. 

Literary and Philosophical Society, March 18:—Mr. W. 
Thomson. president, in the chair.—Prof. G. Elliot 
Smith: The bird’s brain. It has always been an 


NATURE 


11g 


enigma’ that, in spite of their very scanty equipment 
ee erebral cortex, birds should disolay, in 
_ their powers of tactile, visual, and acoustic discrimina- 
, their associative memory, and their ability to 
y_ individual. experience, such outstanding’ evi- 
of functions which are intimately associated 
mals with the activities of the cortex. The 
ation of this apparent discrepancy between the 
rphology of the brain and the bird’s aptitude to 
experience is provided by the fact that a 
of he prpoture usually called ‘‘ corpus 
is cortical in origin and in its fibre-con- 
M. Christy : The ancient legend as to the 
sb dated fruit upon its spines. This legend 
thousand years old, had been repeated by 
s classical and medieval writers on natural 
my of them adding to or improving upon 
‘story. The author reviewed the forms in 
had been presented, showing that the fruit 
9 have been carried varied geographically. He 
two instances which had come under his notice; 
ugh second-hand evidence, he believes to have 
ndation in fact. He concludes that the 
g does eat fruit, and may occasionally inten- 
rry it on its spines. : 


da Paris. 

“Sciences, March 17.—M. Léon Guignard 
—J. Hadamard: Remark on the residual 
_Richet and G. Noizet: An unsinkable 


mapecting against cold. The garment is 
yf vulcani : ohm ong to that used for 
: ad internally with a thickness of about 
mM. _ kapok. In an oe for saving life 
protection against cold is as important as pro- 
Rostiee sinking. The garment made of ae 
erial has been successfully subjected to 
a safety apparatus it has one draw- 
ten minutes to put on unassisted, or three 
‘assistance.—The Permanent Secretary 
death of Edmund Weiss, correspondant 
y for the section of astronomy.—B. 
faces applicable one on the other.—H. 
: - zeros of the function ((s).—M. 
a al functions connected with the first 
Rae rum: The theorem of Goldbach.—E. 
T formula of Bernoulli—C. Raveau: 
calculation of the mechanical equivalent of 
| unpublished document.—C. Chéneveau and 
co bert: Absorption by turbid media. Influence 
42 diameter and the number of the particles. 
Rayleigh’s theorem is limited to the case in 

nicl = suspended particles are small with respect 
e wave-length of the incident light. From ex- 
nen tal data a modified formula is proposed dealing 
the case of larger particles.—L. Abonnenc : The 
flow of liquids by drops in cylindrical tubes. 
d d are the external and internal diameters 
the tube from which the drops are falling, T is the 
rface tension of the liquid, 4 its viscosity, p its 
, N the frequency of fall, m and n successive 


w 


oe then the weight of a drop is’ given by 


“4 + 


ate 


; fp=ATD +mBnN — n<pN?, 


A, B, and C are constants independent of the 
uid.—P. Nicolardot : The tempering oF lead, tin, and 
thallium. These three metals can be tempered. They 
_anneal themselves spontaneously at the ordinary tem- 
perature, with a rapidity increasing with the tempera- 
ts fire. Bailly : The action of allxyl iodides on neutral 
_ sodium phosphate in. aqueous solution. 

_ takes place according to the equation _ 
PO(ONa), + RI=PO(ONa),— OR+Nal, 


“NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


The reaction 


the proportion of the phosphoric ether formed falling 
from 73:5 per cent. for methyl iodide to 10-6 per cent. 
for isobutyl iodide.—R. Dubuisson: The magnetic 
anomalies of the Paris basin.—J. Lévine: The - 
periodicity of atmospheric waves. A curve of the 
annual barometric minima for the period 1700 to 1919 
shows a recurring period of about ninety-six years.— 
H. Hubert: The prediction of squalls in western 
Africa.—A, Trillat and M. Fouassier; An apparatus 
designed for the study of the formation and persist- 
ence of fogs.—M. Dechevrens: The diurnal variation 
of the vertical electric current of the earth in the air 
(observations made at Jersey).—F. Vlés: Some optical 
properties of bacterial emulsions.—G, Sanarelli: The 
pathogeny of cholera. 


March 24.—M. Léon Guignard in the chair.—A. 
Rateau: Quantity of total motion and mean velocity 
of a jet of gas emerging from a reservoir by a tuyére. 
—A. Blondel: The conditions of stability of syn- 
chronised alternators connected to a constant-pressure 
network.—H. H. Hildebrandsson: Preliminary reflec- 
tions on the general movements of the atmosphere. 
From a study of experimental data only, without 
regard to any existing theories, nine conclusions are 
drawn of atmospheric movements, the most important 
being that there is no evidence of a direct higher 
current from the equator towards the poles, neither 
is there a lower current in the opposite sense.—G. 
Julia: Some general properties of integral functions 
related to Picard’s theorem.—A. Petot: The analytical 
theory of hydraulic turbines—C. Rabut: Static syn- 


thesis of constructions.—G. Guillaumin: Ram strokes 


in pipes of variable diameter.—R. Ledoux-Lebard and 
A. Dauvillier: The spectral structure of the J rays. 
The spectrum of the J rays, discovered by Barkla and 
White, should be very simple, possibly one radiation 
only. Boron appeared to be indicated as a suitable 
source of these rays, and experiments with this 
material are described. No line of wave-length near 
\=0'43 A.U. could be detected.—H. Copaux ; A method 
of extracting glucina from beryl. The mineral is , 
heated to 850° C. with sodium fluosilicate, and the 
fritted mass extracted with boiling water. The greater 
part of the silica and alumina remains undissolved.— 
L. Benoist: A reaction and method for the estima- 
tion of ozone. ‘The method is based on the destruc- 


‘tion of the dye fluorescein by ozone, and can detect and 


estimate quantities down to a millionth of a milli- 
gram of ozone.—A. Guébhard: A new point of view in 
metallogenesis.—Ph. Glangeaud: The volcanic group, 
Banne d’Ordanche, Puy-Loupv, and Puy-Gros, of the 
Monts Dore massif. A remarkable volcanic and hydro- 
thermal fault.—G. Reboul and L. Dumnoyer: The 
mutual actions of low and high barometric pressures. 
A. Baldit: Cold storms and their traiectories.—F. 
Maignon: Study of the mechanism of: the action of 
fats in the utilisation and assimilation. of albu- 
minoids. A theory is developed to explain the ex- 
perimental results published in earlier communica- 
tions. It is supposed that the amino-acids - arising 
from the partial digestion of the albuminoids can re- 
combine with fatty acids from the fats. This would 
explain not only the increased assimilation, but also 
the observed reduction in the toxic power of the 
albuminoids.—J. L. Dantan: The origin of the sexual 
cells in Parantipathes larix.—F. d@’Hérelle: The réle 
of the filtering anti-bacterial micro-organism in typhoid 
fever. The study of twenty-eight cases of typhoid 
fever has led to conclusions similar to those arrived 
at for dysenterv. Coincident with improvement in 
the patient, there apneared in the faces a substance - 
possessing a powerful bactericidal action upon. the 
tvphoid bacillus. which can only be attributed to an 
antagonistic micro-organism. 


i X+312. 


(New York: 


NATURE 


[APRIL | 10, I919_ 


‘120 
BOOKS RECEIVED. Persie dae FON) at 3,—Prof. A. Findlay ; Colloidal Matter and its 4 
Van Nostrand’s Chemical Annual. Fourth issue. INSTITUTION OF Mininc AND METALLURGY, at 5.—Major H. Standish | 


1918. Edited by Prof, J. C. Olsen, assisted by Lieut. 


M. P. Matthias. Pp. xviii+778. (London: Con-— 
stable and Co., Ltd.) 15s. net. 
The Century of Hope. By F, S. Marvin. Pp. vi+ 


352. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.) 6s. net. . 
Report on an. Inquiry into the Silk Industry in 
India. Vol. i.: The Silk Industry. By H. Maxwell- 
Lefroy. Pp. iit211. Vol. ii.: Present Condition of 
the Silk Trade of India. By E. C. Ansorge. Pp. 
vi+i115. Vol. iii.: Appendices to Vol. i. By H. 
Maxwell-Lefioy. Pp. 227... (Calcutta: Superintendent 
Government Printing, India.) Vol. i., 3s.; vol. ii., 
28i'3 *WOLsAH., 482° 20. 

The Journal of a Disappointed Man. By W.N. P. 
Barbellion. With an introduction by H. G. Wells. 
(London: ‘Chatto and Windus.) 6s. 


riieadeigde of Lewis’s Medical and Scientific Cir- 
culating Library. New edition, revised to the end 
of tor7. Pp. vi+4Q2. (London : iH. K. Lewis and 


Co., Ltd.) 12s. 6d. net. 

The War Work of the Y.M.C.A. in Egypt. By 
Sir J. W. Barrett. Pp. xx+212. (London: H. K. 
Lewis and Co., Ltd.) tos. 6d. net. 

Strife of Systems and Productive Duality: An 


Essay in Philosophy. By Prof. W. H. Sheldon. 
Pp. x+534. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer- 
sity Press; London: Humphrey Milford.) 


With an introductory essay by A. H. 
New edition. 
The Macmillan Co. ; 
millan and Co., Ltd.) 25s. net. 


Thayer. 
Mac- 


London : 


Criminology. By Dr. M. Parmelee. Pp. xiii+522. 
(New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Mac- 
‘millan and Co., Ltd.) ros. 6d. net. 
~ Soils ‘and Fertilizers. By Prof: T.-L.’ Lyon. 
Pp. xx+255. . (New Vortet: The Macmillan, .Co.; 

- London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 6s. 6d. net. ~ 


< 


“Chicago Press.) 


The Mastery of Nervousness, Based upon Self- 


‘Re-education. By Dr. S. Carrell. Third revised 
edition. Pp. 248. (New York: The Macmillan Co. ; : 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) tos. 6d. net. 


‘The Living Cycads. By Prof. C. J. Chamberlain. 
Pp. xiv+172. (Chicago, Ill.: The University of 
1.50 dollars net. 

Le Rocce: Concetti e Nozioni di Petrografia. 
Prof. E. Artini. Pp. xx+636+plates xxxii. (Milano: 


U. Hoepli.): 18-50 lire. 
_ Self and Neighbour: An Ethical Study. By E. W. 
Hirst. Pp, xix+291. (London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd.) ros. net. 

Aids in Practical Geology. By Prof. G. A. J. Cole. 
Seventh edition, revised. Pp. xvi+431. 
C. Griffin and Co., Ltd.) ros. 6d. net. 


The Elements of Astronomy for Surveyors. By. 
Prof. R. W. Chapman. Pp. x+247. (London: 
C. Griffin and Co., Ltd.) 5s. net. 

Les Principes. de l’Analyse Mathématique : Exposé 
Historiaue et Critique. By Prof. P. Boutroux. 
‘Tome ii. Pp. 512. (Paris: A. Hermann et Fils.) 
20 francs. 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY. APRIL 10, 

INSTITUTION or Navat ARCHITECTS, at 11 a.m.—A. E. Seaton: The 
Work of the British Marine Engineering Design and Construction Com- 
mittee.—Signor S.-Orlando: Italian Two Floodab!e Compartment Cargo 
Steamers Built during the War.—Sir E. H. Tennyson d’Eyncourt and T. 
Graham: Some Recent Developments pert a_ Simplification of 
Merchant Ship Construction. rey 3—C. LR. Campbell : Development 
of Airship Construction.— Scott: Céhcrete Shipbuilding in the 
United States of America. ir 7-30.-—The Hon. Sir C. A. Parsons 
and Stanley S. Cook: Investigation into the Causes of Corrosion and 
Erosion of Propellers.—J. H. Gil.son : The Michell Thrust Block. 


NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 


I5s. net. | 
V Concealing-coloration in the Animal Kingdom... By 

G. H. Thayer. 
Pp. xix+260+xvi plates. 


By 


(London : | 


Ball: The Work of the Miner on the Western F ront. 


Royav Hisroricar Socigry, at 5. —kR, A. Gregory : Science in the’ History 


of Civilisation. 

InstITUTION oF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—R. J. Kaula: Notes on 
Surface Condensing Plants, with Special "Reference to the Requirements 
of Large Power Stations. 

OpricaL Society, at 7.30.— 
The Spacing of Glass-working Too 


FRIDAY, Aves It 
INSTITUTION OF NavAL ARCHITECTS, at 11 a.m.—W. H. 
Experiences with Electric Welding in Warships. ep a 
reat-we* Experiments on the Stre-s Determination in 
T. Wall: The Tonnage of Modern Steamship: 
Model Erpeoas on the Effect of Beam on the Resistance 
Ship Forms.—J. Semple : Some Experiments on Full sy, ‘o Shi Models, 
RovaL AsTRonomicaL Society, al 5 —J. H. Jean he | 
Binary Systems.—Prodable Papers: Dr. A. A. avehiaave AS Table 
for Direcily Converting Estimates of Brightness into Stellar Magnitudes 
on Pogson’s Scale.—Rev. Phillips: Note-on a Remarkable 
Change in the South Tropical.Region of Jupiter. 
RovaL InstiTuTION, at 5.30.—Sir J. J. ‘Thomson : Piezo- Electricity and 


its Applications, 
. SATURDAY, Aprit 12. 
Royat Institution, at 3.—Sir J. J. Thomson: Spectrum Analysis and its 
Application to Atomic Structure. 
MONDAY, Apri 14. 
Roya. GEOGRAPHICAL Society, at 5.—Dr. J. Ball and H. K Na The 
Astrolabe 4 Prisme. 
InsTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 7.30. poe ey RD. Gifford: 
Opener of a Discussion on Electrical Instruments, on 


TUESDAY, Aprit 15. 
Roya. STATISTICAL SOCIETY, at 5.1 5.+Ur. A. L. Bowley : The Measure- 
ment of Changes in the Cost of Living. 
INSTITUTION OF PETROLEUM or at 5.30.—C. cw ly 
Valedictory Address.—Sir F. W. Black : Presidential Address, Some 
Problems of Petroleum Supply. 


WEDNESDAY, Moar 16. ° 
Royat METEOROLOGICAL SociETy, at 5.—A. A. Barat ¢ Rainfall in 
England ; the True Long-average as Deduced from Symmetry.—C. E.. P. 
Brooks: The Seculir Variation.of Rainfall. 
RoyaAL AFRONAUTICAL SOCIETY, at 8. i ¥. Cc. Lea: - Alominium Alloys 
for Aeroplane Engines. 


4 


‘PAGE 


CONTENTS. ) a 
Modern Optical Instruments. By A. Risto Je0) iio | 
The Usefulness of Psychology sigs ahaa | f 
A Melanesian Dictionary. By. Sidney H. Ray © 102 
Our; Bookehelf 23.55.67. bigs Qe tee 3d) each} Fee OZ 
Letters to the Editor:— { 
Marine Research at St. Andrews.—Prof. A. Meck 104 
The Machinery of Government.—A, J. Brander . . 104 
Visualisation of Features.—R. F. Powell . tte 104 
The ‘* Atom.”—A. A. 104 
The Dominion of Canada’s 72-in. Telescope. (Zus- 
trated.) By Dr. J. S. Plaskett hater gee 


The Use of Animals in Medical Résiaiee! rae FHS 4 


Sir William Crookes, O.M., F.R.S. By W. bon: ae 109 
Notes SoS ER, RENTS ST) a I OEE 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
The April Meteoric Display . Sere: Mat sate ed 
Unification of the Astronomical and Civil ‘Day $y Scie AS 
The Evolution of Binary Systems . . . 2 2. 6 « «~ TIS 
Aerial Photography . 115 
New Knowledge of a Puzzling Group of Gymno- 
sperms, By Prof, A. C, Seward, F.R.S. . 115 
Education and Science in the Civil Service Esti- 
mates ~ . 116 
University and Educational Intelligence . Beh le Nee SE 4 
Societies and Academies ............ 38 
Books Received ; oak, Sain Cea ans t 2eeO 
a eee PAA AP FSET GIANTS) settaninen Pat eA D 


Editorial and Publishing Offices : 
MACMILLAN AND CO.,; Lrp., 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, 


W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 
Publishers. , 
Editorial Communications to the Editor. Bip e 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. P 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


Ww. ene The Unaided Eye. ae Sinith: < , 


a or im Sol 


a. 


See NATURE 


121 


Bi ee Vs 

* 
Brg: 1 
ea > 
Gt 


wt 


THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1910. 


GYROSCOPICS. 
Treatise on Gyrostatics and Rotational Motion. 
Theory and Applications. By Prof.’ Andrew 

ray. Pp. xx +530. (London: Macmillan and 
Itd., 1918.) Price 42s. net. 

E exhibition at the International Mathe- 
matical Congress at Cambridge in 1912, 
unnoticed in the official record of the 
gs, was attractive as a collection of 
ooks on view of all the chief publishers 
d, and of apparatus designed for use in 
ical instruction, including a very com- 


us F 


€ assortment of calculating machines of all 

= foreign visitor was delighted chiefly to 

d handle the gyrostats and apparatus, and 

i up much of the obscurity in the mere 

ption and diagrams of the “Treatise on 
cl * + shee G ” . 
ural Philosophy *’ of Thomson and Tait. 
appa: Ga was designed, and explained, 
at work in the skilful hands of Dr. 
son of our author, engaged since in 
nt of the warlike applications; and 
ised a sequel devoted to this side of 
of gyrostatics as soon as the seal of 
been removed with the advent of 

d description can then be made, too, 

ul applications of gyroscopic prin- 

_to the design of the centrifuges 

itrifugal and whirling operations 

d laundry work, to drain off the 

a saturated substance swiftly and 

ernal disturbance. These were de- 

igineering for February 7 last, where 
trifuge must be treated as a great 
op, upright as if asleep, requiring the 
be - end to be quite free in precession, and so 

_ actuated from the lower end of the axle, in this 

& ease by a Pelton wheel. 

__ + The gyro-compass is held over to the sequel, as 
_ involving the operation of secret processes; with- 
the navigation of a submarine could not have 

| possible. But a full description is given in 
viii. of Schlick’s sea gyroscope, with the 

designed to ensure a dry ship and easy 

n all weather. 

Gray has succeeded, in the chair of natural 

losophy at Glasgow University, to the gyrostatic 

paratus of Lord Kelvin, his predecessor, and has 
important developments of his own inven- 
As shown in the diagrams, these are of 

‘ate construction, and demand the aid of 

i¢ motive power to impart and maintain the 

_ high rate of revolutions required, and so will not 

_ be allowed far from the lecture-desk. 

_. But Maxwell’s opinion must be maintained that 

_ the real instruction of the student is derived from 

_ the crude apparatus made by his own hands, and 

_ that he learns most from his cwn failures. . 


So we venture to suggest to Prof. Gray the en- 
} NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


couragement of his students in the use of such 
simple apparatus as that in his Fig. 30(b) on 
p. 128, where a bicycle wheel is shown as a cheap, 
efficient top, spun by hand, and no string or elec- 
tric motor is required. If the ordinary 28-in. wheel 
is not considered large enough, it will cost little 
more to order one of double or three-fold diameter, 
as the delicate part of the hub and ball-bearings 
can serve for all, and is bought cheap when manu- 
factured in large quantities. These can be handled 
and thrown about, and brandished, and so provide 
the muscular sensations on a large scale of gyro- 
scopic domination. Any inventor’s idea can be 
tested at once and an advantage followed up. 

If the point of a top is free to wander about on 
the floor, either as a sharp tip or a rounded ball, 
the dynamical treatment is intractable in the 
present state of mathematical analysis. 

The point must be kept still, and we avoid the 
hideous unreality of the “perfectly rough ’’ of the 
text-book jargon by placing it, as in Fig. 30(a), 
in a small cup recess, the wheel spinning freely 
pe the ball-bearings of the hub fixed on the 
Stalk. 

The top must then have uniaxial symmetry if the 
motion is to be expressible by the elliptic func- 
tion, as explained in chap. xii. ; and these functions 
appear created expressly to speak the language of 
such gyroscopic motion. 

In the old Cambridge mathematical tradition, 
praised by Todhunter, it was considered of no in- 
tellectual merit to have seen and worked an experi- 
ment in Natural Philosophy and not to have 
grasped the idea by mere thinking, 

Maxwell strove hard to destroy this tradition, 
and pointed out the superiority at Glasgow of Sir 
William Thomson’s stimulating treatment of dyna- 
mics with experiments. Maxwell was given a 
chance of working out his ideas by the erection of 
the Cavendish Laboratory for his benefit, gift of 
the Chancellor, the Duke of Devonshire. But as 
Maxwell’s inaugural lecture was delivered to bare 
walls, the Chancellor desired to make his. gift 
complete by presenting an appropriate collection 
of apparatus. Such an order could not be given 
out at once in those days, and the demands ex- 
tended over a few years, during which some busy- 
bodies, self-styled business men, were always 
worrying Maxwell to make his final demand and 
declare the Cavendish Laboratory complete; and 
as Maxwell was then approaching his fatal illness 
he was too weak to protest, leaving his successor, 
Lord Rayleigh, the inheritance of a large establish- 
ment with no endowment for upkeep and progress. 

The tradition there of research has been chiefly 
electrical, so that the interests of dynamics have 
not been studied equally, and, to judge from the 
ordinary text-books in use, the old Victorian tra- 
dition still survives, copied from one to the other, 
and not looking up from the page at the great 
developments taking place around, a great con- 
trast to Prof. Gray’s treatise before us. 

. The elliptic function solution is restricted to the 

top of uniaxial symmetry. If the top is taken to 

be a body of any shape, as may be imitated’ with 
H 


122 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


the screws of the Maxwell top, the analytical com- 
plexity in chap. xvii. defied a Weierstrass, who 
handed his difficulties over to the young Kowa- 
levski, to break her teeth over the problem. 

The ardent spirit is not deterred, but, on the 
contrary, rather stimulated, to tackle a question 
declared intractable; so Prof. Gray gives a résumé 
in chap. xvii. of the progress made so far by other 
daring mathematicians—Russians for the most 
part—although we miss a figure and descrip- 
tion of the Maxwell top, to be placed on the table 
in front and twirled by a finger and thumb. 

The spherical pendulum of chap. xv. was 
early to receive attention as a problem in 
mere particle dynamics, realised in swinging 
a plummet about at the end of a thread. 
This is a case of gyroscopic-top motion where 
the component angular momentum (A.M.) about 
the axle is zero, and is realised in the 
apparatus of Fig. 30(b) by projecting the wheel 
without rotation. But this limitation makes the 
motion very uninteresting analytically, except as 
illustrating a solution of a Lamé equation of the 
second order. The simple case of holding out the 
axle horizontal, and projecting it horizontally with- 
out any rotation of the wheel, is of interest as 
giving a state of motion that has a simple ana- 
lytical solution, which may be written down. here : 

sin @ cos (p — 47) =4/(sec 43 — cos @,)4/(cos 6), 

sin 6 sin (Wy — 27) =4/(cos 3 — cos 6.cos 8+sec 43), 
where 2h denotes the precession when the axle is 
horizontal, and 6, is the extreme angle of the axle 
with the downward vertical, to which the axle 
sinks and then rises up again to the horizontal. 

This can serve as a penultimate case where the 
Spherical pendulum is whirled round swiftly, 
apparently in a horizontal circle, as with the 
lariat or bola, as on p. 302, contrasted with swift 
whirling in a vertical circle, penultimate case of 
pendulum motion, and an extreme contrast to 
small plane oscillation near the vertical. 

Lagrange came to grief over the small 
conical oscillations of the spherical pendulum (ef. 
§ 5, p- 302), yet he could have saved himself and 
detected his error but for the self-imposed restraint 
of excluding the diagram from his “ Mécanique 
analytique.’’ So it is curious to find the same 
fashion coming again in the modern school of pure 
analytical treatment, of doing away with an appeal 
to the visual sense of a geometrical figure. 

In swift rotation about an axis in the neighbour- 
hood of a principal axis, as the axis of figure of a 
symmetrical top, the instantaneous axis does not 
wander far from the principal axis, and the axis of 
A.M. keeps close by also, even when the body, like 
the top, is acted on continuously by a force or 
couple which causes the A.M. vector to move. 

The kindergarten explanation of top motion, in 
considering only the rotation about the axis, can 
then be made more exact, when it is assumed that 
the divergence of the axis of A.M. and angular 
velocity from the axis of figure is always small, so 
that one may be used indiscriminately for the other. 

In this way, by calling CR the A.M. above the 

NO, 2581, VOL. 103 | 


axis of figure, and gMhsin@ the couple of gravity 
on the top when the axis points up at an angle @ 


with the upward vertical, the simple formula is 


obtained for mw, the precession : 


, ‘ Mi 
uCR sin 02=gMh sin 6, peta? 


provided 6 is not too small. 


Poinsot applied the same principle in his treat- — 


ment of precession and nutation (‘‘ Connaissance 
des temps,’’ 1858), assuming the divergence of 
the axis of rotation and of A.M. from the axis of 
figure of the earth as insensible; otherwise we 
should see the stars dancing about. The treat- 
ment here in chap. x. could be simplified in. 
Poinsot’s method. The Glasgow problem on p. 13 
of the calculation of the diameter of the earth’s 
axis at the pole may be cited as a justification of 
Poinsot’s assumption. a 

It was a mathematical genius who changed in 


precession to the reckoning in a © = 304, 305; OF 


some say 305, 306, instead of the usual reciprocals 
in small decimals, indistinguishable numerically. 
And we venture to put in a plea for the sidereal 
day as the unit of time in these measurements, 


and not the solar year, thus making R=2a for 


the earth. aay 
The effect of precession is to shorten the year 
about twenty minutes, and thus the period is 
26,000 years of a complete revolution of the equi- 
nox through the stars. The classical scholar may 
be encouraged to take up the study of Astronomy 


when he hears that stray references to the stars , 
by Homer are a guide to us in assigning limits — 


to the age in which he lived and wrote. Astro- 

nomy was a much more living, actual interest in 

the days before clock and watch was so plentiful. 
G. GREENHILL. 


A PHYSIOLOGIST’S CONTRIBUTION. TO 
WAR SURGERY. 


Intravenous Injection in Wound Shock. Being 
the Oliver-Sharpey Lectures delivered before 
the Royal College of Physicians of London in 
May, 1918. By Prof. W. M. Bayliss.. Pp. xi+ 
172. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 
1918.) Price gs. net. | 


soe war has brought into touch with directly — 


practical problems many whose interests, 
before its outbreak, lay in fields of investigation 
which were popularly regarded as purely aca- 
demic and remote from contact with everyday 
needs. In no department of research has the 
value of “pure” 
cated than in that of physiology; and the gain 


to both physiology and practical medicine from — 


this>closer alliance of theory and application has 
been the subject of general remark. There could 
scarcely be a better example of this recent tendency 


than Prof. Bayliss’s book on the treatment of _ 


“wound shock,’’ which embodies, with much 
added detail and illustration, the substance of his 


science been more finely vindi- | 


ee ee 


— SS a 


—— Se ee 


—— ee 


‘ 
t 


__ APRIL 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


123 


_Oliver-Sharpey lectures,’ delivered before the 
re Royal College of Physicians in 1918. 
__ The subject of “shock ’’ was one which offered 
fittle attraction, under normal conditions, to the 
_Tlaboratory worker, with his habit of precision in 
-nomenclature and his love of the clearly defined 
_ problem. To the surgeon the problem was a 
ficiently definite and urgent one, but there was 
lays the suspicion, not even yet dispelled, that 
term covered any condition in which the vital 
tions suffered rapid depression, and that the 
mon factor was obscurity of causation. The 
me applied to “wound shock ”’ in the earlier 
ages of the war, but Prof. Bayliss shows how 
€ co-ordinated efforts of physiologists working 
ome and surgeons working in the clearing 
Succeeded in reducing the complexity of 
problem. He shows that the question of 
ion has by no means yet received a final 
; it is still obvious that the contributory 
numerous, and that their relative im- 
ies widely from case to case. The 
re of the condition, however, is con- 
ient volume of the blood in effective 
In the large majority of cases the 
as a twofold origin; blood has been lost 
ie system by actual hemorrhage, and of 
ains part is rendered ineffective for the 
the body by the tendency to stagnation 
peripheral vessels. In the production of 
enomenon a central importance is 
the absorption from injured tissues 
‘oducts of autolytic changes. Fat- 
eives brief mention, but might with 
‘Ate fuller consideration in a future 
bably too general a significance has 
uted to it by some American writers, 
surrence may possibly throw light on 
arance of “shock’’ in certain cases 
dvious destruction of the tissues, and on 
ete failure in such cases of efforts to 
e blood volume. 
part of the book is devoted, as its title 
» to the treatment of shock by intra- 
njections. The theoretical considerations 
imental findings leading to the intro- 
gum-acacia solution, as a substitute 
‘deficient blood, receive full treatment. The 
ance which, in certain passages, is attri- 
to deficient oxygenation of the blood seems 
ireely consistent with what is said elsewhere as 
the relatively small importance of oxygen- 
rying power, in comparison with the volume 
he rate of circulation of the fluid in the 
ls. There seems as yet to be no evidence 
‘would enable us to estimate the relative 
ance, as factors in the bad effects of a 
ed circulation, of the reduced supply of 
/ on one hand, or of the defect of the me- 
ai flushing of the tissues on the other, by 
h ch toxic metabolites are normally swept away, 
dssibly to be destroyed in the liver or eliminated 
‘by the kidneys. The effect on the function of the 
Kidney of replacing blood by gum solution is 
not here recorded, and seems worth investigation. 
fe NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


,. 


Soe gigi ' . 
RET EDS aii ON leet 
Seid " a Baan ~ » 
he : 


oe = 


Prof. Bayliss does not deal specifically with the 
application of conclusions, drawn from the study 
of “wound shock,’’ to the “surgical shock’’ of 
civilian practice. It is to be hoped that the effi- 
ciency of his gum solution, which has done such 
splendid service during the war as a substitute 
for lost blood, will be further tested under the 
more rigid observation which peaceful conditions 
will make possible. H. H. D. 


INTRODUCTORY METEOROLOGY. 
Introductory Meteorology. Prepared and Issued 
under the Auspices of the Division of Geology 
and Geography, National Research Council. 
Pp. xii+150. (New Haven: Yale University 
Press, 1918.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 


| N the United States meteorology is included 

in the course of study outlined by the Com- 
mittee on Education and Special Training of the 
War Department for Students’ Army Training 
Units. The plan involves an intensive study of 
the elements of the subject in order to familiarise 
prospective Army officers with its chief con- 
clusions and methods.’’ It is to meet this require- 
ment that “Introductory Meteorology,’’ a work 
of a hundred and fifty octavo pages, including 
seventy excellent illustrations, has been prepared 
by members of the staff of the United States 
Weather Bureau, including W. J. Humphreys, 
S. P. Fergusson, W. R. Gregg, J. Warren 
Smith, A. J. Henry, and C. F. Talman, who are 
all recognised as experts in the special subjects 
assigned to them. 

In this country no committee on education 
and special training of the War Department 
has as yet included meteorology in the course 
of study for Army officers, but the experience 
of the war has impressed upon us the necessity 
for setting out the elements of the subject, and 
the Meteorological Office has endeavoured to 
satisfy the requirement provisionally by the issue 
of the “Weather Map and Glossary’’ and a 
number of other publications. It is interesting 
to compare notes about these endeavours to meet 
a common necessity. 

Though it sets out a considerable number of 
well-selected facts and illustrations, many of them 
quite novel, “Introductory Meteorology ”’ is, from 
the nature of the case, little more than an en- 
larged prospectus of the whole scope of meteoro- 
logy, including climatology and forecasting. The 
primary difficulty of such an enterprise meets us 
on almost every page, and that is to decide how 
much preliminary knowledge of physics and mathe- 
matics on the part of the reader is to be assumed 
by the author. The most effective chapter is one 
on “Atmospheric Optics,’’ in which the author, 
with an obvious command of the subject, boldly 
tells the reader what he may see and what may 
be explained without entering into the details of 
explanation. There is no attempt to define re- 
fraction or diffraction. In other chapters less 
assurance is shown, and the author hesitates 
between assuming and expounding the experience 


124 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


of the physical laboratory, and therein he has our 
sympathy, combined with some amusement when 
we think of the lay mind pondering over such a 
sentence as: “By [dynamic heating and cooling] 
is meant that, if air is compressed, work is done 
and its temperature is raised, and if expanded it 
does work and is cooled’’; or the still more 
cryptic utterance about fog: ‘When the water 
appears to be steaming—actually evaporating into 
air already saturated and thus inducing condensa- 
tion.’”’ 

The pose as regards knowledge of the 
physical processes of such phenomena as the dis- 
tribution of temperature over the surface and in 
the upper air, or the trade winds and monsoons, 
is reminiscent of the heedless assurance of the 
old physical geographer rather than of the 
caution of the modern physicist, but the ambition 
to place the whole of meteorology upon a sound 
physical basis is a very worthy one and worthily 
attempted. The book should have a hearty wel- 
come. We look forward to its expansion and 
development with confidence. It is well executed, 
and the illustrations are remarkably apt. Among 
some beautiful photographs of cloud-forms Fig. 54 
(alto-cumulus) seems to be printed upside down, 
but that is the only misprint we have noticed. 

NaPIER SHAw. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Agricultural Laboratory Exercises and Home 
Projects adapted to Secondary Schools. By 
Henry J. Waters and Prof. Joseph D. EIliff. 
Pp. vi+218. (Boston and London: Ginn and 
Co., 1919.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 

In this book the authors set out exercises suitable 
for students in secondary schools where agri- 
culture is a prominent subject and occupies a con- 
siderable part of the curriculum. The exercises 
fall into two groups—those to be carried out in 
the laboratory, and those to be done at home on 
the farm, or, in the case of town dwellers, on 
the school ground. 

_ The laboratory classes follow the conventional 

lines; indeed, in no branch of agricultural science 

perhaps has there been less advance during past 
years than in schemes of exercises suitable for 
students. Nevertheless, although there is little or 
no novelty, the book is likely to be quite service- 
able to teachers. The old favourite exercises that 
have served for several generations of students 
are here, and all of them, as the authors say, 
have been “tried out,’’ and can be relied upon to 
give decisive results if the directions are properly 
followed. In a few cases the experiment does 
not really prove the point intended. Thus, one 
exercise is intended ‘to demonstrate how the soil 
food enters a plant.’’ The student is instructed 
to close the end of a thistle funnel with parch- 

ment, fill with sugar solution, and invert in a 

vessel of distilled water. The experiment illus- 

trates several points, but it does not show how 
soluble solutions pass into the plant. Another 
experiment, “the air as a source of plant food,’’ 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103 | 


shows an even greater divergence between the 


intention and the accomplishment. i 

To English readers the novel part is that deal- 
ing with “project work.”’ 
in the States receiving Federal aid under the 


Smith-Hughes Act are required to do some of — 


their agricultural work at home or on the school 
farm; this is called a project. The project must 
represent a sustained effort of considerable mag- 


nitude; in the authors’ description it must be 


‘‘worth while ’’; detailed records of costs, time, 
methods, and income must be kept; the work must 
be done under proper supervision, and it must 
form the subject of a written report by the 
student. The projects described here include the 
growth of maize and of vegetables for profit, selec- 
tion of seed corn, preparation of a seed bed, 
finding the “failure cow’’ in a herd, the dis- 
covery of the soil requirement, etc. The collec- 
tion will be found of distinct value to the teacher. 


The Voice Beautiful in Speech and Song. A Con- 
sideration of the Capabilities of the Vocal Cords 
and their Work-in the Art of Tone Production. 
By Ernest G. White. (New and 
edition of “Science and Singing.”’) Pp. vili+ 
130. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 
1918.) Price 5s. net. RS (ay 

THE opening sentences of chap. ii. of this book 

are as follows: “The whole burden of this book 

is to show and, if possible, convince the world 
in general that the vocal cords, situated on the 
top of the windpipe, in what we call our throat 

(diagram I.), are not the seat of sound—that is 

to say, in neither speech nor song do the vocal 

cords actually create the tone.’’ We venture to 
say that no physiologist will support this state- 
ment. It is true that sound can be produced by 
other parts of the apparatus, and without neces- 
sarily the presence of the vocal cords, but that 
the vocal cords vibrate and are the chief agents 
in producing tones has been proved to the satisfac- 
tion of all who study the parts and can employ 
the laryngoscope. The author is right so far in 
attributing importance to the sinuses in some of the 
bones of the face and skull, but he exaggerates 
their function of acting as resonators to strengthen 
or modify tone. Over and over again he furnishes 
what he regards as evidence in support of his 

thesis, but the conclusion, almost invariably, is im 

the opposite direction. RS re 
Still, there is much to admire in this book. It 

is clever and even witty; it shows wide reading im 


Pupils in all schools 


physiology and in the related sciences, and the — 


illustrations from original preparations are worthy 
of all praise; indeed, it may be said that the 
anatomical details are brought out so clearly as 


to be well worthy of study. As a teacher of — 


vocalisation the author maintains that he has met 
with success, without laying stress on the alleged 
functions of the vocal cords; this we admit, but, if 


he has done so, this success must really depend on | 


the mechanism as generally understood, and not 
on the production of tone by the sinuses in the 
head.. pa 


APRIL 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


125 


— 


fats 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. ] 


_-—s-‘ The Finger-print System in the Far East. 
1 ga Henri Cordier’s new edition of Sir Henry Yule’s 
, a ‘and the Way Thither”’ (1914) I came across 
; thelicilbeing note by the editor (p. 123, vol. iii.) :— 
3 th regard to the finger-print system in the Far 
t we shall make the following remarks: In 
RE Of October 28, 1880 (p. 605), Mr. Henry 
Writing from Tokyo, drew the attention 
“use made by Japanese of finger-prints, and 
é to the conclusion ‘that the Chinese criminals 
a “2g Soa have been made to give the impres- 


fingers, just as we make ours yield their 
phs.’ In the same periodical (November 22, 
7) Sir W. J. Herschel claimed to have been 
to exhibit the system of finger-prints on 
& O. s.s. Mongolian in February, 1877. 
he had found in 1858 and communi- 
‘Galton. who made use of it in his 
’ (1892); hence the discovery of the 
1 Sir W. Herschel in a Parlia- 


best of his knowledge, the assertion 
fer-marks in this way was originally 
Chinese was wholly unproved. Sir 
entirely wrong; Mr. Faulds (ibid., 
94, Pp. 548) protested against the claim 
schel, and finally a Japanese gentle- 
1 Minakata (ibid., December 27, 1894, 
the case for the Japanese and the 
of these writers quoted the passage 
n, which is a peremptory proof of 
' the use of finger-prints by the 


referred to in Rashid-ud-din is quoted 
same page in the following words :— 
n Cathay, when any contract is entered 
ine of the fingers of the parties to 
‘the document. For experience shows 
9 individuals have fingers precisely alike. 
of the contracting party is set upon the 
paper containing the deed, and lines are 
‘round his fingers up to the knuckles, in 
t if ever one of them should deny his obliga- 
tracing may be compared with his fingers, 
may thus be convicted.” (Sir H. Yule’s 
1 on from the French translation of the Arabic 
<t by Klaproth, in Journ. As. for 1833 (?), pp. 
35-58 and 447-70.) ees 
ms to me that the description of the process 
id-ur _ so accurate and explicit, can in 
apply to the method of identification by finger- 
' There is no indication of a_ preliminary 
ening of the hand, or of an impress left on the 
. It is definitely said that the process consists 
wing of an outline of the extremities of the 
7 rs ‘up to the knuckles” while the hand is set 
m_the sheet of paper 
hither Rashid-ud-din has entirely misunderstood the 
description given to him by Pilad Chingsang, the 
of the Grand Khan to Tabritz, from whom he 
appears to have: gathered most of his information 
_ regarding the Mogul Empire (ibid., p. 111), or we 
have here the description of a process of identifica- 
_ tion hitherto unknown. 
Anybody who will take the trouble to trace the 
‘eiittine ‘of the outstretched fingers of the hands of 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


ey, 


different individuals will easily gather how different 
are the figures obtained in regard to the absolute 
and relative lengths of the fingers, to their relative 
distance from one another, to the angle made by 
the axis of the thumb with the axis of the index, 
and so on. 

Whether these differences correspond with a dis- 
tinctly characteristic drawing for each individual 
person, so as to make the process a real method of 
personal identification, I am not prepared to say, but 
the matter might be worthy of further investigation. 

Fitrppo DE FIvippt. 

Rome (23), Via Urbana 167, April 3. 


Supposed Effect of Sunlight on Water-drops. 


Is it not the fact that sunshine causes a kind of 
“ sreasiness" which makes drops of water roll u 
when in contact with glass instead of spreading uni- 
formals over the surface? I have frequently been 
troubled with this action when endeavouring to 
mount diatoms, and it is only recently that I have 
observed that it comes on as soon as the sun begins 
to shine, and that when the operation is performed in 
dull weather the difficulty does not arise. In clearing 
the diatoms from flocculent matter my practice is to 
rock the material from side to side in a shallow dish, 
dragging the diatoms into lines and rolling the dust 
and dirt off into lumps that can be sucked up with 
a syringe, but this process fails in sunshine owing 
to the. diatoms floating. The evolution of a thin film 
of gas or vapour on the surface of the glass is a 
suggested explanation. G. H. Bryan. 


A SOUTH AFRICAN PIONEER.' 


Pe HE subject of this biographical volume—the 

great hunter and pioneer of South Central 
Africa—has left behind him a name which, as one 
of his friends—a South African administrator— 
has said of him, “stands for all that is straightest 
and best in South African story.” The writer of 
this notice can only think of one close parallel to 
him, the very similarly compacted James Chapman, 
of mixed English, Dutch, and French parentage, 
who preceded Selous, rivalled him as _ hunter, 
and resembled him in sweetness of character, 
transparent honesty, and love of Nature-study. 
Chapman, however, has been far more unlucky 
than Selous, not only in lack of Government 
appreciation of his merits and qualities, but also 
in never having had a biographer. Selous is at 
least made known, to those who have the leisure 
and inclination to read, by this work of Mr. J. G. 
Millais—mentally a twin brother—who has en- 
riched his “ Life of Selous ’’ by some very beautiful 
drawings, the more beautiful in that they are so 
wonderfully true to actuality. . 

The book opens with an account of Selous’s 
ancestry and relations, contributed by a brother 
and a sister. The genealogy, trailing off to 
Scottish kings and Midland worthies, mentions the 
French-Huguenot and Jersey origin and associa- 
tions of the main stock, but says nothing on a 
point that certainly interests myself. I remember 
first meeting F, C. Selous in 1881 at the house in 
Harley Street of Sir Alfred Garrod, the great gout 


1 “*Life of Frederick. Courtenay Selous, D.S.O., Capt. 25th Royal 
Fusiliers.” J.G. Millais. Pp. xiv+387. (London: Longmans, Green, 
and Co., 1918.) Price ats. net. 


126 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 : 


specialist. I was told then that he was a cousin of 
the family (which also had a French origin, 
as has been the case with so much of our 
intellectual, commercial, industrial, and Civil 
Service aristocracy). I used, earlier than that, to 
hear of Selous from the Garrods, especially Alfred 
H. Garrod, the prosector of the Zoological 
Society (one of the most remarkable men I ever 
met, who died at the age of thirty-three). My 
memory cannot have wholly deceived me on this 
point, since I knew Selous pretty well, and several 
times in more recent years referred to the Garrods 
in conversation, believing that this fellow-explorer 
of Africa had derived—as I had done—some or 
much of his interest in zoology from Prof. A. H. 
Garrod. 


ne Sythe, Cet His 


determined Selous to make for South Africa. But 
what led to his parents’ conversion to the idea, to 
the extent of allowing him to start at the very 


early age of nineteen, and to finance him so 
y ) 


his 
He came back to England — 


liberally, we are not told. ss 

Selous soon justified their belief in him and 
choice of a career. 
(having pushed far into Zambezia) in 1875, ap- 
parently with a good sum of money on the right 
side of the balance through his luck and skill in 
shooting elephants. He returned to the land of 
his love in 1876, and did not revisit England until 
1881. He was again back in South Africa in that 
year; then occurred another few months’ holiday 
in England in 1886; after which Selous became 


associated markedly with the pioneering work 


Fic. 1.—Buffaloes alarmed. From ‘‘ Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous.” 


Another point in the biography which is left too 
indefinite for our natural curiosity is what led to 
the actual starting of Selous for South Africa in 
1871, with the helpful capital of 4ool. in his pocket. 
He was then only in his twentieth year. After 
leaving Rugby at seventeen, he was sent by his 
father to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria to 
study languages and presumably medicine, since 
his parents seemed to have wished him to become 
a doctor. But from early boyhood he had set his 
desires on the very life he ultimately led, one of 
adventure in Africa—adventure first, but incident- 
ally the making of sufficient money by the produce 
of the chase, especially elephant ivory. In Ger- 
many he met a family returning on a holiday from 
Natal, and the enthusiastic account husband and 
wife gave of that truly delightful colony further 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


which between 1887 and 1893 laid the foundations 
of Southern Rhodesia. On his return to England 
in 1893 he was engaged to be married and was 
proposing to increase his provision for the married 
state by a lecturing tour in America, when the 
first war with the Matebele broke out. Conse- 
quently he felt it his duty to return to South Africa 


and place his services at Mr. Rhodes’s disposal. | q 


He was wounded in this campaign. When it was 
over he returned home, got married, and made a 
very extensive wedding tour through Eastern 
Europe, collecting birds’ eggs. - The year 1895 
found him again in Rhodesia attempting to create 
a farming settlement. j 

The second Matebele War, which followed the 


‘Jameson Raid, temporarily broke up the farming 


settlement at Essexvale, and Selous had once more 


Stare > 


Se I RG es, 


4 


_ APRIL 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


127 


to take part in South African warfare (the fact 
that he did so twice with conspicuous success and 
usefulness, both as officer and negotiator-inter- 
preter, renders more fatuous than ever the 
attempt of Mr. H. J. Tennant, then Under- 
etary for War, and Lord Kitchener to deter 
n from going out to German East Africa in 
\). After the second Matebele War was over 
us and his wife returned to England and made 
home in Surrey. Although—according to his 
‘apher—Selous was treated shabbily by Cecil 


. = 


~ 


Z 


des and the Chartered Company, other South 
fricans endeavoured in some way to recompense 
n for his noteworthy services to British South 
‘so that with the remains of the capital he 
together during his many years of 
hunting, book-writing, and lecturing, he 
- 1897 acquired a modest competence; 
} permit of his living quietly in England 
aking hunting trips and egg-collecting 
n America, Asia Minor, and East Africa. 
ot made use of by Mr. Chamberlain 
nial Office in any advisory capacity 
‘said, of his plain speaking over the 
ainly as to the causes that led up to 
despite the fact that he spoke South 
“and was immensely respected by 
d British in South Africa, he was 
Xy the War Office during the long- 
paigns of 1899-1902. A lingering 
s to have actuated the War Office 
ining his services as a volunteer in 
» defend British East Africa in 1914 
an East Africa in 1915. Simi- 

al Office and War Office—Lord 
most to blame—refused to employ 
can pioneers in the East African 
the result that during the first 
1onths of the war it was characterised by 
‘disasters, nearly all of them due to 
ick of local knowledge—knowledge of 
hy, climate, people—which men like 
r Alfred Sharpe would have been able 


s was allowed—grudgingly—to go 
: of 1915, he did some very effective 
until he was killed in an attack at the 
his men on a little German fort at 
Ibeho on January 4, 1917. (Behobeho is the 
2 where another African pioneer, Alexander 
h Johnston, lies buried—1879.) 
lous, between the later ’seventies and 1914, 
nously enriched the national collections at 
3ritish Museum of Natural History, ef tsa 
course, he received no recognition from a 
snce-ignoring (rather than -disliking) Govern- 
Readers of Nature will chiefly value Mr. 
is’s book for the careful way the author has 
med the published and private writings of 
lous and his correspondents, such as Theodore 
_ Roosevelt, for notes on the life-history of the 
- mammals of Africa and North America, and onthe 
bird-life of the eastern Mediterranean countries. 
hes he H. H. Jounston. 


No. 2581, Vor. 103] 


PART-TIME EDUCATION IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 


HE sixty-fourth Congress of the United 
States approved on February 23, 1917, an 
Act to provide for the promotion of vocational 
education ; for co-operation with the several States 
of the Union not only in the promotion of such 
education in agriculture and the trades and indus- 
tries, but also in the preparation of teachers of 
vocational subjects; and to appropriate money and 
regulate its expenditure. There was thereupon 
set aside from Federal funds, first to aid in pay- 
ing the salaries of teachers and directors of agri- 
cultural subjects sums of money annually, begin- 
ning with 100,000l. in 1918, and rising by 
annual increments to 600,o00l. in 1926; and 
secondly, a like subsidy to aid in payment of the 
salaries of the teachers and directors of trade, 
home economics, and industrial subjects, to be 
distributed to the several States, as regards agri- 
cultural subjects according to the ratio which 
the rural population bears to the total rural popu- 
lation of the United States, and as regards the 
other subjects, before-named in the proportion 
which the urban population bears to the total 
urban population of the United States. The Act 
further provides funds for the training of teachers 
and directors of agricultural subjects and also of 
the other subjects before-mentioned to the extent of 
100,000l. in 1918, increasing to 200,000l. in 
1921 and thereafter. 

The Act is mandatory upon all the States of 
the Union, each of which must appoint either its 
existing Board of Education or a special State 
Board comprised of not fewer than three members 
to. administer’ the Act in co-operation with the 
Federal Board for .Vocational Education, which 
consists of seven persons—namely, the Secretary 
of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the 
Secretary of Labour, and the U.S..Commissioner 
of Education, together with three other persons 
representing the respective interests of agri- 
culture, manufactures and industry, and labour, 
and assigns to each of these three a salary of 
600l. They are to co-operate with the State 
Boards, and are empowered to make, or cause to 
be made, studies, investigations, and reports 
thereon with particular reference to their use in 
aiding the States in the establishment of voca- 
tional schools and classes, and in giving instruc- 
tion in the various vocations—the inquiries to 
include processes and requirements affecting the 
various pursuits and those who follow them, as 
well as problems of administration of vocational 
schools, and the Act assigns for these purposes 
the annual sum of 40,000l. 

The ‘several State Boards are to submit plans 
for giving effect to the Act to the Federal Board, 
which, so as they are in conformity with ifs 
provisions, will-be approved. All vocational edu- 
cation aided by Federal funds shall be under 
public supervision and control, and moneys 
assigned in aid of the salaries of teachers and 


128 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


directors of vocational education, and all moneys 
in aid of the training of teachers and directors, 
must be matched by an equal sum on the part 
of the State Boards, upon which bodies will 
fall all the initial and annual expense of buildings, 
equipment, and administration. The purposes of 
the Act are rigidly defined. They are to fit young 
persons for useful employment, the teaching is 
to be less than college grade, and is to meet the 
needs of persons of more than fourteen years of 
age engaged in agricultural, commercial, and in- 
dustrial pursuits and in home economics. The 
Federal Board is to inquire and to report annually 
to Congress as to the administration of the Act 
throughout the States, and as to the expenditure, 
and to include therein the reports of the several 
State Boards. 

This important Act of Congress, whilst 
it has many commendable features, does not 
require compulsory attendance on the part of 
young people engaged in employment at continua- 
tion or part-time schools. This is regarded as 
vital to the efficiency of the Act in a bulletin 
issued by the Federal Board for Vocational 
Education, in which it is stated that the initiative 
not only for establishing such schools, but also 
' for compelling the attendance of those for whom 
the instruction is provided, must be taken by the 
States, and that it is not probable that State 
schemes for part-time education will develop 
materially until after the passage of legislation 
authorising and directing the establishment of 
such schools, providing State funds for their 
equipment and support, and compelling the 
attendance of the young people for whom they 
are designed within the ordinary working hours. 
It is officially stated in the bulletin referred to 
that out of a total population, male and female, 
between fourteen and eighteen years of age, of 
10,250,000, 5,000,000 have ceased school attend- 
ance altogether. The only State of the Union 
which has adopted a real measure of compulsion 
for pupils between fourteen and sixteen years of 
age having work permits is Pennsylvania, under 
a law enacted in 1915, and already there are 100 
school districts with 36,000 pupils in attendance 
at part-time continuation schools; but the move- 
ment is growing, and already there appears in 
Bulletin r9 a draft of a suggested new State law 
providing for compulsory part-time education and 
part-time employment for children between four- 
teen and sixteen. am 

The total day-school enrolment of the States 
in I915 was 21,958,836, of which number gt per 
cent. were in the elementary schools, 7°13 per 


cent., or nearly -1,566,000, in high schools, aca- 


demies, and secondary schools, and 1°84 per cent., 
or about 404,000, in higher institutions—suffici- 
ently significant figures when compared with 
those ‘of the United’ Kingdom. The Federal 
Board’ sets forth in a most useful and illuminating 
bulletin six types of continuation schools: (a) The 
unit-trade school, which deals solely with the 
needs of a single trade, and into which, having 


settled upon his future employment, a young. 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


person can enter after fourteen years of age for © 


a period of whole-time training of not less than 


thirty hours per week for not less than thirty-six 
weeks of the year, half the time to be given to 
practical work on a useful or productive basis 


and the other half to related and non-vocational | 


subjects; (b) the whole-time general industrial 
school for towns of fewer than 25,000 inhabitants 
on the same basis ‘as the unit-trade school; (c) the 
part-time trade extension school within working 
hours for persons more than fourteen years of age 
already engaged in a trade occupation; (d) a part- 
time trade preparatory school for persons already 
in employment, but desirous of changing it; 
(e) a general continuation part-time school where 
opportunity would be given for the study of 
English, civics, home economics, and commercial 
subjects; (f) evening schools or classes for special 
trades and industries supplemental to day employ- 
ment for persons above sixteen years of age. 

The Federal Board has issued upwards of 
twenty important bulletins dealing with general 
policies and methods, 
trades and industries, different types of schools 


agriculture and special 


ig 


to suit differing localities and circumstances, — 


measures for emergency training in various indus- 
tries, training of vocational teachers, 
tion and re-education of disabled soldiers and sea- 
men, and, finally, with buildings and the equip- 


ment necessary to give full effect to the Act. This — 


series of publications is deserving of the closest 
study, as the principles and practice they embody 
are of general application. 


accessible in every reference library of the king- 
dom. 


executive of the Federal Board, and significant 
reference is made in the bulletins to recent legis- 
lation making compulsory complete attendance af 


school until fourteen years of age, extending 


elementary education by means of central schools, 
and establishing compulsory attendance at con- 
tinuation part-time schools from fourteen to 
eighteen throughout Great Britain. A marked 
feature of the policy of the Federal Board is the 
insistence upon the avoidance of all vocational 
instruction in the elementary and 
schools of the States. : 


i 


THE FUTURE OF SCIENTIFIC — 
INDUSTRIES. 


ate report of the Engineering Trades (New — 

Industries) Committee has recently been, — 
issued by H.M. Stationery Office (Cd. 9226, price 
6d. net). The Committee was appointed, with the — 


Hon. H. D. McLaren as chairman, to compile a 
list of articles either not made in the United King- 
dom before the war, or made in insufficient 
quantities. A series of fifteen branch committees, 
consisting of producers and merchants, 


of manufactured’ articles. They were required to 
make recommendations as. to.the prospect of set- 


They should be con-— 
sulted by every director of education, and be 


The movements abroad in Germany and 
the United Kingdom are keenly watched by the 


secondary 


was 
arranged to give detailed consideration to groups’ 


rehabilita- 


as ee ee ee ee ae 


— eo) ee 


Ss! ee ee en 


CT a ee A I 


NATURE 


12g 


3 _ APRIL 17, 1919] 


regard to the financial facilities necessary 


Committee recognises that many engineer- 
- firms in this country are threatened with 
ious financial trouble from the difficulty of 
ng new capital, and the pressure of the muni- 
levy and the excess profits taxation. It finds 
h some branches the industry has not kept 
‘with the demands of customers, and that 
e been driven to purchase more 
machinery in foreign markets. The 
remedies for this appear to be more 
on and standardisation in the produc- 
idual firms. Both tend to facilitate 
in quantities and so reduce cost. The 
also emphasises the importance of 
industrial research, and regards with 
yn the formation of associations in some 
wr that purpose, assisted by grants from 
ment of Scientific and Industrial Re- 


hn of the field surveyed, the resources 
roduction in this country appear to be ade- 
. -B ut there are cases where articles which 
d well be manufactured here were, before the 

ybtained wholly or in great part from abroad. 
w examples. Milk-testing appliances 
exclusively from Switzerland. Ger- 
captured most of the trade in white- 
and forks. Lathe and drill chucks, 
chines, and mechanics’ fine tools 
extent, imported from America 
Precision measuring instruments 
ately made in this country. Elec- 
‘materials were, to a great extent, 
rted from abroad, and, although 
as been made in overcoming the de- 
al | *) art © dd . 

i the war, the opinion of the industry 
| research work is necessary, and that 
the manufacture must receive State 


for tool-room and precision lathes 
nost entirely in the hands of foreign 
rers, and that for the remarkable class 
akers’ lathes, with hundreds of inter- 
“fittings, is wholly in the hands of 


irms. 
ora! ches of industry, especially the elec- 
istry, complain of the effect of unre- 
sd imports. It is pointed out that the in- 
+ of the home market, due to the fact that 
‘oducts can be introduced and sold 
sasonable price, discourages the invest- 
' Capital, and seriously hampers the 
pment of home manufacture. Foreign 
of electrical plant, protected in their home 
s by tariffs, produce’on a larger scale and 
r cost than the British manufacturer; in face 
ch conditions the industry cannot be expected 
rive. Magnetos before the war were entirely 
duced in Germany. -During the war they have 
en quite successfully made here. But the ex- 


“ 


__ period after the war except under licence and with 
7 NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


= up new, or developing existing, industries, | 


sion of German magnetos is demanded for a 


a duty on import. Protection or Government 
support is asked for in many cases. No doubt 
there are industries so important and so valuable 
as a means of training skilled workers that a 
claim of this kind is justified. The clock aad 
watch manufacture seems to be such a case. But 
such claims must be carefully considered, in view 
of the fact that it is one of the objects of the 
Peace Conference to remove, so far as possible, 
all economic barriers. 

It is clear from the report of the Sub-Committee 
dealing with scientific apparatus that the country 
has been backward in developing this vital 
industry, affecting research, education, and 
many other industries. The Committee re- 
commends that for ten years scientific apparatus 
should not be imported except under licence, which 
should be granted and continued only so long as 
British apparatus is not available at reasonable 
prices. The following list gives some of the cases 
examined by the Sub-Committee: Balances and 
barometers largely obtained from Germany and 
sold under the names of English dealers; photo- 
graphic apparatus supplied in large numbers by 
Germany and the United States; dividing engines 
supplied chiefly by Switzerland; drawing instru- 
ments derived chiefly from Germany; micrometers 
and measuring instruments largely supplied by the 
U.S.A.; physical apparatus obtained from 
Germany and sold under the names of English 
dealers; photographic lenses, which formerly came 
from Germany and France, might be manufac- 
tured here; also microscopes supplied largely from 
Germany. 

It is stated that there are classes of 
articles imported which are made in such large 
quantities, and have such manufacturing and 
inventive resources behind them, as to make 
competition extremely difficult. In such cases, if 
the manufacture is to be developed in this country, 
it appears to be necessary that State assistance 
should be given towards overcoming the difficulty 
of competition. It is also recommended that 
Government Departments and public authorities 
should make it a practice to place orders for 
standard goods of British manufacture, and also 
have in view the desirability of encouraging the 
production of articles of new and improved types. 


DR. HENRY WILDE, F.R.S, 

R. HENRY WILDE, whose death was an- 
nounced in NAtureE of April 3, was a man 

of remarkable individuality and a pioneer in elec- 
trical engineering.. He was born in Manchester: 
in 1833. During his apprenticeship he experi- 
mented with voltaic cells, electrical machines, elec- 
rical kites, and the electro-deposition of metals. 
tie soon realised the great commercial possibili- 
ties of the applications. of, electricity, and he 
cided, when. he was twenty-three years of age, 
mence in business as a telegraph engineer 
ling-conductor expert. Several years 
were devoted to the invention of a magneto-elec- 
tric alphabetic telegraph. Experiments with elec- 


130 NATURE | (APRIL 17, 1919 - 


tro-magnets led to the design of an improved 
electric generator described in his patents of 1863 
and 1865. Wilde’s “dynamo-electric machines ”’ 
—as they were named by Charles Brooke, F.R.S. 
—quickly replaced batteries for electro-deposition 
and are lighting, but in use they had the serious 
disacvantage of becoming very hot. In the en- 
deavour to cure this fault Wilde designed a very 
different ivne of dynamo. This was a multipolar 
machiie, with sixteen pairs .of electro-magnets, 
which was made self-exciting by a ‘minor ”’ 
current from four of the armature bobbins. Both 
this and the earlier machine were used by Elking- 
ton for the electrolytic refining of copper. 

Wilde directed his attention to the use of his 
generato:s for other electro-chemical purposes. 
He obtained a patent in 1871 for protecting iron 
tubes from corrosion by coating them with copper, 
and four years latc: he introduced a_ valuable 
process for making by electro-deposition rollers 
of copper used in calico printing. With a re- 
volving cathode he was enabled to employ rela- 
tively high current densities, and yet obtain a 
good quality of copper. This invention proved to 
be financially the most valuable of all his patents. 

Experiments with two of the multipolar 
machines led to the discovery in 1868 that it was 
possible to run them, when in synchronism, as 
alternators in parallel. The importance of this 
was not realised until fifteen years later, when 
Dr. John Hopkinson, unaware of the work of 
Wilde, showed that this was theoretically pos- 
sible, and now the parallel running of alternators 
is an everyday occurrence at supply stations. 

Wilde designed direct- and alternating-current 
arc lamps suitable for search- and light-house pur- 
poses. Some large battleships were equipped with 
these under his direction, and after the Titanic 
disaster he strongly urged that mercantile vessels 
should be fitted with searchlights. 

In 1884 Wilde retired from his business as an 
electrical engineer. During the remainder of his 
long life he chiefly devoted himself to special 
scientific subjects. He published a number of 
papers relating to atomic weights, and invented 
a magnetarium for reproducing the phenomena of 
terrestrial magnetism. 

Wilde was a considerable benefactor to public 
institutions, amongst which must be especially 
mentioned the Literary and Philosophical Society 
of Manchester: Including the Wilde endowment, 
his contributions to the society exceeded 10,000l. 
He died at The Hurst, Alderley Edge, Cheshire, 
where his wife also died twenty-six years previ- 
ously. He had no children. After some legacies, 
the residue of his estate has been bequeathed to 
the University of Oxford. W. W. H. G. 


NOTES. 


THE projected Atlantic flight is naturally exciting 
considerable interest at present, but it has recently 
been bad flying weather, and large storm systems 
have been sweeping eastwards across the ocean. For 
the flight to be safe and successful such disturbances 
must be avoided. In a statement issued on Monday 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


by the Air Ministry relative to the weather factor of . 
the flight, estimates were given of the time required 
for the flight eastwards and westwards between New- | 
foundland and Ireland under favourable and adverse 
conditions during the months of April, May, and June. | 
The report states ‘‘that in every case weather condi- — 
tions are more favourable for flying from Newfound- 
land to Ireland than from east to west, and that it — 
would on certain occasions be impossible to accom- — 
plish the journey in the latter direction.’”’ It is not 
easy to see how the Air Minstry has used the avail-— 
able data, and there must necessarily be a great — 
element of doubt meteorologically. The aeroplane 
flying eastwards will travel about four times as fast 
as the average easterly translation of an Atlantic 
storm, and may quite easily overtake’ at least one 
storm. A storm. on an average, takes four or five 
days in crossing the Atlantic from shore to shore; it 
may, however, be developed in mid-ocean and start 
its passage eastwards, and when nearing the European 
side the track of the storm may quite possibly be to 
the northward. The upper air generally has a quick 
movement to the eastward. So far as possible, for a 
successful air passage choice should be made of a 
period when the Atlantic is comparatively free from 
important storm areas; such periods exist, but under 
the present conditions indefinite waiting has its draw- 
backs. Meteorologists can scarcely favour an attempt 
to fly westwards until further experience is gained of 
the movements of the upper air. BY 


WIRELESS telephony is being installed in the Folke- 
stone-Cologne aerial mail service. Along this route a 
chain of call-stations is being erected, and the aero- 
planes engaged in the service are being fitted with 
both sending and receiving sets. In practical tests it 
was found that clear voice signals were transmitted — 
from ’plane to ground, and vice versa, at a distance 
of thirty miles. By operating a simple switch the 
connections are changed from ‘“‘send”’ to ‘‘receive.” 
A certain amount of voice-trainins is desirable, other- 
wise the voice may be drowned by the engine drone. — 
The operator in the aeroplane wears a carefully fitted — 
helmet with ear-receivers: It is necessary that com- 
plete freedom of movement should be ensured and all 
wind-noises eliminated. At present specially trained 
men are employed to fit on the helmets. Improvements — 
are continually being effected in the methods and 
apparatus, so that the complete practical transmission 
of speech between aeroplanes and ground stations is 
assured. ; 


No profession is free from its obscurantists, and the 
little band of half a dozen medical men who serve the’ 
anti-vivisectionist agitation have once again written 
to the Times to declare their conviction that experi- 
ments on dogs are unnecessary for the advance of 
medical science. Such a letter, devoid as it is of . 
authority, serves a useful purpose in emphasising the 
weighty character of the resolution recently passed 
at the meeting of the British Medical Association, 
when the combined sections of medicine, pathology, 
and preventive medicine expressed their opinion, with- 
out a single dissentient, that the prohibition of experi- 
ments upon dogs would hamper the progress of medi- _— 
cine. and render Britain alone among civilised nations 
unable to contribute to progress in a department of | 
medical research in which it has hitherto played a 
distinguished part. The Royal College of Physicians 
has also recorded its opinion ‘‘that the passing into ~ 
law of the Dogs Protection Bill, now before the House 
of Commons, will greatly retard the progress of our 
knowledge with regard to the prevention and treat- 
ment of disease.’ The supporters of the Bill, to ~— 
judge from their letters in the Press, are annoyed at | 
the statement made by men who actually carry out 


(APRIL 17, 1919 | 


NATURE 


131 


3 eer, 


ments that, as the law is at present adminis- 
d, it is impossible for dogs to suffer pain. They 
to the power possessed by the Home Secretary 
owing painful experiments upon dogs, and see 
this a proof that pain is inflicted. It is right and 
t that such powers should be possessed. Even 
gh for the large majority of experiments infliction 
pain is unnecessary, and, indeed, a disadvantage 
very point of view, it is always possible that 
into certain diseases might involve the neces- 
cting pain; and in”such cases the interests 
is of any other animal, may reasonably be 
ted to those of man. It seems pitiful that 
‘should be all this pother and expenditure of 
yle energy just because the Government, which 
s thousands annually on medical research, was 
s in the courage or the foresight to declare at 
at in the interests of the community the 

not be allowed to become law. It is to be 
‘that, even at this late hour, the Government 
te a definite stand in the matter and relieve the 
rs and the medical profession from the need 
their time in defending science and the 
ie community against the attacks of mis- 


of Sir William Crookes took place in 
tery on Thursday, April 10, and was 
service held at St. John’s Church, 
The three sons and one daughter, 
other members of the family, were 
st of the learned societies in London 
ted, among them being :—Royal Society, 

m, Prof. A. Schuster, and Prof. Emer- 
oyal Institution, the Hon. R. Clere 
al Society, Sir William Tilden and 
- British Association, Prof. John 
of Electrical Engineers, Mr. C. H. 
Col. R. E. Crompton, Mr. W. M. 
ners; Society of Chemical Industry, 
wes and Mr. J. P. Longstaff; British 
‘Sir Boverton Redwood and Lt.-Col. 
a; Institute of Chemistry, Sir 
rd Mr. R. B. Pilcher; Faraday 
t Hadfield and Mr. F. S. Spiers; 
ntors, Mr. W. F. Reid; Society of 
Resea: ch, Sir Lawrence Jones; Notting 
Light Co., of which Sir William Crookes 
rman for many years, the secretary, Mr. 
here were also present Sir William 
or of Kensington), Dr. Abraham Wal- 
-E. Armstrong, and many other dis- 
of science. A letter of condolence 
| Majesty the King has been received by the 
nily. and messages of sympathy have been sent by 
lv prominent people in the world of science and 
‘who knew and valued the work of Sir 


. 


Morey has been elected president of the 
athematical Society, and Prof. H. E. 
ident of the Mathematical Association of 


E sum of tool. has been voted by the Rumford 

nittee of the American Academy of Arts and 
es to Prof. A. G. Webster, of Clark University, 

i of his researches in pyrodynamics and practical 
ballistics. 


J. W. Scott Macriz has been presented with 
ry Kingsley medal of the Liverpool School of 
Medicine in recognition of his distinguished 
in research into tropical medicine and allied 


fubeet. | 
NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


Pror., J. H. Jeans will deliver a lecture entitled 
‘“The Quantum Theory and New Theories of Atomic 
Structure’’ at the ordinary scientific meeting of the 
Chemical Society to be held at Burlington House on 
Thursday, May 1. 


Tue work on vulcanology at Kilauea has been placed 
under the U.S. Weather Bureau. We learn from 
Science that the transfer was made on February 15, 
and the appointment of the director, Prof. T. A. 
Jaggar, has been approved. A grant of 2oool. for the 
year is made by the U.S. Government for continuing 
the work heretofore maintained by the Volcano 
Research Association. ; 


Mr. J. A. Carrns Forsytu has been awarded the Jack- 
sonian prize for 1918 by the Royal College of Surgeons 
for his dissertation on ‘‘ Injuries and Diseases of the 
Pancreas and their Surgical Treatment.’’ The college 
has accepted an offer from the Barbers Company to 
endow for five years an historical lecture in anatomy 
or surgery, to be called the ‘‘Thomas Vicary Lec- 
ture,” the appointment of the lecturer to be in the gift 
of the college. 


On and after May 1 the library of the Chemical 
Society will be open daily from 10 a.m, until 9 p.m., 
with the exception of Saturdays, when it will be 
closed at 5 pm. This further extension of the hours 
of opening has been made possible by the co-operation 
of the Society of Chemical Industry, the members of 
which are now able to use the library in common with 
the members of the societies mentioned in Nature of 
December 19 last (p. 310). 


Mr. A. J. Water, K.C., whose death occurred on 
April 9, was one of the best known members of the 
Bar in connection with patent actions. He was a 
man of science as well as an able advocate, and this 
rare combination secured for him a high reputation in 
patent trade-mark and technical litigation. He carried 
out many valuable experiments in chemistry and elec- 
tricity in his private laboratory, and was thus often 
able to astonish expert witnesses with first-hand 
knowledge of importance relating to the points at 
issue. Mr. Walter had served on the council of the 
Institution of Electrical Engineers, and his death 
deprives, not only the Bat of a distinguished leader, 
but also science of a keen student. 


Tue Faraday Society and the Réntgen Society are 
holding a joint general discussion on the examination 
of materials by X-rays on Tuesday, April 29, at 5 p.m. 
in the rooms of the Royal Society. Sir Robert Had- 
field, president of the Faraday Society, will introduce 
the discussion, and also contribute some papers, and 
an address on radio-metallography will be delivered 
by Prof. W. H. Bragg. Other contributors include 
Major G. W. C. Kaye, Capt. R. Knox, and M. E. 
Schneider (Le Creusot). The discussion will include 
contributions on the examination of timber as well 
as of metals by X-rays, and there will be exhibits of 
apparatus and demonstrations by M. Pilon, Major 
C. E. S. Phillips, Mr. Geoffrey Pearce, and others. 


Dr. Louis A. Bauer has finally selected Cape 
Palmas, Liberia, as his observing station for mag- 
netic and electric observations in connection with the 


/solar eclipse of May 29. He will be assisted by Lieut. 


\ 


H. F. Johnston. who has rejoined the staff of the 
‘Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, having been 

duty during the war at the Admiralty Compass 
Observatory at Slough. The party sailed on the 
steam enue from Liverpool on April 12. Mr. 


Frederick Brown, at one time assistant at the Royal 
Observatory, Greenwich, has been sent by Dr. Bauer 


132 


NALYURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


to Duala, Cameroons; he sailed from Liverpool on 
April 9. Mr. Brown, in addition to magnetic survey 
work in West Africa, will make special magnetic 
observations during the eclipse at a station as near as 
possible to Ile Principe or Libreville. 


Tue death of Dr. Bruno Hofer on July 7, 1916, at 
the age of fifty-four years, is announced in German 
fisheries papers that have just been received in this 
country. Dr. Hofer had attained a great reputation 
as a fisheries biologist; he was director of the Royal 
Bavarian Biological Experimental Station for fresh- 
water fisheries at Munich, and was for many years 
editor of the Allgemeine Fischerei-Zeitung. ‘The ex- 
ploitation of carp and other lake and river edible fishes 
was of great value to Germany, and was the subject 
of much sound ‘economic and scientific research. Dr. 
Hofer’s book, ‘‘Handbuch der Fischkrankheiten,” 
was well known here; it broke entirely new ground 
in its treatment of the pathology of fresh-water fishes, 
and, in spite of its rather limited scope, still remains 
the only compendium on the subject. 


Tue following are among the subjects of lecture 
arrangements at the Royal Institution after Easter :— 
Prof. Arthur Keith, British Ethnology: The People 
of Wales and Ireland; Prof. W. H. Bragg, Listening 
under Water; Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw on clutches; 
Prof. F. Keeble on intensive cultivation; Sir Valen- 
tine Chirol, The Balkans; Prof. H. S. Foxwell, 
Chapters in the Psychology of Industry: (1) Fourier 
and other Pioneers in the Movement for the Humanis- 
ing of Industry; (2) Modern Industrial Organisation : 
Where it Fails to Observe the Humanities of In- 
dustry, and the Results. The Friday evening meet- 
ings, at 5.30 o’clock, will recommence on May 2, when 
Prof. J. W. Nicholson will deliver a discourse on 
energy distribution in spectra. Succeeding discourses 
will be given by Sir George Macartney, Dr. S. F. 
Harmer, Sir Alexander C. Mackenzie, Sir John Rose 
Bradford, and Sir Ernest Rutherford. 


A NnoTE on German and English war-time diets is 
contributed to the Journal of the Royal Statistical 
Society (vol. Ixxxii., part 1, January) by Dr. Major 
Greenwood and Cicely M. Thompson. From the records 
of German towns, according to Government statistics, 
the average food-value in‘ that country was 2352 
Calories per head per day in April, 1916, and 2007 in 
April, 1917. In June, 1917, 
averages of six canteens and hostels in Great Britain 
were 3168 and 3073 Calories, while in April, 1918, 
the averages for three women’s munition hostels were 
2782 and 2699 Calories per head per day. It should, 
however, be noted that the German statistics referred 
to the consumption of food in ordinary families, and 
this and other circumstances preclude any attempt at 
a very exact comparison of the conditions of living. 


THE Italian Society for the Progress of the Sciences 
is holding its tenth meeting at Pisa on April 14-19 
under the presidency of Prof. Fernando Lori. Unlike 
our British Association, the proceedings very largely 
centre round developments of economic importance, 
and the majority of the papers are divided into three 
classes: Class A, dealing with mining, mineralogy, 
and geology; Class B, with agriculture, medicine, 
fisheries, and biology; and Class C, with economics 
and political science. A few sectional papers on other 
branches of science are included in the programme, 
which opened on Monday, April 14,in the aula magna 
of the University of Pisa with a discourse by . Prof. 
Raffaello Nasini on Italy’s mineral wealth. Friday 
and Saturday, April 18 and 19, are to be devoted to 
excursions. The ordinary subscription is ten francs, 
and the offices of the society are at 26 Via del Collegio 
romano, in Rome. 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


the corresponding. 


Tue conference representing Allied Red Cross 


Societies. now meeting at Cannes has held important 


meetings on venereal disease, on tuberculosis, and on — 


malaria. 
general agreement that some uniform action is needed 


—as, for example, on such subjects as the control of 


prostitution and on notification of the disease. 


1 1 Simi- 
larly with tuberculosis, there was unanimity of i 


that a common scheme of action is necessary through- 


out the world on the lines which have been adopt 
in this country, and also to a large extent in the 
United States. As regards malaria, Prof. Castellani 


gave some interesting figures on the control of malaria 


in four camps in the Adriatic zone. In one camp no 
anti-malarial measures were taken; in the second, 
preventive doses of quinine were given; in the third, 
anti-mosquito measures were employed; and in the 
fourth both quinine and anti-mosquito measures were 
used. The results were that the following percentages 
of the occupants were affected with malaria :—In the 
first camp, too per cent.; in the second, 45 per cent. ; 
in the third, 25 per cent.; and in the fourth, only 6 per 
cent. ‘ 


Tue British Photographic Research Association, 


As regards venereal disease, there was a "4 


which was incorporated nearly a year ago under the 


presidency of Sir J. J. Thomson, has just issued a 
‘Programme of Research,” in which it is announced 
that Dr. R. E. Slade has been appointed the director 
of research, and that he and his staff will work for 
the time being in laboratories at University College, 
London. The laboratories assigned to them are dis- 
tinct from the teaching laboratories. The funda- 
mental subjects that it is intended to investigate in- 
clude the properties of silver haloids, the properties of 


gelatin and similar colloids, colloidal chemistry a . 


general, photo-chemical reactions, and the theory 

colour-photography processes. Among the subjects of 
applied research will be desensitising and re g 
agents, gelatin (seeking for the causes of the effects 
of various wis prs and to awe standes Seat noe 
improvement of the material), photographic apparatus 
(the treating of wood, canvas, and leather, and the 
production of special alloys), enamels, paper, card- 
board, and colour photography. The ciation wel- 
comes inquiries from its members on technical points, 
and will endeavour to reply helpfully. But it is not 
the intention of the association to attempt to stan- 
dardise throughout the manufacturing methods of the 
photographic industry, as manufacturers will continue 
to determine for themselves the lines on which their 
businesses shall be developed. 
that the programme covers a vast field for research, 
but it is hoped to explore first the most productive 
portions of this field. It is encouraging to everyone 
concerned to be assured that results have already been 
obtained which it is expected will have a wide applica- 
tion in the industry. Meee tress: tae | 


Tue bark of the locust tree (Robini ic 
poisonous when eaten by horses and cattle. A toxic 
albumose is present in it, and a toxic glucoside 
‘‘robitin,’’ has now been isolated by B. 
U. Tanaka (Journal of the College of 
University of Tokyo, vol. iii., No. 5, p. 337). 


the ‘horse and 0-02 grm. in cattle. The reaction caused’ 
by the injection of ‘‘robitin” into the horse is exactly 
that produced by the fresh bark, and consists in 
dyspnoea, increase of secretions and excretions, and 
paralysis of the hindquarters. Wise GET 


Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries hag issued 
as a Supplement (No. 18) to the Journal of the Board 


It is very truly added | 


a pseudacacia) is 


Tasaki and — 

riculture, | 
In the | 
fresh bark 1 per cent. of the glucoside is present, and 
toxic reaction is caused by a dose of 0-0015 grm. in — 


: 


ee 


2 


of Agriculture a series of articles dealing with the © 


_ Aprit 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


1 33 


cultivation, composition, and diseases of the potato. 

_ The various sections of the Supplement deal 
_ with potato-growing, the food value of the crop, 
potato diseases, the causes of decay in potato 
amps, potato-spraying, variety tests, and the Wart 
Disease Order. As a compendium of informa- 
m on these various phases of the subject the 
uupplement should prove of great interest and value 
growers of potatoes, whether on a large or a small 
le. The sections dealing with diseases and disease- 
resisting varieties form the main features, and are 
vell trated by coloured plates and photographs. 


vestigations on the food of wild birds. The 
S, tosether with those previously reported, 
re based upon the examination of the stomach and 
yp contents of 4468 adult birds and 761 nestlings, 
br seventeen species of wild birds. On the 
3 of these observations two species appear to be 
y injurious, viz. the house-sparrow and the 
. Three species are too numerous, and 
tly injurious, viz.. the rook, sparrowhawk, 
is. is locally too numerous, viz. the 
». Three species are distinctly beneficial, 
‘warrant special protection, viz. the jack- 
“bunting, and song-thrush. Seven species 
hly beneficial that their protection is advis- 


t tit, blue tit, and fieldfare. 


Bec iae se 
more relation to an inspection of the Sheffield City 
s which he made in 1915, Dr. F. Grant 

now i a report on the subject. While 
s with Sheffield museums in particular, 
ye of value to all local authorities in indi- 
ines on which they should develop local 
pecially in industrial centres. ae recom- 
ndations regz § municipal interests and science 
Ee one particularly worthy of attention. 
Ame 1g munici pal interests should be maps, plans, and 
odels illustrating the local topography, resources, 

oc upations, public works and services, both in the 


fe ind town-p! anner is obvious. 
to give residents a better understanding of their own 
and so might promote the growth of civic con- 
mess. Dr. Ogilvie’s report, however, is severely 
and, besides discussing the value of the col- 
e —. he indicates what objects should 
mel how they can be best displayed. The 
ice given to details of space and housing is 
-waluable. The report is issued by the Board of 

tion its series of educational 


We have received a copy of the convention between 
e United States and Canada for the protection of 
“migratory birds. The convention, with an introduction 
id explanatory notes, is published by the Department 
of Agriculture, Ottawa. The provisions and regula- 
_ tions of the convention show that it is probably the 
‘most it nt and far-reaching measure ever taken 
the history of bird protection. It affects more than 

‘ Susand species and subspecies of birds from the 


_ several species of considerable economic importance. 
All migratory insectivorous and migratory non-game 
: birds and their eggs are permanently protected, with 
ie NO. 2581, VOL. 103| 


4 
s 


ulf of Mexico to the North Pole, and should lead 
a few years to a great increase in the numbers of}. 


the exception of certain species which Indians and 
Eskimo are allowed to take for food, but not for sale. 
Shore-birds and waders, with a few exceptions, are 
protected for ten years, and the same protection is 
given to cranes, swans, and curlew. Wood-duck and 
eider-duck are protected for five years. Close seasons, 
varying in different parts, are instituted for wildfowl 
and other migratory game birds. The convention con- 
tains provisions by which specimens of birds and eggs 
may be secured for scientific purposes, but it is clear 
that permission will be granted only after careful in- 
vestigation. Local modifications in the convention may 
be made in the case of birds which prove injurious to 
agricultural interests. 


An account of a five months’ journey in Colombia, 
down the Magdalena River, and through the north- 
east of the Republic, is described in a pamphlet by 
Mr. M. T. Dawe, agricultural adviser to the 
Colombian Government. The pamphlet is published 
in English by the Ministry of Agriculture, Bogota. 
Mr. Dawe’s object was to report on the agricultural 
possibilities of the region and the occurrence of coal. 
The article, besides discussing very fully the suit- 
able crops, labour conditions, and transport require- 
ments, contains a great deal of useful geographical 
information about a little-known region. Mr. Dawe 
was particularly struck with the stock-raising possi- 
bilities of the Goajira peninsula, which has an area 
of about 4000 sq. miles. Being fairly high and almost 
surrounded by the sea, the peninsula has a healthy, 
if rather dry, climate. There are large regions of 
good pasture-land, of which go per cent. is still un- 
occupied. Artesian wells would have to be sunk to 
supplement the water supply. Cotton and ground-nuts 
could also be cultivated in the peninsula. The present 
inhabitants are some 40,000 Indians, who are steadily 
emigrating to Venezuela for lack of industries to 
keep them at home. The Sierra Nevada is another 
region well suited for colonisation; fruit-growing 
offers good prospects of success. Spenning senerally 
of these districts and. the whole of the Magdalena 
province of Colombia, Mr. Dawe advocates the en- 
couragement of Japanese colonisation, which he holds 
has been successful under comparable conditions in 
Brazil. He does not explain why emigrants from 
Mediterranean Europe would not be suitable. 


Mr. R. S. WuippLe read two interesting papers on 
‘Electrical Methods of Measuring Body Tempera- 
tures” and ‘t The Electro-Cardiograph"’ before a joint 
meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and 
the Royal Society of Medicine on March 21. In the 
former paper Mr. Whipple arrives at the conclusion that 
a continuous record of the temperature of the human 
body can be best obtained by an electric thermometer 
placed in the rectum. For very accurate research 
work a thermo-electric couple can be used in con- 
junction with a photographic recorder. The electro- 
cardiograph utilises the discovery first made by Prof. 
Waller that the electric potentials developed in the 
heart at each contraction of the organ were sufficiently 
large to deflect a sensitive galvanometer. The cardio- 
grams shown by the lecturer were exceedingly instruc- 
tive, and it was easy to believe that they have a great 
and growing value in medical practice. 


At the meeting of the Royal Photographic Society 
held on February 18, Mr. S. H. Williams described his 
new process of printins on paper in natural colours, 
and showed several examples. Mr. Williams makes 
one plate and one exposure serve for the three colour 
records by exposing it behind a screen that has 
$40 lines to the inch. the lines being alternately red, 
green, and blue, and of equal widths. By placing 
over this negative a key-plate that is ruled with black 


134 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


lines of double width and with single-width spaces, 
that portion exposed behind each colour may be alter- 
nately isolated as the key-plate is shifted. ‘This ad- 
justment is done mechanically, identification marks 
indicating which colour record is exposed, and as 
contact prints cannot be obtained, an enlarging lan- 
tern is used. The prints may be obtained ‘“‘in any 
one of a dozen different ways,’’ but Mr. Williams 
prefers the bromoil process, inking up with the three 
necessary colours and superposing the prints by 
transferring the ink images to drawing-paper. The 
lines are not obtrusive in the resulting pictures, and, 
if desired, they can be obliterated by putting the 
image slightly out of focus when making the expo- 
sures for the prints. The method of making the 
screens is also described in the Photographic Journal 
for March. 

IN an address to the Franklin Institute, Phila- 
delphia, which is reprcduced in the Journal of the insti- 
tute for January. Mr. H. Leffmann shows that the 
pioneer experiments in aviation carried out by the late 
Prof. S. P. Langley were complete enough to form the 
basis for modern practice. In May, 1896, Prof. 
Langley launched from a small island in the Potomac 
an unmanned aeroplane driven by a steam-engine 
which ascended to an altitude of 60 ft. or 7o ft., and 
travelled at about twenty miles per hour for eighty 
or ninety seconds before descending. With the help 
of a grant from the Government and the mechanical 
assistance of Mr. C. M. Manly, he constructed an 
internal-combustion engine of 18 b.h.p. weighing 
only 108 lb., and in 1903 Mr. Manly made an experi- 
mental flight on a machine driven by this engine, 
Through some accident not clearly understood, the 
flight came to a premature conclusion, and the pilot 
narrowly escaped drowning. Prof. Langley died in 
1907 without making any further experiments, but in 
1914 the.machine of 1903 was flown successfully by 
Mr. G. H. Curtiss. When the engine was replaced 
by one of 80 h.p. a number of flights were made 
which demonstrated that the principles of the Langley 
machine were sound and practical. 


THe Cambridge University Press is publishing for 
Dr. A. E. Shipley, Master of Christ’s College, and 
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, an 
account of the author’s experiences during his 
recent visit to the United States of America. It will 
be entitled ‘“‘The Voyage of a Vice-Chancellor.” 
‘The Furniture Beetle’’ is in preparation for appear- 
ance in the series of Economic Pamphlets of the 
British Museum (Natural History), and ‘‘The Danger 
of Disease from Fleas and Bugs” for appearance in 
the Museum’s series of Economic Leaflets. Mr. W. 
Heinemann is about to publish ‘Psychology and 
Parenthood,” by H. A. Bruce, who aims at presenting 
to parents particulars of the discoveries in child-nature 
obtained by psychclogists and others. Messrs. Long- 
mans and Co, announce a book which should be of 
interest to educationists. viz. ‘‘The Manchester 
Grammar School, 1515-1915: A Regional Survey of 
the Advancement of Learning since the Reformation.” 
The author is Dr. A. A. Mumford. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


OBSERVED CHANGES ON JUPITER.—Some remarkable 
alterations in the surface-markings of this planet 
have been observed recently. The bay or hollow in 
the south equatorial belt, which has been almost un- 
interruptedly visible since Schwabe figured it in Sep- 
tember, 1831, appears to have disappeared. Mr. F 
Sargent, of Bristol, using telescopes of 10} in. aper- 
ture (reflector) and 5 in. (Cook refractor), has been 
unable to see any distinct traces of the feature named 
during his very recent observations. It was an im- 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


portant marking as serving to show the position of 


the great red spot, which has been very faint during _ 


a long series of years. 
made its appearance in the south tropical zone of 
Jupiter, and in about the same latitude as the red 
spot. This moved with greater speed than the latter, 
its rate of rotation being about 12 seconds less, and 
the marking had so greatly extended in longitude that 
in January and February of the present year it ranged 
over about 180°, or half the planet’s circumference. 
This object seems also. practically to have disappeared. 
Mr. Sargent saw the following end of it central on 
March 7 at toh. 13m. in longitude 60-3°, but it was 
extremely faint, and regarded as near the vanishing 
point. Since that date observations have failed to 
reveal the object, though the disc has been carefully 
scanned at those times when it must have been pre- 
sented to view had it continued visible. 


Drawincs OF Mars.—Popular Astronomy for 
February .contains an interesting series of compara- 
tive drawings made by five observers at the last 
opposition, according to a_ prearranged scheme 
organised by Prof. W. H. Pickering. On the whole, 
the accord of the different draughtsmen is satisfac- 
tory; thus of 131 canals appearing on the sketches, 
eighty-three are confirmed by at least one other 
observer. The Rev. T. E. R. Phillips noted that he 
could see nothing with the Greenwich 28-in. that was 
not visible in his own 8-in. Several observers .men- 
tion the beautiful blue tint of Syrtis Major; the other 
maria tended to grey or brown. Vi 


Tue GEGENSCHEIN OR COUNTERGLOW.—This pheno- 
menon has a great fascination for Prof. Barnard, 


who in 1899 published his observations extending | 


over sixteen years. Prof. Barnard made another 
series last autumn (which he states to be the best 
season to observe it), and gives the results in Popular 
Astronomy for February. As in the previous set, the 
longitude comes out exactly 180° from the sun, the 
latitude 0-3° N. The diurnal parallax appeared. to be 
insensible. He favours the explanation that it is an 
atmospheric phenomenon, the earth’s atmosphere 
acting as a spherical lens and concentrating the sun’s 
light. He mentions two other explanations as 
possible: that of Evershed, that the earth has a tail 
like a comet; and that of Moulton, that there is an 
aggregation of meteoric bodies at the point opposite 
the sun describing periodic orbits under the combined 
action of sun and earth. 


TycHo BRAHE’s ORIGINAL  OBSERVATIONS.—An 
article by Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer in Scientia for March 
states that the manuscript books in which Tycho’s 
observations were entered night by night were sold 
to the King of Denmark, and are now in the Royal 
Library at Copenhagen. A contemporary fair copy 
of. most of them is now in the Imperial Library at 
Vienna, and from this copy an edition was prepared 
by a Jesuit named Curtius in 1666. This is known 
to be very incomplete and incorrect, and a new edition 
is being prepared by Dr. Dreyer from the original 
observing books and from the copy at Vienna, which 
will form vols. x.-xiii. of the collected works of Tycho 
Brahe, now being printed at Copenhagen. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF AIRSHIP 
CONSTRUCTION. 


AMONG the important papers read last week at the 
Institution of Naval Architects was one on airship 


construction by Mr. C. I. R. Campbell, who has been 


responsible at the Admiralty for the design of our 


airships. In British practice it is assumed for design 
purposes that the gas has a lift of 68 Ib. per 1000 


In 1901 a large dark mass ~ 


a APRIL 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


135 


? 


eft. The author gives a curve showing the average 
per unit volume of gas at various altitudes as a 
reentage of the lift at ground-level. A dominating 
ment in design is the provision of the longi- 
i strength necessary to withstand the longi- 
al shearing forces and bending moments, and 
ferent means adopted to meet this requirement 
airships into three main types, viz. non-rigids, 
rigids, and rigids. Particulars of three non- 
ips are given in the paper, having gross 
0 Ib., 14,100 Ib., and 11 tons respectively ; 
ble lifts when full are 1669 Ib., 4655 Ib., 
For airships larger than 500,000 cubic ft. 
d type can be, and has been, used, but 
by tends to compare less favourably with 
gid type as size is increased. The author 
questions of the gas pressures required 
ie envelope of the non-rigid ship to main- 
1 under the distorting forces due to 
with the means for supporting the bow 
» external air pressure in flight. He con- 
at non-rigid ships form a class of great 
nich can be given speeds of 45 to 60 miles 
with disposable weight percentages from 
“cent. They are particularly suitable for 
» flights and for patrol duties. Their 
are simplicity, ease and cheapness of pro- 
low cost of maintenance. 
fid airships a longitudinal keel girder is 
underside of the envelope so as to con- 
or slightly flexible backbone. The 
the keel is to relieve the envelope of 
in non-rigid airships have to be met 
relatively high internal gas pressure. 
found possible to fly large semi-rigid 
than 600,000 cubic ft. with gas pres- 
s little more than one-half as great as 
| non-rigids of equal capacity and 
ars of four semi-rigid airships are 
© pape! . having volumes up to 1,060,000 
e type in recent years has been developed 
“Italians alone. ‘Semi-rigid airships fill the gap 
n the efficient non-rigid and the smallest 


irships the whole of the shearing forces 
/ moments are sustained entirely by a 
‘typical rigid airship has the following 
:—643 ft. long by 78 ft. 9 in. extreme 
gas-bag capacity, 1,950,000 cubic ft.; 
sd, 60 to 65 miles per hour; total lift, 
er standard conditions; disposable lift, 
ie machinery weighs 8} Ib. to 9 Ib. per 
ower. e author gives curves of 
and bending moments for an airship 
2, both in the fully loaded and in the light 
and discusses the effects of these curves 


3) ae 
t striking improvement in the commercial 
ips is to be obtained by increased size. 
of 2,500,000 cubic ft. capacity, maximum 
es per hour, would have a disposable lift 
cent. of the total, i.e. about 38 tons. To 
‘ship to cross the Atlantic at 55 miles per 
juld carry fuel and oil for 4500 miles, and 
s of the disposable weights shows that 
re 8% tons available for carrying capacity for 
ers, luggage. food, etc., which is about 11 per 
the total lift. 
an airship of double capacity, i.e. 5,000,000 
bic ft., be designed for’the same length of voyage, 
la carrying capacitv works out to! about 28 tons, which 
about 183 per cent. of the total. The running costs 
of the larger ship will be less than double those of the 
_ Smaller, and hence the larger ship is a far better 
‘commercial proposition. _ 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103 


There are, of course, many problems other than 
those of design to be considered in the commercial 
airship. Thus Lord Weir directs attention to the cost 
of accommodation, the handling facilities, and the 
gas-producing plant. The question of mooring air- 
ships in the open is also being investigated, and it is 
hoped that it will shortly be possible to bring airships. 
successfully to rest in the open even in a strong wind. 


EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL 
RESEARCH. 


[* 1912 Mr. Thomas Welton Stanford, brother of 

Leland Stanford, and one of the trustees of the 
Leland Stanford Junior University of California, 
placed at the disposal of the University the sum of 
10,0001l., the interest on which was to be applied to 
investigations in the field of spiritualism and psychical 
research, and Dr. Jordan, the president of the Uni-' 
versity, asked if the department of psychology was 
willing to assume the responsibility of applying the 
endowment to work in this field. After some natural 
hesitation and consultation with other universities, 
the offer was accepted. The endowment sufficed not 
only to refit and equip the laboratury rooms assigned 
to the work, but also to defray the expenses of a 
fellowship, to which Dr. Coover, a trained psycho- 
logist, was appointed. The present bulky volume con- 
stitutes his first report. 

Part i. deals with the hypothesis of ‘thought trans- 
ference” or telepathy, a subject on which much experi- 
mental work has been done, but more, and more care- 
fully controlled, work was urgently needed. Three 
sets of experiments were carried out :—(1) On the 
guessing of lotto-block numbers; (2) on the guessing 
of playing-cards; (3) on the ‘feeling of being stared 
at.” The playing-card experiments were very exten- 
sive, and deserve a longer notice than we can give 
them. The following was the method :—{i) The ex- 
perimenter shuffles the pack (court cards discarded). 
(ii) He throws a die. If the number thrown is odd 
he holds the card in his mind, the form of content 
being: for 1, visual impression; for 2, kinzesthetic 
imagery (incipient pronouncing); for 3, combined 
visual impression, kinzesthetic image, and auditory 
image. or even numbers, see below.) (iii) He 
turns over the pack, notes the bottom card, taps once 
to signal the reagent, holds mental content of card, 
and “wills” the content to be projected into the mind 
of the receiver. After fifteen or twenty seconds he 
taps twice to signal the close of the experiment, and, 
when he notes that the reagent has recorded his guess, 
himself records colour, number, and suit of the card 
and number of the die determining the form .of the 
experiment. When the die threw an even number the ~ 
experimenter ran off the rest of the experiment as 
usual, but did not look at the card until the reagent 
had recorded his guess, thus affording an- effective 
series of control experiments. The results of 10,000 
guesses with University students, favourably disposed, 
were entirely negative. No statistical analysis shows 
any deviation in the percentage of right cases exceed- 
ing the probable limits of pure chance, or any ten- 
dency for the guesses to be more correct when the 
reagent graded his answers high (indicating consider- 
able confidence that they were right) than when he 
graded them low. A further set of experiments was 
made with ten “‘sensitives,” five of them “ spiritistic 
mediums,” persons with a sincere faith who gave time 
and effort to the research without pay. The statistical 

I Leland Stanford Tunior University Publications. Psychical Research 


Monograph No, rt, ‘ Experiments in Psychical Research at Leland Stanford 
Junior University.”+ By John Edgar Coover,: Fellow in Psychical Research 
and Assistant Professor of Psychology. Pp. xxiv+64r. (Stanford Universiry,. 
California, 1917.) Price, paper 3.<o dollars, buckram 4 dollars. 


136 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


analysis of ihe results of 1000 experiments revealed 
no advantage for psychics cver nermal reagents; there 
were no deviations in right guesses beyond the limits 
of chance. 

The experiments conducted to test the common belief 
in sensitiveness to being stared at were equally nega- 
tive in their results, ‘“‘regular”’ and ‘ control”’ experi- 
ments being determined in the same way by the throw 
of adie. A shorter series, in which a single “starer”’ 
was replaced by twelve ‘‘starers,’’ gave no more 
definite result. In this series the twelve ‘‘starers” 
were told in the control experiments to image a black 
cat on the lecture-table. None of the reagents ever 
thought of black cats. 

In part ii. of the volume previous evidence as to 
the influence of subliminal impressions on judgment is 
reviewed and the results of some further experiments 
are given (guessing letters and digits presented by a 
‘tachistoscope, influence of whispering, influence of 
involuntary signals, e.g. eye-movements of an_experi- 
menter who had a definite number-form). The ex- 
periments showed, generally speaking, evidence of that 
‘fringe of perceptions, most often unconscious, but all 
ready to enter into consciousness, and, in fact, entering 
in in certain exceptional cases or in certain predisposed 
subjects,’ with which Bergson has insisted that 
‘psychical research could and should concern itself.” 
- And it seems more than probable that this sort of 
perception has played a réle in the evidence for tele- 
pathy, as others have even more definitely asserted. 

After a discussion in part iii. of the influence of 
mental habit upon judgment, and of the confirmation 
by experiment of results obtained by the theory of 
probability—matter which we should prefer to have 
seen given in an introductory chapter—the author passes 
in part iv. to an account of some interesting experi- 
ments in ‘‘sound-assimilation,”’ i.e. the tendency, 
when sounds are mal-observed, to record not what is 
actually observed, but an erroneous inference, e.g. 
significant words in lieu of nonsense. How much 
the mind contributes is shown by preliminary experi- 
ments, in which students who could record correctly 
a significant communication through the telephone, 
the dictaphone, or the air (at twenty-five metres’ dis- 
tance) could not hear definitely enough to identify a 
half of the consonantal sounds in nonsense syllables 
through the dictaphone, a third of them over the tele- 
phone, or a quarter of them through the air. As a 
consequence a dictation garbled into nonsense by sub- 
stitutions of consonantal sounds when heard, e.g., from 
the dictaphone is converted by the listener, quite un- 
consciously, into sense, e.g. ‘“‘amb vuth lekrogootheth 
vu lambwaj vap yuth sporeb im vu wax” is taken 
down by the listener as ‘‘and thus reproduces the 
language that is stored in the wax.’’ The ear can- 
not be trusted correctly to report names or phrases 
when spoken under conditions which, however ap- 
parently satisfactory, permit some degree of indis- 
tinctness. 

That the authorities of the Leland Stanford Junior 
University should have had some hesitation in accept- 
ing the offered endowment will, we think, be readily 
understood. That Dr. Coover has justified his ap- 
pointment will, we hope, be agreed. He has pre- 
sented the results of a series of very careful investiga- 
tions, organised by a trained worker, which, even if, 
as in the case of the ‘“‘card guessing” experiments, 
they only justify the scepticism of the sceptics, do 
something at least to clear the field. It may be noted 
that Prof. Pearson’s **Tables for Statisticians and 
Biometricians’? (Cambridge University Press), of the 
existence of which Dr. Coover seems to be unaware, 
would have saved him considerable arithmetical work 
in comparing observed with theoretical distributions. 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


MEETING OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL 
ASSOCIATION. 


SPECIAL clinical meeting of the British Medical 


Association was held in London last week on 
April 8-11 under the presidency of Sir Clifford Allbutt. 
The various sections met at the Imperial College of 
Science, and the attendance of members was large 
and the meeting a success in every way. The social 
functions included a reception by the president at the 
Guildhall, a conversazione at the Royal Society of 
Medicine, and receptions by the Presidents of the 
Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. 2) Dp 

In the Section of Medicine Lt.-Col. Mott introduced 
the subject of war-neuroses. He emphasised the pre- 
ponderating part played by hysteria in the production 
of these conditions, and had found that patients with 
such suggestive symptoms as constant vomiting, con- 
stant headache, and recurring fits might all be suffer- 
ing from functional disease. He condemned the use 
of the term “shell shock,” declaring that many of the 
men returned as suffering from shell shock would 
have been more appropriately designated “shell shy.” 
At the same time a proportion of the cases suffer from 
definite injury to the brain—the cerebro-spinal fluid 
may contain blood and albumin, the drum of the ear 
be ruptured, and microscopic hemorrhages be 
present in the brain. Sir James Purves Stewart also 
deprecated the use of the term ‘shell shock.” The 
frequent occurrence of neuroses in the present war 
had’ excited comment, but it was to be noted that in 
previous wars our men had been trained and seasoned 
soldiers, and he expressed surprise that the number of 
cases of neuroses occurring in. our armies during the 


‘last five years had been relatively so few. The general 


opinion was that the treatment of war-neuroses was 
unsatisfactory, and Dr. Yealland and Col. Gordon 
Holmes decried the use of hypnotism and psycho- 
analysis. roe Wg 6 

Influenza was the subject of a joint discussion 
between the Sections of Medicine and Preventive Medi- 
cine. Sir Wilmot Herringham dealt with the clinical 
aspects of the disease. He emphasised its extreme 
infectivity, and dwelt on its changed character; so 
much was the latter the case that he was tempted to 
ask whether the present disease was influenza at all. 
Capt. Greenwood, who dealt with the epidemiology 
of the disease, stated, on the other hand, that we 
must provisionally conclude that there is no clear-cut 
formal difference between the outbreaks of 1889-90 
and 1918-19. 

Major Bowman contributed a paper on the filter- 
passing germ discovered in collaboration with the late 
Major G. Gibson and Capt. J. Connor (see NATURE, 
April 3. p. 90). It had been found impossible to cul- 
tivate from the blood of patients Pfeiffer’s so-called 
influenza bacillus. The conclusion was that the 
primarv cause of influenza is some micro-organism 


other than Pfeiffer’s bacillus, probably the  filter-— 


passing germ described. 


In the Section of Surgery Prof. Bayliss discussed 
his method of injecting a solution of gum-arabic in 
In this condition the blood-— 
eable, 
and hence, if they are to be kept filled, a viscid fluid. 


cases of wound shock. 
vessels become emptied of blood and more | 


is necessary, for which purpose the gum solution 
answers admirably. ; 

Dr. Dale discussed the nature and’ causation of 
wound shock. The heart and great vessels are ab- 
normally empty of blood in this condition, and the 
question arises, Where does the blood go? 
answer seems to be that the blood collects and stag- 
nates in the smaller vessels of the skin and other 
peripheral areas. With regard to the causation of this 
altered distribution of the blood it has been found 


The. 


b 


aber: ritish Medical Journal. 
F SSCs oe 


_ APRIL 17, 1919] 


I n produce a similar condi- 
tion; it annuls the “tone” of the capillary vessels, so 
that they dilate and their walls become abnormally 
permeable. In cases of considerable injury to muscles 
oes the Most potent causes of shock) a substance 
li _ histamine is generated. Histamine acts more 
powerfully Poa oo ne: with ether, and 
‘Surgeons during the war have noted that patients 
ufferi: from shock bear ether badly. 4 
In the Section of Preventive Medicine the dysen- 
teries were considered. Col.. Leonard Dudgeon dis- 
the bacillary form. The dysentery bacillus is 
ver present in the blood—in pa two cases 
“cases examined. The methods of bac- 
ical €xamination for the dysentery bacilli were 
three methods by which the disease 


that injections of histamine 


Cc 


ma y be spread among a healthy population referred to. 


nese are by “carriers,” by infection of water, and by 

’ pies <thptor tte! OE, “ z ’ b 

“flies. hf Aten flies, typical dysentery bacilli were 
_ isolated from wild flies captured and examined. 

___ Amoebie dysentery was dealt with by Dr. Warring- 

ton Yorke. The dysentery amceba is apparently in- 

digenous i | England, for it had been found that 

of 450 civilians in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary who 

had never b abroad, 1-5 per cent. were infected. 


Among recruits 5-6, and among lunatics 9:7, per cent. 


re fo ind to be infected. 
cue © t.-Col. Dale Logan gave a demonstration on mine. 
gas poisoning. By the autumn of 1915 mine warfare 
hh Pris aie qauge. strides, and, with the great increase 
in si eo} the explosive charges used, more extensive 
mine rein _ and the employment of thousands of 
ins under ground. the casualties from mine-gas 
pois S assumed serious proportions. The poison- 
ee Se By tue to carbon monoxide gas. The in- 
Sidious n ature | the poisoning and the serious nature 
* of ti 1e casualties: lent Support to rumours that the 
nemy was employing a new gas and forcing it 


oe galleries. The intensity of mine 
gh gauged by the fact that in 1916 
9, and the enemy 700, mines. At Messines 
os we e charged with 90,000 Ib. of explosive, 
al charges in all the mines totalled more 

Ib. A description was given of the 
to cope with mine-gas poisoning and of 
‘atus employed. 

it discussions and demonstrations 
tia, injuries of blood-vessels, gunshot 
‘chest. and bone inflammation and bone 


a oe 
nd 


_ ede 

s = a 
3 : 
e 


‘ 


nes 12 


r. details of which will be found in the issues of 


* 


FRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN MADRAS. 
4 1918 Year-book of the Madras Agricultural 
* indicates that the officers of the 
ent are giving attention to a variety of 
i eer ocal importance. No results of wide 
ficance for tropical agriculture are recorded, but 
a good deal of useful work has been done, which is 
‘not without its value beyond the Indian province in 
which it was carried out. 
In “A Note on Grading Cotton’? Mr. R. €.. Wood 
“gives ti @ results of a grading trial made with 
cae oo el at the Coimbatore Agricultural College. 
The crude cotton and the two grades produced in the 
trial were submitted for valuation to five firms—three 
spin. steed two buyers for export. If 1000 Ib. of 
lint had been graded and sold to each of two of the 
firms on the basis of ‘these valuations, the. reduction 
ween: as the result of grading would have been 
32 and 6 rupees respectively, whilst a'similar operation 
with the three remaining firms would only have added 
4 4, and 17 rupees respectively to the price realised for 
«4 (Madras: Superintendent, Government Press, 1918.) Price rs. g@. 


NO. 2581, VOL. i103] 


NATURE 


137 


a like quantity of ungraded cotton. More interest is 
now being taken in Indian cotton in Great Britain, 
and the utility of this note to the British reader would 
have been much enhanced if results of examina- 
tion of the crude and graded cottons Lad been given 
in detail as well as the valuations. In explanation of 
the disappointing results, the author is only able to 
suggest that possibly the crop was of poor quality 
owing to the bad season, and that consequently there 
was less difference between the crude cotton and the 
first grade than would normally be the case. 

Mr. T. V. R. Ayyar writes on the habits and life- 
history of Pempheres affinis, Faust, a stem weevil, 
which attacks Cambodia cotton. Treatment-of the 
stems with the usual insecticides has not so far pro- 
tected the crops from serious damage, but the removal 
and destruction of the plants first attacked in a planta- 
tion have sufficed to check the spread of the pest, 
and the author suggests that the practice adopted in. 
Uganda of clearing and destroying all cotton plants, 
after the crop is harvested each year, would probably 
be a useful preventive measure. 

Dr. Harrison, Government Agricultural Chemist, 
contributes ‘‘A Report upon the Extent and Character 
of the Saline Lands of the Madras Presidency” and 
‘“Some Notes on Manures in Southern India.” The 
latter refers to the available sources of supply of lime, 
gypsum, magnesia, and phosphates, and gives in- 
formation as to the poonacs (oil-cakes) and “fish 
manures obtainable in the Presidency. A paper by Mr. 
M. R. R. Sivan on ‘“‘ Phosphatic Nodules of Trichino- 
poly and their Availability as Manure’ is also of 
interest in this connection. It appears that since 1892 
much correspondence and several negotiations regard- 
ing concessions to work this area for phosphates have 
taken place, but so far only small quantities have been 
extracted for local use. 

Dr. F. Marsden has a note in the Year-book on 
‘A Hot-water Process for the Extraction of Indigo,” 
but this subject and other matters relating to indigo 
are more fully dealt with in the same author’s “ Indigo 
Manufacture in Madras,’’ which forms No. 74 of the 
Madras artment of Agriculture Series of Bul- 
letins.* Before starting on his tour of inspection of 
the Madras indigo districts the author had the advan- 
tage of visiting with Mr. . A. Davis, Indigo 
Research ‘Chemist to the Government of India, some 
of the chief Indian indigo factories managed by Euro- 
peans, and chiefly situated in Behar. In Madras 
indigo cultivation and manufacture are almost entirely 
in the hands of natives, though in at least one instance 
a European firm issues seed to the rvots and provides 
vats in which the crop can be worked up for dvestuff ; 
a similar arrangement is sometimes adopted on a 
smaller scale by native merchants. In most cases, 
however, the rvot sells his crop to a native vat-owner, 
or hires a vat in which to manufacture the. dyestuff. 
No records are kept as to yields, and Dr. Marsden 
regards as untrustworthy the rough estimates he was 
able to get, which are much higher than the vields 
recorded in Behar. Though indigo as rich in indigotin 
as that produced in Behar is made in Madras, the 
quality is, on the whole, poor, and, what is perhaps 
worse, variable.. These defects are due chiefly to 
carelessness in manufacture, but also in. part, at any 
rate in some areas, to deliberate adulteration with 
clay and mud. 

The work alreadv done by Mr. Davis in India has 
shown that the cultivation and manufacture of indigo, 
even in Behar, where the industry is in the control 
of Europeans and comparatively well-organised, pre- 
sents many problems, which; if solved: might greatly 
improve its position and prospects. In the: case: of 

2 (Madras : Superintendent, Government Press, 1918.) | Price 6d. 


138 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


the native industry. carried on in Madras, Dr. Marsden 
points out that the difficulties are much more formid- 
able, and he suggests that the first step towards 
improvement must be the provision of means for 
the production of indigo of good and _ uniform 
quality. One means to this end would be the 
replacement of small-scale manufacture in native- 
owned vats by larger-scale production in well-managed 
factories, the ryot selling his crop to the factory for 
manufacture into dyestuff. A possible alternative may 
be the elaboration of a simple process, capable of being 
used by the ryot, as the result of the researches now 
being carried on by Mr. Davis, coupled with some 
system of analytical control of the produce before ship- 
ment. 


USES OF INVISIBLE ' LIGHT IN 
WARFARE, 

“pROF. R. W. WOOD, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, Baltimore, gave to the Physical Society of 
London on March 14 a demonstration of the uses of 
invisible light in warfare. The first device shown was 
a signalling-lamp, consisting of a 6-volt electric lamp 
with a small curled-up filament at the focus of a lens 
of about 3 in. diameter and 12 in. focus. This. gave 
a very narrow beam, only visible in the neighbourhood 
of the observation post to which the signals were 
directed. In order to direct the beam in the propér 
direction, an eyepiece was provided behind the fila- 
ment. The instrument was thus converted into a 
telescope, of which the filament served as graticule. 
When directed so that the image of the observation 
post was covered by the filament, the lamp, when lit, 
threw a beam in the proper direction. In many cir- 
cumstances the narrowness of the beam was sufficient 
to ensure secrecy; but sometimes it was not desirable 
to show any light whatever, and filters were employed 
to cut out the visible spectrum. By day a deep red 
filter, transmitting only the extreme red rays, was 
placed in front of the lamp. The light was invisible 
to an observer unless he was provided with a similar 
red screen to cut out the daylight, in which case he 
could see enough to read signals at six miles. By 
night a screen was used which transmitted only the 
ultra-violet rays. _The observing telescope. was pro- 
vided with a fluorescent screen in its focal plane. 
The range with this was also about six miles. For 
naval convoy work lamps are required which radiate 
in all directions. Invisible lamps for this purpose 
were also designed. In these the radiator was a ver- 
tical Cooper-Hewitt mercury arc, surrounded by a 
chimney of the ultra-violet glass. This glass only 
transmits one of the mercury lines, viz. A=3660 A.U., 
which is quite beyond the visible spectrum. Neverthe- 
less, the lamp is visible at close quarters, appearing 
of a violet colour, due to fluorescence of the retina. 
The lens of the eye is also fluorescent. This gives 
rise to an apparent haze, known as the “lavender 
fog,’ which appears to fill the whole field of view. 
Natural teeth also fluoresce quite brilliantly, but false 
teeth appear black. : 

Reverting to the use of the lamps at sea, they are 
picked up by means of a receiver consisting of a 
condensing lens in the focal plane of which is a 
barium-platino-cyanide screen the full diameter of the 
tube. An eyepiece is mounted on a metal strip across 
the end of the tube. When the fluorescent spot has 
once been found somewhere on the screen, it is 
readily brought to the central part and observed with 
the eyepiece. The range is about four miles, and the 
arrangement has proved invaluable for keeping the 
ships of a convoy together in their proper relative 
positions by night. 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103 | 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


Lonpon.—A course of eight lectures on ‘The — 


Physiology of Muscular Exercise’’ will be given in 
the Physiological Department, St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital Medical School, West Smithfield, E.C.1, by 
Prof. F. A. Bainbridge on Wednesdays at 4.30 p.m., 
beginning on April 30. The course is intended for 
advanced students of the University and others in- 
terested in the subject. Admission is free, without 
ticket. ly 


We learn from Science that by the will of the late 


Mr. Morton F. Plant the Connecticut College for 
Women receives a beauest of 50,000l. spit 
Sir ArtHuR NEWSHOLME has been offered the chair 
of public health at Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 
more, and it is understood that he will accept the 
offer for a year at least. Thies! 
THE sixth election to Beit fellowships for scientific 
research will take piace on or about July 15. Not 


more than three fellowships, of the value of 1751. per — 


annum, will be awarded. Applications must be re- 
ceived on or before May 31. Forms of application 
and all information may be obtained, by letter only, 
addressed to the Rector, Imperial College, South 
Kensington, London S.W.7. SE yee | 


By the will of the late Mr. Charles Kerr Marr, the — 


residue of his property, amounting apparently to more 
than 200.000l., is left in trust for educational pur- 
poses, defined as follows :—‘‘ For granting prizes. or 
rewards to persons who are or have been bona-fide 
residents in the borough of Troon, and who are or 
have been scholars in some public or elementary 
school: in or towards building or maintenance of 


any public school, elementary or otherwise, in Troon; — 


in or towards the maintenance of exhibitions or 
scholarships tenable at any institution of education 
hisher than elementary, as the trustees may deter- 
mine. but no exhibition or scholarship shall be 
awarded to any person who shall not be or have been 
a bona-fide resident in Troon.” ; Rib wc hay 

In the issue for April 5 of the Cologne Post, a daily 
paper published at Cologne by the Army of the 
Rhine, is an article on the education of A iv. boys. 
The writer states that the boys of eighteen years of 
age who have been called to the colours recently 
have, in the majority of cases, proved to be vastly 
below the standard of education to be expected of 
boys of that age, as many as 5 per cent. of them 
being quite illiterate. He goes on to advocate the 
institution of a system of vocational education while 
the boys are with the Army of Occupation that will 
return these lads to their civil occupations each one 
with his studies completed and with his “ apprentice- 
ship” served. The curriculum and time-table of 
studies sketched in the article indicate a due apprecia- 
tion of the difficulties of the problem and 
bility of overcoming them successfully. 


Tu Cologne Post of April 1 publishes an interest. 


ing account of the work of the 2nd Army Agricul-_ 


tural College at Bonn. ‘The object of the college is 


to provide interesting and useful occupation for our | 


troops during the period preceding demobilisation. 
Courses were commenced in January, 1919, since 
which time large numbers of soldiers, both officers 
and other ranks, have received short courses of agrfi- 
cultural instruction. At first the lectures were mainly 


theoretical, dealing with agricultural chemistry and 
botanv, but this was soon altered. and at the present ~ 


time the students not only have lectures on practical 
subjects—farm management, etc.—but are also 


the possi- — 


ee Se en Ye 


APRIL 17, 1919 | 


NATURE 


139 


University of Bonn, where they see the results of 
various experiments and actual farm, operations. In 
this way men who are farmers obtain an insight into 
the scientific principles of their subject, while the 
arid receive a grounding which will be of value in 


| at weekly meetings students give their agricul- 
experiences ie various parts of the world, and 
iscussion at these meetings supplies some valu- 
S| . e forma tion. . : 
_ Tue Ministry of Health Bill passed its third readin 
in the House of Commons on April 9. When Before 
the Standing Committee dealing with the Bill, the 
q asure was, in opposition to the wish of the Govern- 
ment, nded in such a way as to transfer from the 
_ Board of Education to the Ministry of Health the re- 
_ Sponsibility for the medical inspection and treatment of 
_ school children. In the House of Commons on April 9, 
when the Bill returned for further consideration, Dr. 


_ Addisor idison proposed to add to it words to the effect that 
_the Minister of 
re Board 


Fa te 


Health may make arrangements with 
‘d of Education respecting the submission 
\ val of schemes of local education authorities 
the payment of grants to these authorities, 
r as such schemes and payment relate to or are 
ect of medical inspection and treatment; and 
owers and duties of the Minister may under any 
arrangements be exercised and performed by the 
his behalf and with his authority under such 
as he may think fit. After some discussion, 
sertion of words in the amendment confining 
to medical inspection and treatment, it was 

i eae ethes words, it is now possible for the 
of Health, should he so desire, to delegate 

ard of Education those of his powers which 


o the B 
‘fagwe hidherto: heen administered by the Board. 
vy “School Hygiene for November last Dr. James 

rr writes on ‘Congenital or Developmental 


ae 


He points out that although the biblio- 
Sivauilte aubject is fairly large, yet little attention 
has been paid to the theoretical importance and wide 
irings of congenital aphasia, when it exists apart 
coarse nervous defects. The cases may be con- 

y grouped, according to the leading symptom, 
graphic and auditory aphasia, of which auditory 
asia, being more fixed by heredity, is less common. 
rr reviews and criticises the various theories put 


= par 


inn = atin ws ne Ma Di = ee pd ie a 
Teather aap : eae Fs tier Sane 
at ooh = “ =e 7 ~ » om ZY j 


apable of much educational improvement, and the 
defect so compensated that for practical purposes the 
individual may be considered normal. If not treated, 
such children tend to swell the numbers in prisons and 


Secing dl qunttanlaldarte sy 


Tue League for the Promotion of Science in Educa- 
tion, formed by the Committee on the Neglect of 
lee, which arranged a very successful conference 
the Linnean Society in 1916, is organising another 
_ conference, to be held at the Central Hall. West- 
_ minster, S.W.. on April 30, at 2.30 p.m. The fol- 
_ lowing resolutions will be submitted to the confer- 
_ ence:—(1) That this co nce directs attention to 
_ the continued iy Pg science in the country, and 


. NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 
| 


ii, 
ee 


i. 


.% 


© 


GB 


mot ee 


ar eae 
able to visit the experimental farms belonging to the | 


calls upon the Government to make immediately such 
changes in.all administrative Departments as shall 
ensure therein an adequate representation of scientific 
men. (2) That this conference anxiously awaits a 
statement on the part of the Government as to the 
measures it proposes to take to carry out the recom- 
mendations set forth in the report of Sir J. J. Thom- 
son’s Committee on Natural Science in the Educa- 
tional System of Great Britain. (3) That this con- 
ference, whilst fully recognising the value of a literary 
training, is, nevertheless, of the opinion that the 
present public school and university system fails to 
produce that activity of mind and breadth of know- 
ledee which are essential.in a liberal education and 
necessary for dealing satisfactorily with modern 
problems. It therefore calls for a closer co-operation 
between education and industry, and for this purpose 
emphasises the importance of appointing to head- 
masterships men of high scientific attainments. No 
tickets of admission are required, and the Council of 
the League hopes that there will be a large assembly 
at the conference to support these resolutions, and 
thus assist in securing action upon them. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 


Linnean Society, April 3.—Sir David Prain, president, 
in the chair.—W. B. Brierley: An albino mutant of 
Botrytis cinerea, Pers. The fungus Botrytis cinerea 
possesses characteristic black sclerotia, the colouring 
matter being deposited in the walls of the outer two 
or three layers of cells. Among the black sclerotia in 
a pedigree culture a single colourless sclerotium was 
formed, and on isolation this gave rise to a strain 
characterised by colourless sclerotia. Morphologically 
and physiologically the parent and mutant strains are 
identical, and the only difference is the lack of colour- 
ing matter in the latter. A generation of the fungus 
may be obtained in three days; and the two strains 
tested over very many generations under the most 
diverse conditions have proved absolutely constant. As 
the colourless form arose in a “single-spore”’ culture, 
it cannot represent a strain selected out from an 
original population; and as Botrytis cinerea is asexual, 
the possibility of the new form being a segregant 
from a heterozygous parent is eliminated. Further- 
more, the occurrence of colourless sclerotia in this 
funsus has heretofore been unknown either in Nature 
or when the fungus was grown on culture media. There 
would. therefore, seem no reason to doubt that the 
colourless form described is an instance of true muta- 
tion in the fungus Botrytis cinerea——Dr. J. D. F 
Gilchrist: The post-puerulus stage of Jasus lalandii 
(Milne-Edw.), Ortmann. This paper carried on the 
investigation already published in the Journal of the 
Linnean Society. Zoology (vol. xxxiii., 1916, pp. 101-25, 
pls. 12-17, with 12 text-figures), as ‘Larval and 
Post-Larval Stages of Jasus lalandii,”” etc. The New 
Zealand crayfish is now considered to be identical 
with this Cape species, and found to be of wide dis- 
tribution. The stage here described is that imme- 
diately following the ‘“‘puerulus” stage; it represents 
the transition to the adult form. The specimens were 
obtained by trawling in Table Bay and taken to the 
marine laboratory at St. James, near Cape Town, 
where the observations now recorded were made. 
The author gives minute descriptions, illustrated by 
drawings similar to those in his previous paper.— 
Dr. H. H. Mann: Variation in flowers of Jasminum 
malabaricum. Wight: In the’ forests of the Western 
Ghats of Bombay, during the month of April, the 
jungle is covered with flowers of this fragrant and 
attractive climber. Between April 13 and 20. 1916, 


140 


NATURE 


[APRIL 17, 1919 


the author had ‘examined 2789 flowers for the corolla, 
and found from five lobes in 0:33 per cent. to a, maxi- 
mum of eight lobes in 40 per cent., declining to a 
percentage of 0-04 for those with twelve lobes.  Simi- 
larly, the teeth of the calyx were examined in 3560 
flowers at the same time, and showed with four teeth 
2:56 per cent., with five and, six lobes the maximum 
with respective percentages of 46-26 and 4781, the 
last being of eight teeth with o-22 per cent. 


- Aristotelian Society, April 7.—Prof. Wildon Carr in 
the chair.—A. F. Shand: Emotion and value. In- 
trinsic value, whether in external things or in the 
constituents of the mind, is not a simple, statical 
quality that can be found in some things, but about 
which nothing further can be said. It is essentially 
dynamical. It presupposes always something on 
which it can act, with which it has affinity, and the 
power of acting on this thing in certain ways. Such 
value cannot, therefore, be wholly. contained in or 
confined to the thing which possesses it; for a condi- 
tion of intrinsic value is the power of propagating 
the same kind of value in the other thing with which 
it has affinity. But this power, though a part and 
condition of this value, does not sum it up. For 
things would: not have power to produce excellent 
effects unless there were something excellent in their 
own nature. Fear, anger, and hate have one kind of 


effect; joy, admiration, and love have an opposite 
kind. The power of each depends on its own 
nature. The power which is a condition of intrinsic 


value is therefore also conditioned by it. 


Zoological Society, April 8.—Dr. S. F. Harmer, vice- 
president, in the chair.—Dr. F. E. Beddard: Three 
foetal sperm whales. Attention was directed to the 
smallest foetus exhibited, which measured 4% in. in 
length.—L. T. Hogben : ‘The progressive reduction of 
the jusal in the Mammalia.—G. A. Boulenger: Two 
new lizards and a new frog from the Andes of 
- Colombia.—R. I. Pocock: Structural characters by 
which the genera of Felidae may be distinguished from 
each other. Special attention was directed to the 
formation of the feet in the cheetah (Acinonyx), to 
the modifications of the hyoidean apparatus in the 
lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars (Panthera), and 
to the position of the partition in the auditory bulla 
in other genera. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Sands: Considered Geologically and Industrially 
under War Conditions. By Pro G. H. Boswell. 
Pp. 38. (Liverpool: At the University Press.) 1s.° 
net. 

Organic Chemistry; or, Chemistry of the Carbon 
Compounds. By V. von Richter. Edited by Profs. 
R. Anschiitz and G. Schroeter. Vol. i.: Chemistry 
of the Aliphatic Series. Translated and revised by 


De Pf) OK. « Spielman: Second (revised) edition. 
Pp. xvit+719. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.) 
21s. net. 


Food (War) Committee, Royal Society. Report on 
the Composition of Potatoes Grown in the United 
ae tcig: Pp. 31. (London: Harrison and Sons.) 


Edited by S. S. 
W. Wesley and 


Tygticehtbe Type Ammonites. 
Buckman. Part xviii. (London: 
Son.) 

A Summary of My Theory of the Sun. 
Brester. Pp. 62. (The Hague: 
Son.) 

Carburettors, Vaporisers, and Distributing Valves 
Used in Internal-Combustion Engines. By E. Butler. 
Second edition. Pp. viii+288. (London: C. Griffin 
and Co., Ltd.) 12s. 6d. net. 


NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 


By Dr. A. 
W. P. Stockum and 


The Mica ‘Miner’s and Prospector’s ale By 
A, A. C. Dickson. Pp. viii+s5o. (London: E. and 
F. N. Spon, Ltd.) 4s. 6d. net. 


Birds Beneficial to Agriculture. By F. W. Frohaglil | 
Pp. vi+47+22 plates. Economic Series, No. 9, — 
British Museum (Natural ovine (London : Bit 
Museum, Natural History.) | 

Report on Cetacea Stranded on the British Coasts 
during 1918. By Dr. S. F. Harmer. a) (24: 
(London: British ‘Miibetarn: Natural History.) . 6d. 

T.N.T. Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and Dinitro: 
toluenes: Their Manufacture and Properties. By 
G. C. Smith. Pp. viit+133. (London: Constable 
and Co., Ltd.) 8s. 6d. net. 

The Life of Matter: An Inquiry and Adventure. 
Edited by A. Turnbull. Pp. xviii+324+iv a 
(London: Williams and Norgate.) 7s. 6d. 

Calcul des Valeurs Absolues. By D. Riabouchin 
wedi Ro, 113. loans 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, Aprit 24. : 
INsTITUTION oF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Major A. C, Fuller: 
The Fullerphone, and its Application to Military and Civil Telewaohy, 
TUESDAY, Apri 29. ‘s he 
ZooLoGIcaL SoctETy, at 5.30.—Dr. W. T. Calman: M 
Animals.—Noel ‘Tayler: A Unique Case of Asymmetrical 
the Chick.— Geo. Jennison: A Chimpanzee'i in the Open Air in. 


CONTENTS. — “PAGE 

Gyroscopics. By Sir G..Greenbill, F.R.S._. ti a f 121 

A Physiologist’s Contribution to War Surgery. - 

By H. H. D. 122 

tdtcoducronp Meteorology. "By ‘Sir babes ‘Shaw, F 
F.R.S 


é8.0 2594 28 G8, BE ee “123 

Our ‘Bookshelf #0.) 290002003 Aa ree , Daa 

Letters to the Editor :— : } 

The Finger-print System in the: Far East.—Cav. 
Filippo,dé Filippi, K.C.1-E,°.0 0) .) a 125 
‘Supposed Effect of ae on Water-drops. Prof. a5 
G. Bryan, F.R.S. 125 

A South African Pioneer. (Iustrated. ) By or 
H: H, Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B 125 

Part-time Education in the United States: : : E22 

The Future of Scientific Industries . . eet t-) 

Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S. By W. W. HG. wv bere eeQ 

Notes. intel pee ee ae 

Our Astronomical Column :— 

: Observed Changes on Jupiter. . +... + .+s + 134 
Drawings of Mats .° >... s.20 ein eae ee 134 
The Gegenschein or Counterglow <a. ) fe Er Gite oe! 
Tycho Brahe’s Original Observations ....-. . 134 

The Development of Airship Construction 134 

Experiments in Psychical Research. ......, 135 

Meeting of the British Medical Association, . . 136 

Agricultural Research in Madras ....... poe} RBZ 

Uses of Invisible Light in Warfare . ok pee Pe 

University and Educational Intelligence. . . . . 138 

Societies and Academies . is...) 3) oe 139 

Books: Received. 50°. 6. eee ee 140 

Diary of Societies... . .:; 2° 2 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: Ay 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., | 
MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, 


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Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the . 
Publishers. ; 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


= 


NATURE 


141 


| 
f Shean, APRIL 24, 1910. 


chools of England in the recent war may 
lay come to be written. It is doubtful if 
ae has realised as yet how great will be its 
‘There is one page in particular which 
more than is grasped even by 
> have had the best opportunities of 
t will tell of the special work of the 
we been trained in the scientific and 
atories. 
as called for every ounce of scientific 
nd effort. It could not be otherwise 
i “nations have been straining ‘their 
and when the advantage has so often 
1 bgp use of every help that modern 
SOU See The scientific battle has 


‘the air, for example, has de- 
| and courage of the pilot, but 
ie) on the perfection of his machine. 
Lash has depended on the know- 


ines, the covering fabric and 
plied to it, the recording instru- 
the machine-guns, the bomb-dropping 
ts, each of these has been the subject 

el research requiring the highest 
‘Be Each was improved beyond all 
- the war: by how much labour and 
those intimately connected with the 
Some of our finest men of science 
ivés in this service. Yet on all this 
nt the success of air warfare depended, 
2 last additional strength or trust- 
ickness of manceuvre, or power of 
gave the pilot confidence and superi- 
id the staff who carried out this work, 
eeemnment experimental stations or 


“ne most part drawn from the labora- 
the universities and technical schools. 
00, with the brigade of chemists, who did 
a ine the war. Professors and lecturers 
"senior officers in the brigade; junior 
were drawn from the students: They 
tht the German gas, devising the protective 
sks and instructing the Army in their use; they 
work ced out the Prox , s for manufacturing gases 
| es large scale for the use of our own armies. 

huge industry of the manufacture of ex- 
NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


plosives required the solution of chemical 
problems, which they accomplished, and so saved 
the nation vast sums of money, and made it pos- 
sible to supply the Army with all that it wanted, 
They produced the smoke-screens, and the special 
bullets that brought down Zeppelins and observa- 
tion balloons. They solved innumerable problems 
involved in the great business of supplies; they 
were constantly the advisers of the Munitions 
Department, of the health authorities, of the In- 
telligence, and in a thousand-and-one ways they 
were indispensable to the progress of the war, 
The nation has indeed cause to be grateful to its 
chemical laboratories. 

A body of keen young physicists, drawn from 
various universities of the Empire, developed the 
methods of sound-ranging until it became possible 
to locate with extraordinary accuracy the positions 
of enemy guns, even during the continuous roar 
of the Western front; they were responsible for 
a great part of the locations on which artillery 
work depended. The same methods applied to 
under-water work by the Admiralty experimental 
stations made it possible to locate with accuracy 
explosions occurring hundreds of miles from the 
shore, and incidentally have furnished the hydro- 


‘graphers with a means of shortening enormously 


the work of charting the seas. Much of the work 
of the Admiralty stations, especially that which 
related to anti-submarine defence, may not, of 
course, be discussed in public. It can only be 
noted that here also the universities and technical 
schools were largely represented on the staffs. 

It is impossible even to enumerate the various 
branches of scientific service. There was the 
highly efficient and most important gauge work 
of the National Physical Laboratory; the work of 
the men who listened for and located the under- 
ground operations of the enemy miners; the wide 
range of most important optical work, from the 
submarine periscope to the aeroplane camera; the 
research work on wireless telegraphy, which was 
so immensely advanced during the war; the 
meteorological work which was of such great 
service to the air forces; the geological work of 
the front; the bacteriology; and so forth. It is 
impossible to give the barest recital of all the 
scientific work involved in the immense problems 
of the medical service. In every section of the 
operations by land, by sea, and in the air urgent 
experimental work was carried on, results were 
obtained which were of the highest importance, 
and the first-class scientific work which was 
required ‘was carried out mainly by the men 
already mentioned, the science teachers and 
students of the universities and technical institu- 
tions. 


142 


NATURE | 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


The war may now be over, and these special 
occasions for service may no longer exist. 
the long new struggle before us the need for scien- 
tific training and method is as great as ever. 
capital is gone. We must pay our debts and 
earn our living, and, -besides, we must amend the 
pre-war conditions of our workers’ lives. Itcannot 
be done except by making every use of the know- 
ledge we have already, and by labouring to add 
to it: that is to say, by following scientific 
methods. The services of the laboratory-trained 
men will still be indispensable. That there is a 
general understanding of the position is shown by 
the crowding of new students into the universities, 
and the demand for instruction in science. 

But where are the teachers and the apparatus 
for teaching? Even before the war the salaries, 
especially of the junior staff, were poor and the 
positions few. Many of the former teachers 
will not come back, for some have been lost in 
the war, and others are being attracted by the 
better prospects of research laboratories and com- 
mercial work. The universities have no funds 
wherewith to meet the proper increases of salaries 
or any increase of staff, for their grants remain 
unchanged, all expenses have increased, but they 
may not raise theit fees. The number of students 
is growing rapidly, and, as thing's are, increase in 
numbers generally means an increase in expendi- 
ture. Most of the universities are really unable 
to carry on without increased aid from the State. 

The sowing of the seed is the last thing that 
may be neglected if there is to be a harvest, and 
all our experience, thrown into strong relief by 
the war, shows that the harvest of the successful 
development of the work of this country, work 
which is to pay our debts and bring comfort to 
our peoples, will follow only on the application of 
scientific method and research, which is the seed 
sown in universities and technical schools. 


FOUNDATIONS OF ELECTRICAL THEORY. 


The Theory of Electricity. By G. H. Livens. 
Pp. vi+717. (Cambridge: At the University 
Press, 1918.) Price 30s. net. 

Fr LECTRICAL theory, the most rapidly grow- 

ing part of physics, has now reached such 

dimensions that no author can hope to produce a 

text-book which will deal effectively with its many 

aspects. A series of such books is necessary 
which shall take different points of view and lay 
especial emphasis in certain broad directions. We 
already have several, and notably the works of 

Jeans and Richardson, which are both compara- 

tively recent. But latune remain, and. one of 

these the. present author has set out to fill. We 
may say at the outset that he has filled it with 


considerable success, for the work now bere us — 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


But in | 


Our 


| cal relations of polarised media. 


in no. way constitutes a reduplication of any im- 
portant part of an existing treatise. 
over, one which can be recommended without 
reserve to a student who is anxious to obtain a 
clear picture of the fundamental principles Bie 
lying certain important, and often ra 
neglected, aspects of electromagnetic theory. _ 
This is said advisedly, for the feature of the 
book which makes the strongest appeal to the 


reader is probably the excellent-account of that | 


much-discussed and rather chaotic subject, ene 
energy, stress distribution, and general m 
Matters of this 
kind are usually presented very imperfectly to the 
student, in spite of the classical foundation which 
exists in papers by Larmor, and the author has 
done good service in directing attention to them 
by their incorporation, in a consistent and very 
complete form, within the compass of a treatise 
of this size. If any other section of © Fe 
were selected as deserving of special mention,” 
should probably be that devoted to dattaadion 
of electricity by metals, with some of the small, 
though fundamental, 
pany it. 
great deal of work to the subjects described in 
these sections, and is especially qualified to give 
an effective account of them. 

The preface describes the work as largely “the 
outcome of a course of lectures delivered ten years 
ago by Sir Joseph Larmor. 
regret that such a fine compliment is so rarely 
paid to those who lecture by members. of their 
audience. Although dealing with a mathematical 
subject, the mathematical side is kept un - con- 
trol by the author, who does not expound it 
beyond the point necessary for a real compre- 
hension of the principles involved, and an insight 
into the manner in which they must be worked out 
in detail. References to the more complete 
elaborate investigations are provided as footnotes, 
and, though by no means exhaustive, these are 
sufficiently numerous to direct the reading of those 
who wish to pursue special sections of the subject. 

There are two main divisions of electrical theory 
at the present day, both extensive. In the first 
place, we have the original framework of Faraday 
and Maxwell, developed for systems in motion by 


Larmor, and just afterwards, with more gene- 


rality, by Lorentz. Superposed on this is the 
more speculative side, including the principle of | 
relativity, theories of atomic structure, photo- 


electricity, and other branches, together, in fact, 
with all the phenomena for which the quantum 


theory has been invoked. We call this section 
speculative only by comparison, in that its mathe- 
matical and logical foundations and inter-connec- 
tions are of a lower order of security. It has been 
well developed in existing treatises, and is not 
seriously touched upon in the present work. The 


need for a comprehensive treatise on the older 


form of theory, satisfactory from the point e 
view of mathematical and physical oe 
not always capable of including certain pheno- 
mena within its scope, has’ always been elt, “and 


It is, more-— 


phenomena which accom- — 
The author has himself contributed a 


We may express 


_ 


ee ee ee eT TN Ce ee ee See eS 


ae art 


ee Ca ee eee 


a 
ei _ APRIL 24, 1919] 


; 


NATURE 


143 


manner. We have mentioned the principle of 
_ relativity, and in this special case it would obvi- 
_ ously have been part of the author’s plan to 
include some of the more striking developments of 
_ this principle in connection with gravitation, which 
be are all very recent, and were very inaccessible 
_ in this country until the. publication of Prof. 
_ Eddington’s report by the Physical Society after 
? _ the present work had been printed. The author 


nself indicates a wish to include some account 
this subject, if a future edition should be called 
. We are disposed to concur in his main 
thesis that the essential introduction to the 
udent should be in terms of the older estab- 
lished theory on which the newer and more vari- 
able structure has been built—a thesis not directly 
F ressed, but everywhere implied. 
ae of the more analytical processes are dealt 
in a special introduction, apart from the rest 
bd ¢ book. This contains such subjects as 
Gre n’s and Stokes’ theorems—especially in their 
tion to moving circuits—differentiation of 
integrals, Kirchhoff’s theorem—too 
ne rian in particular, an 
ry account of the properties of vectors 
heir nomenclature. This introduction is 
_ but should be a great assistance to the 
nt in preventing later diversions of his atten- 
the main theme. There is considerable 
of opinion as to how far the use of 
mn is in fact an assistance to economy 
t in all readers. There appears to be a 
element or predisposition in the matter, 
fortun ately, the question does not arise here, 
too exclusive use of vectors is not adopted, 
the style of the book is such that it should 
we easy to any reader qualified to make a 
tudy of the subject. 


r of statement, or remark capable of a 
retation, has been detected, and evi- 
| care has been bestowed on clearness 
in sections where, from the nature 
ect, such clearness is not easily attained. 
apparently very few misprints, and the 
is produced by the Cambridge Uni- 
tradi- 
W.N. 


: CEMENT OF EDUCATION. 


Spiritual Foundations of Reconstruction. 
for New Educational Methods. By Dr. 
-H. Hayward and Arnold Freeman. Pp. 
223. (London: P. S. King and Son, Ltd., 
919.) Price ros. 6d. net. 
the Great War Brings it Home. The Natural 
econstruction of an Unnatural Existence. By 
‘Hargrave (“White Fox’). Pp. xvi+367. 
di Constable and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 


THE ADVAN 


i 


(1) YATE welcome the freshening breeze in the 
_  Y¥_ educational proposals brought forward 
_ by Dr. Hayward and Mr. Freeman. ‘“ The func- 
p NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


this work supplies the need in a satisfactory 


tion of the schools is to educate the community 
into a knowledge of Truth, a sense of Beauty, 
and a love of Goodness; that function they have 
failed to discharge.”” According to the authors, 
the failure is largely due to laughably ‘“ unpsycho- 
logical’’ methods. A revolution is necessary. 
“ Arithmetic, handicraft, language, and kindred 
efficiency subjects may be taught—taught to Jack 
and Jill by Bob and Dick.” But “the class 
teaching of the Bible, literature, music, history, 
and certain other subjects should be largely 
abolished in favour of a liturgical, ceremonial, or 
celebrational treatment.’’ There should be days 
devoted to great personalities (St. Paul, Alfred 
the Great, Joan of Arc, St. Francis, George 
Washington) or great ideas (the League of 
Nations, France, agriculture, science, freedom). 
The humdrum duties of life should be expounded 
in lessons in which the main emphasis is on the 
reason, matters of personal hygiene, for instance, 
being brought home by scientific argument. In 
the liturgy reason would be subordinate to feel- 
ing—to ‘‘admiration, hope, and love.’’ Repre- 
sentatives of all sects, parties, professions, move- 


‘ments, etc., as well as teachers, should be urged 


to give addresses to the whole school at times set 
apart for this in the liturgical arrangements. On 
such occasions, so far as accommodation could 
be provided, parents and “the public ’”’ should 
be invited. 

The authors expound these proposals with con- 
viction, and we are wholly convinced. If even a 
little could be done in the directions indicated (and 
in some cases illustrated in concrete detail) there- 
would be education of the heart and conscience, 
an enrichment of the memory, a widening of 
horizons, and a vitalising of the whole school life. 
The authors have taken the trouble to anticipate 
and answer thirty objections, and this makes good 
reading. 

In addition to the proposals we have referred 
to, Dr. Hayward and Mr. Freeman advocate the 
preparation and utilisation of charts showing the 
geological ages, the course of human history, the 
solar and stellar systems, the history of science, 
of art, and of great ideas. This is an educational 
method used here and there, but, on the whole, 
undreamt of and long overdue. The charts can 
be made vivid if brains are put into the making 
of them, and where colours are used it pays to 
get an artist to choose them. We should per- 
sonally have liked more “Nature’’ days than the 
authors seem to think of, but we are heart and 
soul with their recommendations. 

(2) Mr. Hargrave’s book was written before 
the war, but he has been able to strengthen it, 
since his return to civil life. For his convictions 
have been deepened by experience, and the 
urgency of his recommendations seems to him 
greater than ever. He has been impressed with 
the unnaturalness of man’s life in ordinary civil- 
ised conditions. Instead of evolving a sane, 
healthy, and hardy race, the trend of civilisation 
seems to be in the opposite direction. The type 
that is being increasingly produced is not only 


144 


NATURE 


[ APRIL. 24, 1919 


unnatural; it is not even fitted for civilised con- 
ditions. Too many lives are lacking in health, 
happiness, and real efficiency. What Mr. Har- 
grave pleads for is more outdoor education and 
a renewed enthusiasm for vigour. Modern educa- 


tional methods have tried to dispense with the. 


natural individual recapitulation of racial history, 
and the result has been a dismal failure. Mr. 
Hargrave pleads for real sojourning with wild 
Nature, camp education, tribal training for boys, 
hardihood camps for young men, adolescence 
initiations, and open-air meditation. Perhaps 
there is a tendency to exaggerate the importance 
of tribal training; perhaps the author is not quite 
sound in his view of human instincts and their 
origin; perhaps it is not very fortunate to speak 
of “that process of natural selection known as 
Evolution’’; perhaps the practical difficulties in 
the way of methodical open-air education for large 
numbers are under-rated; but there is no doubt 
that the book is full of the true eugenist enthu- 
siasm and of valuable suggestions for making 
much of outdoor life and Nature’s school. It ex- 


presses. the boy scout’s idea raised to a higher 


power. 
Two general remarks we venture to make in 
reference to both books: (a) Half a loaf is better 
than no bread, and if a teacher cannot go all the 
way either with the open-air education of Mr. 
Hargrave or with the “spiritualised’’. education 
of Dr. Hayward and Mr. Freeman he may go 
some way; and (b) the relative failure of 
past educational endeavours is not wholly due to 
‘imperfect methods; it is largely due to imperfect 
material. Who is bold enough to set limits to 
what improved nurture can do? but a sober- 


minded vision cannot ignore the sad limitations’ 


of inborn nature. Yet one remembers a famous 
answer given to Nicodemus. Ag sD 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


The Cultivation of Osiers and Willows. 
W. P. Ellmore. Edited, with Introduction, by 
Thomas Okey. Pp. x+96. (London: J. M. 
Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1919.) Price 4s. 


THE growth of osiers, as willows used for basket- 
making are popularly called, was a declining in- 
dustry before the war, owing to foreign competi- 
tion. From Germany, Holland, and Belgium we 
received, year after year, not only increasing 
quantities of osiers, but also large importations of 
baskets and basket-ware, as well as huge con- 
signments of hoops for herring barrels, which are 
the product of a year or two’s extra growth of 
the common species. Alarmed at the decline of 
an important local industry like basket-making, 
the Board of Agriculture, in order to encourage 
the extension of the area under willow cultivation, 
published a series of articles by Mr. W. Paul- 


By 


grave Ellmore on the subject in its Journal for 


1911 and 1912, which were reprinted in 1913 as 
a booklet“ Board. of Agriculture, 2 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103} 


Miscel- 


laneous Publications, No. 18.’’ The present hand= _ 


book is an enlargement of this, and is well worthy. 
of the attention of farmers and landowners who: 
have land suitable for the growth of willows.. 
Osiers, it is necessary to point out, require good 


land in order to succeed, such as low-lying alluvial — 


tracts beside rivers and streams, and they fail 
miserably on wet, undrained, swampy, or peaty. 
soils. i pa he 
Mr. Ellmore gives sound information on the 
cultivation and harvesting of the osiers and on 
the preparation of the rods for the market. A 
chapter on the numerous varieties which are used 
gives no botanical details, but is of interest in 
pointing out the special uses, adaptations to soils, 
etc., of these puzzling forms, which are generally 


supposed to have arisen through hybridisation of — 


the four or five species under which they are 
classed. Another chapter deals with insect pests 
and methods of control. <A final chapter treats 
of the three willows which are grown for their 
timber. vis Be [sees 


Vicia af 
Nk Shak see 
52 ee a ag 

t clght 7 


Standard Tables and Equations in  Radio- 
telegraphy. By Bertram Hoyle. 
(London: The 
Price gs. net. aay big } 

In his preface the author claims that no such com- 

plete book of tables and equations exists for the 


use of radio engineers. It is difficult, however, to 


Wireless Press, Ltd., 1919.) 


see the guiding principle he has adopted in select- 


ing his formule and tables. Several of the tables 
are antiquated, if not actually obsolete, and some 
of the information might well be given in an 
elementary text-book of arithmetic. = = 2 
The author begins by giving the latest formule 
for calculating the capacity and inductance of 
various geometrical-shaped objects with high 
accuracy. Judging from this and other books 
on the subject, one would infer that radio- 
telegraphists spent most of their time in making 
calculations by the laborious formule so familiar 
to readers of the mathematical bulletins of the 
Bureau of Standards. Yet it is of importance to 
be able to calculate the capacity between spherical 
conductors or between parallel wires, and so we 
wonder why no formule are given for them in 
this book. : Pigs leah 
We find a table of haversines, but, as the haver- 
sine is not defined and we have forgotten what it 
means, it is no great help. We are given tables 
of all kinds of wire gauges—the Birmingham, 
the Brown and Sharpe, Stubs’s steel wire, 
Whitworth’s, piano-wire gauge, etc. or pr 
tical purposes these gauges are obsolete. Elec- 
tricians and cable-makers nowadays talk about 
a 0-0100 wire—t.e. a wire the diameter of which 
is the hundredth of an inch. They do not talk 
about a No. 33 wire S.W.G. It is astonishing 
how long the gauge system, which was hopelessly 
unscientific, lasted in this country. We hope that — 
when the cable-makers’ new ‘standards are pub- 
lished next summer the wire gauges will soon be 
forgotten: i oak WPS 


out Tle 
ES 


Pp. xiv+159. 


For prac- — 


314 
2 


ar | 4 


(ng genietiat coer 


Apri 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


145 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
he 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 Narure. No notice is 
of anonymous communications. ] 
___ Tonisation and Kadiation. 
rays pass through a gas, only a very 
of the molecules—in favourable circum- 
ces, one in a billion—is ionised by them, and the 
tent of this ionisation is unaffected’ by temperature. 
riters on radiation seem to have difficulty in recon- 
ig this with the wave theory of light. I venture 
gest that the difficulty arises from an imperfect 
shension of what the wave theory requires. 
he inverse square law of intensity ought not to 
ld for very small spaces and very small times. The 
wm spherical wave spreading out from a point 
is a mathematical fiction. What we really 
is a very great number of spherical wavelets, each 
g from a different electron, criss-crossing in 
us directions, and consequently interfering with 
another. For example, suppose that there are n 
1s in the source, all close together, and that 
ensity of radiation is required at a point P at 
nce r, great in comparison with the linear 
ions of the source, and so sensibly the same 
e €lectrons. Let the intensity at P due toa 
sctron be I/r*. Then the resultant intensity 
t ything from o to n7I/r’, according to the 
wavelets coincident in phase at P, the lower 
d If the phases of all the dif- 
es are absolutely at random, the problem 
ices to a celebrated one solved by Lord Rayleigh, 


particular intensity J is 
p= gy, 


follows simply from the laws of chance that the 
msity must be exceptionally great at some points; 
ery exis of an average value implies this. 
ie in a billion molecules is ionised, the ionising 
‘ works out at 27-6 times the average intensitv 
' there is any regularity of structure in the 
ord Rayleigh’s expression may not do justice 
ligher intensities. 
t is not necessary to assume that X-rays con- 
tral atoms, or that the ether has a fibrous 
or to take refuge in the nebulous phraseo- 
* quantum theory; the explanation follows 
from the principle of interference as ex- 
b Fresnel. R. A. Houstoun. 
iy Glascow, April 11. 


g 


Whiteness of the Daylight Moon. 
holding in suspension fine particles of 
scatters a blue light. Place behind the con- 
ming vessel a yellow surface. (1) If this is bright, 
sht, transmitted through the vessel, prevails, and 
see the yellow. (2) Subdue the illumination of 
ow surface sufficiently, and the water appears 
‘the yellow and the blue just compensating each 
. (3) ‘Subdue the yellow still more, and the scat- 
blue again becomes evident. If in case (2) we 
se a Nicol, then, for minimum transmission, the 
ihite changes to yellow; but, for maximum trans- 
n, to blue, because the scattered blue light is 

ly polarised. 
Now .Nature supplies us on a large scale with an 
admirable example of similar phenomena. se 
. be at her first quarter in daylight. The 


YO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


J . 


moon’s reflected light is yellowish, that of the sky is 
blue, due to scattering, and is considerably polarised 
go° from the sun. Between us and the moon there is 
sky. The whiteness of the daylight moon is, in my 
opinion, an example of case (2) above, and at the first 
quarter I find that she behaves to a Nicol in the way 
already described. I have not previously met with 
any account of this grand natural example of the fact 
that a mixture of blue and yellow lights produces 
white. C. T. WHITMELL. 
Invermay, Hyde Park, Leeds, April 1s. 


REFRACTOMETERS. 
A Movest the physical properties which are 

4 characteristic of a substance, the refractive 
index is one of the most important. From a 
theoretical point of view, the fact that refractivity 
is mainly an additive quantity—the molecular re- 
fractivity being approximately the sum of the 
atomic refractivities—is highly significant. From 
a practical point of view, the ease and accuracy 
with which refractive indices can be determined 
by modern methods are of great service, both to 
the physicist and to the chemist, in the examina- 
tion of the materials with which they have to deal. 
Whether for purely scientific or for technical 
purposes, such a determination affords a rapid 
method of finding the concentration of solutions 
and the purity of oils, fats, waxes, and foodstuffs. 
New applications are continually arising in a 
variety of industries dealing with drugs, sugars, 
paints, varnishes, glue, gelatine, and other col- 
loids. The physicist finds the method of service 
in the identification of optical glasses or in the 
study of singly or doubly refracting crystals. 

A ray of light passing from an optically dense 
to a rarer medium is bent away from the normal 
to the surface, and when the angle of incidence 
assumes a certain definite value the emergent ray 
just grazes the common surface. For angles of 
incidence greater than this critical angle, the light 
is no longer refracted, but undergoes total in- 
ternal reflection. The refractive index, in passing 
from the rare to the dense medium, is the reci- 
procal of the sine of the critical angle. It is inte- 
resting to learn that the first to apply this property 
as a practical method for finding the refractive 
index was Wollaston, who constructed and de- 
scribed in the Philosophical Transactions in 1802 
a critical-angle refractometer, using a right-angled 
prism as adopted later by Pulfrich. 

In 1874 E. Abbe, of Jena, described the refracto- 
meter which, as constructed by the firm of Zeiss, 
has been familiar for the past forty years. ‘In 
this instrument the substance to be examined is 
placed on the hypotenuse face of a right-angled 
prism, having one of its angles accurately 60°. 
When tthe substance is a solid, optical contact with 
the prism is made by means of a liquid of higher 
refractive index than the solid; when a liquid is 
to be examined, one or two drops are enclosed 
as a film between two similar prisms. It has been 
pointed out previously in these columns that both 
these prisms should be made of glass of high 
refractive index, in order to secure sufficient illu- 


146 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


mination (NATURE, June 21, 1917). The prism 
system is rotated by means of the index arm until 
a dark shadow comes into the field of view of the 
telescope, and the edge of the shadow is adjusted 
exactly on the cross-lines. The refractive index 
for sodium light is then read directly on the scale 
of the instrument, the accuracy of reading being 
one or two units in the fourth decimal place. 
When white light is employed, the dispersion of 
the emergent light is neutralised by means of an 
Abbe compensator. It is satisfactory to find that 
British firms have produced instruments which 
are undoubtedly superior to the German pattern, 
and that they have been able to supply the demand 
in various Government Departments that has 
arisen during the war. The firm of Adam Hilger 
now produces standardised instruments in which 
not only the mechanical, but also the optical, parts 
are interchangeable (Fig. 1). Tables of refractive 


Fic. 1.—Abbe Refractometer (Adam Hilger, Ltd.). a, Upper prism 
jacket; B, lower prism jacket; ©, reader arm; F, reader; 
G, scale; 4, scale arm; J, telescope; kK, telescope eyepiece ; 
L, milled head for Abbe compensator ; M, scale for Abbe com- 


pensator; N, adjusting ring for lower D.V. prism; 0, mirror; 
Q, S, and T, prism jacket nozzles; kr, nozzle with thermometer 
chamber. 


indices of industrial substances are in course of 
publication, and should prove of great value. 
Messrs. Bellingham and Stanley have produced 
an instrument of distinctive design, embodying 
several improvements on the German type (Fig. 2). 
The prism-box is now designed to open away 
from the operator, which makes it much easier to 
examine plastic or solid substances. It is no 
longer necessary to reverse the instrument, and 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103 | 


full use may be made of the illuminating mirror. 
At the same time, the change permits of greater 
rigidity of construction. The reader arm is pro- 
vided with a slow motion by a simple friction 
device, and the halves of the prism-box may be 
separated automatically by a small movement of 
the clamping head. The lower half is so con- 
structed that’ it can be removed quickly without 
tools. . 


Fic. 2.—Abbe Refractometer (Bellingham and Stanley, Ltd.). 


When measurements of a higher degree of 
accuracy are desired than is possible with 
the Abbe type -of instrument, the dipping 
refractometer (Fig. 3) may be employed, but 
with a _ single fixed prism readings can be 
obtained only over a limited range of re- 
fractive index. The prism of the instrument 
dips into the liquid, which is placed in a small 
containing vessel, and the refractive index is 
determined by the position of the border-line of 


total reflection seen in the eyepiece. The eyepiece © 
carries a photographic scale, and a micrometer — 
screw adjustment is provided whereby the posi- — 


tion of the border-line with respect to the scale 
A table is — 
supplied giving the refractive index in terms of 
In the German type of instru- ~ 


division may be measured directly. 


the scale reading. 


aes 


ment the prism is cemented into its holder, and — 


can be used only for solutions of refractive indices 
between 1-325 and 1-367. 
climates the solution frequently creeps up through 
the cement on to the upper face of the prism. 


In hot and moist — 


When this occurs, or when the prism is damaged, — 
it is necessary to return the entire instrument to — 


the makers. Messrs. Bellingham and Stanley 


have improved thé design of the instrument, and — 


Apri. 24, 1919] 


ft 


NATURE 


147 


arranged for the prism to be capable of easy 
_ removal for cleaning purposes or for renewal. 
i An additional advantage of this method of con- 


fir ion is that a series of prisms may be em- 
 —ploye d, giving further ranges of refractive indices 


a 


5, With an accuracy of three or four 
the fifth decimal place. 

PaMiicements of still higher accuracy, the 
i sfractometer is available (Fig. 4). In 
ary use this instrument will give results four 
ye times as accurate as those obtained by 


Tee ee ; ae arate 
Feel Sires i Bice nl 
Me Meth Say 


FSi 
rs ee 
fe ead: be 


anneal 


.—Pulfrich Refractometer (Adam Hilger, Ltd.). pb, Telescope 
ect-glass and prism dust cover ; J, telescope helical focussing 
.P.; K, prism for use with sodium burner; L, condenser 
ight-adjusting milled head; m, bottom water jacket with 

; ich prism; N, top water jacket; 0, thermometer case ; 
~~», circle slow motion (position only indicated); 9, slow 
ion vernier (position only indicated); R, slow motion arm 
clamp milled head ; s, clamp screw for bottom water jacket ; 

, light screen ; u, thermometer adapter case ; v, thermometer 
case operating milled head ; w, clamp for vacuum tube holder. 


ins of the Abbe refractometer. Mr. J. Guild, of 
tl D Wationsl Physical Laboratory, claims that, 

vith proper care in design and use, the Pulfrich 
refractometer will give results accurate to the fifth 
_ decimal place, not only in the dispersion, but also 


—S-NO. 2582, VOL. 103] ; 


iP 


ah 
| his 


Fic. 3.—Dipping Refractometer (Bellingham and Stanley, Ltd.). 


in the absolute index. In this instrument the 
substance to be examined is placed on top of the 
horizontal surface of a block of glass of known 
refractive index. Rays entering the substance 
from one side can pass out from the opposite 
vertical surface of the Pul- 
frich prism only when they 
enter above the horizontal 
boundary surface. A sharp 
line representing the rays 
which have just been able 
to enter the prism is 
observed in the telescope. 
The angle of emergence is 
measured by rotation of the telescope, which is 
_ attached to a divided circle. Messrs. Hilger have 
designed a new instrument in which all screw- 
heads are brought within reach of the observer’s 
right hand. Direct readings on the vernier of the 
divided circle are accurate to one minute, and on 
the divided drum of the slow motion to six 
_ seconds. In accurate measurements the questions 
of temperature control and of the source of light 
employed must receive careful consideration. 


ee” 


THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT. 


T HE first attempt to cross the Atlantic by aero- 
plane will go down to posterity as one of 
the milestones in the progress of aviation, and 
there seems little reason to doubt that this feat 
will soon be accomplished.. The two main factors 
affecting the result are the trustworthiness of the 
engine and the state of the weather. The best 
engines of to-day are capable of running for 
periods considerably longer than that required for 
the crossing, and, although it is impossible to say 
that a given engine will accomplish a twenty-hour 
run without mishap, the chance of failure due to 
engine breakdown is by no means exceptionally 
great. On the other hand, the weather is ex- 
tremely difficult to forecast, and very little in- 
formation is obtainable as to the conditions pre- 
vailing at a height of 10,000 ft., even though the 
surface conditions are fairly well known. Every 
possible provision will be made for the safety 
of the aviators in the case of a forced descent at 
sea, but the element of risk is naturally a very 
| serious one, and we.can but admire the men who 
are so ready to face it. 
__ Mr. Hawker, on his Sopwith machine, is carry- 
ing a collapsible boat, attached to the upper side 
of the fuselage, containing signalling devices and 
provisions for two days. Even with such a precau- 
tion the risk would be very great in a rough sea, 
and the chance of attracting the attention of ships 
would be small. It is understood that r. 
Hawker will not be able to send, but only to 
receive, wireless messages. This is unfortunate, 
for in the event of a forced descent the machine 
would take about ten minutes to glide from a 
height of 10,000 ft., and there would be ample 
time to get into communication with any vessels 
in the vicinity. It is intended to drop the under- 


148 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


carriage of the Sopwith machine soon after start- 
ing; a gain of several miles per hour being thus 
rendered possible owing to the decreased head- 
resistance of the machine. A daylight landing is 
a necessity under these conditions, and a slight 
crash is inevitable. 

The time of crossing is estimated at approxi- 
mately twenty hours, and some interesting figures 
relating to this point given in a report of the 
Meteorological Section of the Air Ministry were 
referred to in last week’s Nature. These figures 
are based on the average of the weather reports 
available, and show that under the best conditions 
the time of crossing for a machine with a speed 
of 100 miles per hour, flying from west to east, is 
only 144 hours in the month of April, and under 
the worst conditions 23 hours. The correspond- 
ing times for an east-to-west crossing are 21 and 
36 hours. The advisability of a start from the 
American side is thus plainly demonstrated. 

Although Mr. Hawker, with his Sopwith 
machine, was the first to be prepared for the 
start, it seems likely that prevailing bad weather 
will give other competitors time to get ready, and 
that the Atlantic attempt will be of the nature of 
a race. It is to be hoped that the desire to be 
first across will not lead any competitor to start 
before the weather conditions are reasonably 
favourable, as the risks are sufficiently great 
under the best conditions, and the loss of such 
experienced pilots as those engaged in the present 
attempt would be most regrettable. Meanwhile, 
every endeavour will- doubtless be made to choose 
the best moment for the start, and we will hope 
that before many days are past a new and great 
triumph will be added to the annals of aero- 
nautical science, 


THE FOOD REQUIREMENTS OF MAN. 

HE Food (War) Committee of the Royal 

Society has recently issued a report! on the 
food requirements of man and their variations 
according to age, sex, size, and occupation, which 
summarises existing knowledge in a manner intel- 
ligible to the ordinary citizen. The customary 
units of measurement are carefully defined, and it 
is suggested that the energy requirements of those 
engaged in various occupations should be esti- 
mated in terms of the amount of energy necessarily 
set free in the body to ensure equilibrium under the 
given conditions. 

A provisional classification is into sedentary 
work, where the excess expended during eight 
hours’ work over that transformed during eight 
hours’ sleep is not more than 400 Calories; light 
work, the excess being 400-700 Calories ; moderate 
work, 7oo-1100 Calories; heavy work, 1100-2000 
Calories. The method is illustrated upon the data 
of Becker and Hamialainen, the food requirements 
of males being found to vary from 2750 Calories 

1 Report on the Food Requirements of Man and their Variations according 
to Age, Sex, Size, and Occupation. Pp. 19. (London: Harrison and Sons, 
1919.) Price ts. 6@. 5) > 7 
NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


for a tailor to 5500 for a woodcutter. In the fol-’ 


lowing section the influence of external tempera- _ 


ture is discussed, regret being expressed that the- 
statistics of consumption during different months 
of the year are so inadequate that valid inferences. 
cannot be drawn from them. 

The energy requirements of women are dealt 
with on the same lines as those of men, the provi- 
sional figures ranging from 1783 Calories for a 
seamstress to 3281 for a laundress (net energy 
values), the food requirements of the average 
working woman being placed at 2650 Calories per 
diem. 

In the following section the scanty data concern- 
ing the needs of children and adolescents are epito- 
mised, and the report ends with a cautious descrip- 
tion of the qualities of the proximate principles 
and their respective réles in a dietary. The final 
sentence runs as ‘follows: ‘‘ The above report 
shows how very inadequate is our present know- 
ledge of the science of nutrition, and demonstrates 
the necessity of renewed investigations of almost 
every point discussed in it.”’ 

We do not know whether this sentence, express- 
ing the considered opinion of a committee fully 
representative of all departments of science con- 
cerned with the subject of animal nutrition, will 
be taken to heart by the Government and pi 0 
this country, but the measure of attention it 
receives will be a measure of the real acceptance 
by the nation of the gospel of science. Further 
progress in the science of nutrition chiefly depends 
upon the accumulation of accurate details. We 
already know, for instance, that the food require- 
ments of a labouring man vary enormously with 
the nature of his avocation, and we also know how 
these requirements can be experimentally deter- 
mined; we know that in the han1-working classes 
the proportion of the total income expended upon 
food often approximates to 50 per cent. This is 
the extent of our knowledge. 
armed forces, there is not a single class of the 
community, not one occupational group, the 
average energetic needs of which have been mea- 


le of © 


Excepting the 


sured -upon a scale which entitles the measure-_ 


ments to be taken into serious consideration as 
data for estimating the income necessary to ensure 
the preservation of a fit standard of life or the 
general food requirements of the nation. To 
secure this knowledge—but one item in the long 
catalogue of defects—organised research extend- 
ing over years is necessary, research neither par- 
ticularly attractive in itself, nor calculated to yield 


spectacular results which can be made interesting 
The contribu- | 
tion of each individual worker must be small; the 


to the readers of the daily Press. 


ultimate value of the sum of results would be 
immense. 
It remains to be seen whether we have the 


faith in science and the patience which will be — 


necessary. to replace the scattered fragments, 
which are all we now have, by a well-compacted 
body of exact information. 4 


7 


ae 


a a enn am | . 


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_ APRIL, 24,1919] 


NATURE 


149 


a NOTES. 
Atlantic has not 


‘continued so for some days, the weather 
ister being remarkably fine and clear. The 
the early days of the present week shows 
bulletins of the weather conditions along the 
®@ourse issued by the Air Ministry that the 
Pressure Fas been very high both over the 
ss and in Newfoundland; but, although 
$ fine and the winds are light, there is 
+ Newfoundland, extending eastward so 
/. longitude. In central Atlantic the 

essure is lower than on either side, and 
gether with the winds, ‘constitute un- 
conditions for the flight.” If the Air 
ds to say when the conditions in mid- 
avourable—and from the daily bulletins 
an inference that it does—the Ministry 
_ great responsibility. It commonly 
with similar weather conditions to those 
‘on either side of the Atlantic storm- 
ped in mid-Atlantic, and follow a more 
than usual, drifting towards Green- 
_ Before a start is made under present 
uld. therefore, be worth while to con- 
antage of following a fairly southerly 
f northwards on approaching the eastern 
tlantic. This would probably lengthen 
at, but it might lessen the chance 
a storm. 


report of the secretary of the Smith- 
2 of Washington for the year ending 
has been received. From it we learn 
sestion of the National Advisory Com- 
autics the U.S. Council of National 
ed a committee, now known as the 
to consider all questions of aircraft 
to make recommendations to the 
yartments for the production and purchase 
and aircraft appliances. The experimental 
' of the Advisory Committee has been 
Langley Field, near Hampton, Va. The 
igley man-carrying flying machine, after 
ful flights, is now exhibited in the U.S. 
um. This machine is the first heavier- 
‘arrying machine constructed, although 
_ have a successful flight until more than 
after its construction. The machine con- 
claim that the late Prof. Langley was_ the 
ign and build a heavier-than-air machine 
carrying a man in flight. The report points 
> the institution’s researches and explora- 
were limited greatly during the year under 
ew by war conditions. There was, naturally, un- 
al activity by members of the scientific staff in 

fations related to Army and Navy operations. 
eral biological and ethnological expeditions have 
held in abeyance, although some already in the 
e continued in operation on a limited scale. 


November the London Section of the Society 
hemical Industry invited M. Paul Kestner, the 
ident of the Société de Chimie Industrielle, to 
yer an address in London, and advantage was 
en of this occasion to inquire whether it was 
to promote some co-operation between French 
English chemists. M. Kestner, with characteristic | 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


' 


public spirit, has during the last few months taken 
energetic steps to bring this about, and the recent 
conference held in Paris marks an important advance. 
Among those taking part in the conference were Prof. 
Chavanne (Belgium), Profs. Moureu and Matignon, 
M. Kestner, and M. Poulenc (France), Senator Paterno 
and Dr. Pomilio (Italy), Mr. Henry Wigglesworth, 
Col. Norris, and Dr. Cottrell (United States » and Sir 
William Pope, Prof. Louis, and Mr. Chaston Chap- 
man (Great Britain). It was decided to form an inter- 
Allied confederation for pure and applied chemistry 
which should organise permanent co-operation between 
the various countries, and co-ordinate scientific and 
technical knowledge as well as contribute to the ad- 
vancement of chemistry in its fullest extent. The 
inter-Allied council is to consist at the moment of 
six representatives from each of the nations men- 
tioned above. The first meeting will be held in 
London on July 15-18, when the inter-Allied council 
will be the guests of the Society of Chemical Industry, 
the annual meeting of which then takes place. For 
the time being the secretary of the inter-Allied federa- 
tion will be M. Jean Gerard, 49 rue des Mathurins, 
Paris. Particulars of the London meeting can be 
obtained in due course from Dr. Stephen Miall, 
28 Belsize Grove, N.W.3. 


On April 14 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 
was notified that a dog suspected to be suffering from 
rabies had been killed at Byfleet, Surrey. Post- 
mortem investigation proved that the dog was rabid. 
It had wandered from a house in Ealing on April 11, 
and during its three days’ wandering is stated to 
have bitten five persons and several dogs. Two or 
three further cases of suspected rabies have since - 
been reported in the London area. In consequence, 
the Board has made an Order prescribing the muzzling 
of dogs with wire-muzzles over an area which includes 
the whole of the counties of London and of Middle- 
sex, nearly the whole of Surrey, and portions of 
Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, and’ 
Hampshire. It is to be hoped the necessary muzzles 
will quickly be forthcoming (at the moment of writin 
they are difficult to procure), that the authorities will 
rigorously enforce the Order, and that the public will 
support their action. It may be recalled that the 
similar Order by Mr. Walter Long in 1896-97 ensured 
complete immunity from rabies in" this country for 
more than twenty years. Since rabies reappeared in 
Devon and Cornwall last September 150 cases have 
been reported. 


At the annual meeting of the Society of Glass 
Technology, held on April 16 in the Applied Science 
Department of the University of Sheffield; Mr. 
W. F.. J. Wood, president of the society, referred in 
his presidential address to the Research Association 
that has been formed in the glass industry. A provi- 
sional committee has been appointed, and at an early 
date all manufacturers in the industry will be invited 
to join the Glass Research Association. Substantial 
promises have already been received, and it is felt that 
the scheme will be a decided success. Sir Frank 
Heath, Secretary of the Department of Scientific and 
Industrial Research, also addressed the meeting. He 
pointed out that the <lass industry had been engaging 
the anxious consideration of the Government as much 
as, if not more than, any industry in.the country since 
the war began. During the war the Department had. 
been enabled to help the industry in many ways, and 
would do so in the future, There was a_ great 
call from other industries besides that of glass for 
State aid in research. Research was insurance for 
knowledge, and he appealed to the Research Associa- 
tion to get the best men possible for their work. Mr. 


150 


NATURE | 


| APRIL 24, 1919 


S. N. Jenkinson has been elected president of the 
society for the ensuing year. 


THE annual meeting of the Society of Chemical 
Industry will be held in London on July 15-18. The 
King has consented to act as patron and the Prince 
of Wales as vice-patron. The opening meeting will 
be held at the Mansion House on July 15, when the 
Lord Mayor will extend the civic welcome, and Prof. 
Henry Louis will deliver his presidential address. 
Arrangements have been made for the delivery of an 
address by Sir William J.. Pope, and for the holding 
of conferences on Empire sugar production, the 
leather, dye, and fermentation industries, and power 
plants in chemical works. Further particulars will 
be announced later. 


On Tuesday next, April 29, Prof. A. Keith will 
give the first of a course of four lectures at the Royal 
Institution on British Ethnology : The peopre of Wales 
and Ireland. On Thursday, May 1, Hele- 
Shaw will give the first of two eee on clutches. 
The Friday evening discourse on May 2 will be de- 
livered by Prof. J. W. Nicholson on energy distribu- 
tion in spectra; and on May by Sir George 
Macartney on Chinese Turkestan : Past and Present. 
On Saturday, May 3, Prof. H. S. Foxwell will give 
the first of two lectures on chapters in the psychology 
of industry. 


THE spring and autumn meetings of the Institute. 


of Metals will be held, respectively, in London on 
May Ig and in Sheffield on September 24-25. At the 
London meetins Prof. F. Soddy will deliver the ninth 
‘annual May lecture on. ‘‘ Radio-activity,’’ for which 
cards of invitation may be obtained from Mr. G. Shaw 
Scott, 36 Victoria Street, S.W.1, upon receipt of a 
stamped and. addressed envelope. The Sheffield meet- 
ing will be the first provincial gathering of the insti- 
tute to be held since the war. The headquarters will 
be at the University of Sheffield. 


Witu the view of giving archeologists and other 
people interested in the question of the antiquity of 
the human race an opportunity of examining some 
of the flaked flints found in the detritus bed beneath 
the Red Crag of Suffolk, Mr. J. Reid Moir has, with 
the co-operation of the council of the Royal Anthropo- 
logical Institute, arranged for a good series of. these 
specimens to be exhibited in the rooms of: the insti- 
tute, so Great Russell Street, W.C.1, for one month 
from Friday, May 2. 


Tue subject for the Jacksonian prize of the Royal 
College of Surgeons of England for 1920 is “The 
Results and Treatment of Gunshot Injuries of the 
Blood-vessels.”” The subject for the next Triennial 
prize of the college is ‘‘The Anatomy, Morphology, 
and Age-changes of Cervical Ribs in Man, including a 
Description of the Associated Ligaments, Muscles, 
Blood-vessels, and Nerves. . 


WE regret to see the announcement of the death 
of Mr. D. -Rintoul, head of the physics department 
of Clifton College since 1885, when he succeeded the 
late Prof. A. M. Worthington in that post. 


TuE life of the Rev. Stephen Hales, F.R.S. (1677- 

1761), is reviewed in an interesting article by Prof. 
K. Smith in the Veterinary Review (No. 1, vol. iii., 
1919). Hales’s worlk on experimental physiology, 
animal and vegetable, is well known, but his equally 
important researches in hygiene are apt to be over- 
looked. He devoted years of his life to the study 
of ventilation, and introduced, though not without 
considerable opposition, mechanical ventilation into 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


prisons and ships. He also dealt with the ventilation 
of mines and hospitals, and noted that wounds healed 


better in tents with good ventilation than in foul air. sh 


AcuTE infective polyneuritis is the A ag of ‘am : 


Bashford, 
and J. A. Wilson in the Quarterly Journal of Medi-— 


article by Sir John Rose Bradford, E. F. 


cine (vol. xii., Nos. 45 and 46). The disease is 

parently a newly recognised one, characterised © 

generalised palsy of peculiar character. The clinical 
features and morbid anatomy of the disease are fully 
described. The disease has been transmitted to 
monkeys by inoculation of human spinal cord under 
the membrane of the brain. Very minute coccoid 


bodies are present in the spinal cord, and the 
Noguchi culture method cultivations oF a. similar 
micro- Re eer i - were _ obtained. caer 


The © icilteestions 
reproduce we ‘Miscase 


i 


aud ercateles body. 
friceulated into monkeys 
clinically and pathologically. 


THE annual report of the Scottish Marine Bi Hisinseal 
Association shows that, notwithstanding the absence of 
the superintendent, Lieut. R. Elmhirst, on naval ser- 
vice, the marine station at Millport continues to con 
bute valuable researches in several branches of marine 
biology. Dr. J. F. Gemmill has made progress. ai 
his study of the development of Asteroids, anda 
succeeded in rearing crosses between Solaster ¢ 
and Crossaster papposus up to the: commencemet ye 
metamorphosis. He has also reared and s the 
early development stages of several anemones. Other 


ane mentioned in the report are: pk . of Mr. 


J. S. Sharpe on calcium metabolism in pos 
on che action of guanidine on the hes 

of decapod crustacea; of Mr. H. PH To ‘on 
Calliobdella nodulifera ; and of Mr.. 
the medusz of the Clyde. The usual educational work 
has been continued, 


WE are glad to see that Ausicafian 
are paying increasing attention to the subject 7 
“issue. of 


food of their native birds. In the Janua 
the Emu, which has just reached us, Mr. Sidney 
Jackson comments on the inestimable benefits of the 


letter-winged kite (Elanus scriptus), which had estab- 
lished nesting colonies in the midst of an area of 
several aye nots naa inten with ae of rats, 
on which they were feeding their young. s 
of two species of these rodents were eee BEE 
larger and more numerous was the long-haired rat 
(Epimys longipilis), the smaller the sordid rat (E. 
sordidus). The birds rested by day and hunted by 
night, when their prey came forth to feed. In the 


same issue Messrs. S. A. White and A. M. Morgan 
record the results of their examination of the stomachs _ 
of cormorants, which have lately been condemned on — 
account of the supposed ravages they commit on food- 
They are able to show conclusively that the — 
charges against these birds are absolutely without 


fishes. 


foundation, since no food-fishes were found, but only 
specimens "of slow-moving species haley bined 
places, where their capture was easy. 


In 1915. R. Dodge and F. G, Benedict, of ike 


Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of 


Washington, published a volume entitled ‘‘ Psycho- 
logical Effects of Alcohol." 
corded the results of an investigation upon the 
influence of alcohol on a number of physiological 


processes, including various reflexes and certain kinds - 


of reaction-time, as well as other processes of more 


James Dick on © 
the Serine ‘classes se 


‘teachers being a successful feature.?*0/25Me 3 x 


In this book they re- 


Se ewe ee) eeeee eee 7 Ow Ne Qoe ee Serer re, eee st 


_ APRIL 24,1919 | 


NATURE 


151 


hological interest, such as memorising and the 
of free associations. They tested the -effects of 
‘Of 30 c.c. and 45 c.c. of absolute alcohol in 
‘subjects, and found a general depreciation of 

pn on the days on which alcohol had been ad- 


sleepiness and a feeling of intoxication, which 
ve led one to expect the experimental tests 
a lowering of function. Dr. Walter R. Miles 
published a second volume entitled ‘‘ Effect of 
ero ysiclogical ‘Functions’ (Washing- 

which is entirely devoted to a more exten- 
of this apparently resistant subject. Using 
“same methods as Dodge and Benedict, 
in the same laboratory under the 
al conditions, Dr. Miles obtained results 
rly closely with the general average of the 
Stigation. In twenty-seven out of thirty 
s the effect of the alcohol was to lessen 
of the subject’s performance, and in eleven 
epreciation amounted to as much as from 
The anomalous results of the first 


one or two days on which the subject 
cially well after he had taken alcohol. 


ke ble richness of the flora of South-West 
eciall in certain families, is illustrated by 
by Prof. Bayley Balfour, W. W. Smith, 
‘raib which have recently appeared in 
ons and Proceedings of the Botanical 
burgh (vol. xxvii., parts 2 and 3) and 
the Royal Botanic Garden, Edin- 
_ The plants were collected mainly by 
st and Kingdon Ward. The place of 
by the Rhododendrons, in which genus 
are described, including several from 
d Bhutan. There are also a number 
;; some of which were collected in 


Tor 


interesting observa- 
seedlings, in which a 
r, the presence of an intense red 
‘an anthocyanin pigment, on the under- 
: leaf, persists for several years, and is 
placed by the peculiar hairiness which 
the adult leaf. It is suggested that the 

‘elated with a change in climatic rela- 
ng plant passes from a position in 
@ is subject to the conditions of light, 
t, and air-current belonging to a stratum 
surface, to one some distance above the 
which the same external factors operate 
nt intensity. Temperature and speeding-up 
m are prime considerations in the first 
, control of loss of water in the second. 
anin development is an adaptation to the 
the hairy indumentum to the latter. Prof. 
also discusses, under the title ‘‘The Genus 
tis,” a puzzling little group of lily-like plants 
ster China, which combine some of the 
ers of the true lilies and the fritillaries. 


erimental and Research Station at Turner’s 
eshunt, an offshoot from the Rothamsted 
tal Station, continues its good work for 
en and market-gardeners growing under 
s. The manurial experiments have been continued 
n substantially the same lines as in previous years, 
nd have given practically the same results; again it is 
own that farmyard manure is an efficient manure 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


ed. One of their subjects showed the in- | 


| 
| 


| 


| 
| 


ect of the alcohol in far less measure than | 
though it produced certain general effects, | 


for cucumbers, and cannot adequately be replaced 
either by hoofs or bone-meal. Tomatoes, on the other 
hand, require potassic fertilisers and not so much 
nitrogen; indeed, in the experiments nitrogenous fer- 
tilisers have actually reduced the crop. Phosphates: 
also had less effect than had been anticipated. The 
results recall those obtained at the Woburn Fruit 
Farm in their somewhat unexpected nature, and they 
bring out the necessity for a detailed physiological 
study of the phenomena of fruiting. The work on 
partial sterilisation has been extended during the year.. 
Mr. W. B. Randall placed at the disposal of the: 
committee a sum of money enabling it to appoint 
a special investigator, Mrs. D Matthews (Miss 
Isgrove), who is studying the effect of various sub- 
stances on the noxious organisms of the _ soil. 
Hitherto no agent has been found to be quite so 
effective as steam, and it seems possible that a mix- 
ture of substances will be necessary, one to deal with 
animals and another with fungi. A beginning has 
also been made with the study of the Noctuid moth, 
Hadena oleracea, which has become a serious menace 
to the tomato-growing industry; during the current’ 
year this work is to be extended considerably. A 
remarkable phenomenon is the zig-zag nature of the 
curve showing the yields of tomatoes on successive 
rows of plants. The outside row, as might be ex- 
pected, shows the highest yield; the other rows give 
alternately high and lower yields. It is difficult to 
account for these observations, but the differences are 
greater than are obtained by differences in manuring. 
The report is full of interest to the plant physiologist. 


AccorDING to the Journal of the Franklin Institute 
for November, 1918, tests have been made to find the 
transmission factors for several slightly diffusive: 
glasses for two kinds of illumination, viz. (1) a narrow 
beam of light perpendicular to the surface of the 
specimen, and (2) uniformly diffused light reaching’ 
the specimen from all directions above its plane,: 
known as hemispherical illumination. The transmis- 
sion-factor is, generally speaking, less for diffused’ 
(hemispherical) illumination than for the narrow beam 
of light. The transmission-factor of the glasses 
studied depends upon the position of the glass with 
respect to the source of light. For a narrow beam of 
light the transmission-factors are usually considerably 
greater when the rough surface faces the light than 
when the smooth surface is towards it. This is 
specially noticeable in ribbed glasses, but has not been 
noticed in etched glasses. 


THE two sections of Science Abstracts for 1918 are 
now completed by the issue of the index parts for 
physics and electrical engineering. The former sec- 
tion extends to 575, and the latter to 492, pages, of 
which 62 and 37 pages are occupied by the indexes. 
The number of abstracts in the two sections is 
1283 and 886 respectively, which are both 25 per 
cent. less than those of three years ago. The average 
length of an abstract, which has for some years been 
greater in the electrical ee than in the 
physics section, has in the three years increased in 
both sections by 3 per cent. So far as can be seen 
from a glance through the volumes, this appears to 
be due to a relatively small number of alitraitons 
supplying long abstracts rather than to a general in- 
crease in length of all abstracts. The art of con- 
veying information in a few concise and readable 
lines is acquired only by practice, and a little editorial 
admonition might lead to a considerable improve- 
ment. Every physicist and every electrical engineer 
anxious to keep abreast of the times owes much to 
Science Abstracts, for without it his knowledge of 
what has been done in enemy countries during the 
last five years would have been very fragmentary. 


+? ’ 


I52 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


REFERENCE has already been made in our ‘ Notes” 
to the Admiralty salvage operations during the war. 
- An article in the Engineer for March 21 gives an 
account, with illustrations, of the submersible salvage 
pumps and engines employed in these operations. It 
is not always convenient to supply current from a 
salvage vessel, and in such cases the electric current 
for driving the pumps is supplied by an oil engine- 
driven dynamo. It is essential that the plant should 
be weatherproof and unaffected by sea-spray or rain. 
Although a dynamo which will withstand being sub- 
merged has not yet been produced, the oil-engines 
described in the article are capable of being covered 
with water without coming to any harm. The engine 
cannot, of course, work while submerged. The 
necessity for an engine of this kind arose in con- 
nection with the installation of centrifugal pumps 
on a wreck situated in tidal waters, which had, owing 
to unforeseen circumstances, to remain in position 
while the tide rose and completely ‘submerged the 
plant. A number of these engines have been built at 
the Bedford works of Messrs. W. H. Allen, Son, and 
Co. Up to the present there are two standard sizes, 
one with two cylinders of 12 brake-horse-power, and 
the other having four cylinders giving from 46 to 
50 brake-horse-power. 


Ar the annual meeting of the Institute of Metals, 
held on March 25 and 26, the fourth report to the 
Corrosion Research Committee of the Institute of 
Metals was presented by Capt. Bengough and Dr. 
Hudson. The publication of this investigation, which 
is subsidised by the Department of Scientific and 
Industrial Research, has been considerably delayed 
owing to the request of the Admiralty that the results 
should not be made available during the war. The 
report is divided into three main parts. The first is 
devoted to the question of the nature of the attack 
which takes place when, metals such as zinc, copper, 
and aluminium, and alloys such as 70:30 brass, 
corrode in neutral or nearly neutral liquids, e.g. dis- 
tilled water and sea-water. The second section is 
devoted to the consideration of the behaviour of con- 
denser tubes in similar liquids, and variations of 
behaviour in different samples of tubes of nominally 
the same composition. The third section is an 
attempt to set out in some detail a statement of the 
practical problems of corrosion in sea-water, which 
appear to the authors to be very different from what 
is usually supposed. A preliminary account is also 
given of experiments carried out with the object of 
testing an electrolytic process of protection and a pre- 
oxidising process designed for the same end. The 
authors express the view that corrosive attack on 
condenser-tubes is more diverse in character and com- 
plicated in nature than has been generally supposed. 
The first action is one of chemical oxidation, and 
secondary actions are of great importance. No one 
single remedy is likely to be found effective for all 
the different kinds of attack which occur in practice. 
The nature of the tube used and the protective 
measures chosen should be dependent on the particular 
set of conditions. 


“CO-ORDINATION of Research in Works and Labora- 
tories ’’ is the title of a paper by the late Mr. H. R. 
Constantine read before the Institution of Electrical 
Engineers on March 27. A scheme is outlined in 
which it is proposed to place under the direction of a 
central board all the laboratories attached to the uni- 
versities, colleges, and training institutions of the 
country, as well as many experimental laboratories 
connected with private works. The board would keep 
full records of what each laboratory was doing, and 
receive all inquiries for research work to be done; 
it would keep a record of results published all the 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


world over. F urther, the board would be invested 


with power to order any laboratory to under 
certain research work, or to leave another res 


ge 


‘ ] A search 
alone, or, indeed, to transfer, if considered advisable, — 


part of its equipment or personnel to another labora- 
tory. Finally, all discoveries would be communicated 
to the board, which would have power to dispose of 
them after consideration of the rights of the indi- 
vidual worker. If adopted, the scheme would ap- 
parently supersede the Industrial Research Associations 
established already in connection with the Department 
of Scientific and Industrial Research, which has had a 
grant of 1,000,000l, placed at its disposal by the 
Government, and has been for some time actively at 
work. It is also as well to point out that the research 
work carried on in universities and other pervs 
institutions is conducted not wholly for the sake « 
the results looked for, whether purely scientific or 
technical, but for the educational purpose of training 
students in method. Moreover, as repeatedly poi 
out, the original researcher in connection with funda- 
mental problems will not usually be willing to unfold 
his ideas to others, at any rate in their early stages, 
before they have been: tested. Fs 


AmonG forthcoming books of science we notice the 
following :—'‘ Problems of Fertilisation,” Prof. F. R. 
Lillie (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 
London : The Cambridge University Press) ; ‘‘ Influenza : 
A Modern Account of its Pathogenesis, ees iptoms,, 
Complications, Sequels, and Treatment upon Combined 
Specific and Non-specific Lines,” Sir T. J. Horder 
(Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton); a new 
edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged, of ‘‘ Prac- 
tical Physiological Chemistry,” € W. Cole. 
with an introduction by Dr. F. G. Hopkins 
bridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Lid); Aaa 
mercial Forestry in Britain: Its Decline and Re- 
vival,” E. P. Stebbing; ‘Conifers: A Key to their 
Identity and Converse,” C. C. Rogers, illustrated ; 
“Tin,” G. M. Davies; “ Manganese,” A. H. Curtis; 
and new and revised editions of “ Heredity,” Prof. | 
Arthur Thomson, illustrated, and ‘ Hydrographical 
Surveying: A Description of the Means and Methods 
Employed in Constructing Marine Charts,” the late 
Rear-Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, revised and 
brought up to date by Admiral Sir Mostyn Field (John 
Murray); ‘‘A Woman Doctor: Mary Murdoch of 
Hull,”’ H. Malleson, and ‘t Advance in Co-Education,” 
edited by A. Wood (Sidgwick and Jackson). ard 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


CHANGES ON JUPITER.—Observers appear to be fairly 
well agreed on the character of the recent variations 
in some of the more prominent and durable of Jovian 
features. The Rev. T. E. Phillips, who has 


devoted much attention to Jupiter’s appearance in — 


recent years, says that the opposition of 1918-19 will — 


be a memorable one. . To his eye ‘‘the south tro 


disturbance and the hollow in the southern belt have © 


practically disappeared, but the red 


changes which have affected this particular region of 
the surface have been rapid and most remarkable. 
Mr. Phillips employs two instruments, one a 12}-in. 
reflector and the other an 8-in. refractor. He regards 
it-as likely to afford much satisfaction to observers 
that the red spot continues to retain a definitely 


elliptical outline, for the obliteration of this familiar © 


ot remains | 
quite distinct on a night of good definition.” The — 


marking would be regarded as a great loss by all — 


students of the planet. That this object may at some 
future time regain its former (1878-80) conspicuous 
aspect is quite 


possible, and it should be attentively 
- watched for changes of both shape and motion. ~~ 


by Ged 


a 


eA OE eg ae ee Ferny ar ee ees eee 


Jhboe 


ng 


Avett tee 


= 


3 


; 


4 _ APRIL 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


£53 


|| Tue Oricin or Nova.—Prof. W. H. Pickering 


various theories of the origin of nove in 


_ Popular Astronomy for November last. He rejects the 


cory of collision of star with star on the grounds 
it move are too numerous for this and that the 
The first difficulty, 


a eg of brilliance is too short. 
_ but not the second, is avoided by the theory of col- 


4 n of star with nebula; it would probably require 
irs, mot days, for a star, even at the enormous 
on herent by the spectroscope, to traverse a 
jila of average size. Prof. Pickering prefers the 
othesis of a body of small planetary dimensions 
alling into the star and penetrating the photosphere 


the falling planet merely acting as the 
The dark and bright bands of the spectrum 

ed (as on many other theories of nove) 
‘outer shells of gas being cooler, and so ab- 
_sorbing light, while the light from the gases streaming 
out on the remote side of the star, having its wave- 
length altered by motion, is not arrested by the cool 
gas on the near side. Newcomb, in ‘‘The Stars: A 
onan. of the Universe” (p. 138), suggested a similar 

sxplanation, treating the stars as hollow globes of 
sd and condensed gas; a foreign body, on 
break the shell, when the interior gases 
; “What magnitude the outburst 

ne it is impossible to say.” 

ye isTIAL Systems.—The Memoirs of the College 
of Senge, 7), cone 
tain a paper by Shinzo Shinjo and Yoshikatsu 


They 
at the resulting momenta are confined within 
jly narrow limits, and exceed several hundred- 
e al * momentum of the solar system. In 
ing the possible origin of angular momentum 
ey examine the case of a spherical swarm of 
eorites, and show that, for a given mass, the 

r the individual meteorites the greater the 

robable momentum. To produce the sneha af 
_ the solar system they conclude that the individua 
meteorites must have aoa about 20 km. in diameter. 


_ The size would require to be much larger to satisfy 


the conditions of It is conjec- 
tured that swarms with the largest meteorites would 
_ condense into two or more nuclei, those with medium- 
sized meteorites into single orbs which would 

afterwards divide into two, those with meteorites 
- 20 km. in diameter into planetary systems. In the 
ease of dust-swarms or gaseous nebulz, the number 


e binary systems. 


_ of constituents is so immense that the resulting 


r momentum is infinitesimal. While the paper 

does not give a lete system of cosmogony, it 
sheds fresh light on some of the stages of the process. 
ao)! et i 


eae t) par i 
< . Am peta 


ph, te) STS ee See ee f 
shies COTTON -SEED BY-PRODUCTS. 
ONE uary 5, at the Royal Society of Arts, 
/ Mr. Ed. C. de Segundo read a very pe ie 
sp rina comb e op on “The Removal of the 
Residua Pitedd fan Cotton-seed and their Value 
for Non-textile Purposes.” Mr. de Segundo explained 
that there are two main classes of cotton-seed, viz. 
the bald, black, or clean seeds, such as Egyptian, 
Sea Island, Brazilian, etc., of which practically the 
_ whole “lint” is removed by the process of ‘ ginning,’ 
NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


or separating the lint or textile fibre from the seed; 
and the white, woolly, or fuzzy seeds such as 
American, which are still covered with a short white 
“fuzz” or lint after ginning. Indian cotton-seed is 
really of the latter class, though the fuzz remaining 
on the seed is much shorter than in the case of the 
American. 

To deal with these two classes of seed, two different 
methods have been adopted. The black seeds are 
crushed whole, and the residue after extraction of the 
oil is pressed into cattle-cake. The white seeds are 
first ‘‘delinted,”” which removes part of the short fuzz 
left on the seed after ginning, the machine used being 
practically the same as the saw-gin used for the 
ginning itself. The short fuzz or ‘“linters’ thus 
removed is used for guncotton, blotting-paper, waste, 
etc. The seed is then “decorticated,” a process of 
separating the hull, with the fuzz still remaining on 
it, from the kernels or meats. The latter are then 
crushed alone, and the oil is taken out in a much purer 
form than is possible under the whole crushing pro- 
cess, because the presence of the hull or shell gives 
a darker colour to the oil. Incidentally, the process 
afterwards required to remove this dark colour gives 
the oil a slightly bitter taste, which made the value 
of such oils distinctly lower than those got by the 
decorticating process. The crushed kernels give a 
very fine residual product known as cotton-seed meal, 
which has recently been attracting particular atten- 
tion because it has been shown to possess very high 
qualities as human food. Its protein and fat contents 
are very high, and mixed with potato- or wheat-flour 
it produces a most valuable form of food. 

As it happens, the two processes above described 
have come to be known as the British and American 
processes respectively, because the British crushers 
have only had the opportunity of handling the Egyp- 
tian and Indian cotton-seed products in large quanti- 
ties. The bulk of the American crop has, naturally, 
always been handled in the States. The Indian crop 
known as Bombay seed has always been imported 
into this country and crushed whole without previous 
delinting, because its seed-lint was scarcely long 
enough to be worth removing, and its presence 
in the cake (though it took long to convince the users 
of it that this was true) did no material harm if 
properly handled, while it gave a much bulkier, and 
therefore cheaper, cake. 

The two improvements with which Mr. de Segundo 
jhas been connected are, first, the production of a 
machine which, after ginning and delinting in the 
ordinary way, takes a further quantity of ‘‘ seed-lint”’ 
from the seed. This seed-lint is of considerable com- 
mercial value for many non-textile purposes, such as 
paper-making, artificial silk, explosives, and cellulose 
acetate, the peculiarity of the process being the very 
clean and pure condition in which it delivers the 
lint. Its removal also adds to the value of the seed 
for crushing purposes, saves freight by reducing its 
bulk, and minimises the danger of heating, and hence 
the risk of fire by spontaneous combustion. The second 
improvement is a process of removing the last vestige 
of fibre from the hulls after decortication, thus taking 
two further by-products out of the last residue of the 
former process. It was the first of these improve- 
ments that was mainly dealt with in the lecture. 

The importance of these processes to the cotton 
industry is certain to be very considerable. There 
are many new areas in the British Empire where 
cotton is being developed, such as Uganda, Nigeria, 
and parts of the Sudan, where the woolly seeded 
varieties have been found the most suitable, but the 
seed has never been fully utilised because the crops 
were comparatively small, and the cost of handling 


154 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, I919 


them under the disadvantageous conditions found in 
these areas was scarcely covered by the value of the 
by-products. But by increasing the value of these 
products the scale may be turned, and such a system 
rendered profitable, and it would certainly be an 
advantage to these areas to have such a supply of 
oil and cattle and other foods as these by-products 
would yield. Again, there are other areas where 
cotton is struggling against the rivalry of other com- 
peting crops, and where the scale might just be turned 
in its favour by the increased value of its by-products. 
Reference was made to the position of India, where 
the seed-crushing industry has never been properly 
developed, and it was agreed that such a process as 
the seed-lint removal might make all the difference. 
A seed-lint defibrating machine was shown working 
at the lecture, and samples of all the by-products were 
exhibited, including bread, scones, and cakes made 
with a proportion of cotten-seed flour. There was a 
very useful discussion after the lecture by a number 
of experts representing different sections of the trades 
affected. 
A BRITISH GEODETIC AND 
GEODYNAMIC INSTITUTE. 


COMMITTEE, consisting of Dr. Shipley (the 
Vice-Chancellor), Dr. H. K. Anderson, Col. Sir 
C. F. Close, Sir Horace Darwin, Sir F. W. Dyson, 
Dr. E. H. Griffiths, Sir T. H. Holdich, Sir Joseph 
Larmor, Col. H. G. Lyons, Prof. Newall, Sir Charles 
Parsons, Sir Napier Shaw, Sir J. J. Thomson, and 
Prof. H. H. Turner, has been formed for the purpose 
of making an appeal for the creation and endowment 
of a geophysical institute at Cambridge. The ques- 
tion of the establishment of an institute of this 
character has been under consideration by the British 
Association for the last three years. A large and 
representative committee reported unanimously in 
favour of the project, which was then considered by 
the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies. This Board 
also reported that there was a real need for such an 
institute. The chief reasons which have been put 
forward on behalf of the scheme are :—(1) Geodetic 
work must form the basis and control of all the State 
surveys of the Empire, on which about a million 
sterling was spent annually before the war. (2) A 
geophysical institute could render great assistance in 
connection with the particular group of geodetic 
problems now of most practical interest in the United 
Kingdom, namely. those associated with levelling, 
mean sea-level, and vertical movements of the crust 
of the earth. (3) Such an institute is greatly needed 
to assist in the study of the tides and in attacking 
the great problems which must be solved if tidal pre- 
diction is to advance beyond its present elementary 
and fragmentary state. (4) There is at present no 
provision for the collection and critical discussion of 
the geodetic work which is being done within the 
Empire, or for its, comparison with the work of other 
countries. There is no institution available for re- 
search work or higher training in geodesy. There is 
no British institution which can be referred to for the 
latest technical data and methods, and until the out- 
break of war it was the custom of many British 
surveys (notably the Survey of India), when con- 
fronted with geodetic problems, to refer to the Geo- 
detic Institute at Potsdam. This was not even then 
a very satisfactory arrangement, and now a radical 
change is inevitable. 

Discussion as to where the institute could most 
suitablv be established has led to the selection of 
Cambridge, for it is essential. that an institute of 
geodesy and geodynamics should be closely associated 
‘with a great school of mathematics and physics, and 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] : 


_ were more in vogue. 


it is only in connection with a great Imperial uni-— 
versity that that width and freshness of outlook: are — 
to be sought which are essential to a progressive and — 
The committee has evidence that — 
an institute at Cambridge would be cordially wel- 
comed by the national Survey Departments, both | 


practical science. 


terrestrial and oceanographic. nian 

It is estimated that an endowment of 50,0001. will 
be necessary if the proposed institute is satisfactorily 
to perform the double task of research and education, 
but it is hoped that if half that sum were contributed 
by private benefactions the remainder would be forth- 
coming from national funds. An essential part of the 
scheme would be the foundation of a university pro- 
fessorship of geodynamics to be held by the director 
of the institute. To place this professorship in line 
with other chairs recently endowed by private benefac- 
tions, and usually associated with the names of the 
donors or founded as memorials of national sacri ce 


in the great war, a sum of 20,0001. (which is apaaies 
y ui e 


RESPONSIBILITIES OF BOTANICAL — 
SCIENCE. aay $e: 8 & 
“ GOME Responsibilities of Botanical Science” is 


. 


the subject of Prof. B. E. Livingston’s a - 


to the Botany Section of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science meeting at Baltimore 
last December (Science, February 28, 1919). The 
work of botanical science is at present carried on by 
a sort of guerrilla warfare, each man for himself; for 
a planned and productive campaign co-operation is 
necessary. The objects to be attained are twofold. 
The first is the conservation of knowledge already 
attained. The existing means for presenting botanical 
abstracts and résumés are merely makeshifts; there 
is need for a national or international institute for the 
furnishing of bibliographical information on Teqi 


re 


Such an institute would be a great undertaking, with 


* 
a permanent staff of departmental heads and a corps 
of bibliographical assistants; but it would seek 
co-operation of all men of science. It would avoid 
enormous waste of time and energy on the part of 
scientific workers and research institutions, and give 
congenial employment to many who wish to serve in 
scientific work, but may not find their best places as 
teachers or research workers. Lt eh eas 
The second object is botanical research, which is 
considered under three heads: the planning of re- 
search, the procuring of data, and the interpretation 
and presentation of results. Prof. Livingston em- 
phasises the absence of any recognition of the inves- 
tigator as such, and the striking characteristic that 
most of the published .work appears to be done by 
apprentices. The planning of scientific investigation 
deserves much more attention than it generally 
receives, and our selection of problems and planning 


of projected investigations would be greatly im- _ 


proved if co-operation between competent thinkers 
The securing of the requisite 
observational or experimental data is the easiest part 
of investigation, but comparatively few writers trouble 
to interpret their results in a logically complete 
manner. A discussion is written from the point of 
view of one out of several or many logically possible 
hypotheses, and one of the greatest wastes in biological 


research lies in the publication of so many uninter- — 


preted observations. Finally, there are the responsi- 
bilities towards applied botanical science, not only the 


practical applications in the arts, but also the philo- 


sophical applications to other branches of science. _ 


ee 


ener = 


—— 


a 
ae eS 


ays 


NATURE 


#55 


-QOPHTHALMOLOGICAL TRAINING OF 
/- MEDICAL STUDENTS. 


E Council of British Ophthalmologists has 
issued a report dealing with the teaching and 
mination of medical students in ophthalmology. 
é first part of the report reviews briefly the efforts 
'up to the present by the General Medical 
if ensure better training of the medical 
‘in this important subject. These, unfor- 
; have not succeeded in their object, and it 
ne case that ‘‘the general body of the medical 
ion does not possess a competent knowledge 
ses of the eye.” 
second part of the report deals in detail with 
irements of all the examining bodies in Great 
md Ireland and, for comparative purposes, 
large numbér of Colonial, American, and 
universities. The analysis of these require- 
S shows that Great Britain stands almost alone 
ranting diplomas to practise medicine without 
an adequate knowledge of diseases of the 
sland and irf the great majority of foreign 
1 universities ophthalmology is one of the 
_ the qualifying examination, and _ the 
in it are conducted. by ophthalmic 


cil has therefore recommended (1) that no 
shall be admitted to the final examination, 

to practise medicine, unless he has attended 
almic clinic for not less than six hours a 
a period of three months, and has 
“course of systematic instruction in 
y; and (2) that no student shall be con- 
ve passed the qualifying é¢xamination 
as shown a sound knowledge of practical 
sy an examination conducted bv 


LOCK ESCAPEMENTS.} : 
ancient instruments for measuring time 
Obably some kind of sundial. Some- 
the kind is, no doubt, referred to in 
-and Isaiah xxxviii., where it is stated 
ow moved back ten steps on the steps 
that is the literal translation). Hero- 
i e,”’ cix.) tells us that the Babylonians 
to the Greeks the médos and the yrapor, 
bt some forms of sun-instruments. Frequent 
are found in the classics to the clepsydra, 
made in various forms, always depending, 
upon the approximately uniform flow of 
h a small hole. 
, properly so called, cannot be traced 
ainty earlier than the fourteenth century. 
Curious iron clock was sent over from 
erland, and was until recently kept in Dover 
- It is now in the Science Museum at South 
n. It is interesting as having no pendulum 
spring (both much later inventions), but, 
a vertical spindle carrying a_ horizontal 
loaded at the ends with weights. This 
cal spindle has two pallets projecting from its 
approximately at right angles to each other, 
‘engage alternately the uppermost and lower- 
tooth Sf a contrate wheel the axis of which is 
zontal and in the same plane with the vertical 
‘first referred to. This is the ‘‘ verge’’ escapement, 
tich was for long afterwards used in both clocks 
and watches. No good timekeeping was possible 
ith such an arrangement. Gravity did not come 
> Y From a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution.on February 21 by 
ALT. Hare. - . 
NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


5 


into the problem, and the speed of the movement 
was only restrained by its energy having alternately 
to create and destroy angular momentum in the 
swinging arms. The force of the train, however 
variable, was paramount, 

The next step in horology, and undoubtedly the 
most important which has ever been made, was the 
application of the pendulum to clocks by the Dutch 
physicist and astronomer, Christian Huygens, in 
1657. Galileo had discovered, about sixty years 
earlier, the isochronism (since found to be only ap- 
proximate) of a swinging body, but, in spite of efforts 
made after his death to claim priority for him in the 
invention of the pendulum clock, the evidence has 
not convinced historians of his title to that honour. 

Huygens, being aware of the fact that the motion 
of a particle under gravity was only isochronous, 
independently of the extent of the are of swing, when 
the body describes a cycloid, and knowing the pro- 
perty of that curve to reproduce itself as an involute 
of an equal cycloid, attempted to secure the desired 
isochronism by suspending his pendulum from a silk 


thread which swung between two cheeks of brass cut 


to the shape of the cycloid, thus obliging the bob to 
trace an involute. But the silk was so affected by 
the weather that no good result ensued, 

Another objection to the verge escapement was the 
large arc of swing necessary to permit the escape- 
ment to unlock itself. Huygens attempted to over- 
come this difficulty by making the verge the axis, 
not of the pendulum-crutch, but of a pinion gearing 
into a larger wheel to the arbor of which the crutch 
was attached. This construction permitted the angle 
of swing to be reduced at pleasure, but more friction 
was introduced, and little improvement was effected. 

The calculation of the time of swing of a free 
pendulum describing a circular arc can only be made 
approximately, but the approximation can be carried 
as far as desired, and as the arc of swing is never 
large, a few terms suffice. This is the formula :— 

k I a a 
T= (1 *sin?=4+—-sin'=+.. . .) 
eek Ws 2a an 


from which, by differentiation, 


Lid eh nl eg 
Wart 16 Jen tt tssin af <n ) 


Here T is the time of swing of the pendulum from 
its highest position to the vertical, and @ is the semi- 
angle—that is, the angle turned through from the 
highest to the lowest position. Now of the factors 
making up the expressions on the right-hand side 
of these equations, only and g and the numerical 
coefficients can really be considered as constant. It 
has been suggested that even g may one day be shown 
to be variable. As for h and k—that is, the distance 
from the axis of motion to the centre of gravity and 
the radius of gyration respectively—these are well 
known to be dependent on temperature, and an 
interesting account might be given, if time permitted, 
of the evolution of the compensated pendulum. The 
recent discovery of alloys of iron and nickel the 
coefficient of expansion of which is very low has 
much facilitated this. ; 

The factor which has most influence on the value 
of T is a, the angle of swing. The formule show 
us two things: first, that the wider the arc of swing 
the more a clock will lose, and, secondly, that a given 
small variation of arc is less harmful when the whole 
arc is small than when it is great. There are prac- 
tical reasons, however, for not making it too small, 
which have led to the adoption of arcs of two or 
three degrees on each side of the vertical as, on the 
whole, the best. 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


156 
This table gives the losing rate for variations of | 
arc :— 

Semi-are Daily loss Difference 
Oe ee 
oO 15 or ol 
0 30 O-41 0-31 
I 1-65 1-24 
I 30 3°70 2:05 
2 6-58 2:88 
2,30 0:28 3°70 
3 14-31 4°53 
3 30 20:16 5°35 
4 26-33 6:17 
4 30 33:32 6:99 
5 41-14 7-82 


It must be remembered that these figures only relate 
to a free pendulum, and with some escapements the 
errors introduced mask this result completely. 

Many attempts, some of great ingenuity, were 
made to get better results from the verge, especially 
as regarded the reduction of the arc, but they were 
all superseded by the anchor, or recoil, escapement, 
invented (most probably) by the celebrated Dr. Hooke, 
and first made by William Clement in 1675. This is 
the escapement still used in all common clocks, but 
it has disadvantages which render it unsuitable 
for high-class work. The train exercises great 
*‘dominion,” as it used to be called, over the pen- 
dulum, and is assisting gravity the whole time, 
hindering the rise of the pendulum and accelerating 
its fall, so that T may be considerably diminished 
when the train has been recently oiled without any 
corresponding variation of a. 

But in 1715 George Graham, pupil of Tompion (both 
of whom were so esteemed as to be accorded burial 
in Westminster Abbey), made a most important 
modification of the anchor. He removed most of the 
flukes, leaving only a small sloping part near the 
tip, by sliding along which the extremity of the scape- 
wheel teeth could give the necessary impulse to the 
pendulum. The rest of the fluke he fashioned so 
that it should be a portion of a circle having its 
centre on the axis of the crutch-arbor, thus entirely 
preventing recoil of the movement, and, to a great 
extent, releasing the pendulum from the ‘‘ dominion” 
of the train. During the time when the circular part 
of the fluke is passing along the tooth of the scape- 
wheel the motion of the train is entirely held up, 
and it is neither doing work on the pendulum nor 
having work done on it. The device is consequently 
known. as the ‘‘dead-beat.”’ 

Numbers of escapements were devised after 
Graham’s invention, which, though differing much 
from it in design, were, nevertheless, broadly speakx- 
ing, mechanical equivalents of it. Such were 
Thiout’s, Vérité’s, Perron’s, Leonhard’s, Vulliamy’s, 
Robert’s, Betthoud’s, Lepauté’s, and Brocot’s. 

The designer of a turret-clock, however, always has 
in mind the serious variations in the force of the 
train caused by wind or snow on the hands, as well 
as by the thickening and drying of the oil on the 
bearings and the cutting and wearing of the pivots 
and of the teeth of the wheels and pinions. It was, 
therefore, long ago recognised that the proper func- 
tion of the clock-train was not to drive the pendulum, 
but to record the number of its swings—that is, to 
tell the time—and to keep wound a smaller clock 
which should be independent of these disturbances, 
and could be made very simple, and even reduced to 
one wheel, if often enough rewound. This construc- 
tion was proposed by Huygens, who did so much for 
the science of accurate timekeeping. The principle of 


these ‘‘remontoirs,” as they are called, is very much | 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


the same in all. Some rewind a little weight, others 


_ keep a spring wound, but in every case, directly or 


| 


indirectly, the pendulum has to uniock the rewinding — 
mechanism by means of some device which is itself 
an escapement, and this cannot be effected without 
some friction, . cies 

From the train-remontoir it is an easy step to the 
next great improvement. The question naturally 
arises: ‘‘Why rewind the train in the middle? Why 
not simply relift the pallets and let them fall by 
gravity on the pendulum?” This question was ' 
answered about the year 1716, when Alexander 
Cumming produced the first of the series of gravity — 
escapements which have done so much to pi the 
accurate turret-clock a possibility. His escapement 
is rather complicated and has several points where 
there is friction, and very soon after it was greatly 
simplified and improved by Thomas Mudge, a pupil 
of Graham’s. Fig. 1°shows Mudge’s escapement, 
and will be easily understood. + eieEeE CY 

The tooth marked 1 has just lifted the gravity piece 
A'B’, and is resting on the dead face. ‘Pow wen, 
dulum, moving to the right,*is just about to lift the 
gravity piece, causing the dead face to slide along 
the tooth until it is clear of it. The wheel is then 
free to turn further, and the tooth marked 2 lifts th 
other gravity .piece AB in a similar way. When 


Mess 
r 


sae 


the pendulum has attained its maximum elongation 
to the right (carrying A’B’ with it): and begins to 
return, the pallet on A’B’ falls midway between 
teeth 1t and 3, thus falling rather farther than it 
rose, the balance of work done on the pendulum 
serving to maintain the latter in motion against the 
resistances. Each gravity piece is lifted by the wheel 


at a time when the pendulum’ is out of contact with 


it, and so the action of the train cannot disturb 
the pendulum except by the friction of the dead 
faces. sighs 
There is, however, a source of error to which 
Mudge’s escapement is liable which was sufficient 


to condemn it. The driving power had to be ample, 


and there was danger either that the gravity pieces 
might be thrown clean off the wheel, allowing the 
latter to race and destroying all timekeeping, or that, if 
this complete “tripping” did not occur, they might, 
at all events, be thrown a little too high, so that 
the teeth of the scape-wheel, instead of resting in the 
exact corner, as tooth 1 is seen to be doing, would 
rest on the dead face nearer its extremity, and prob- 
ably hold up the gravity piece, by friction, higher than 
it should. This fault was called by Lord Grimthorpe 
“approximate tripping,” and if it occurred the con- 
stancy of the maintenance would be lost. This might 
probably have been cured by the use of a dashpot, 


—-APRIL.24, 1919] 


NATURE 


157 


»which Mudge’s escapement would have been 
considerably improved. 
Mudge’s escapement was followed by Bloxam’s, 
_action of which will be obvious from Fig. 2. 
still to be seen in action in Bloxam’s own 
sk, which is now, by his nephew’s permission, at 
Science Museum. The noteworthy feature in it 
at the locking arms are much longer than the 
g teeth, so that the fricticn of unlocking is much 
was on Bloxam’s design that Lord Grimthorpe 
ved in the construction of his well-known 
e three-legged gravity escapement,’’ used for 
_ time _in the great clock in the Houses of 
nent. The re feature in this escapement 
le ogg , which moderates the shock of 
t of the teeth on the pallets, and which the 
igular movement of the scape-wheel (60° at 
; is against 20° in Bloxam’s) rendered 


pa ‘was introduced into the gravity 
by Capt. Kater about the year 1840, and 
ibed in vol. cxxx. of the Phil. Trans. 


balls hanging from four silk threads, and 
t delicate and complicated. 
to me some time ago that Kater’s 
ht be applied in such a way that the 
Id be entirely freed from all friction 
hile the impulses given to the pendulum 
etly uniform. A full description of this escape- 
be found in Patent Office Specification 
501, but it may be said, very briefly, to consist 
tle weights which rest alternately on the two 
a rocking frame having considerable moment of 
tia, and on two little upright stems at the ends 
wag imehein pendulum near its point of 
When the rocker is horizontal, and the 
at rest and vertical, things are so adjusted 
the weights are resting indifferently on both 
endulum arms and the ends of the rocker. If, 
i, pendulum is pushed to one side, say the 
it carries the right-hand little weight upwards, 
ng the rocker of its weight, and deposits on the 
site end of the rocker the other little weight. 
sets the equilibrium of the rocker, which 
ices to turn over, and so releases the scape- 
sel, which turns the rocker back rather beyond 
horizontal in the sense opposite to that of its 
motion, so that when on its return the pendulum 
exchanges weights with the rocker, it deposits 
sht-hand weight at a lower level than that at 
ich it was picked up. The es¢apement is simple, 
d a clock fitted with it has given results which are 


fore concluding. I must refer to a remarkable 
Series of papers which commenced last year to appear 
in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
by Prof. R. A. Sampson, the Astronomer Royal for 
_ Scotland. Prof. Sampson is, as all astronomers must 
€, much interested in accurate timekeeping, and has 

alae rimented with three different clocks, having es- 
|)  ¢apements which I must very briefly describe. One is 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


| by Mr, Cottingham, and is essentiall 
| escapement which the late Sir 


| circuit is broken. 


the same as an 
avid Gill, then 
Astronomer Royal at the Cape, had imagined. The 
pendulum is driven by a gravity piece which, so long 


|} as it is in contact with the pendulum, by that very 


contact completes an electric circuit which holds up 
an armature against the poles of an electromagnet. 
This armature is itself the stop which limits the 
travel of the gravity piece. The latter, therefore, goes. 
on impelling the pendulum until it is brought up 
against the armature. When this happens the 
gravity pieca is left behind by the pendulum and the 
At once the armature falls against 
a stop, and the gravity piece is lifted, so that the 
pendulum takes it up again at a higher level than 
that at which they parted company. Sir David Gill 
found trouble from the slight adhesion which exists 
between two metallic surfaces when a current is 
broken between them, and gave much attention to 
experiments designed to avoid this. I do not know 
how far he succeeded, but it seems clear from Prof. 
Sampson’s paper that the escapement is very success- 
ful now. The idea has probably: occurred to many 
people. I began making a clock about thirty years 
ago on what was practically the same principle, but 
gave it up because at that time it did not seem prac- 
ticable to find a battery capable of giving a current 
lasting nearly half a second for each second that 
passes. 

Another of Prof. Sampson’s clocks is driven) by an 
escapement invented by Riefler, of Munich, which is 
unlike any of those we have been considering, and 
in which the necessary energy is communicated to the 
pendulum by bending the suspension spring. The 
block from which the suspension spring hangs, in- 
stead of being fixed as prerovabyy as possible, which 
it generally is, is supported on knife-edges, and the 
suspension spring, which, of course, always tries to 
keep straight, causes the block to turn on_ these 
edges, and so unlock the scape-wheel, which bends 
the spring back against the motion of the pendulum 
and thus keeps it going. 

The third escapement which is being observed at 
Edinburgh, and the last I propose to refer to, is that 
adopted by the Synchronome Co., and belongs to the 
class where the action takes place at the bottom of 
the pendulum or of the crutch instead of the top. This 
is fully described in the specification of a patent 
granted to Mr. Shortt, and numbered 9527 of 1915. 

So much for escapements. 

We may, in conclusion, for a moment review the 
difficulties attending the accurate measurement of 
time and note how they have been attacked. 

If ever a perfect clock is constructed it will cer- 
tainly be a pendulum clock, and it will have to fulfil 
two conditions, necessary and sufficient. They are 
these :—First, the moment of inertia of the pendulum 
must be invariable; and, secondly, the forces which 
act on it must be invariable. If these two conditions 
could be fulfilled, the last word in horology would 
have been said. So far; of course, neither condition 
has been fulfilled, but surprisingly good work has 
been done. As for the first condition, that the 
moment of inertia must be invariable, the chief diffi- 
culty is to avoid change by change of temperature. . 
There are two ways of diminishing this change. 
The pendulum must be compensated in one of the 
well-known ways—by Harrison’s gridiron construction ; 
or that of Graham by the expansion of mercury in 
the bob; or, again, bv the zinc and iron combination 
used im many turret-clocks; or, best of all, by availing 
ourselves of low expansion nickel-steel recently 
introduced ‘by Guillaume, Also, for added ‘security, 
the. whole clock must. be enclosed in a thermostatic 


158 


NATURE 


[APRIL 24, 1919. 


chamber, as is done by Prof. Sampson at the Royal 
Observatory at Edinburgh. The other condition is 
much more difficult. There is, besides the almost 
inevitable friction of the escapement, the effect of the 
buoyancy of the air. This last can be avoided. by 
enclosing the whole clock in a glass case, tightly 
fitted, in which the air can be slightly rarefied and 
maintained at a constant pressure below that of the 
atmosphere. This would seem to offer a very satis- 
factory solution of the difficulty. Temperature error 
and buoyancy error having thus been to a_ great 
extent mastered, we come back to the forces con- 
nected with the maintenance and recording of the 
motion as the principal sources of uncertainty. And 
let no one suppose that little has been effected. Per- 
fection in this, as in other human pursuits, is doubt- 
less unattainable, but we approach it asymptotically, 
and we are farther along the asymptote than might 
be imagined. Prof. Sampson tells us that in his 
thermostatic chamber and barostatic cases, and with 
the Riefler, Cottingham, and Synchronome escape- 
ments which he is studying, the errors average no 
more than one-hundredth of a second per day—that is, 
at the rate of,one minute in sixteen years, if the clock 
could run so long without stopping—truly an almost 
miraculous accuracy, unrivalled, I imagine, in any 
physical measurement. Anyone, therefore, who hopes 
to improve upon this has a difficult task before him. 
If it is true that le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. it 
must be acknowledged that le mieux has against him 
a most formidable antagonist. 

[The lecture was illustrated by a number of working 
models.] 


INTELLIGENCE, 


EDINBURGH.—Dr. James Drever has been appointed 
Coombe lecturer in psychology. 

The University Court has resolved, subject to the 
approval of the Senatus and to the co-operation of 
the Town Council, to invite the British Association 
to hold the annual meeting in 1921 in Edinburgh. 

An important step has recently been taken in the 
purchase of 100 acres of land for University exten- 
sion. The land lies on the south side of the city, 
about two miles from the present University, and in 
the neighbourhood of the Royal Observatory on Black- 
ford Hill. There will be ample scope in’ the imme- 
diate future, not only for the building of laboratories 
and hostels, but also for accommodation for sports 
and athletics. 


GLasGow.—The following doctorates were among 
the degrees conferred on April 22:—M.D.: W. E. 
Boyd. Thesis: ‘‘The Colloidal State of. the Blood 
Serum and its Electrical Reactions.” D.Sc.: D. 
Burns. Thesis: “On the Physiological Significance 
of Guanidin, especially in its Relation to Creatin- 
Creatinin Metabolism,’ with other papers. 


Tue standard of education in Central Europe pre- 
sents notable divergences from that to which we are 
accustomed. It is measured by the percentage of 
. illiterates among those who exceed the age of six 
years. As one goes east the percentage increases. 
Among the northern Slavs, the Czechs are well edu- 
cated, their percentage being 4; next come the Slovaks 
with 20 per cent.; then the Poles of Galicia with 
a percentage twice that of the Slovaks; and finally 
there are the Ruthenes, or Little Russians, of Galicia, 
Hungary, and the Ukraine, with a percentage of 80, 
double that of the Poles. Among the Slavs of the 
south, the Slovenes who border on Italy have a per- 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


centage of 20; then come the Croats with a percentage 
of 60, and the Serbs with one of 7o. . 
branches of Slavs lie the Italians, who vary from 7 to 
40 per cent. in illiteracy; the Germans of Austria, 
whose numbers lie between 2 and 20; the Magyars 
of Central Hungary, who are about as well educated 
as the Slovaks or Slovenes; and, finally, the Ruman- 
ians of Transylvania, three out of four of whom are 
illiterate. These differences are a result of two fac- 
tors: first, nearness or remoteness from Western civil- 
isation, and, secondly, religion—the western folk are 
Roman Catholics and the eastern folk adhere chiefly 
to the Greek Church. ys 


A copy of the calendar for 1917-18 of the Imperial 
University of Tokyo has been received. The calendar 
is published biennially, and an examination of the 
present issue serves admirably to illustrate what rapid 
strides in the provision of facilities for higher education 
have been made in Japan in recent years. Among other 
constituent colleges of the University the calendar deals 
with the College of Science, and gives full particulars 
of the extensive collections of specimens in the Natural 
Science Department and of the numerous adjuncts 
with which the college is provided; for instance, the 
Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, the Botanic Gardens 
of forty acres at Koishikawa, the Seismological Ob- 
servatory, and the Marine Biological Station at 
Misaki, primarily intended for the use of instructors 


and students of the University, but available for other . 


workers in biological research. Similarly, in connec- 
tion with the flourishing College of Agzicul imal stent 
facility seems to have been provided. There are farm, 
nursery, and botanical gardens; laboratories for < 
cultural chemistry, forestry, fisheries, and for study 
silkworm diseases, as well as numerous mus 
devoted to specific objects. A veterinary ho: iL 
situated in the grounds of the college; a pomological 
garden has been laid out in Rokugo; and there 
nine forests attached to the college. The. Univ. 
also includes an institute for the study of infectious 
diseases, where are arranged the investigation of the 
etiology, prophylaxis, and treatment of infectious and 
parasitic diseases, and experiments with disinfecting, 
prophylactic, and curative agents. The calendar runs 
to 402 pages, which teem with interesting particulars 
concerning the activities of the other faculties, and is 
illustrated also with charts, diagrams, and plans to 
make clear the working arrangements of this centre of 
higher learning. : MAese 
Tue British Science Guild has just issued a 
memorandum on the question of the appointment of 
a Departmental Committee to inquire into the exist- 
ing provision of university and higher technical educa- 
tion in the United Kingdom, and: also as to the 
desirability of appointing a consultative committee, 
including representatives of industry, to advise the 
Board of Education in matters affecting the relation- 
ship of science and industry to education. It is now 
thirty-seven years since the fruitful inquiry by a Royal 
Commission was held as to the provision for scientific 
and technical education, not only in this country, but 
also in Europe generally and the United States, which 
revealed our seriouf$ deficiency, and led ultimately to 
the adoption of the Technical Instruction Acts of 1889 
and 1891, and to the valuable results which ensued. 


= 


It is felt that the time is ripe for a further inquiry — 
as to our present facilities for scientific and technical 


education with the view of ascertaining how far it is 
adequate to the needs of our chief manufactures in 
face of the great advances made abroad in the 
chemical, iron and steel, textile, optical glass, and 
other important industries. Especiallv is it desirable 
to learn what means exist for the encouragement and 


rc 


Between the two. 


Se a es 


a a 


atl li Rael date Si: 


) ae 


I ee | ee eee Oe eer 


_ Aprit 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


159 


te training Of efficiently educated youths as 
in our chief industries and what number 
elves of such training. Certainly it would 
nd far below that of Germany or the United 
our chief industrial competitors. Inquiry 
also be made as to the disposition of our chief 
institutions, especially those equipped for 
cient training of day students, and as to the 
al lity of the official recognition of such institu- 
isis in the science and technology of 
industries, ¢.g. iron and steel at Sheffield; 
textiles and chemical products, particularly 
anchester; the leather industry at Leeds; 
at Glasgow, Newcastle, and Belfast; 
gan, Newcastle, and Cardiff; textiles 
tton at Leeds, Huddersfield, and Brad- 
cal and electrical engineering at various 
etc. There is reason to believe that 
is ripe for much larger support both 
State funds. The new Education Act 
ily add largely to the number of capable 
who will need the help of maintenance 
which should, in consequence, be very 
ed, so as to enable them to proceed to 
ions for whole-time study. It is to be 
is important memorandum will be cir- 
avery Member of Parliament and to all the 
horities and chief industrial associations 

e kingdom. 


~ 


ITIES AND ACADEMIES. 
in LONDON. 
» April 10o.—J. W. French: The un- 
fer a brief historical introduction, the 
: features of the eye were considered, 
those relating to the pupil reflexes. By 
‘simple pupilometer the diameter of the 
a applied to optical instruments was 
Variations of the pupil with varying 
the whole retina, of the macula lutea, 
‘zones of constant area were also 
- results discussed. It would appear 
macula lutea the pupil area varies as the 
the illumination. The zone around the 
is more sensitive, and the sensitiveness 
lereafter towards the margin of the 
i as the pupil reflexes are concerned, the 
e quite independent of each other; while 
of the one eye under constant illumina- 
ins constant, the other eye under simul- 
Yariation of the illumination varies in accord- 
the above law. The variation of the pupil 
ymmodation is quite independent of the 
and is determined bv the refractive 
ystalline lens.—T. Smith: The spacing 
working tools. In constructing optical 
e exaci curvatures for the surfaces deter- 
r calculation need not be employed, but the 
*s must lie between limits which will be 
of the nominal curvatures. It follows that 
m of properly spaced tools should suffice to 
ll normal requirements. The basis on which a 
should be constructed is discussed, and a pro- 


d list of tools is derived from an aberra- 
al condition, together with assumed extreme rela- 
between aperture and focal lensth and between 
re and radius of curvature. The total number 
s, which is finite, occurs as an independent 
iable in the formula on which the system is- con- 
__ structed, and in the absence of experimental investiga- 
f ns this must be determined by comparing the results 
stained from an arbitrarily assumed value with the 
lists that manufacturers have found from experience 
_ to be reasonably spaced. A comparison between the 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


list derived by assuming the total number of different 
curvatures in the complete set to be one thousand and 
the lists of two makers shows satisfactory agreement. 


: Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, March 31.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair.-A. Lacroix: The leucitic lavas of 
Trebizond and their transformations. From the data 
furnished by chemical analyses it is impossible to 
get an exact idea of the magmatic relations of these 
rocks, since the essential ratios are disturbed by 
chemical. and mineralogical transformations of 
secondary origin.—G, Bigourdan; The observatory of 
Le Monnier in the rue Saint-Honoré. Historical 
account of Le Monnier’s astronomical work and pub- 
lications, and of his instruments.—Ch. Barrois and 
P. Pruvost: The stratigraphical divisions of the Coal 
Measures of the North of France.—H. Douvillé ; 
Evolution and classification of Nummulites.—C. Richet 
and H, Cardot: Sudden mutations in the formation 
of a new race of micro-organisms. A study of the 
modification produced by an arsenical medium upon 


- the production of lactic acid by a pure lactic organism. 


This organism does not gradually become accustomed 
to the poison, but the tolerance shows a series of 
sudden variations, each of which is marked by intense 
multiplication——M. de Sparre: Conditions to be ful- 
filled for increasing the flow, and hence the work, in 
an hydraulic installation without modifying the pipe. 
—G. A. Bonlenger: An interesting case of sexual 
dimorphism in an African snake, Bothrolycus ater.— 
M. Eugéne Casserat was elected a_ non-resident 
member in succession to the late M. H. Bazin.—P. 
Sabatier and ‘G. Gaudion,—Catalytic dehydrogenation 
by nickel in: presence of hydrogen. Pinene, limonene, 
camphene, menthene, and cyclohexene carried by 
hydrogen over nickel at 350°-360° C. undergo simul- 
taneously hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. The 
reaction has been applied to compounds containing 
oxygen. Cyclohexanol gives phenol; pulegone, a 
mixture of cresol and thymol.—S. Lefschetz: The 
analysis of algebraic varieties.—L. E. Brouwer : 
The enumeration of regular Riemann surfaces of 
Genus I.—A. Véronnet; The temperature of equili- 
brium of a gaseous star for any ray.—A. Colson: The 
theory of solubility.—C. Chéneveau and R. Audubert : 
Absorption in turbid media. Dispersion by internal 
diffusion'—P. Vaillant: The production of a_ con- 
tinuous current by the application of an alternating 
electromotive force to a voltameter with platinum 


. electrodes.—J. Martinet : The mobility of the hydrogen 


atoms in organic molecules. The action of pheny!l- 
hydrazine on dioxindols. Although neither aldehydes 
nor ketones, dioxindols give phenylhydrazones with 
great ease. The preparation and properties of several 
of these phenylhydrazones are described.—G. Guilbert : 
Some examples of ‘‘cyclone compression.”” Cyclonic 
centres sometimes present the phenomenon of dis- 
appearing very rapidly, in twenty-four hours or even 
less. This the author terms “cyclone compression,” 
and directs attention to several examples which have 
occurred recently.—A. Jauffret: The determination of 
the woods of two species of Dalbergia from Mada- 
gascar, according to the characters of their colouring 
matters. The colouring matters extracted from these 
two species by solvents give different chemical re- - 
actions and absorption spectra. These characters are 
constant for each svecies.—-L. Daniel: Researches on 
the comparative development of the lettuce in sunlight 
and in the shade.—H. Colin: The utilisation of 
glucose and lavulose by the higher plants. Analyses 
are given of total dextrose and lzvulose and the ratio 
of these two hexoses in various parts of the plant in 
the case of beetroot: Terusalem artichoke, and chicory. 
—E. Esclangon: The physiological ‘ sensations’ of 


NATURE 


detonation.—E, Bourquelot and M. Bridel; Application 
of the biochemical method to the study of several 
species of indigenous orchids. Discovery of a new 
glucoside, loroglossine. This new glucoside was 
isolated from. Loroglossum hircinum in crystalline 
form. It is hydrolysed ‘by hot dilute sulphuric acid 
or by emulsin.—A. Bayet and <A. Slosse: Arsenical 
poisoning in industries involving coal and its deriva- 
tives. The study of numerous cases of pitch-cancer 
in a briquette works showed that many of the symp- 
toms strikingly resembled those of chronic arsenical 
poisoning. Arsenic was proved to be present in the 
pitch, in the dust floating in the air at the works, 
in the hair of all the workmen, and in notable 
quantities in the urine and blood of the greater 
number of the workmen. Analyses of the blood, 
urine, and hair of other workmen, living in _the 
same district, but not employed in briquette-making, 
gave negative results for arsenic. Thus from both 
the chemical and the clinical examination the con- 
clusion is drawn that the symptoms observed in 


workmen handling pitch are those of chronic 

arsenical poisoning. 
BOOKS. RECEIVED. 

Joseph Priestley. By D. H. Peacock. Pp. 63. 


(London: S.P.C.K.) 2s. net. f 
The Geology of South Australia. By W. Howchin. 
In two divisions. Division i., An Introduction to 
Geology, Physiographical and Structural, from the 
Australian Standpoint; Division ii., The Geology of 
South Australia, with Notes on the Chief Geological 
Systems and Occurrences in the other Australian 


States. Pp. xvi+543. (Adelaide: The Education 
Department.) 
Inorganic Chemistry. By Prof. J. Walker. 


Eleventh edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. viii+326. 
(London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 5s. net. 

Elementary Chemistry of Agriculture. By S. A. 
Woodhead. Pp. vii+188. (London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd.) 3s. 6d. 

Displacement Interferometry by the Aid of the 
Achromatic Fringes. By Prof. C. Barus. Pt. iii. 
Pp. 100. (Washington: The Carnegie Institution of 
Washington.) 

Naval Officers: Their Heredity and Devélopment. 
By C. B. Davenport, assisted by M. T. Scudder. Pp. 
iv+226. (Washington: The Carnegie Institution of 
Washington.) 


Duration of the Several Mitotic Stages in the 


Dividing Root-tip Cells of the Common Onion. By 
Dr. H. H. Laushlin. Pp. 48+plates. (Washington : 
The Carnegie Institution of Washington.) 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 
THURSDAY, Apri 24. 

MatHematicaL Society, at 5.—K. Ananda Rau: (1) Lambert’s Series . 
(2) The Relations between the Convergence of a Series and its Summa- 
bility by Cesaro’s Means.—G. H. Hardy and J. E. Littlewood: A 
Fauberian ‘Theorem for Lambert’s Series. 


InsTITUTION oF ELEecTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Major A. C. Fuller: 
The Fullerphone, and its Application to Military and Civil! Telegraphy. 
MONDAY, Apri 28. 

INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES, at 5.—P. H. McCormack : Group Insurance. 

TUESDAY, Apri 20. - 

Roya InstiTuTION, at 3.—Prof. Keith: British Ethnology—The People 
of Wales and Ireland. 

Faranay Society AND RONTGEN Society (Toint Meeting), at 5.—General 
Discussion: ‘The Examination of Materials by X-Ravs. Sir Robert 
Hadfield: Introduction of Di ion —Prof. W. H. Bragg: Radio- 
metallography.—Prof. A. W. Porter: Abstracts of (a) Investigation of 
Metals by means of X-Rays, by F. Janus (Munich) and M. Reppchen 
(Cologne), (4) The Principles Governing the Penetration of Metals 
by X-Ravs, by Dr. G. Respondek (Helensee).—M. H. Pilon and G. 

'. Pearce: Apparatus used for Radio-metallography.—Capt. R. Knox and 


NO. 2582, VOL. 103] 


10n 


1 


[APRIL 24, 1919 


Robert Hadfield, S. A. Main, and J. Brooksbank: (1) Test 
Absorption Power of Different Steels under the X-Rays. (2) 
Examination as ag 8 oe to the Metallurgy of Steel. @) Radi 
Examination of Carbon Electrodes used in Electric Steel- ad 
Furnaces. (4) A Method of Testing an X-Ray Tube for Defin ion. — 
Lt.-Col. C. F. Jenkin: The Detection of Hair Cracks in Steel by means 
of X-Rays.—F. fF, Renwick: The Behaviour of Hhetograaas Rises 

Met r. 


. Major G. .W..C, Kaye:,The Examination of Timber. by xe 
Ss rT 


to X-Rays considered in Relation to the Radiography o —Dr. 
R. E. Slade: Contrasts in X-Ray Photographs.—M. i. Schneide 
Creusot): Radio-metallography. Phys 

ZooLocicat Society, at 5.30.—Dr. W. T. Calman: Marine 
Animals.—Noel Tayler: A Unique Case of Asymmetrical Di 
the Chick.—Geo. Jennison : A Chimpanzee in the Open Air in England, 

UnstiruTion oF Civit ENGINEERS, at s.30.—Annual General Meeting, 


WEDNESDAY, Aprxiv 30. » My 
Roya, Arronauticat Socizry, at 8.—Major H. E.. Wimperi : Aerial 


Navigation. ; Ee 
THURSDAY, Mav t. fetes 
Roya InstiTuTion, at 3.—Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw: Clutches. 
Linnean Society, at 5.—J. Small: The Pappus in the 
Montagu Drummond : Notes on the Botany of the Palestine Campaign: 
I. The Flora of a Small Area in Palestine.—H. N. Dixon: Mosses from 
Deception Island. or 
aa fchidaniga oF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Dr. C. Chree: Magnetic 
torms. ey eee 
Cuemicat Society, at 8.—Prof. J. H. Jeans: The Quantum Theory and 
New Theories of Atomic Structure. Bee ey 


5 


FRIDAY, May 2. 


wy Ure 
y ey EN RR ss ~ 
Roya. InsriruTION, at 5.30.—Prof. J. W. Nicholson: Ener, - Distribu- 
tion in Spectra. SAE eh er a 
INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Dr. W. H. Id: 


The Mechanical Properties of Steel, with Some Considecation of the 
Question of Brittleness. ; epibanest 
. SATURDAY, May 3. et a 


Loe sek 
ES ae 


Rovat InstiTuTion, at 3.—Prof. H. S. Foxwell : Chapters in the Psycho- 


logy of Industry. 


CONTENTS. PAGE 
The Nation’s Debt to Science ....... pie: feat 
Foundations of Electrical Theory, By J, W.. N. . 142 
The Advancement of Education. By J. A. T. ey 
Our Bookshelf). 90:2 -U:. aha eae 
Letters to the Editor:— ty yaa 
Tonisation and Radiation. —Dr. R. A. Houstoun 
The Whiteness of the Daylight Moon.—C. 1 


Fe 


Whitmell, . . «4 pies ane eer 
Refractometers, (Jllustrated.) .....+..+- 145 
The Atlantic Flight woe whi Wet ie ieee ae 
The Food Requirements of Man . ...... 41 
Notes . Rade. PE ae 
Our Astronomical Column :— = San 

Changes op. Jupiter 0::+. > tinge nce een 5 aa ae 15 
The. Origin of Nowe. j..5,:+1:esie40 Re Oe 
Celestial. Systems is )ij:15 a2 yiicy oe BA a 
Cotton-seed By-products ........ #4... 
A British Geodetic and Geodynamic Institute . . 154 
Responsibilities of Botanical Science .. .  . . 154 


Ophthalmological Training of Medical Students pt “155 
Clock Escapements, (Illustrated.) By A. T. Hare 155 
University and Educational intelligence. ... 158 


Societies and Academies... ....... |. oe 159 

Books Received . . Oa ee: Tee 160 

Diary of Societies .. . PME aT yh) ge lee 
Editorial and Publishing Offices: 


MACMILLAN AND CO., Lr, 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


- 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 


Publishers. 


Editorial Communications to the Editor.. 


Telegraphic Address: Puusts, Lonpon. © = 


Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. © PV meh ert 


ee TS 


es ‘ 
a ee ee eT Yen ve 


eee fn! NATURE 


161 


} Peers THURSDAY MAY Ty -IQTO. 


ae ai a a 
THE COMPLETE PHYSICAL CHEMIST. 


bt: System of Physical Chemistry. By Prof. 
| W. C. McC. Lewis. (Text-books of Physical 
3) mistry.) Second ‘edition. In __ three 
# Volumes. Vol. i., “Kinetic Theory.’’ Pp. xii+ 
"494. Price 15s. net. “Vol. ii, “Thermo- 
yr amics."” Pp. vi+403. Price 15s. net. 
92 ‘ol. iii., “Quantum Theory.’’ Pp. viii+ 209. 
rice 7s. 6d. net. (London: Longmans, Green, 


page Co. -, 1918-19.) 
_ REVIEW of the first edition of Prof. Lewis’s 
4% book appeared in these columns in Sep- 
_ tember, 1916, and the fact that a second edition 
_ has been called for so.soon must be very gratify- 
ing to the author. Prof. Lewis has taken advan- 
Se, tage of the opportunity thus presented him of 
be introducing a few corrections and amendments, 
and has Gedlidacably increased the subject-matter. 
The principal changes include the insertion of a 
section on X-rays and crystal structure, large 
additions to the sections on colloids, catalysis, 
etc, a new chapter on osmotic pressure, and the 
ion of the last chapter of the original 
vol. i ii. into a separate vol. iii., dealing exclusively 
with the quantum theory. The excisions are 
"remarkably few, and we have only noted one of 
any. importance 
. The author’s miethod of treatment of his subject- 
‘matter naturally remains unaltered. The more 
_ classical portions are presented to the student in 
much the same manner as in several of the older 
_text-books (and, it might be added, lecture 


aeetaentnene pr eh, ec marge a ree eS ei 


| 4 courses). As regards more recent work the author 


vis apparently well aware of his rather obvious 
_ lack of the critical faculty, and in the presentation 
does not emphasise any particular point of view 
as being his own. This he achieves by giving 
“the results of each piece of work in, so far as 

_ possible, “the investigator’s actual words.’’ But, 
whatever we may think of the lack of criticism in 
the presentation of any particular summary, we 
must confess that, as a whole, the work included 
in the ose of each section is usually admirable 
in its selection. So broad is the field covered by 
_ the author that we can scarcely expect a critical 
and authoritative pronouncement on every separate 

item. > 

. Considering more closely a few points in vol. i., 
we should have thought, since the work of Bohr 
and Moseley has now been embraced in the author’s 
survey (in vol. iii.), that there would be some 
Sitictioas in the first chapter. The author’s 
sense of values appears at fault when he once 
in apportions more space to Nicholson’s theory 
Biithe atom than to the whole subject of radio- 
activity. There are some parts of the subject, 
such as those dealing with the nuclear charge and 
isotopism, the omission of which seems particu- 
larly regrettable. As it stands, this small-section 
has scarcely been brought up to the knowledge 
of the year 1916, far less of 1918, and this is true 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


of other references to the subject, such as that 
On Pp. 449, which also seems in urgent. need of 
revision, In the summary of the Braggs’ work 
presented in the second chapter we were struck 
by the consistent use of the sequence (y, x, 8) 
instead of the customary (x, y, z) in the naming 
of intercepts, and by the referring to the sodium 
chloride space lattice as  face-centred, while 
what is meant is face-centred relative to one 
kind of atom. In chap iii. we once again 
encounter ‘the more convenient logarithmic form 
vlog C=K”’ instead of the usual logK. On 
p. 197 the last column in the first table is still 
uncorrected. Prof. Lewis apparently now regards 
methyl-orange as “essentially a basic indicator,”’ 
and in consequence inserts as a correction the 
word basic on p. 256, with the result that we 
are informed that, since methyl-orange is neutral- 
coloured in a 10-4 H’ solution, “its (basic) dis- 
sociation constant lies in the neighbourhood of 
10~*.’’ This should evidently be 10-1. On p. 440 
the author introduces as a new term “ the displace- 
ment effect.’’ In view of the use that has already 
been made of the defining word in Wien’s dis- 
placement law, the term is not too happily chosen, 
and “replacement effect’’ is perhaps as suitable 
a descriptive term. 

Turning to vol. ii., we find that a great portion 
consists in the presentation, with the aid of thermo- 
dynamics, of matter bee has already been 
partly discussed in vol. Whether this separa- 
tion is altogether dettahie is an arguable point. 
To select an example at random, we confess we 
are unable to see the virtue in giving in vol. i. 
table of the temperature variation of amass 
action constant, wie the theory of the variation 
is given in vol. Again, in the new chap. viii., 
“the mechanism “of osmotic pressure’’ might have 
seemed more in place in the first volume, which 
deals with the kinetic point of view. As it is, of 
course, it fits in quite well. In the addition at the 
end of chap. i., in speaking of the vapour pressure 
in a column, the author remarks: ‘‘ the pressure 
at the top being entirely due to the kinetic bom- 
bardment by the molecules.’’ But surely it could 
be argued that the pressure at the foot is also 
entirely due to the kinetic bombardment by the 
molecules, even if it is greater than the pressure 
at the top by the weight of the column per unit 
area. We note that the author has now adopted 
“S’? in place of “¢’’ as the symbol for entropy. 
In his brief reference to the entropy equation of 
a perfect gas there is no adequate discussion of 
C,, and the evasion of the lower limits of the 
integral is not too adroit. A symbol, by the way, 
is omitted in the first equation on p. 46. The 
footnote on p. 100 to the effect that “thermo- 
dynamic reversibility has, of course, nothing to 
do with reversibility in the chemical or mass action 
sense ’’ seems open to question. On p. 140 the 
author is evidently unable or unwilling to decide 
against Planck, though Planck has undoubtedly 
slipped. As regards the footnote on p. 142, there 
is a laboratory method of measuring e.m.f. which 
does not involve the use of a potentiometer. 


K 


162 


NATURE 


[May 1, 1919 


The third volume presents in an easily acces- 
sible form the most important theoretical and 
practical work on the quantum hypothesis, em- 
bracing much that is not included in Jeans’s report. 
We have noted one awkward slip, a ‘howler ’ 
on'p. 27 in the proof that the central force is 
equal to mv?/p. The angle between tangent and 
secant is made equal to the angle at the centre, 
and then by an abuse of infinitesimal geometry 
the correct answer is obtained. In chap. v., on the 
Structure of the atom, we are surprised to find 
Moseley’s work dismissed in less than a page, the 
same space nevertheless being allocated to Allen’s 
empirical relation, while Barkla is not mentioned. 
There is a misprint in the second formula on 
p. 115. We sincerely deprecate the habit of be- 
stowing double-barrelled names on equations save 
when there is clear evidence of independent dis- 
covery. From the text-book it would appear that 
the “Marcelin-Rice’’ equation (p. 139) was dis- 
covered by Marcelin, and the method of deduction 
improved by Rice. If this is the case the second 
namé should be dropped from the equation. We 
should have liked to see the appendices (of which 
i. and ii. are by J. Rice) incorporated in the text. 
‘We have confined our attention almost entirely 
to the additions and alterations made by the 
author in his new edition. If we have emphasised 
the defects rather than the excellences of his 
work, we must plead that we are seeking to help 
him in the presentation of’ the only complete 
system of physical chemistry by an English-speak- 
ing author. We have no hesitation in saying that 
we regard these volumes as absolutely indis- 
pensable books of reference to every advanced 
worker in physical chemistry and chemical physics, 
though it is unfortunate from the point of view 
of a standard text-book that the author’s treat- 
ment of the newer portions of his subject will 
compel him to make frequent changes in subse- 
quent editions. A. M. W. 


ACIDOSIS. 


The Principles of Acidosis and Clinical Methods 
for its Study. By A. Watson Sellards. Pp. 
vi+117. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- 
versity Press, 1917.) Price 4s. net. 


» is Napggoate ica may be defined as a condition in 
4 which there is a diminution in the normal 
slight alkalinity of the blood or tissues of a living 
organism; and a real or supposed state of acidosis 
has come in recent times to play a leading part in 
the explanation of many abnormal symptoms, 
including in particular a number of those which 
have been produced in the course of the war. The 
whole subject is thus one of considerable present 
scientific interest, and for this reason’ Dr. 
Sellards’s book on the principles of acidosis is 
specially welcome. 

The fact that in the living body the faintly 
alkaline reaction of the blood and tissues is regu- 
lated in a remarkable manner has. been known for 
long. The non-volatile acid or alkali produced 

NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


within, or introduced into, the body varies con- 
siderably, according to the composition of the 
food; and in man acid predominates, mainly on 
account of the fact that the alkali contained in 
the food is not sufficient to neutralise the sulphuric 
and phosphoric acids produced in the oxidation of 
proteins. The excess of inorganic acid is partly 
got rid of by the secretion of an acid urine, and 
partly neutralised by the formation of ammonia; 
while organic acids introduced into or formed 
within the body are for the most part oxidised 
along with other organic materials, the resulting 
carbonic acid being got rid of in respiration. It 
is only in recent years, however, that it has been 
shown that the concentration of free carbonic acid 
in the blood is regulated by the breathing with 
extreme delicacy, and that the breathing is 
itself normally regulated by the very minute 
changes in hydrogen-ion concentration produced 
by variations in the concentration of free carbonic 
acid in the blood, or by variations in its hydrogen- 
ion concentration from other causes. 
. The lungs thus constitute a safety valve which 
acts more freely or less freely according as the 
hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood increases 
or diminishes. We can correlate the variation in 
respiratory activity, first, with the variations in 
concentration of CO, in the air of the lung alveoli, 
and consequently of the free carbonic acid in the 
arterial blood; secondly, with the corresponding 
variations in hydrogen-ion concentration of the 
arterial blood. The result of this correlation has 
been to show that the regulation of hydrogen- 
ion concentration in the blood of man 
so delicate that existing methods of measurement 
are far too coarse to reveal the changes 
in reaction to which the breathing reacts, 
unless where there are very great variations in 
the breathing. Thus with the existing methods 
of measurement the hydrogen-ion concentration 
of the blood appears to be constant; and where 
apparent distinct variations have been found they 
have nearly always been due to faulty methods of 
measurement. Minute variations in hydrogen-ion 
concentration are constantly occurring, as shown 
by variations in the breathing, but, as a rule, they 
are too small to be directly measurable by existing 
methods. There is also evidence that extremely 
small variations in hydrogen-ion concentration are 
of very great physiological importance. 
Unfortunately, these considerations have not as 
yet been fully realised by medical men, or by more 
than a few physiologists, and the result is a verit- 
able pandemonium of doctrine and practice in 


is 


connection with real or supposed acidosis and its | 


treatment. . Dr.. Sellards’s book is not free from 
the prevailing confusion, as he seriously misinter- 
prets the connection between breathing and the 
hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood. His 
book is, nevertheless, valuable and very well 
written. He rightly lays stress on the fact 
that, except in the extremest cases, accurate 


measurements show no variations in the hydrogen-_ 
But he proceeds | 


ion concentration of the blood. 
to conclude that no variations exist even in what 


peat s 


2 abe 


Fe, 
i+ 
2 


a3 


i 


is by far the most direct sign. 


_ May 1, 1919] 


NATURE 


163 


he regards as quite well-marked “acidosis.”” He 
defines acidosis, not as a state in which the 
hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood and 
_ tissues is abnormally increased, but as one in 
which the reserve of fixed alkali in the body is 
depleted. This depletion is shown by the fact that, 
whereas in a normal individual it only requires a 
Ee dose of sodium bicarbonate to make the 
urine alkaline, it requires a very large dose in the 
case of a patient-suffering from acidosis. 
‘The evidence which Dr. Sellards adduces to 
- illustrate the soundness of this test for acidosis 
Reta interesting and, in the main, new. Much 
of ‘this evidence is from observations which he 
_ made in the Philippines in treating kidney inflam- 
mation in cholera. Acidosis may be due to 
_ abnormal flooding of the body with organic acids, 
as in diabetic coma, or to failure on the part of 
the kidneys to excrete acid, as in kidney inflamma- 
a either case the test proposed by Dr. 
s indicates the condition. . But the whole 
subject becomes much clearer if it is recognised 
that i in serious acidosis there is an actual increase 
in the hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood, 
and: ‘that of this increase the increased breathing 
It appears to be 
the untrustworthiness of direct means of measur- 


| E ing small differences in hydrogen-ion concentra- 


tion that has led some writers in this country to 


deny that dangerous acidosis exists at. all in such 
conditions as diabetic coma or kidney disease, 
although both the greatly increased breathing and 
the favourable effect on the symptoms of large 


doses of sodium bicarbonate indicate the existence 


of what is, physiologically speaking, an extreme 


_ state of acidosis. 


az The confusion is rendered still greater by failure 
to distinguish primary acidosis due to flooding 
_of the body with acid from the secondary acidosis 
which is an adaptive physiological response to 
| lack: of oxygen, and leads to increased ventilation 
and, consequently, increased supply 
al: oxygen to the MEE. Thie\focn sof adidosis. is 
_ Met with typically at high altitudes and in various 
| Soeisinaing such as poisoning by irritant gases, 
where the free supply of oxygen to the body is 
"interfered with. Here the acidosis is brought 
about by diminution in the amount of fixed alkali 
or “alkaline reserve ” in the blood, with the result 
‘that the breathing is increased. There is no 
directly measurable increase in hydrogen-ion con- 
ie tration of the blood, nor, in view of what has 
ady been said, could this be expected; but the 
increased breathing i is, nevertheless, good evidence 
of the existence of an increase. The diminution 
in alkaline reserve in the blood is easily detected, 
either by titration or by a diminution in the 
Capacity of the blood for combining with CO,; 
and the latter method, particularly in the form 
given to it by Van Slyke, has been extensively 
used during the last year or two. The acidosis 
detected in this indirect way has, however, fre- 
quently been interpreted as in itself a symptom to 
be combated by alkalis, when it is in reality an 
advantageous compensatory _ reaction. For- 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


tunately, the body can usually dispose of even 
large quantities of alkaline medicaments adminis- 
tered through this misunderstanding. Dr. Sel- 
lards’s test for acidosis would exclude a com- 
pensatory acidosis, but would also lead to a com- 
pensatory acidosis being missed, and perhaps, as 
a consequence, to the cause of the compensatory 
acidosis being overlooked. 

To interpret the significance of increased breath- 
ing, diminished alkaline reserve in the blood, or 
any of the other symptoms which usually accom- 
pany acidosis, it is necessary to take the whole of 
any existing abnormal physiological conditions 
into account, just as in interpreting the signi- 
ficance of any one of the usual physical signs of 
disease it is necessary to consider the whole of 
the symptoms and their course. The confusion 
which exists at present on the subject of acidosis 
is largely due to neglect of this principle. Per- 
haps this confusion is rendered most evident by 
the quite recent discovery by Yandell Henderson 
that when an animal is dying of “alkalosis,” pro- 
duced by withdrawing carbonic acid from the body 
by excessive artificial respiration, the alkaline 
reserve in the blood is greatly diminished in a 
physiological effort of the body to preserve the 
normal reaction; and, conversely, that when. an 
animal is suffering from extreme acidosis owing 
to a great excess of CO, in the inspired air, the 
alkaline reserve of the blood is greatly increased 
in a corresponding compensatory effort. A 
diminution in alkaline reserve of the blood is thus 
not by itself a certain index of acidosis, or. of 
whether or not an acidosis, if it exists, is harmful. 

J. S. Hatpane. 


TROPISMS. 


Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Con- 
duct. By Prof. Jacques Loeb. Pp. 209. (Phila- 
delphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 
1918.) Price 1os. 6d. net. 


A PROLIFIC investigator does a great service 
to his brethren when, without waiting to 
write an elaborate treatise, he collects the gist of 
some considerable portion of his work into a book; 
and if the book be a small one, so much the 
better. This Prof. Loeb has now done, and we 
are immensely obliged to him. What is more, ‘his 
volume is but the first of a series, by American 
writers, all dealing with the wide field of experi- 
mental biology, a field in which we at home have 
done comparatively little, but in which American 
biologists have greatly distinguished themselves. 
Among the promised monographs are one by Prof. 
Morgan on “Chromosomes and Heredity ’’; 
another, by Dr. Jennings, on “ Pure Line Inherit- 
ance”; a third, by Dr. T. B. Robertson, on “The 
Chemical Basis of Growth’’; and a fourth, by 
Prof. Osterhout, on ‘Permeability and Conduc- 
tivity of Living Tissues.’’» In every case (and 
there are many more besides these) the author has 
won, and more than won, his right to be heard, 
and in every case also we feel the need of an 
authoritative guide to the subject in question. 


164 


NATURE 


| May 1, 1919 


‘ Prof. Loeb is an out-and-out “mechanist,’’ as 
we all know. He is impatient (as he tells us in 
the first words of his preface) with “the attempts 
of vitalists to show the inadequacy of physical 
laws for the explanation of life.’ He insists on 
the ‘quantitative methods of the physicist,’’ and 
will have nothing to say to the romantic, or 
anthropomorphic, tales of “scientific popularism.’’ 
His book begins with an account of the sym- 
metry of the organism, as the starting-point for 
his theories of conduct; that is to say, he finds in 
the existence of bodily symmetry, whether radial 
or bilateral, a simplification of all further analysis. 
The symmetry is a dynamical as well as a mor- 
phological one; there is a symmetry which corre- 
sponds with the impulses from without, as to the 
reactions from within; muscular system and 
nervous system have their own corresponding sym- 
metries, and the whole problem of action and 
reaction is simplified thereby. But it does not 
follow that all animals are symmetrical—at least, 
in this simple fashion. The spiral Euglena, for 
instance, is a harder case; and the experimentalist 
may convert the symmetrical into ‘an unsym- 
metrical animal, as when he destroys one hemi- 
sphere of a dog’s brain, or makes a beetle blind 
of one eye. The “reflex actions’’ of the physio- 
logist are the reactions of parts, or isolated seg- 
ments; a similar or analogous reaction of the 
whole is likewise assumed to be, or may be inter- 
preted as, a phenomenon of a purely physico- 
chemical nature. And these reactions of the whole 
organism are what Prof. Loeb calls “tropisms.’’ 
Through such reactions, or tropisms, Prof. Loeb 
leads us, in connection with the various stimuli 
of light, heat, electricity, chemical action, gravity, 
contact, and so forth, and at last comes face to 
face with the more recondite themes of instinct 
and memory. Let us consider a single experiment 
out of the great number which this small book 
relates. Many animals, very humble ones in- 
cluded, tend to move towards the light, while 
some, on the other hand, retire into the darkness 
or the shade; some love the light, and some hate 
and avoid it, as we are apt, in our anthropo- 
morphic fashion, to say. Suppose, now, that we 
illuminate the two eyes of a fly by separate beams 
of light, of equal intensity and similarly directed. 
The fly will not choose between the two lights, 


says Prof. Loeb, as a belated traveller might ‘choose | 


between the lights of two village inns; it will do 
something much simpler, and apparently more 
mechanical. It will travel straight along a line 
perpendicular to that which joins the two lights; 
it will follow the resultant of the two stimuli. Not 
only so, but if we alter the direction of the beams, 
or cause them to differ in intensity, so that in 
éither ‘case one eye receives more illumination, 
more “ phototropic stimulus,’’ than the othér, then 
the creature will move along a perfectly definite 
line, which can still be simply calculated as the 
resultant of the two forces involved. The experi- 
ment is an ingenious and an elegant one, and, 
without for a moment ‘doubting the results which 
Prof. Loeb and his pupils have repeatedly 
NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


obtained, we can honestly say that we should 


dearly like to see it performed. 
We dare not attempt to discuss the great philos 


sophic questions that are involved in the whole H 


course of these experiments. We have a notion 
that ‘““anthropomorphism’’ is not got rid of quite 
so easily, however much we change our phraseo- 
logy, as Prof. Loeb would have us believe, and 
that, great as are the lessons of mechanics, they 
do not tell the whole story, after all. Be that as 
it may, the element of precision, the quantitative 
element, the strict, experimental method, is con- 
spicuous in Prof. Loeb’s work, and our knowledge 
is manifestly increased thereby. I think it was 
Liebig who said, in one of his letters to Faraday, 
that (in those days) a man might be an eminent 
geologist in England who knew nothing of 
physics, nothing of chemistry, nothing even of 
mineralogy. Change the wording, and the bio- 
logist may (or once upon a time might) have 
begun to feel uneasy. It is something to be 
taught or reminded by Prof. Loeb, and by the 
whole brotherhood of experimental biologists, that 
the naturalist cannot live alone, but works in a 
field inextricably connected, for better for worse, 
with the whole range of the physical sciences. 
Prof. Loeb has a boundless wealth of ideas. In 
this book and in his other books and papers we 
seem to see them tumbling one over another. He 
has enough and to spare for all his pupils and 
fellow-workers, so that all who come to him ma 


eS a 


eat and be filled. Moreover, his manifold experi- _ 


ments all have the hall-mark of simplicity, and 
this is surely one of the greatest things that can 
be said of any experimenter. There is no parade 
of elaborate apparatus, nor does it ever seem to 
be required. Simplex sigillum veri! 

The book concludes with a bibliographical list 
of nearly six hundred titles—a catalogue of books 
and papers on experimental biology, in the sense 
in which Prof. Loeb himself deals with it. In the 
first hundred and fifty titles (and I havg gone no 
further in my analysis) sixty-three are German, 
forty-three American, thirty-eight French, and 
four more are Dutch or Italian. 1 shrink from 
doing the addition and subtraction which would 
reveal our British share. 

D’Arcy.W. THompPson. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


The Strawberry in North America. | History, 


_ Origin, Botany, and Breeding. By Prof. S. W. ; 


Fletcher.. Pp. xiv+234. (New York: The 
. Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 8s. net. 


WitH marked success Prof. Fletcher has’ wattincest 


into a comprehensive survey much information of 
great interest in the history and development of 
the strawberry. Though the book is primarily 


written for American readers, it appeals to the : 
English gardener and student of horticulture, as — 


English varieties and methods of cultivation had 
a strong influence on the improvement of the fruit 
in North America. Garden cultivation began 


May 1, 1919] 


NATURE 


165 


about 1700, but growing: for market purposes was 
_ not seriously taken up for another century, after 
_ which the need for improved varieties soon arose. 
‘new era was ushered in in 1834 by the intro- 
ction of the Hovey strawberry, which was the 
rst mamed variety to be produced by definite 
ant breeding in North America. From this time 
| development of commercial cultivation was 
pid, and it was accentuated by the competition 
to increased facilities for transporting the 
zile berries over longer distances. The tender- 
; of the fruit necessitated a search for the ideal 

for marketing, and many descriptions of 
boxes, tubs, and trays have been ex- 


survey includes an outline of observations 

xperiments on the crossing of species and 
‘raising of new varieties. The illustrated 
ount of present-day methods of breeding and 
sction gives a useful summary of the subject, 
id the sketches of abnormal freak berries are 
to the morphologist. The, biographical 
the last chapter form a fitting con- 
to the book by directing attention to the 

10se careful and patient work is due the 
ement in the strawberry in North 


wnal of the Institute of Metals. No. 2. 

‘Vol. xx. Edited by G. Shaw Scott, 
y. Pp. xi+382. (London: Published 
ite of Metals, 1918.) Price 21s. 


lume of this valuable publication 
-y of papers of scientific and tech- 
he May lecture, by Sir Charles 
the experiments on the arti- 
f diamond made by the lecturer 
thirty years, and discusses the 

results obtained on the problem 
of natural diamonds. A group of 


giving a review of the whole 
much use of experiments 
laments. The observations are by 
sy to interpret, and some of the con- 
spear to contradict one another ; but 
the author has made a most important contribu- 
tion to a subject of great interest, and it may be 
possible shortly to bring the facts into harmony. 
e a r. D. Hanson, in a short note, describes exper!- 
ments on the same problem, discussing the rela- 
‘tion between the rapidity of grain growth at a 
3 ven temperature and the amount of deformation 
_ which the material has been previously sub- 


A third paper, by Mr. R. J. Anderson, 

cribes the effect of short exposures to various 
emperatures on cold-rolled aluminium sheet, and 
ae ch it is the hardness in this case, and not 
1 the grain size, which is measured, the phenomena 
| involved are essentially similar to shee discussed 
4m the preceding papers. Prof. Edwards gives an 
E poletge the Sehotad determining hardness by 
"measuring the resistance to penetration under im- 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103 | 


the grain growth of metals, 


pact, and there are seyeral contributions on the 
subject of commercial copper alloys. An interest- 
ing communication by Mr. W. E. Alkins records 
the effect of progressive cold work on the tensile 
properties of copper wire, an abrupt change being 
observed at a certain stage in the reduction .of 
cross-section by drawing. The allotropic change 
assumed by the author requires more evidence 
before it can be accepted as an explanation, but 
the facts are remarkable, and must be taken into 
account in future work. The volume includes the 
usual abstracts of publications referring to the 
non-ferrous metals. ' 


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 Doppler Effect in the Molecular Scattering of 
Radiation. 

In connection with the recent work of Prof. Strutt 
and of Lord Rayleigh on the molecular scattering of 
light, Sir Joseph Larmor has put forward the interest- 
ing suggestion (Phil. Mag., January, 1919, p. 162) 
that the additive property of the energy elements scat- 
tered by the individual molecules is secured by the 
irregular alterations in the wave-length of the scat- 
tered radiation produced (in accordance with Doppler’s 
principle) by the thermal movements of the mole- 
cules. There is one interesting feature of the Doppler 
effect in the scattered radiation to which Sir Joseph 
Larmor does not specifically direct attention in his 
paper, and which it. seems important to emphasise, 
namely, that the magnitude of the Doppler effect 
would depend on the angle between the primary and 
the scattered radiation, and would, in fact, practically 
vanish in directions nearly the same as that of the 
primary waves. This follows from the fact that the 
movement of an individual molecule would alter the 
effective frequency of the radiation received by it, and 
this has to be taken into account in calculating the 
effective frequency of the emitted radiation as re- 
ceived by the observer. In directions nearly the same 
as that of the primary radiation there would be prac- 
tically a complete compensation, and the Doppler effect 
would vanish. Bh 

The importance of the considerations set out above 
becomes evident when we attempt to explain refrac- 
tivity on the basis of molecular scattering. This 
appears possible only if the energy effects due to the 
individual molecules are not additive in directions 
nearly the same as that of the primary wave, and the 
vanishing of the Doppler effect in the scattered radia- 
tion would seem to be a necessary condition for 
mutual interference of the radiations from individual 
molecules to be possible. RAMAN. 

210 Bowbazar Street, Calcutta, March 19. 


THE point developed in a new direction by Prof. 
Raman had been noted by Lord Rayleigh, and was 
mentioned very cursorily in the last sentence of my 
paper in the Phil. Mag. to which his letter refers. 
The main purpose of that paper was to express the 
view that, so far as I understand, independent scat- 
tering of light by the molecules of a homogeneous 


rg 


166 


NATURE 


[May 1, 1919 


medium, so dense that there are very many mole- 
cules per cubic wave-length—for example, in the atmo- 
sphere—must arise from the thermal motions of the 
molecules rather than from irregularity of their spac- 
ing. In directions, however, that are nearly coincident 
with .the transmitted ray there can be no sensible 
dispersal of phase from either cause; disturbances, 
therefore, completely conspire, and the light scattered 
by the molecules in such directions is, in Lord Ray- 
leigh’s phrase, specially favoured. Prof. Raman 
points out that if the phases in directions near that 
of the ray did not in fact thus agree, the molecules 
of the material medium could take no concordant part 
in the transmission of the energy of the main beam, 
and regular propagation would be impossible. It is 
involved in this remark that each molecule will exert 
its full effect on the index of refraction, however ir- 
regular the distribution may be, provided it is not so 
dense that the molecules will obstruct each other; and, 
moreover, the thermal motions will not disturb this 


INDIAN ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS,* 


pPaRia8 astronomy, handed down to us in a. 

series of text-books, the Siddhdntas, of which _ 
the earliest dates from about A.D. 400, is an off-— 
spring of Greek astronomy. Via Babylon and the 
Greek kingdom of Bactria (the Kabul valley and 


the Punjab), Greek science was introduced into 
India in the course of the two or three centuries 


following the invasion of Alexander the Great. — 


While, during the Middle Ages, many astronomers 
in western Asia and North Africa, did good work 
by re-determining astronomical constants and im- 
proving planetary tables by new observations, no 
attempts whatever in this direction were made in 
India. It is therefore very curious to find that an 
extremely belated effort to revive the study of 
astronomy, and at last to try to advance this 


Fic, 1.—General view, Jaipur Observatory. _ From “*‘The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh.” “t CTT ae 


effect. The specially favoured directions, for disturb- 
ances passed on by the molecules, must be almost 
coincident with the ray—must, in fact, belong to the 
ray after the manner of diffraction, when it is regarded 
as a physical filament of light rather than as a 
geometrical line. 
The light that may be scattered in a crystal must, 
on any view, be due either to motes embedded in it 
or to the thermal motions of its molecules around 
their regularly spaced mean positions. A _ beautiful 
recent experiment by Prof. Strutt, now reported in 
the Proceedings of the Royal Society, exhibits a spiral 
beam scattered sideways when plane-polarised light 
passes through a column of quartz; thus, incidentally, 
it puts in direct visual evidence the slow rotation of 
the plane of polarisation of the vibrations which arises 
from the spiral structure of the crystal. 
JosEPH LARMOR. 
Cambridge, April 24. : 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


science by independent work, was made early in 
the eighteenth century in the north of India. 

Rajah Jai Singh of Jaipur (born 1686, died 
1743) was interested in astronomy from his youth. 
He wrote or caused to be written an astronomical 
work named after the Emperor Muhammad Shah, 
of which there are now extant an imperfect copy 
in Sanskrit (at Jaipur), and a complete MS. in 
Persian in the British Museum. It contains a 
star catalogue, which, however, is nothing but 
the catalogue of Ulugh Beg, with 4° 8’ added to 
the longitudes to allow for precession. A transla- 
tion of the introduction was published by Hunter 
in the “Asiatic Researches,’’ vol. v. (1799); it is 


1 ‘The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh.” By G. R. Kaye. ~ 


.- 


(Archeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, vol. xl.) Pp. viliit’ 


151+26 plates+1 map. (Calcutta, 1918.) Price 23s. 


“iy A 4% wy sgt Le 


(abe: §, 


——- 


May 1, 1919] 


reproduced by Mr. Kaye in the valuable book 
now under notice. In this introduction Hipparchus 
is referred to as an ignorant clown, and 
Ptolemy as a bat who can never arrive at the sun 


of truth; the demonstrations of Euclid are said 


to be an imperfect sketch, and ‘‘ the European 
tables ‘’ to be often in errors Jai Singh therefore 
decided to erect new instruments of colossal size, 
similar to those made by Ulugh Beg at Samar- 
kand in the fifteenth century. Among the latter 
we know from other sources that there was 
a quadrant of 180-ft. radius, while a 6o0-ft. 
sextant is said to have been erected at Baghdad 
im A.D. 992. Before the application of diagonal 
scales or vermiers to graduated arcs there was 
only one way of making single minutes and frac- 
tions of them distinguishable—by enlarging the in- 


NATURE 


167 


but gigantic sun-dials. Thus the Samrat Yantra, 
or “supreme instrument,’’ consists of a gnomon 
in the form of a rectangular triangle with the 
hypotenuse parallel to the earth’s axis, and an 
equatorial arc on either side. The two largest 
examples are at Delhi (height 68 ft., radius of 
arcs 494 ft.) and at Jaipur (go ft. and 50 ft.) 
(Fig. 1). The Jai Prakas is a hemispherical bowl, 
on the concave surface of which are marked the 
equator, meridian, and other circles, on which the 
shadows of wires might fall. The Ram Yantra 
(Fig. 2) is a cylindrical wall with a vertical pillar 
in the middle. Neither these nor any of the other 
instruments show any originality of design. The 
best known of these five collections of masonry 
instruments is probably the Delhi Observatory, 
called the Jantar Mantar, built about 1724, 


struments as much as possible. Jai Singh first 
constructed a number of astrolabes of iron or 
brass, from 6 in. to 7 ft. in diameter, many 
of which are still preserved at Jaipur. In four 
plates Mr. Kaye gives sixteen photographic illus- 
trations of these astrolabes, but most of them are 
too indistinct to show details. 

Jai Singh’s chief work, however, was the build- 
ing of masonry instruments, ranging from a few 
feet to go ft. in height, at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, 
Benares, and Mathura. They have often been 
described in a more or less sketchy manner in 
books on India; but Mr. Kaye gives an ex- 
haustive account of them, beautifully illustrated 
by a number of plates.2 They are really nothing 


2 There are a number of tiny models of them in the South Kensington 
Museum. 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


Fic. 2.—The Ram Yantra, Delhi, North Building. From “‘ The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh.” 


34 miles south of the Ridge, so that it will be a 
notable feature in the new capital. It contains six 
instruments. The graduations on the gnomon of 
the Samrdt Yantra are scratched into the lime- 
plaster surface, but those of the quadrants are 
well marked with a soft, black stone neatly inlaid 
into the face of the arcs. This seems, however, 
to be the result only of a restoration carried out 
in 1910-12. At Jaipur the instruments are well 
preserved, being within the precincts of the palace. 
At Benares the instruments were erected in 1737 
on the roof of a building; they are therefore of 
moderate size.. A much-needed restoration took 
place in 1912. At Ujjain the four instruments are 
in a state of ruin, and those at Mathura have 
quite disappeared. 

There is no record of any attempts having been 


168 


NATURE 


| May 1, 1919 


made to do systematic work with these instru- 
ments, nor would it have been of the slightest 


use to employ them for anything but lecture- 


demonstrations. In 1728 or 1729 Jai Singh sent 
Figueredo, a Portuguese Jesuit, to Europe to 
procure astronomical tables, and he brought back 
“tables published under the name ‘ Lir,’’’ i.e. 
the tables of La Hire. Mr. Kaye also thinks that 
Jai Singh possessed the “Historia Ccelestis’’ of 
Flamsteed, and says (p. 69) that “he must have 
beeh acquainted with the teaching of Kepler, 
Galileo, and Newton, for he possessed the works 
of La Hire, Flamsteed, and others.’’ But neither 
of these works could give the slightest clue to 
the teaching of European astronomers. The “ His- 
toria Coeelestis ’’ contains Flamsteed’s observations 
and the resulting star-catalogue (as well as re- 
prints of previous catalogues), and La Hire’s 
planetary tables are not founded on any theory, 
but were constructed in an empirical manner, as 
to the details of which nothing is known. Mr. 
Kaye suggests (p. 90) that as Jai Singh’s Euro- 
pean advisers were chiefly Roman Catholic priests, 
the development of astronomy since Copernicus 
must have been discredited in his eyes. This 
suggestion is of course quite unwarranted, as 
there were plenty of priests in. those days ‘who 
did good work in astronomy. 
J. L. E.. Dreyer. 


THE OCCLUSION OF GASES BY METALS. 


Pree at the meeting of the Faraday 


Society in November last, at which the 
subject of the occlusion of, gases by metals was 
discussed, Sir Robert Hadfield delivered an intro- 
ductory address, which is about to be published 
by the society with an. account of the dis- 


cussion. It appears from the bibliography 
attached to this:address that Thomas Graham 
was one of the first to investigate this 
subject... His resulis. were published in. the. 


Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 


in 1867, the title of the paper being “The 


Occlusion of Gases. by Meteoric Iron.’’ The par- 
ticular specimen investigated contained go’9 per 


cent. of iron, 8°45 per cent. of nickel, and a small’ 


quantity of cobalt. It was free from any stony 
admixture, and was remarkably pure and malle- 
able. A strip cut from this with a clean chisel 
was first well washed with a hot solution of 
potash, then with distilled water, and afterwards 
dried. It was then placed in a porcelain tube which 
was evacuated and afterwards heated to redness 
in a combustion furnace. 

Gas was observed to come off freely, and was 
collected in successive portions. The first portion 
evolved consisted principally of hydrogen. Suc- 
ceeding portions also contained hydrogen as the 
chief constituent, with smaller quantities of car- 
bonic oxide and nitrogen. 


gas. Graham also investigated the gas taken up 
by iron from a carbonaceous fire, and in the case 
of some clean horseshoe nails which he heated in 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


This particular speci- 
men of iron yielded’ 2°8 times its own volume of: 


a similar ‘way he found that the metal yielded 


2°66 times its own volume of: gas, containing” 
about 50 per cent. of carbonic oxide, 35 per cent. 


of hydrogen, 7°7 per cent. of carbon dioxide, and 
7 per cent. of nitrogen. He concluded that as 
hydrogen was recognised in the spectrum analysis 
of the lights of the fixed stars, the Lenarto meteo- 
ric iron which he had investigated came from an 
atmosphere in which hydrogen was the chief 
constituent, and that it held imprisoned within it 
the hydrogen of the stars. 

The latest investigations on the Subject BE 
“Occluded Gases in Ferrous Alloys’’ are those 
by Allemann and Darlington, whose results are 
published in the proceedings of the Franklin In- 
stitute of Philadelphia in February, March, and 
April of 1918. These investigators describe a gas- 
tight vacuum furnace which they have constructed 
capable of continuous service at temperatures of 
approximately rg00° C. By means of this they 
claim that all the gases occluded by ferrous alloys 
may be removed and collected. They have found 
that hydrogen is most readily set free, that carbon 
monoxide comes next,.and that nitrogen appears 
to be held the most tenaciously. 
been unable to determine whether the presence of 
oxygen in their gases is due to the decomposition 
of the various oxides of iron or the dissociation of 
one of the oxides of.carbon. Allemann and Dar- 
lington have found that ferrous alloys may occlude 
relatively large volumes of gases, in some Cases 
equal to 200 times the volume. of the metz 
they suggest that, in addition to the. ordi 
functions of metals, aluminium, silicon, | man- 
ganese, titanium, and tungsten, when ad 
molten. iron alloys, may either: prevent 
sion of large quantities of gases or a 
nating such gases at lower temperatur 
those at which such elimination ordinss a of 


gases markedly changes. the micros u 
increases the: density of the alloys. — 

Sir Robert Hadfield then mache Be Peibsider 
the bearing: of scientific work of the foregoing 
kind on the problem of obtaining sound steel, and 
quotes at some length the views of the late Dr. 
Héroult as set forth in his paper on “The Pres- 
ence and Influences of Gases in Steel.’’ Héroult 


pointed out that the gases obtained from blow-: 


holes in unsound steel ingots always contain 


As yet they have ~ 


hydrogen and nitrogen, often with only traces of — 


carbon monoxide, but it is well known that sound 


steel, when ‘heated in vacuo, also gives off these q 
It has also been shown that the quantities — 
of gases so liberated are about the same, whether _ 


gases. 


the steel be made by the crucible, the Bessemer, 
the open hearth, or the electric furnace. 
sequence of this he concluded that hydrogen and 


In con- | 


nitrogen are not the cause of the production of — 
blowholes, but that the latter are the result of the _ 


liberation of carbon: monoxide, except in the case 
of blowholes near the surface, which are due to 
the poor condition of the moulds. Héroult’s view 
of. the. production of blowholes was as follows : _ 
The carbon monoxide does not pre-exist in the’ 


rh 


{ \ 


_ May 1, 1919] 


i 


a 


_ down and has partly solidified. 


oe 
. is raised, the reducing action of the carbon is 


“i much trouble as the unsoundness itself. 


Bade 
© 


7 tn 
Bes: Hp 


inthe cast state. 


NATURE 


169 


It is produced only when the latter cools 
Steel that will 
ce blowholes contains in the molten condi- 


_ tion dissolved carbon and oxygen, and for each 
r BE ecratar. and composition there is a particular 


- equilibrium at which no chemical reaction takes 
ce. The heat is then what is called “dead- 
If, on one. hand, the temperature 


intensified, and carbon monoxide will be evolved; 
if, on the other, the temperature is lowered, 
happens until the steel has partially 
F adiiliGed:: This causes an increased concentration 
_ of carbon and oxygen in the still liquid portion, 
as a result of which carbon monoxide is evolved. 
_ This gas is unable to escape, and by its pressure 
| produces the blowholes. On cooling, it is gradu- 
eh absorbed by the now solid metal. 

__As yet almost nothing is known as to the con- 
in which these gases exist in metals and 
Prof. McBain pointed out in his.con- 
“eration to the discussion that the occlusion of 
ases by metals comprises processes which are 
ecial instances of the general group of different 
¢ nol mena known collectively as “sorption,’’ and 
‘in the vast majority of cases the intermingling 
have not been disentangled or even 
experimentally identified. It is necessary to take 


“into consideration true adsorption (surface con- 


sen), true absorption (true solution in a 
chemical reactions that may ensue. 
ett Hadfield finally considers briefly the 
which have been found effective in pro- 
- sound steel. As he points out, great diffi- 
were experienced in the early days of 
Castings in producing sound metal. 
very useful element silicon was scarcely ob- 
except in combinations which caused as 
High- 
ntage ferro-silicons with low carbon and 
is were unknown. Manganese, though 
useful, was only a partial cure, and aluminium 
as a commercial metal had not yet arrived. 
It appears that it was three French metallurgists 


vho introduced and perfected the successful pro- 
ction of ferro-alloys containing high percentages 


3 poe saa and also manganese, as a result of which 


“manufacture of sound steel by commercial 

re Ss on a large scale was rendered possible. 
i ‘hese — ‘mea were MM. Euverte, Pourcel, and 
autier, of the Terre Noire Works. Credit should 
so be given to Hall in America and Héroult in 
_ France, who were the pioneers of the production 
of aluminium on a‘commercial scale. This element 
Satercet one of the most valuable available for the 
sntion of blowholes in steel. As an instance 

f the successful production of sound steel castings 


> ee ra ers: day Sir Robert Hadfield gives some 


of the casting of hydraulic cylinders for 
cotton baling presses. These cylinders have no 
mechanical work done upon them, but are used 
They may run up to a length 
of 30 ft. The ram measures from 7 in. to g in. 
in diameter. The walls of the cylinders seldom 
exceed 2} in. in thickness, and have to stand the 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


hydraulic test pressure of 4 tons per'sq. in. The 
steel is cast at a temperature of about 1540° C., 
and is poured into sand moulds which are liable 
to give off gases. Its contraction is slightly more 
than 0°25 in. per ft., so that the mould is not 
less than 7 in. longer than the cylinder itself 
when cooled down. Below 1500° €. the steel 
quickly loses its fluidity, and not many degrees 
lower it is quite pasty. The fact that, in spite of 
the difficulty of meeting these conditions, satis- 
factory cylinders can be made indicates that the 
art of steel casting has reached a high stage of 
technical perfection. H. C. H: Gis 


PROF. J. J. T. SCHLGSING. 


GRICULTURAL investigators in all coun- 
tries will learn with regret of the death. of 
Prof. Jean Jacques Théophile Schloesing at Paris 
on February 8. Although Prof. Schleesing had. 
attained the advanced age of ninety-four, his 
vigour and mental alertness were unusually good, 
and he had had the satisfaction of seeing his son 
continuing in his own branch of science, doing 
work of great importance, and making a reputa- 
tion scarcely less distinguished than his own. 

Schleesing was born at Marseilles on July g,, 
1824; he entered the Polytechnic in. 1841, and. 
was appointed director of the Ecole des: Tabacs 
in. 1846. There he began an important. series-of 
analytical investigations the purpose ef which 
was to improve the method of detecting and esti- 
mating the common ,constituents of soils and 
plants, such as potassium, ammonium, nitric, 
phosphoric, and hydrochloric acids, and..the com- 
mon organic acids, such as acetic, tartaric, citric, 
oxalic, malic, and others. The current methods. 
of dealing with natural products were sometimes 
exceedingly. laborious, and lacked even the merit. 
of accuracy; the determinations of ammonia. in 
rain-water made with all possible care by Lawes 
and Gilbert in. 1853 had involved the distillation 
of 2 ewt. of rain and evaporation of the distillate 
with sulphuric acid; even. then the- results came 
out something like 100 per cent. too high. It is 
impossible, therefore, to over-estimate. the value 
of careful analytical investigations: auth as thoad 
made by Schloesing. 

His next important series of inveniautions 
was on the soil. By a lengthy washing process 
he obtained a preparation of the finest clay particles 
which remained indefinitely suspended . in -pure 
water, but could be precipitated. by traces: of @ 
calcium or magnesium salt. This was’ commonly 
regarded as being in some sense-the essential 
clay,., and agricultural chemists marvelled: at-the 
minute amount present even in heavy soils: The. 
conception served a useful purpose, but it has now 
been replaced by a broader one:, the ‘soil is now 
considered to be made up of particles varying from. 
I mm. downwards to molecular dimensions, the 
different groups merging one into another: without 
perceptible breaks... The clay group: is: assigned 
for convenience an upper limit of o’002-mm., tut 
this is regarded as purely conventional :+:i!i 
atS37 


“¢3z* w the ve? £tah1 


170 


NATURE 


[May 1, 1919 


Another important investigation had to do with 
the movements of lime in the soil. The conditions 
of solubility.were determined, and deductions were 
drawn which threw important light on the prac- 
tices of liming and marling, and on the presence 
of ‘lime in natural waters. 

urther, Schloesing studied the effect on plant 
growth of the carbon dioxide and ammonia present 
in{ the atmosphere, in the soil, and in natural 
waters. He set up the well-known hypothesis that 
the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 
is'related to the extent of dissociation of the bicar- 
bonates in the.sea. The sea was thus regarded 
as.a reservoir which equalises the stock of carbon 
dioxide in the atmosphere, taking up any excess 
that might be formed at any time, and supplying 
any deficit from the average amount should such 
ever arise. 

‘Schleesing’s best-known work, however, was 
on nitrification. For a long time it had been 
known that nitrates are’ gradually formed when 
plant or animal residues, farmyard manure, etc., 
are incorporated in the soil. The process was cf 
much technical importance in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries as the source of nitrate for 
gunpowder. During the Thirty Years’ War and 
other great Continental wars the various Govern- 
ments had been seriously concerned in these so- 
called nitre beds; and had done a good deal to 
stimulate their development. The conditions of 
the change were tolerably well ascertained, but 
nothing was known as to its mechanism. 

It has several times happeried in the history of 
civilisation that agriculture has benefited by know- 
ledge gained during war. The mass of informa- 
tion accumulated during the eighteenth-century 
wars, and apparently rendered useless in the nine- 
teenth century by the promise of peace and the 
discovery of nitrates in Chile, was found to be of 
fundamental importance in agriculture. It was 
found that the nutrition of plants so far as nitrogen 
was concerned depended: on the nitre-bed pro- 
cesses; organic nitrogen compounds, useless as 
plant nutrients, when added to the soil became 
converted into highly valuable nitrates; the more 
rapidly this change could be brought about, the 
better for the plant. So long as the mechanism 
of the change was unknown, the old knowledge 
was simply empirical and incapable of full utilisa- 
tion. Many investigations were therefore made, 
but for years the problem remained unsolved. The 
balance of opinion was in favour of a_ purely 
physical process, but there was also a strongly 
supported chemical hypothesis. 

Schlossing and Muntz had been working at the 
formation of nitrates in sewage during the process 
of nitrification, and they noticed an inert period of 
twenty days before the commencement of nitrifica- 
tion. With ‘characteristic shrewdness they ob- 
served that this. delay could scarcely arise if the 
process. were purely. physical or chemical; some 
biological factor séemed ‘to be indicated. In order 
to’ test this possibility they added a little chloro- 


form to the sewage; nitrification at once stopped. 
They then removed the chloroform, and “seeded ’’ ! 
' 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


| with a little fresh sewage; after an interval nitri- | 


fication began again. This afforded strong, 
evidence that the process was due to living 
organisms, and in course of time the proof was | 
made more rigid by Winogradsky’s isolation of — 
the specific organism... : fn ce 

This research is one of the foundations of — 
modern soil bacteriology, and for this alone 
Schloesing would be remembered... But his other. 
work has also played an important part in the 
development of the subject, and he may justly be 
regarded as a worthy successor to the great Bous- 
singault, whom he followed at the Conservatoire 
des Arts et Métiers in 1887. He carried on the 
high standard set by his predecessor, and leaves. 
a name that will long be held in high honour and 
esteem. . E. J. RUSSELL. 


" 
he 


NOTES. 


Tue Prime Minister’s list of New .Year honours,: 
the publication of which has been delayed by cireum- 
stances arising out of the armistice, was issued on. 
Monday, and includes the following names of workers’ 


-in scientific fields :—Baronet: “Dr. Norman 


president of the Royal College of Physicians. — 
Knights: Mr. R. T. Blomfield, past president of the — 
Royal Institute of British Architects; -Lt.-Col. J. M. 
Cotterill, C.M.G., consulting and late acting sur- 
geon, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and lecturer in 
clinical surgery, Edinburgh School of Medicine; Prof.. 
Israel Gollancz, secretary of the British Academy 
since its foundation; Prof. R. A. Gregory, chairman 
of the Organising Committee, British Scientific Pro- 
ducts Exhibition; Mr. H. J. Hall, organiser under 
the Ministry of Munitions of the section dealing with 
the production of fertilisers; Dr. Edward Malins; 
Mr. J. H.-Oakley, president of the Surveyors’ Institu- 
tion; Prof. W. Ridgeway, professor of archenogy 
University of Cambridge; Dr. C. S. Tomes, F.R.S.; 
and Dr. T. J. Verrall, chairman of the Central 
Medical War Committee. oa 


THE joint meeting of the Faraday Society and the 
Roéntgen Society, held at the Royal Society on Tues- 
day for the discussion of ‘‘The Examination of 
Materials by X-rars,’’ afforded remarkable testimony 
to the wide interest taken in the opportunity which 
such a meeting provides of bringing together 
theoretical knowledge and practical experience of a 
scientific subject. The meeting-room of the Royal 
Society was crowded, and one twice the size could 
easily have been filled. The discussion, of which we 
shall give an account in a later issue, began in the 
afternoon, and was continued in the evening after 
adjournment for dinner, to which a large company 
was invited by the president of the Faraday Society, 
Sir Robert Hadfield. It was an unusual privilege for 
the Royal Society to grant the use of its meeting- 


room for a discussion organised by other societies, 


but there could not be a more appropriate place for 
such a meeting, and the society itself might with 


- advantage arrange for similar meetings at which all 


scientific workers in wide fields are actively interested. 
The success. of the Faraday Society discussions is_ 
due chiefly to the rare combination of pure and 
applied science and unbounded energy manifest in Sir 
Robert Hadfield, and. to the untiring work of the 
secretary of the society, Mr. F. S. Spiers. It was 
particularly pleasing to note the number of the 
younger generation of scientific workers present at 
the meeting. No more encouraging sign could be 


bay 
CN ic rerngmiiningiin oe 


pnt oS 


that # 


May 1, 1919] 


. 
ee 


NATURE. 


L71 


:. the Faraday Society will be strengthened greatly 
_ by increase of membership to continue its valuable 
work of co-ordinating scientific activities. The 
address of the society is 82 Victoria Street, West- 
minster, S.W.1. 


-UnFavouraBLe weather has as yet delayed the trans- 
Atlantic flight, and the aeroplanes, although perfectly 


atin? 


al 


e 


y 


_ ready for the start eastwards, have still to wait for 


eer eee eee 


weather conditions which, at all events, will give 
them some chance of success in their attempt at 

ossing. There are few days in the course of the 
: — the whole passage from. Newfoundland to 
‘ is quiet and favourable to the safe passage of 
. niet oa May and June are probably as favour- 
able as ss. time throughout the year for settled 
and favourable 


e weather conditions, but this does not 
mean that such favourable conditions occur in these 


at times a large amount of easterly wind. On an 
; —. there are fewer gales in the North Atlantic, 
and if storms develop they are of less intensity than 
_ at other seasons. In mid-Atlantic fog is most pre- 
valent during the summer season, but an aeroplane 
would be 1 above this, although it would prevent 
passing vessels being seen. In Newfoundland fogs 
are more prevalent at St. John’s than on the north- 
‘east coast, the latter part being peculiarly free from 
fog throughout the year. On our own coasts fogs are 
-most prevalent in the winter. For the last week 
there can be no doubt about the stormy character 
| the weather, and the conditions throughout the 
‘route have become less favourable than in the pre- 
; coeite pest 5 from this it must not be understood 


| _ months every year. At this season there is commonly 
- 


aunt 


conditions have. been sufficiently settled for 


__ the flight since the aeroplanes have been ready. The 


a oe ena ey 


heavy snowstorm and gale over England on Sunday 
last sufficiently illustrate the suddenness of our 
weather changes. The Air Ministry in its bulletin 
‘issued on the evening of April 28 said: ‘Strong 


‘northerly winds, with squalls and much low cloud to 
the westward of Ireland, continue to render the condi- 
tions unsuitable for the flight.” 
Misti aus | ates f 

_ Aw excellent summary of the work of our Air Ser- 
vices has been issued. as a Parliamentary paper under 
the ‘title “ Synopsis of British Air Effort during the 
_War,” and was reprinted in the Times of April 24. 
The enormous growth of the Air Force is illustrated 


__ by figures, and an idea of the extent of its activities 


may be ed from the fact that on the Western 
front, between July, 1916, and Armistice Day, more 
than 7ooo enemy machines were brought down, nearly 
7ooo tons of bombs dropped, 10} million rounds fired 
at ground targets, and 900,000 flying hours completed. 
The aid of the man of science has been called for in 
many ways, apart from the fundamental investiga- 
tions of aerodynamics and the principles of flight. 
Examples of this may be found in such important 
work as the design of oxygen apparatus and elec- 
trically heated clothing for use at great altitudes. 
Photography, again, has played a marvellous part, as 
may be gathered from the statement that in a single 
month more than 23,000 negatives were made and 
650,000 prints issued. The photographic branch has 
now 250 officers and 3000 other ranks, and it is esti- 


_ mated that no fewer than five million prints of aerial 


photographs have been issued by the Air Services in 
the field. Another great sphere of scientific activity 
ps Aesaiton out in connection with the application of 

less telegraphy to aircraft; and this branch of the 


service, which was in its infancy in 1914, now. pos- |. : : , : 7 
Servi h. was. in its y out _ practically certain that ‘his. ship. will réquire to dock 


sesses 520 officers and 6200 other ranks,. numbers 
which testifv to the great progress made. Never 
before in history has science been so widely and 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


ven of the vitality of British science, and we trust. | 


effectively employed as during the recent struggle, and 
the Air Services alone afford an. example which should 
establish for ever the great value of organised scientific 
research, 


A SNOWSTORM of unusual severity for so late in the 
season occurred generally over the British Isles on 
Sunday, April 27, and in the south-east of England 
the storm was particularly severe. On the morning 
of Sunday a subsidiary disturbance was developing 
over the northern portion of the kingdom, and it 
afterwards moved southwards and eastwards over 
England, the parent disturbance being centred over 
Denmark. the evening the subsidiary had 
assumed more serious proportions than the primary 
to the north-eastward, and was now centred over 
London and the south-east of England. Snow or 
hail fell in all districts of the United Kingdom. A 
region of high barometer extended from Iceland to 
the Azores which caused strong northerly winds in 
the rear of the disturbance, and gale force was 
reached in all districts, whilst at Holyhead the wind 
force attained the velocity of seventy miles per hour 
during Sunday night. In London snow commenced 
at about 1 p.m. after somewhat heavy rain, and it 
thoroughly covered the ground’ by 3 p.m. The depth 
of snow by the early morning of April 28 in the north 
of London was 12 in. to 15 in., and the total pre- 
cipitation in the twenty-four hours was 16 in. at 
Camden Square and 1-7 in. at Hampstead. The 
snowfall occasioned much dislocation of the telegraph 
and telephone services, and the rapid melting of the 
snow caused floods in many parts. Temperature on 
April 27 was abnormally low for so late in the season, 
the thermometer in Londbh during the afternoon 
standing at about freezing point. Agriculturists and 
fruit-growers have suffered somewhat badly. 


A NEW expedition to the Antarctic is announced to — 
sail in June, 1920. It will be known as the British 
Imperial Antarctic Expedition, and will be under the 
leadership of Mr. J..L. Cope, who accompanied the 
Ross Sea party of ‘the recent Imperial Antarctic Ex- 
pedition, 1914-17, as’ surgeon and naturalist. Mr. 
Cope’s plans are ambitious and cover a wide area. 
Primarily, he aims at ascertaining the position and ex- 
tent of minerals of economic value in Antarctica, and, 
by observations on the distribution and migration of 
whales,. to foster the British whaling industry. It is 
understood that his plans include a base at New Har- 
bour, in Victoria Land, and a wintering party in the 
middle of the Ross Barrier, mainly with a view to 
meteorological and magnétical observations. The ship 
itself, which is to be the Terra. Nova, a vessel: of 
proved capacity for Antarctic work, will spend the 
second winter at or around Cape Ann, in Enderby 
Land. Since that is a ‘part of Antarctica which is 
practically unknown, a wintering party cannot fail 
to achieve results of great value. It is proposed to 
make use of an aeroplane for survey work and facili- 
tating the choice of a route for sledge journeys. It is 
hoped that by this means Mr. Cope will be able to map 
the missing coast-line between Enderby Land and 
Wilkes Land to the east, and between Enderby Land 
and Coats Land to the west. Later it is proposed to 
follow the coast of Antarctica from Graham Land to 
Edward Land. The expedition is expected to last for 
six years, during which time communication with 
civilisation will be kept up by wireless telegraphy. | 
While the plans, so far as announced, seem sound and 
likely to result in valuable discoveries, Mr. Cope might 
perhaps be well advised ‘to curtail the duration of the — 
Sc peditiai by. at least two. years... In. any. case,.it is 


for overhaul and minor repairs after two or three 
years among the ice. 


172 


[May 1, 1919 


Tue Indian Public Works Department has lost a ) 


zealous and capable administrator by the death of Mr. 
George Thomas Barlow, Chief Engineer and Secretary 
in the Irrigation Branch of the United Provinces 
Government. Mr. Barlow’s connection with irrigation 
work in northern India had been long and honourable, 
dating back in unbroken sequence to the year 1887, 
when ‘he went out to India after a course of technical 
training at Coopers Hill, followed by a year of prac- 
tical engineering work in Scotland. From that time 
until his death he was continuously engaged on irriga- 
tion schemes, at first at various posts on the Ganges, 
and afterwards, from 1901, in Bundelkund, a trans- 
Jumna tract of the United Provinces, where he was 
executive engineer on a considerable number of under- 
takings for ameliorating drought-stricken areas. 
Under Mr. Barlow’s direction many surveys of 
different localities were made, numerous reservoirs 
constructed, and large masonry dams and canals 
brought into existence. He was promoted Super- 
intending Engineer in tg11, and received the C.I.E. 
for his services in 1915, The following year he was 
appointed Secretary to the Government in the Irriga- 
tion Branch, and so recently as last October he was 
placed on deputation with Mr. Meares to undertake a 
systematic hydro-technical survey of the whole country. 
He was engaged in these researches up to the time 
of his death. Mr. Barlow was the author of several 
text-books dealing with irrigation work. 


Tue death of Mr. A. McHenry, which occurred 
somewhat suddenly on April 19, removes one of the 
oldest and most assiduous workers from the field of 
Irish geology. For more than forty years Mr. 
McHenry was on the staff of the Geological Survey, 
and the first mapping of some of the difficult areas in 
the north-west of Ireland fell to his share. He was 
always responsive to new discoveries, and was as 
enthusiastic in the revision of Silurian rocks by their 
graptolitic zones as in tracing thrust-planes and 
possible inversions of succession. His warm-hearted 
and unselfish character has left ani enduring memory 


from days when controversies were not always con- 


ducted with such marked generosity and considera- 
tion. The Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ire- 
land contain ample evidence of his original observa- 
tions. In addition, Mr. McHenry was the first to 
point out how the succession of intrusive igneous 
rocks in the Mourne Mountains corresponds with the 
volcanic episodes farther north, and he has left behind 
him unpublished records which may prove to be of 


considerable service in the elucidation of the problem: 


of the Dingle series. 


Tue task imposed on industries by the war was 
the production in quantity of accurately standardised 
products. To ensure the successful development of 
peace-time trade, the high standard of. accuracy and 
quality thus set must be maintained, and this is pos- 
sible only by the institution in each factory of a 
system of inspection similar to that in operation 
during the war. Particulars have reached us of a 
new, organisation, called the Technical Inspection 
Association, which has been formed recently for this. 
purpose. There are doubtless many private firms 
which desire to set up a system of inspection. in 
order to ensure interchangeability and uniform quality 
of these products. Such firms will be interested 
in the new. association. The objects of the asso- 
ciation are to. keep members of the inspection. staff 
of the Ministry of Munitions.in close touch with each. 
other, and.to develop generally the progress: and 
standardisation of methods of inspection in engineer- 
ing, chemical, and allied industries with the view of 
conserving and co-ordinating the experience gained 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103 | 


NATURE 


during the war for national use. The work will thus: 
be of considerable scientific interest as well as indus- 
trial value. The temporary address of the association 
3 aor Metropole, Northumberland Avenue, London, 

~W.TI. des 


WE regret to record the death of Mr. Wilfred James 
Lineham at Brighton on April 22. Mr. Lineham, who 
was sixty years of age, was well known as a teacher 
of engineering and as an author of engineering’ text- 
books. He was connected with the Goldsmiths’ Col- 
lege for thirty years, and was formerly on the staff 
of the Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He 
took an active part in the founding of the Association 
of Teachers in Technical Institutes, and for many 
years was a member of the engineering faculty of. 
London University. Mr. Lineham was a member of. 
the Institutions of Civil Engineers, Mechanical En- 
gineers, and Electrical Engineers. During the war a 
great deal of munition work was carried on at the 
Goldsmiths’ College, and there is little doubt that 
Mr. Lineham’s death was accelerated by the heavy 
work entailed thereby. It is of interest to note that 
he was an artist, and had exhibited at the Royal 
Academy: He had many friends, both amongst prac- 
tical engineers and teachers, and his loss will be 
deeply regretted. = 


THE seventy-second annual meeting of the Palzonto- 
graphical Society was held at the rooms of the Geo- 
logical Society, Burlington House, on April 25, Dr. 
Henry Woodward, president, in the chair. The 
council’s report announced the completion of the 
seventy-first volume of monographs, with instalments 
of. Wealden and Purbeck fishes, Pliocene Mollusca, 
Cambrian Trilobites, and Palawozoic Asterozoa. Mr. 
Henry Dewey, Dr. F. L. Kitchin, Mr. W. P. D. 
Stebbing, and Mr. Henry Woods were elected new 
members of council. Dr. Henry. Woodward, Mr. 
Robert S. Herries, and Dr. A. Smith Woodward were 
re-elected president, treasurer, and secretary respec- 
tively. soit tiaras 

THE death is announced of Dr. Fernand Priem, 
honorary professor of geology in the Lyceum of 
Henri IV., and correspondant of the National Museum 
of Natural History, Paris. Dr. Priem was born on 
November 10, 1857, at Bergues, near Dunkerque, and 
studied palwontology under the late Prof. Albert 
Gaudry. He made many notable contributions to our 
knowledge of fossil fishes, among which may be 
specially mentioned his memoir on the fossil fishes of 
the Paris basin, published separately by the Annales de 
Paléontologie in 1908, and his description of new 
Cretaceous fishes from Persia included in the report 
of the Mission de Morgan in the same vear 


THE annual British Academy lecture on a master 
mind (Henriette Hertz Trust) will this year have as 
its subject ‘‘Leonardo da Vinci,’ and be delivered by 
Mr. C. J. Holmes, director of the National Gallery, 
in the rooms of the Royal Society on Friday, May 2, 
at five o’clock, this being the anniversary of the 
death of Leonardo da Vinci. Sir Frederic Kenyon, 


president of the British Academy, will be in the chair.. — 


Dr. WINIFRED CUuLLis and Miss Mona Wilson have 
accepted membership of the Industrial Fatigue Re- 


search Board, recently appointed by the Department — 


of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Medical 
Research Committee jointly to study questions of 
industrial fatigue. = 

Str HucH CHARLES CLirForD, Governor of the 
Gold Coast, has been appointed Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Colony and Protectorate of 


+ . 


will retire from the Colonial Service in. July. | 


Nigeria, in succession to Sir Frederick Lugard, who © 


. oo ms 


fis 


ae 


|) May 1, 1919] 


NATURE 


173 


> ~ Sir J. G. Frazer contributes to the March issue of 
Man a note by Rai Bahadur K. Ranga Achariyar on 
the customs of the Todas in connection with the 
“milk of their sacred dairies. In relation to the Hebrew 
‘ohibition a seething a kid in its mother’s 
, Sir J. G. Frazer has discussed milk taboos in 
his recent work, * Folk-lore in the Old Testament” 
(vol. iii., pp. 111 ff.). But “all the taboos on the 
dairy and the milk are meant only for the well-being 
the Todas primarily and of the buffaloes 
secondarily. There is not the slightest trace among 
_ them of the belief that the restrictions are in the 
interests of the buffaloes or for their benefit, or that 
‘ ee pathy between the cows and 
ilk. The parallel between the Toda and 
customs is thus not clearly established, but 
is now fully reported for the first time are of 
erable interest. 
Science for March 7 and 14, under the title of 
Measurement and Utilisation of Brain-power 
irmy,” there is a very interesting and valu- 
nops s of the work of the American Psycho- 
gical Section of the Army, which has been under 
e direction of Major R. M. Yerkes. Within the 
three principal pone of psychologists are 
; one attached to the office of the Adjutant- 
other to the office of the Surgeon-General, 
to the division of Military Aeronautics. 
the psychologist was looked upon sceptically, 
ae! ehnposcd to be to assist in the 
of incompetent neurotics; later, the 
service was undertaking the assignment 
ence rating to every soldier, the selection 
superior intelligence for special suitable 
the discovery of the intellectually unfit. 
tests were chosen, and it became possible 
r four psychologists and their attendant 
mine one thousand men a day. To supply 
| personnel a school for training in mili- 
logy had to be formed. Although at first 
ologists were critical about accepting 
e rating as a standard of military 
as the work progressed it was found 
the best single factor by which to deter- 
’s military value. Students of similar 
were grouped together for training, thus 
ae and success of the work. It is 
; note that of all the occupations in the 
mgineering sections contained fewer men 
mediocre intelligence. It is suggested in 
r that, with. suitable modifications, this 
tal testing might prove advantageous to 
of civil life. 
‘Epwarp SHarpry Scuarer devoted his presi- 
al address to the Edinburgh University Physio- 
il Society last January to the consideration of 
_ “The Position of Physiology in Medicine.” He 
_ showed that it is ‘‘the pivotal subject around which 
all medical sciences are centred, and furnishes 
_ the basis — nm which the whole of medicine 
and surgery is founded.” While there can be 
no doubt that the practice of learning physio- 
logy before commencing the study of what is 
founded upon 


a ynop: 


it is correct, yet it is difficult to con- 
Vince the student of the importance of what he is 
taught. He is apt to look upon it merely as an 
_-«- €xamination subject to be forgotten as soon as the 
test is passed. For this reason it would seem that 
there might be some advantage in allowing ' the 
_ student to see something of hospital work at the 
commencement of his physiological studies. A very 
short, properly planned, special course would - suffice 
if the interest of the hospital staff could be enlisted. 
This. should be less difficult since the importance of 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


physiology has become so manifest in the war. It 
is pointed out by Sir Edward Schafer that clinical 
teaching should be in the hands of those who have 
a thorough knowledge of physiology, whereas it is 
comparatively rare to find a medical man who realises 
how dependent he is on physiological work. It is 
also strongly insisted upon in this address that prac- 
tical work is of the greatest importance in the proper 
understanding of the subject, notwithstanding its cost 
in apparatus, buildings, and staff. This leads 
naturally to the emphasising of the vital necessity’ of 
generous aid to universities on the part of the State: 


SoME details of British survey work on the Western 
front are given by Lt.-Col. H. S. L. Winter- 
botham in the Geographical Journal for April 
(vol. liii., No. 4). The field survey department grew 
with the growth of the armies and the new methods 
of warfare, and managed to meet all the require- 
ments of infantry, artillery, and air force. The 
existing maps at the beginning of the war were the 
French 1/80,000, arid the plans around fortresses of 
1/20,000. In addition, there was a survey on a scale 
of 1/2500, which was originally made. for revenue 
purposes, and kept in manuscript in the capital 
of each province: some of these were captured by 
the Germans early in the war. When trench warfare 
set in the necessity for a new and accurate large- 
scale map became apparent. Col. Winterbotham 
describes some of the difficulties which had to be 
faced in compiling this map. There was no lack of 
trigonometrical matter, but it was not easy to recon- 
cile the five systems in existence. The old French 
triangulation was found to have many defects, not 
the least being that many of the original fixed points 
had been destroyed. The Belgian triangulation was 
perhaps more accurate, but it suffered from the same 
drawback as regards fixed points. In addition, there 
were the French Admiralty Survey for the coast, the 
cross-Channel chain of triangulation made more than 
fifty years ago, and the new French chain on the Paris 
meridian and the Amiens parallel. This last survey 
was connected with the Belgian system with useful 
results. _ Difficulty was also experienced in recon- 
ciline different data of levels. Col. Winterbotham’s 
paper concludes with some description of how the 
map was made, and certain other activities of the 
field survey battalions. 


Tue Decimal Association has issued a reprint of 
Mr. Harry Allcock’s article on ‘Industrial Recon- 
struction and the Metric System” which appeared in 
the Electrical Review of January 17. This is a very 
able exposition of the case for the compulsory adop- 
tion of the metric system of weights and measures. 
The author urges that, in order to prepare public 
opinion for the new system, the Government should 
extend the practice adopted in 1913, when the metric 
carat was prescribed as the standard weight for 
precious stones, and abolish forthwith all apothecaries’ 
weights in favour of metric weights throughout the 
trade in fine chemicals and drugs. Many of the 
multiples of existing British units should, he main- 
tains, be at once discarded, and all quantities be 
expressed in terms of single units instead of in cwts., 
qrs., Ibs., ete. As regards the argument that until 
they became expert in the use of the metric system 
British manufacturers and merchants would be at a 
disadvantage as compared with similar classes in 
Germany, Mr. Allcock points out that this temporary 
handicap must be faced sooner or later, and that it: 
would be peculiarly opportune to face it now, while 
the sentiment of the world is decidedly anti-German. 


A NEW ferrous alloy with remarkable properties is 
mentioned in the Scientific American for March 1. 


174 


NATURE 


| May 1, 1919 


The composition appears to be approximately 60 per 
cent. nickel, 14 per cent. chromium, a little molyb- 
denum, and the remainder iron. It is melted in 
crucibles and poured into sand moulds. Its tensile 
strength at air-temperature is 50,000 lb. per sq, in., 
while at 1800° F. it is still 30,000 Ib. It melts at 
2800° F., and withstands repeated heatings to 1800° F, 
and coolings without serious oxidation or diminution 
of strength. It works well, and can be drawn into 
wire. It is not acted on by chemicals even when 
heated, and is already being freely used for the valves 
and valve-seats of internal-combustion engines and for 
domestic utensils. The possibility of using the alloy 
in place of plumbago for crucibles is under investiga- 
tion, and the results so far obtained are most en- 
couraging. The field of usefulness of an alloy with 
these properties is obviously extensive, and it is un- 
fortunate that the Scientific American gives no hint 
as to where the material can be obtained. 


In_the Proceedings of the Indian Association Sad 
the Cultivation of Science (vol. iv., part ii., 1918) M 
S. Banerji deals with the vibrations of elastic shellg 
partly filled with liquid. The problem here con- 
sidered is chiefly of acoustical interest in relation to 
the theory of ‘‘musical glasses.” This class of 
instrument consists of a series of thin-walled elastic 
shells the gravest modes of vibration of which are 
tuned to form a musical scale by partially filling them 
with a liquid, and are excited either by striking or 
by tangential friction on the rims. The principal 
features of interest requiring elucidation are (a) the 
dependence of the pitch of the vibration upon the 
quantity of liquid contained in the vessel, and (b) the 
mode of vibration of the liquid itself. These features 
are discussed in this paper for the three cases. in 
which the elastic shell is respectively (1) a hemi- 
spherical one, (2) a cylindrical one with a flat bottom, 
and (3) a conical cup, these forms approximating 
more or less closely to those used in practice. The 
analytical expressions show that the motion of the 
liquid is very marked near the margin of the vessel, 
but is almost imperceptible near the centre and 
at some depth inside the liquid. 
have also been obtained and tabulated, and the graphs 
plotted, showing the theoretical relations between 
the quantity of liquid in the vessel and the vibration 
frequency. The lowering of pitch due to addition of 
liquid is greatest when the vessel is nearly full. 

Messrs. BERNARD QuaRITCH, Ltp., 11 Grafton 
Street, W.1, have just issued a Catalogue (No. 352) 
of second-hand books and periodicals which they 
have for disposal. The 1700 odd works listed range 
over many branches of literature, but the sections 
relating to natural history and periodicals and trans- 
actions of learned societies will appeal more especially 
to readers of NaturE. In them we notice a set, with 
supplement, of Gould’s ‘‘The Birds of Australia,” 
Elwes and Henry’s ‘‘ The Trees of Great Britain and 
Ireland,” Sargent’s ‘“‘The Sylva of North America : Hs 
Description of the Trees which Grow Naturally i 
North America exclusive of Mexico,” Butler’s “THlus- 
trations of Typical Specimens of Lepidoptera Hetero- 
cera in the Collection of the British Museum,” 
R..  Bowdler Sharpe’s ‘‘ Hand-list of the Genera and 
Species of Birds,” Edwards’s ‘‘The Botanical 
Register ’’ (a set), and long runs of the Berichte of 
the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, the Quarterly 
Journal of Microscopical Science, and the Proceedings 
and Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 
The catalogue is published at 1s. 

Tue following books of science and education are 
announced for early publication :—‘‘ Euclid in Greek” 
(Book i.), Sir T. L. Heath, and “A Short Histo 
of Education,” Prof. J. W. Adamson (Cambridge Uni- 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


Numerical results — 


versity Press); “ Practical Vaccine Treatment for the 
General Practitioner,” 


and Achievements,” F. upp (John Murray); 
‘‘ Scientific Facto "Managemen tg Br, A. D, Denning 
(J. Nisbet and Ltd.); ‘‘Gas and Oil Engine 
Operation,” J. OKI (Sir Isaac Pitman and aihike 
Ltd.). 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN, 


THE ApRiL METEORS OF I919.—Observations were 
obtained at Bristol on the nights of April 18, 20, 21, 
and 22, but the display was by no means a rich one. 
The night of chief activity was April 21, when fourteen 
meteors were recorded between 8h. 4om. and 11h. 35m. 
G.M.T. Of these, nine were Lyrids and indicated a 
radiant point at 272°+30°. Several fine meteors were 
observed on this night, and particularly at 9.30 and 
9.40 G.M.T. The first of these appeared as bright as 
Sirius, and slowly floated from 236°—13° to —2° 
in about 5 secs. This must have been a fine pr col as 
seen from the eastern counties of England. The 
second was one of the true April meteors with a 
bright streak, and moved swiftly from 297°+65° to 
31°+478°. It was of about the same appacene iad 
tude as Jupiter. 

Tue Merreoric SHOWER OF HALLEY’s Cont; wks 
celebrated comet of Halley has an accompanying 
meteor system. The shower was discovered in 1870 
by Capt. G. L. Tupman, and shown by Prof. A. S. 
Herschel, a few years later, to exhibit a significant 
resemblance to the cometary orbit. The meteors are 
visible in the mornings of the first week in May, and 


. their flights are directed from a point near the equator 


in R.A. 337° in Aquarius, and close to the stars 
¢ and 7 in that constellation. The meteors have not 
been witnessed in the same splendour and abi 

as those of November from Tempel’s and Biela’s 


comets, but they are individually very fine objects, 
traversing long paths extending occasionally over half 
and worthy representatives of 


the visible firmament, 
the notable comet from which they are derived. 
The reappearance of this shower is now due, and 
it is very desirable that a watch for its meteors should 
be maintained on the next few mornings. We wait 


more data with regard to its duration, whether or 


not the point of radiation moves eastwards, like that 
of the Perseids, and what annual differences affect 
the number of meteors appearing. Double observa- 
tions of identical objects will be valuable as enabling 
their heights and velocities to be determined. 

materials already acquired affirm that the observed 
motion is decidedly slower than that implied from 


theory, and this is probably due to the resistance of . 


the atmosphere. The radiant does not rise until the 
morning twilight is in evidence, and when a short 
period only remains available for observation. 

Heis, so far back as May 2, 1848, witnessed a rich 
display of streaking meteors, and this may quite pos- 
sibly have been an early return of this system. 

OccuLTATION OF StTaRS By VeENuS.—Mr. Arthur 
Burnet, honorary secretary of the Leeds Astronomical 
Society, who has achieved success previously in pre- 
dicting phenomena of this kind, writes to us from 
France that the stars 79 Leonis, magnitude 55, and 


B.D.+2-2422°, magnitude 8-6, No. 6927 in the d’Abba- 


dia Catalogue (1900), will be occulted by the planet 
Venus on August 1 next as seen from certain places 
in the southern hemisphere. Geocentric conjunction 
of the planet with 79 Leonis will take place on 
August 1d. 8h. 54m. G.M.T., and the occultation 
may be seen from South America. Mr. Burnet com- 
putes that the duration of the occultation as seen 
from Rio de Janeiro will be about nine minutes. 


Dr. R. W. Allen (H. K. Lewis 
and Co., Ltd.); " George npn ap His Life 


TT tee 


Oe re et 


| May 1, 1919] 


NATURE 17 


ul 


“Wenus will be in geocentric conjunction with the 


6h: tom. in the evening of August 2 by New Zealand 
_ standard time. and it is computed by Mr. Burnet that 
_ the occultation, which will be of twenty minutes’ 


’ = star on August 1d. 18h. 4om. G.M.T., which is 
a 
_ duration, may be seen from that part of the globe. 


CIVILIAN AIR ROUTES. 


ag HE ban on civil aviation is raised from to-day, 
_ * as announced in the House of Commons on 
| | April 14, and the Air Ministry has issued details of 
_ some of the aerial routes which will be declared open. 
_ The routes are to be regarded as provisional, since 


REFERENCE. 
Military & Civil Stations__ = 
Civil Stations... 


HEIGHTS \XOK OS 
4 Hull, 
~ a 
X BS 
a 
SHEFFIELD 
“a 


~“e 


_A at 


The main routes at present outlined are “sum- 
marised below, the London terminus being situated at 
Hounslow :—(1). London-Scotland; (2) London=' 
Dublin; (3) London-Manchester-Belfast; (4): Con- 
tinental route via Lympne; (5) Dutch route via ‘Had- 
leigh; (6) Scandinavian route via New Holland;, 
(7) London-Plymouth; and (8) London-Bristol. : 

The various aerodromes along these routes are 
clearly shown on the map, and when any route’ has 
been declared open pilots using it will find petrol, 
accommodation, and, where possible, mechanics to 
handle their machines at each. of these aerodromes. 
Such pilots must, of course, comply with the regula- 
tions as regards licensing and inspection of machines. 
The Government ‘makes no _ promise.of 
help to aviators who descend, whether: 
by choice or by force of circumstances, : 
places other than the official “air 
stations, ’’ 

It has been decided to limit the overseas’ 
traffic for the present to four ‘‘ appointed ”” 
aerodromes. ‘Three of these will be those 
named under routes (4), (5), and (6) of the. 
above list, while the fourth will be at 
Hounslow in order to facilitate direct com- 
munication between London and the Con- 
tinent. These arrangements are, again, 
only provisional, the problem of the control 
of overseas traffic being a_ particularly 
difficult one, so that it is impossible to” 
fix definitely the Customs stations at th 
outset. inte 

Rigid supervision with regard to the 
construction and airworthiness of machines 
intended for passenger services will be 


ae —_—e — : 
le AP RC apn Hanae AMINES TONE al HNO SN 
7 ; a o + pwt - = 


insisted upon, but progress will not be ham- 
pered by any inspection of inventions or of 
purely experimental machines. 


| far tiaren. 


ha en bret 


= Mile: 
mee 


Air routes and stations. Reproduce! from the 7imes, 


_ experience alone can decide upon the arrangement of 

_ aerodromes which is most suitable for carrying out 
the aerial business of the country. The accompanying 
map shows the routes and aerodromes which have so 

_ far been decided upon. 

_ At the date of the armistice there were 337 aero- 
dromes and landing grounds in the British Isles. 
About 100 will be required for the Royal Air Force, 
while 116 have already been relinquished for cultiva- 

_ tion and other purposes. This leaves about 120 aero- 
dromes, some with extensive accommodation, which 

will ultimately be available for civilian purposes. It 
is considered probable that many of these will 

eventually be acquired by public bodies and com- 
mercial firms, and a list will shortly be issued giving 
particulars of the aerodromes in question, with the 

facilities they possess and their distances from. im- 

portant centres, in order to assist intending. purchasers. 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


It is very encouraging to see the situa- 
tion so well in hand, and, with the assist.’ 
ance that the Government proposes to givé 
to civil aviators by means of the above 
scheme, commercial aviation will receivé 
an excellent start in this country. There 
seems little doubt that full advantage will 
be taken of the facilities offered, and, in’ 
view of the experience gained during the 
war in the theory and practice of aero- 
nautics, the development of the purely 
commercial machine should be _ even 
more rapid than that of the military 
aeroplane has been. It is very difficult 
to attempt a forecast of the future of 
commercial aviation, but the enterprise 
invited by the present announcement of 
the Air Ministry may be expected to provide experi- 
ence which will very soon give a clear indication as 
to the possibilities of commercial aircraft. 


FORESTRY RESEARCH IN SWEDEN. 


7 ae Swedish Institute of Experimental Forestry, 
which occupies itself with systematic studies im 
sylviculture, the botany cf trees, forest .mensuration, 
and applied entomology, acquired new buildings near 
Stockholm in May, 1917, which will add much to its 
efficiency. The institute continues to publish excellent’ 
memoirs on these subjects. The combined volume, 
Nos. 13 and 14, of i916-17 contains more than 
1300 pages of Swedish text, supplemented by short: 


rimental Forestry. Nos, 13-1. 


1 Memoirs of the Swedish Institute of Ex 4 
i rice 18 kronor. Also No. 15'' 


pp. 1301+elxxii. (Stockholm, 1916-17.) 
pp. 288+xxxii. (1918.) Price 4.50 kronor) 


176 


NATURE 


abstracts. in’ German, French, or. English,,, These 
memoirs are profusely illustrated, and replete..with 
statistics, tables, diagrams,-and maps. 

To the British forester the most interesting of these 
studies is the monograph on the cultivation of the larch 
in Sweden by Prof. Gunnar Schotte, which takes up 
pp. 529-840, followed by twenty-six pages of biblio- 
graphy, enumerating the books and articles on the larch 
in various languages. The botanical part is excellent, 
but the great merit of the work lies. in the admirable 
account of the sylviculture of the three species which 
are grown in Sweden. Of the European: larch forty- 
two experimental plots have been exhaustively studied, 
and most‘of the conclusions arrived at are applicable to 
British conditions. Prof. Schotte only approves of pure 
woods of this species on exceptionally good soils. He 
recommends a mixture of European larch with pine or 
with beech on moderately good to medium soils, and is 
convinced that larch should never be planted on poor 
ground. For the prevention of canker due to Peziza, 
which is the scourge of this species in Sweden as well 
as in England, he advocates early, frequent, and heavy 
thinnings, with the object of removing the feeble and 
suppressed trees, which are liable to be attacked by 
the fungus. The Siberian larch, which is comprehen- 
sively treated, is successful in Sweden, but quite 
unsuitable for our climate. Sample plots of Japanese 
larch in Sweden are still young, but so far this tree is 
extremely vigorous and immune from disease. Prof. 
Schotte’s article, which is accompanied by an abstract 
in English, is followed by a report (pp. 841-922) of 
an elaborate investigation by L. Mattsson on the form 
of the stem of the larch. The results, which are 
highly technical, are also given in an English abstract. 

A similar investigation (pp. 9-110) by Nils Sylven 
of the variety of the common pine which is in- 
digenous in northern Sweden is of considerable 
interest. This tree, distinguished by some botanists 
as a separate species, Pinus lapponica, differs mainly 
in its more slender pyramidal crown of foliage and in 
its thinner bark. The plate showing the variations in 
the form and colour of the seeds and cones of this 
variety and of the common pine is beautifully drawn. 
The germination of the seed of the northern pine is 
dealt with by E. Wibeck in a memoir (pp. 201-34). 
The insects which attack the cones of the pine and 
of the spruce as well, and the peculiar fungus, 
Melampsora pinitorqua, are dealt with in separate 
articles (pp. 1077-1204). 
_ The composition of forest soils and the formation 
of humus have. been investigated by H. Hesselman 
(pp. 297-528 and 923-1076). Mr. Hesselman ‘distin- 
guishes mild. humus usually found in broad-leaved 
forests, and raw humus characteristic of most coni- 
ferous forests. In the latter no nitrification ordinarily 
takes place, and natural regeneration is rendered 
difficult by the feeble. growth of the seedlings in the 
absence of nitrates. He also points out the measures 
which can be adopted to transform the raw humus, 
such as partial felling, which: admits light on the 
ground and brings about a radical alteration in the 
bacterial flora. The change undergone by the 
humus is accompanied by an alteration in the ground 
vegetation. When the. nitrogen is transformed into 
nitrate, plants like raspberry, Epilobium angusti- 
folium, Senecio sylvaticus, etc., appear. In the 
absence of this transformation, Aira flexuosa is the 
predominant plant in the clearings of the forest. 
Hesselman’s investigations are of considerable interest 
to ecologists. 5 

The fifteenth volume of the memoirs, just received, 
contains'a number of miscellaneous articles: on a 
new plough designed by Mr. Widen; on the seed crop 
of the principal trees of Sweden during 1917; on the 
attacks of the more important insects and of the 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


| May 1, 1919” 


fungus Melampsora pinitorqua during the same year; 


and on a new. method of ascertaining the form and 
The programme. 


volume of single stems. of spruce, 
of the investigations to be carried out, by the institute 
during the triennial period, 1918-20, is also given. > 


fern pws aac SN eS PENS Oe Ree ea ey Mee dcx" he \ eee es 


PLANTATION RUBBER RESEARCH. 


M. ESs&s, EATON, GRANTHAM, AND DAY 
‘ have published (Department of Agriculture, 
Federated Malay States: Kuala Lumpur) an account 
of important researches carried out in Kuala Lumpur, 
Malaya, during the last three and a half years in con- 
nection with the preparation and vulcanisation of 
plantation rubber. The Bulletin runs into 398 pages, 
and gives one .of the most detailed accounts of tise: 
research in Malaya yet published. The authors point 
out that they, as Government officials, are working 
under difficulties in so far that, whereas they give full 
publicity to their methods and results, they are. pre- 
cluded from gaining knowledge of the methods 
adopted or apparatus used by other technologists in 
Malaya and London who are carrying on similar 
experimental work with rubber. It is clear that the 
policy of secrecy adopted by companies and associa- 
tions which privately employ chemists and mycologists 
in the East is open to very grave objection. The 
policy of secrecy is not only against the true scientific 
spirit, but must also, in the long run, seriously reduce 
the value of research even to those who 1a, 
employ their own technologists. All scientifie work 
should be open to criticism based upon knowledge of 
the method and apparatus employed. The present un- 
satisfactory arrangement may work well enough for 
privately employed technologists who have the advan- 
tage of studying detailed accounts of methods em- 
ployed by Government officials; the reverse, however, 
is obviously not the case. AS 

Considerable energy appears to have been thrown 
into the. researches on variability of plantation rubber, 
a. subject which raises hostility among ow 
plantations who consider that their finished 
cannot be improved upon. We have never agreed 
with those plantation producers who refuse to believe 
in the variability of plantation rubber, and the fact 
that they have introduced the word “uniformity” in 
a comparative sense does not blind us to the real 
position. ; 5 

The authors, as a result of their work, believe that 
the ordinary forms of smoked sheet and crépe, now 
so common in the markets of the world, will be super- 
seded by a new type of rubber turned out in “slabs.’’ 
If it is true that the rubber prepared in slabs is 
superior to the common forms now produced, a great 
advance will have been made. — 

The problem of vulcanisation has been investigated 
in-an unusual direction. It is claimed that in con- 
nection with organic vulcanisation accelerators a dis- 
covery has been made which ranks only second with 
the original discovery of vulcanisation by Goodyear and 
Hancock. The authors have demonstrated that valuable 
vulcanisation accelerators are present in Hevea latex, 
and can be formed by special treatment of the coagulum. 
A number of vulcanisation accelerators were sent by 
the present writer to these investigators in 1915; 
they appear to have led to an interesting line of 
research which should have far-reaching results. The 
discovery of the vulcanisation accelerators in Para 
rubber was made prior to the authors’ knowledge of 
the discovery and use of patent organic accelerating 
agents. The accelerator found in rubber is said’ to 
be produced’ by the decomposition of the proteins, and 
td consist probably of an amino-acid or amine. The 
substances found in plantation rubber are responsible 


7 » May 1, 1919] 


si 


NATURE 


177 


for variability in rate of vulcanisation. In addition, 
| the authors point out that this variability in respect 
joer of cure exists in technical mixings with which 
manufacturers load the rubber. These mixings are 
_ largely mineral constitutents in addition to sulphur. 
it is further contended that the use of strong 
| accelerating agents, such as oxide of lead, tend to 
__ obscure the differences produced in raw rubber by 
‘ vce of a natural accelerator. 
Recommendations are made to planters which, if 
pted, should considerably reduce variability. They 


4 Pa) 

Dilution of latex to a constant rubber content. 

) The use of acetic acid or other weak organic 
(such as formic acid) as a coagulant. 

| All coagulating-tanks should be standardised so 
final rubber sheets or crépe are of the same 
ness after rolling. 

» ‘onditions of drying and smoking, especially 
ring the early stages, should be kept as uniform as 


¢2 
: ‘% pointed out that if sheets of rubber are of 
'y thicknesses the rates of drying will be 
and, consequently, there will be more varia- 
biological changes which take place during 
stages of drying rubber. H. W. 


See t 
‘SENSITIVENESS OF PHOTO- 
IG PLATES TO X-RAYS 
(UGH observations have been published on 
flect of X-rays on photographic plates, the 
“of various plates in use do not appear to 
| determined. These experiments follow the 
sds of sensitometry of photographic 
‘in respect of exposure of the plate in 


opment at a standard temperature and 
period (namely, hydroquinone at 20° C, 
, and of the subtraction of the density 
The density, i.e. the logarithm to. the 
“the ratio of the intensity of the incident 
‘the transmitted light, was determined by a 
photometer. 

1e ure’ E is defined by the relation 
| here V, volts, is the pressure applied 
e Co idge tube; it, coulombs, the quantity of 
y passing through the tube during the ex- 
» of t seconds; and d, cms., the distance of the 
ot from the photographic plate. This expres- 
es the energy of the incident rays. Three 
V were used—31,500, 73,000, and 83,000. 
varied between 0-03 and 0-06 milli- 
ou is lower than the currents ordinarily 
in radiography. Experiments are in progress 

igher intensities of radiation. 
hen the density, D, for a given plate is plotted 
st the logarithm of the exposure as above defined, 
a curve similar to those of Hurter and Driffield is 
_ obtained. For densities from o to about 1 the curve 
_ is convex to the logE axis; above that it is straight 
to densities of 4, the maximum measured. The inter- 
cept on the logE axis of the straight line produced 


_ backwards is the logarithm of the inertia of the 
J ; was found to be independent of the 
mt. This result is the same as for exposure 
visible light. The slope of the straight portion 
curve gives the contrast. A high value for the 
4 { ‘is one of the desirable properties of an X-ray 
plate. The ‘‘speed” of a plate may be tentatively 
__ defined as the reciprocal of the exposure required to 
-producé a density of 5. 
_“¥ Abstract of a paper by Miss N. C. B. Allen and Prof. T. H. Laby read 
before the Royal Society of Victoria on August 8, 1918. 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


3 ‘to the, 


The density produced in a given plate was found 
to be constant for a constant value of the exposure 
V*it/d? over the range V 31,500 to 83,000, and for a 
limited variation of i and ft, but not for a large varia- 
tion of i and t. This means that, for the wave; 
lengths used, the density of a plate depends, not on 
the wave-length, but only on the energy of the X-rays. 


Plate Inertia Contrast Speed 
Paragon 0-74 Io 24 0-00017 

on . 1-18 2:3 0000096 
Diagnostic o-71 2-2 O°00015 
Sunic 1-00 2:35 0-000 12 
Seed I-12 L-9 0-000066 
Wratten 1-95 2-2 0-000052 | 
Wellington 1-70 © 2-0 0°000050 
Imp. X-ray 1-26 1-6 0:000036 
Cramer 2-14 1-9 0°000035 
Ilford 2-19 1-9 0000033 
Imp. S.R. 1-45 1°55 0000028 


pees 


RAINFALL VARIATIONS. 


T the meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society 

held on April 16, two papers on variations of 

rainfall were read. The papers are summarised 
below. 

Mr. A. A. Barnes, in his paper on rainfall in Eng- 
land, the true long-average as deduced from symmetry, 
stated that it has been usual to assume that the 
average annual rainfall during any period of thirty- 
five years can be adopted for obtaining the “long- 
average” at any rain-gauge, but he considers that 
the fluctuations which occur between such averages 
for various thirty-five-year periods tend to show that 
the basis is somewhat uncertain. By an exhaustive 
analysis of the annual readings at thirty-eight rain- 
gauges in England during the sixty-two years 1856- 
1917, he shows that variations of as much as 5 per 
cent, on each side of the mean are quite possible 
when dealing with successive thirty-five-vear periods. 
From these same records it is then shown that far 
greater consistency in the value of the average can 
be obtained by taking periods symmetrical about the 
end of the vear 1886. Both by means of tables and 
diagrams Mr. Barnes shows that that date is a very 
critical one in regard to rainfall in England, and that, 
as a rule, the years before that date were relatively 
far wetter than years subsequent to it. Hence the 
balancing of tne earlier wet years by the later dry 
vears establishes the principle of symmetry about that 
date, and it is shown that by this method the maxi- 
mum departure from normal which results from 
taking each of the fifteen long periods symmetrical to 
the end of the year 1886 does not exceed 1 per cent. 
in the case of any of the thirty-eight gauges which 
were examined. 

Mr. C. E. P. Brooks’s paper was on the secular 
variation of rainfall. In order to obtain a measure 
of the secular variation of rainfall during the past 
thirty to fifty vears, correlation coefficients were 
worked out between the annual rainfall at each station 
and “time,” the measure of the latter being the 
number of vears before or after the middle vear of 
the series. This was done for 162 stations distributed 
over the globe. and the results were charted on a map. 
This map shows that the greater part of the world is 
divided among a few definite regions of wide extent, 
in each of which the rainfall has been either increas- 
ing or decreasing. The most important area of 
increasing rainfall is temperate Eurasia (except the 
western sea-board); other areas are south-east South 
America and the south of Australia. Areas of decrease 
are the tropical regions as a whole, South Africa, and 
the west coast of Europe. It is noted that the number 


178 


NATURE 


[May 1, 1919 


of sun-spots, and also that of solar prominences, 
during the period in question have been decreasing. 
For a few stations records of longer period are dealt 
with, giving indications that the results obtained are 
due to a periodicity of upwards of fifty years. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


OxrorD.—Prof. F. Soddy, F.R.S., professor of 
chemistry in the University of Aberdeen, has been 
elected to the second chair of chemistry recently estab- 
lished in the University. 

Dr. F. A, Lindemann has been appointed to 
succeed Prof. Clifton in the chair of experimental 
philosophy. Dr. Lindemann graduated Ph.D. in the 
University of Berlin in 1911 by a thesis on specific 
heats at very low temperatures, such as become pos- 
sible by the use of liquid air, and much of his early 
work was connected with that subject. Afterwards in 
Paris he collaborated with the Duc de Broglie and 
other French physicists, especially on the subject of 
radio-activity. During the war he was attached to 
the scientific side of the Air Service, and was in charge 
of the laboratory of experimental physics at Farn- 
borough. 

‘The late Dr. Henry Wilde, whose death occurred 
recently at the age of eighty-five, was a notable bene- 
factor of the University. He was the founder of the 
Wilde readership in mental philosophy, of the Wilde 
lectureship in natural and comparative religion, and 
of the John Locke scholarship in mental philosophy. 

Among the lectures announced in connection with 

the school of geography are courses on physical 
geography in its relation to the life of man (Mr. 
Beckit), extra-tropical Africa (Miss MacMunn), geo- 
graphical factors in the economic development of 
British North America (Mr. Cossar), and the geo- 
graphy and. ethnology of the eastern Mediterranean 
(Prof. J. L. Myres). 
The committee for anthropology announces courses 
on ethnology (Miss Czaplicka),. comparative techno- 
logy (Mr. H. Balfour), and informal instruction on 
the Bronze and Early Iron ages (Mr. Leeds), questions 
relating to ancient Egypt and Babylon (Mr. Griffith 
and’ Mr. Langdon), Indian archeology (Prof. Mac- 
donell and Mr. Vincent Smith), and primitive language 
in its relation to thought (Prof. J. A. Smith). 

‘Dr.- Marett. will lecture on primitive law, and 
hold classes on primitive religion in relation to morals 
and on ethnological questions. 


Mr. W. M. Jones has been appointed lecturer in 
physics at the University College of North Wales, 
Bangor. 


Capt. W. A. ANDREWs has been appointed lecturer 
in wireless telegraphy at the Cardiff Marine Technical 
School. He has hitherto been an inspector of wire- 
less operators in connection with the R.A.F. 


Tue following special lectures have been arranged 
for delivery in the Metallurgical Lecture Theatre of 
the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, . at 
4 o’clock each day :—‘ The Smelting of Zinc Ores,” 
J. C. Moulden (May 1); ‘‘Sulphuric Acid Manufac- 
ture,’’“R. Curtis (May 6); ‘‘ Factors in Mineral Flota- 
tion,’ H. L. Sulman (May 13 and 15); and ‘tThe 
Frangois Cementation Process,” - F. Marriott 
(May: 20). Admission to the lectures is free to all. 


“Mr. Lawrence Putiprps has offered University Col- 
lege; Abervstwyth, the sum of 10,o00l. to found a 
plant-breeding institute for Wales in connection with 
the agricultural department of the college. He has 
guaranteed a further sum of roool. per annum for ten 


NO, 2583, VOL. 103] 


years towards the maintenance of the institution. The | 


governors of the college have appointed Mr. R. G, 
Stapleton, who was for some years connected with the 
college as advisory botanist, to a chair of agricultural 
botany and to the directorship of the new institution. 


Dr. J. E. M. Fincu, who died on February 5, 
bequeathed 5o000l. to ‘“‘the Mayor, Aldermen, and Bur- 
gesses of Leicester for the endowment of a univer- 
sity for Leicester in remembrance of his long services 
as medical superintendent of the Borough Asylum.” 
It is understood that the bequest is for the East Mid- 
land University, with which Leicester is to be asso- 
ciated, and the seat of which will be University Col- 
lege, Nottingham, as described in an article in 
Nature of February 13. bi 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LonpDon. 

Geological Society, April 9.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 
Sewn in the chair.—W. Whitaker; The section at 

orms Heath (Surrey), with remarks on Tertiary 
pebble-beds and on clay-with-flints. (With petrological 
notes on the beds at Worms Heath by G. MacDonald 
Davies.) The chief pit now shows a fine set of more 
or less vertical pipes in the chalk, filled with pebbles 
and sand of the Blackheath beds, separated from the 
chalk by clay-with-flints. The pebble-beds here, like 
those elsewhere, consist of well-rolled black flint- 
pebbles, amongst which pebbles of a brownish quartzite 
are occasionally found. It is concluded that the water 
in which these flint-pebbles were formed touched no 
other firm rock than chalk; but, as there are no sub- 
angular flints, the deposition of the beds cannot have 
taken place close along a chalk coast. Frem a con- 
sideration of older Tertiary pebble-beds it seems that 
these are not big enough to have afforded the material 
for the Blackheath beds. On the other hand, the 
Blackheath beds may have yielded the pebbles of the 
Bagshot series in Essex, though not in Hampshire. 
As to the clay-with-flints, it is inferred that it is not 
a deposit of definite age, but a residual product, repre- 
senting a condition of things that may have held 
through lons geologic ages, from the start of the 
Blackheath beds to the present time. Mr. G. M. 
Davies gives a petrological description of the chalk, of 
the clay-with-flints (both grey and red), of the Eocene 
sands, sandstones, and pebble-beds. 

Mathematical Society, April 24.—Mr. J. E. Campbell, 
president, in the chair—K. Amanda Rau: (1) Lam- 
bert’s series. (2) The relations between the con- 
vergence of a series and its summability by Cesaro 
means.—G, H. Hardy and J. E. Littlewood: A 
Tauberian theorem for Lambert’s series.—Prof. W. H. 
Young: A formula for an area. 


MANCHESTER. 


Literary and Philosophical Society, April 1.—Mr. 
W. Thomson, president, in the chair.—S. Lees: 
The superposing of two cross-line screens at small 
angles, and the patterns obtained thereby. The 
author discusses in this paper the general character- 
istics of the patterns obtained on superposing two 
half-tone plates of like type at small angles @. More 
particularly the cases of (i) intaglio, (ii) ordinary half- 
tone, (iii) ‘‘ chess-board ’’ screens are discussed. I 
each of these cases it is shown that the coarse square 
framework which arises is similar in type to that of each 
of the constituent screens.—Lieut. W. A. Macfadyen : 
Electrolytic iron deposition. The work described was 
undertaken with the view of obtaining ‘data on which 
an industrial: process could be built up for the pur- 
pose of salving worn steel parts by electro-plating 


a 


/ + 


ins: although it is considerably softer. 
ae can also be case-hardened with good effect. 


__ rate usable in the former case. 
_ the solution proved to have a ¢reat effect on the de- 


* 
Py. 


method of 
| tion, Shditated. It was shown that the percentage 


May 1, 1919] 


NATURE 


179 


them with iron. An aqueous solution of ferrous am- 
monium sulphate was the electrolyte used, and it 
was found that, whilst excellent results could be ob- 


” tained from dilute solutions at the normal room. tem- 


‘perature, deposition could be carried out only very 


_ slowly.; with a concentrated solution, however, equally 


good results were obtained at about seven times the 
Varying acidity of 
F ea and the best results were given by an electro- 
_lyte made about 0-005 normal with respect to sulphuric 
acid. By heating the bath to a temperature of 
60° C., deposition from a concentrated solution could 


7 be carried out satisfactorily at a rate of up to fifr, 


es that which was possible in the case of the dilute 
cold solution. Iron can be deposited direct on to 
steel, and subsequent heat-treatment produces an ad- 
hesion of the deposit to the basis metal very much 
than the best attainable by simple plating, and 


deposited iron is much tougher than before treat- 
Such deposits 


- DUBLIN. 


The 
The produc- 
: : acetone on an 
industrial scale by a fermentation process has rendered 


_ range of mixtures. are recorded. The limits of misci- 


a 
+ 


: re “C) 
tion of 

_ testing mixtures of air and ether vapour at varying 

. aie ofan in presence of a number of catalysts, 
ox of 


ty of n-butyl alcohol and water were experimentally 

Mire 1 [eee Panis. 
ademy of Sciences, April 7.—M. Léon Guignard in 
1 --—G. Bigourdan; The large instruments and 
tl e work of Le Monnier at the observatory of the 
ue Saint-Honoré.—E. Ariés: Formula giving the 
sity of a fluid in the state of saturation.—G. 
: Some properties of general meromorphic func- 
Kryloft : Some ‘approximation formulze 


tions—N. : Sor 
based on the generalisation of quadratures.—G. 
re 


n: Ram-strokes in mains of variable dia- 
and formed of conical parts.—L. Dunoyer : 
s-indicator for aerial navigation by dead 
.—E. Alilaire: The spontaneous inflamma- 
mixtures of air and ether vapour. After 


iron, copper, nickel, etc., the latter being 


apparently without influence on the phenomenon, it 


was found that spontaneous inflammation of a mix- 
ture of air and ether commenced at about 190° C. 
By working in tubes of larger diameter it is probable 


that this inflammation would take place at a lower 


. srature.. The possibility. of accidents in factories 
where large quantities of ether are used, by contact 
with pipes containing superheated steam, is pointed 
‘out.—MM. Portevin and Garvin: The formation of 
troostite at low temperatures in carbon steels and the 
influence of the temperature of immersion in inter- 
rupted tempering. 
interrupted by suddenly withdrawing the mass from 


the cooling-water, the temperature of the steel. is 


NO, 2583, VOL. 103] 


If the tempering of the steel is. 


called the temperature of immersion. When the tem- 
pering velocities are well above the critical velocities, 
interruption of the tempering causes marked re- 
calescence (80° C.) at temperatures down to 450° C., 
and troostite is obtained after cooling.—Ph. Glangeaud : 
The volcanic group of the Aiguiller, Monts Dore: its 
secondary and peripheral volcanoes.—Ch, J. Gravier : 
Pedogenesis and viviparity in the Actinia.—E. Gravier : 
Remarks on_ the Pee paper.—H. V. Vallois : 
Some characters of the femur of Pithecanthropus.— 
G. Bertrand: The high toxic power of chloropicrin 
towards certain of the lower animals, and the possi- 
bility of employing this substance as a. parasiticide. 
Chloropicrin is readily made on the large scale, is 
easily stored, and in concentrations of o-o1 to o-12 
gram per litre of air kills the larvz of various noxious 
Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. In solution in water 
chloropicrin is equally very toxic for infusoria, and 
th ete be of service for the partial sterilisation 
of soils. 


April 14.—M. Léon Guignard in the chair.—G. 
Bigourdan: The works of Le Monnier on the stars 
and physics of the globe.—A. Laveran: The artificial 
acentrosomic varieties of Trypanosomes. In i911 an 
acentrosomic variety of Trypanosoma evansi was ob- 
tained by the action of oxazine. This variety has 
been cultivated through mice since 1911, and in April, 
1917, after the 450th passage, these organisms ‘were 
still acentrosomic, and there seemed good ground for 
assuming that the disappearance of the centrosome 
was definite and permanent. In April, 1918 (870 pas- 
sages through mice), the Trypanosomes still remained 
acentrosomic, but an examination of the blood of the 
mice in October, 1918 (the 945th passage), showed a 
large number of Trypanosomes with well-defined 
centrosomes. Finally, in January, 1919, after 978 
passages, all the centrosomes showed normal dimen- 
sions. The result of this long experiment shows the 


necessity for caution in dealing with a supposed 


definite new variety produced in a living organism.— 
M. Bigot was elected a correspondant for the section 
of mineralogy in succession to W. Kilian, elected non- 
resident member.—P. Lévy: The generalisation of 
the Laplace equation in the functional domain.—E. 
Bompiani ; Quasi-asymptotic curves of surfaces in any 
space.—S. Lefschetz: Abelian varieties. —G. . le 
Cocq: A very general property of cables used for 
aerial transport.—P, Janet: “An electro-technical 
analogy of sustained oscillations.—C. Chéneveau and 
R. Audubert: Absorption by turbid media. Applica- 
tion to the estimation of suspensions.—P. Vaillant : 
Polarisation with alternating current.—F. Michaud; 
The mechanical and osmotic action of radiant energy 
on the media which it traverses.—A. Kling and R. 
Schmutz: The characterisation and estimation of 
carbon oxychloride. A saturated aqueous solution of 
aniline proved to be the best reagent for phosgene. 
Diphenylurea is quantitatively produced; this is in- 
soluble in water, and is readily characterised by its 
crystalline form and melting point. The method may 
be applied either to the estimation of carbon oxy- 
chloride highly diluted with air or in liquid com- 
mercial phosgene.—A. Brives: The Suessonian in 
Central Morocco.—P. Bertrand: The plant zones of 
the Coal Measures of ‘the North of France.—P. 
Pruvost: Comparison between the Coal Measures of 
the North of France and those of Great: Britain, 
according to the succession of fauna.—L. Dunoyer and 
G. Reboul: The utilisation of measurements of the 
velocitv of wind at different altitudes for the predic- 
tion of barometric variations. When the wind velacity 
is found to increase with the altitude, a fall of the 
barometer is to be expected; conversely, if the veloci- 
ties decrease with the height, the. barometer will rise. 


40 


180 


NATURE. 


[May I, 1919 ¢ 


Fy Morvillez : “The leaf-conducting apparatus, of, ;the 
Leguminosa.—R. Souéges ;, (The embryogeny of the 
Polygonacez. The development of. the embryo, in 
Polygonum persicaria.—F. Vleés : The transmission. of 
light through emulsions of bacteria and blood cor- 
puscles.—MM, Lambert, Vlés, and de Watteville: An 
opacimeter for use in bacterial estimations. This 
consists of a photometer of two circuits starting from 
the same source of light, one traversing the emulsion, 
the other submitted to a system permitting a varia- 
tion of the intensity according to a known law. A 
diagram of the apparatus is given, together with a 
detailed account of the mode of standardising.—C. 
Nicolle and C.. Lebailly: Hidden experimental infec- 
tions. Examples drawn from the study of exanthe- 

matic typhus. Examples are given of the inoculation 
of rats and guinea-pigs with typhus in which there 
was'no sign of. the reality of the infection except the 
transmission of the disease by the blood to another 
animal. This is a different type from latent infection, 
as here the disease evolves in the experimental animal 
with: its periods of incubation, infectious state 
(septicaemia and virulence), and cure, with no sign 
that can be noted by the observer. The name infec- 
tions inapparentes is proposed for this class. There 
seems no reason to suppose that such facts are ap- 
plicable to typhus only.—E. P. Césari: The matura- 
tion of the sausage. The ripening and flavour of 
Sausages are due to the action of yeasts, three new 
species of which have been isolated. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 
From Nebula to Nebula; 


or, The Dynamics of the 
Heavens. By ; Lepper. Fourth’ edition. 
Pp. 401. (Pittsburgh, Pa.: G. H. Lepper. . 

Lowson’s Text-book of Botany dian Edition). 
Revised and Adapted by Bubal Sahni and M. Willis. 
New and revised edition. Pp. xii+610. (London: 
W. B. Clive.) 8s. 6d. 

A Contribution to the Physiology of the Fresh-water 
Sponges (Spongillide). By H. van Trigt. Pp. vi+ 
220+vi plates. (Leiden: E. J. Brill.) 

The Fundamental Equations of Dynamics and its 
Main Co-ordinate Systems Vectorially Treated and 
Illustrated from Rigid Dynamics. By F. Slate. Pp. 


ix +233. (Berkeley: University of California Press.) 

Worlds not Realised. \By W. J. Jupp. Pp. 94. 
(London: Headley Bros. Publishers, Ltd:) 2s. 6d. 
net. 


- Beverages and their Adulteration, Origin, Composi- 
tion, Manufacture, Natural, Artificial, Fermented, Dis- 
tilled, Alkaloidal, and Fruit Juices. By Dr. H. W. 
Wiley. Po. xv+421+11 plates. (London: J. and A: 
Churchill.) 21s. net. 


“« DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, May 1. 

‘ROYAL InstiTUTION, at 3.—Dr. H. S. Hele Shaw: Clutches, 

Linnean Society, at 5.—J. Small:.The Pappus in the Composite.— 
Montagu Drummond : Notes on the Botany of the Palestine Campaign : 
I. The Flora of a Small Area in Palestine.—H..N. Dixon: Mosses from 
Deception Island. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ‘ENGINEERS, at 6.—Dr. C. Chree: Magnetic 

torms. 

‘CHEMICAL Society. at 8.—Prof. J. H. sania 

. New Theories of Atomic Structure. 


. FRIDAY, May 

Roya intercon at 5.30.—Prof. sf Ww. Nicholson : Energy Distribu- 
tion in Spectra. 

INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL Encrveers, at 6.—Dr. W. H. Hatfield: 
The Mechanical Properties of Steel, with Some ‘Consideration of the 
Question of Brittleness. 

TURDAY, Ma 


Roya. INSTITUTION, at 3. Ae H.S. Foxwell’: 


logy of Industry. 
“MONDAY, May s. 
SocrETY oF ENGINEERS, at 5.—C. O. Bannister : Heat Treatment of Steel. 
ARISTOTELIAN SociEty,, at 8.—Prof. J. B. Baillie: The Stereoscopic 
Character of Knowledge. 


NO. 2583, VOL. 103] 


The Quantum Theory and 


Chapters in the Psycho- 


‘OpTicaL SociETY, at 7.30.—Prof. F. J. 


TUESDA Y, May 6, 

RoyAL INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. A. Keith! nae Ethrioldgy—The rene 
of Wales and Ireland. ; 

UnsTITUTION OF. CIVIL ENGINEERS, at 5. 3 mesiiaet hast Discussions : ‘G. 
Hughes: The Electrical and Mechanical’ Equipment of the All- Metal 
Cars of the Manchester-Bury Section, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. 
—F. E. Gobey : All-Metal Passenger Cars for British Railways. 

R6NTGEN SOCIETY, at 8 (at Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, | 
W.1).—Prof. W. M. Bayliss : Silvanus Thompson Memorial Lecture— 
Electrical Changes in Active Tissues. s era 


WEDNESDAY, May 
Roya Society or.Arts, at 4.30.—J. S. Highfield ; The Supply of Elec- 
tricity. 
GEOLOGICAL Society, at 5.30.—Major Reginald W, Brock: Observations 
on the Geology of Palestine. 
British PsycHoLocicat Society (Educational Section), at 6.—Prof. cs 
Spearman: Mental Tests for Vocational Guidance. 


THURSDAY, May 8. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (Joint Meeting with sulties and 
Steel Institute), at 2.30.—J. Bibby: Developments in Iron and Steel 
Electric Furnaces.—W. H. Booth: The Booth-Hall Electric Furnace.— 
H. Jy Pipe ssa Application of Electrical Energy to the Melting of Metals. 

Mercer: Electric Furnaces in the United Kingdom, 1918.—Axel 
Santo: : A New T ype of Electric Furnace. —Victor Stobie : Large Electric 
Steel Melting Furnaces. 

Roya INSTITUTION, at 3.—Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw: Clutches. _ 
INsTITUTION OF MINING AND METALLURGY, at 5.30. Amen saael 
Meeting.—Hugh K. Picard : Presidential pete Fe, Standish Ball; 

The Work of the Miner on the Western Front, 19 
Ch eabica! * drecidential Address— 
Polarised Light.—J. Rheinberg : Graticules. 


FRIDAY, May 9. 
Roya ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5 
Rovzat INSTITUTION, at 5.30.—Sir Cate Macartney : Chinese T urkistan— 
Past and Present. 
MaracotoaicaL. Society, at €.—G. B. Sowerby: A ‘New Species of 
Ampullaria in the Geneva Museum. pepe A. E. Boycott : Parthenogenesis 
in Paludestrina jenkinsi.— Tom Iredale : Notes on the er of ian 


Howe Island. 
SATURDAY, May 1 
Rovat InstiTUTION, at 3.—Prof. H. S. Fosweitt Chapters in the «Papo 
logy of Industry. 


CONTENTS. PAGE 
The Complete Physical Chemist. ore A.M. W. . 161 
Acidosis. By Dr. J. S. Haldane, F a8 
Tropisms, By Prof, D’Arcy W. _ Thompsgns a B, 
F.R.S. 


Our Bookshelf : oe 0.9 ae 

Letters to the Editor :— dugey 

The Doppler Effect in the Molecular Seti , eee 
Radiation.—Prof, C. V. Raman; Sir Joseph : 


Larmor, M.P., F.R.S. 165 
Indian Astronomical Instruments. (Tuetiavedpe: i 
By Dr. J. L. E, Dreyer 166 
The Occlusion of Gases by Metals. By H. » By c. 168 
Prof. J. J. Ki see ie et Dr. Be J ussell, 
F.R.S. Age: # sae ‘ ee at | 
Notes . ory Bere say ee ne 
Our Astronomical Column :— : a ' 
The April Meteors of 1919 i oe 
The Meteoric Shower of Halley’s Comet ; 3 a, ee 
Occultation of Stars by Venus sme tal oy ee 
Civilian Air Routes. (With Map.) . Pia he) OS 
Forestry Research in Sweden . > « tebebe aS 
Plantation Rubber Research. By H. w. 5 


The Sensitiveness of Protogial Plates to 
an Rays. By Miss N. C. B. Allen and Prof. T, H. 
Lab 


‘ Bh Re Fy 
Rainfall Variations ’ ‘ eee of 
University and Educational Intelligence . a ee kee 
Societies and Academies. .... Pai dei ib ges 
Books Received 22°.) 00). Se 
Diary ‘of Gécieties"™ =f. 27 °°. eo 


Editorial. and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 


ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONPOR), Wart 


Advertisements and ieee: letters to be addressed to the 
A 3 aes nied ae 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, Lonpon. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


peste NATURE 


181 


‘THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1o10. 


JOSEPH BLACK. 


Pes and Letters of Joseph Black, M.D. By 
With an Introduction 


Ra cai, a F. G. Hioacad. 

A(L Constable and Co., 
_ Price 6s. 6d. net. 

i* HIS little book has a special interest in being 
3 wit the last published work of the late Sir 
llias ey: As Prof. Donnan states in his 
‘aceful appreciation of the author’s life and 
it <, Ramsay possessed an intimate knowledge 
. i true perception of Black’s position in the 
history of science, and as they were both alumni 
f the same alma mater (the University of Glas- 
» gow) it was exceedingly appropriate and a charm- 
ing act of piety that he should have paid such a 
tribute to the memory of one with whose. name 

and fame that university is so closely identified. 
_ At the same time it cannot, in strict truth, be 
‘said that we have thereby gained any fresh light 
’s life and character, or on the nature 
hooker of his work. Nor was this to be 
“fe ne satoonpenh all that can be said concern- 
nal history, his habits, his occupa- 
intellectual powers, his social gifts, and 
yence as a teacher was said long ago 
le socesor and biographer, Robison, and 
ies, Playfair and Brougham, and 
hee wmrampasised | in Thomson’s well-known 
sount. Indeed, says Ramsay with that quaint 
humor and, gentle irony so characteristic 
shir _ “dD - Thomas Thomson found Dr. 
Yb son's, ; estimate of Black’s character so just 
e ap riated it almost verbatim in his 


Pp. xix + 148. 
Ltd., 1918.) 


History O mistry ’ without the formality of 
te t eo , 
\s reg: rds, too, the influence of Black’s work 
ching, there is nothing fresh to be learned. 
ry has set its seal upon them, and posterity 
accept the verdict. There. will be no appeal. 
90ch-making as Black’s services to science were, 
ew men 1 of such eminence ever furnished so little 
rial to the historian. His great achievements 
le at the very outset of his career. He 
famous almost at a bound, and for up- 
O forty ears he lived upon his reputation, 
\~menting it, indeed, by the wise and philosophic 
nsight, the depth and range of his knowledge, 
iberality of thought, and sound judgment with 
hich he impressed his colleagues and contem- 
s, and influenced and stimulated his 
1 To all this Sir William Ramsay bears 
adi sirable testimony. The subject was evidently 
ongenial to him, and the story as told by him 
iad well worth the telling. For Robison’s_bio- 
oI ig is practically forgotten except by biblio- 
phi and Thomson’s “ History,’’ a compilation 
2 Pa great merit, and mainly of value for its 
ecord of events within the author’s personal ex- 
Ret eice, is probably never looked into by the 
modern student. What is worth preserving in it, 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


from the point of view of history, has long since 
been incorporated into later and more important 
works. 

A physician with a very limited practice, whose 
energies, such as they were, were almost wholly 
engrossed in the work of preparation for his lec- 
tures on chemistry, mainly to medical students, 
of feeble health and little physical vigour, Black 
lived a singularly tranquil and uneventful life. 
His constitutional weakness predisposed him to 
indolence, and he was incapable of any sustained 
mental exertion. Literary composition was evi- 
dently irksome to him. His correspondence might 
have been as world-wide as his fame had he cared, 
or been able, to maintain it. Buta valetudinarian 
before he had reached middle life, he attained the 
allotted: span only by the strictest regimen and by 
a routine almost monotonous in its regularity. 

Moreover, the conditions both at Glasgow and 
at Edinburgh offered little inducement to experi- 
mental inquiry; in those days there was nothing 
in the nature of laboratory instruction to students, 
nor had Black facilities for working by means of 
assistants. Still, had he possessed something of 
the zeal and enthusiasm of a Scheele or a Priestley, 
he would have triumphed over these obstacles, for 
Black was not a poor man, and was well able to 
afford the expense of tilling the field of inquiry, 
especially in the domain of heat, which he had 
opened out for himself. As it was he left it to 
others to garner the rich harvest which lay ready 
to his hand had he only had the will and the vigour 
to gather it. Not that Black was careless of, or 
indifferent to, his reputation. He complained, and 
with good cause, of the manner in which his pio- 
neering work was ignored by his French con- 
temporaries, and he was consequently annoyed by | 
the fulsome flattery addressed to him by Lavoisier 
when it became known that he was not indisposed 
to accept the doctrine of the anti-phlogistians. 
But he never sought for honours and distinctions 
or marks of recognition by foreign academies, 
and was genuinely surprised, and with an almost 
childlike gratification, when he received them. 

Sir William Ramsay’s pen-portrait conveys a 
vivid and lifelike presentment of a guileless, un- 
affected character, a man of strict integrity, per- 
fectly transparent, firm and constant in his friend- 
ships, of a cheerful, lovable disposition, easy of 
approach, affable and courteous in bearing, and 
honourable in all transactions and social obliga- 
tions. He lived a serene and unembittered exist- 
ence, wholly unmoved by faction and undisturbed 
by polemical strife. He died as he had lived, and 
his gentle spirit left him when seated in his chair, 
without the slightest sign of even momentary pain, 

The student of chemistry who is at all inte- 
rested in the personal history of the science will 
read this book with pleasure and profit, for no 
better instance of the happiness and contentment 
that attend a life free from worldly troubles, and 
devoted to the unselfish pursuit of science and to 
the contemplation of its truths, can be found than 


‘in that of Joseph Black, who is to us, as he was 


to his contemporaries, one of the greatest orna- 
ments of his age. 


L 


(182 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


THE FUNCTIONS OF THE INTERNAL 
EAR. 


Equilibrium and Vertigo. By Dr. Isaac H. Jones. 
- With an analysis of pathologic cases by Dr. 
Lewis Fisher. Pp. xv+ 444. (Philadelphia and 
London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1918.) Price 
21s. net. 


LTHOUGH the internal ear or labyrinth of 
man’s body is so small that it may be placed 
within a hazel-nut of moderate size, it contains 
two organs of the first importance—one for the 
recognition of sound, the other for the recogni- 
tion of movement. A hundred years ago anato- 
mists and physiologists had no suspicion that the 
internal ear was a double organ. When John 
Hunter discovered that fishes had an elaborate 
internal ear or labyrinth, with three well-developed 
semicircular canals, he believed he had established 
as a fact that fishes are furnished with the power 
of hearing. The discovery made by Flourens in 
1825 that a partial or total destruction of the 
semicircular canals of a pigeon deprived the bird 
of all power of controlling its movements was 
altogether unexpected and puzzling. No one had 
suspected that the vertebrate animal was _ fur- 
nished with an organ which silently answered the 
purposes of a mariner’s compass, nor could it have 
been anticipated that such an instrument should 
form part of the apparatus known as the internal 
ear or labyrinth. 

After the initial discovery by Flourens our 
knowledge of the equilibrating function of the 
labyrinth developed slowly and_ intermittently, 
being regarded as a matter of mere academical 
interest until 1905. In that year Robert Bardny, 
lecturer on aural surgery in the University of 
Vienna, made a chance observation which led to 
a knowledge of this obscure and silent function 
of the ear becoming a matter of immediate prac- 
tical importance to every medical man. Bardny 
noted that when he douched the ear-passage of a 
patient with cold water, the eyes immediately 
swung in one direction; when he employed hot 
water in place of cold, the eyes moved in a 
reverse direction. He immediately suspected, and 
proceeded to prove, that the douches set up con- 
vection currents of opposite directions in the ad- 
joining semicircular canals, the cold douche giving 
a downward flow, the hot one in a reverse direc- 
tion. If there was a diseased or disordered con- 
dition of the canals, then no response was given 
by the eyes, because the automatic mechanism 
which fixes the gaze on an object when one’s head 
is turned no longer acts. 

_ In 1909 Bardny made the further and even more 
important observation that the action of every 
muscle of the body was influenced by messages 
or stimuli which arise in the semicircular canals 
and adjoining parts. When he set up currents 
within the canals either by douching or by seating 
the patient on a rotating chair, he found that the 
power of carrying out precise movements was 
lost in every part of the body. Thus the canali- 
cular mechanism of the ear establishes a con- 
NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


nection with every part of the executive elements — 


of the central nervous system. By testing the 
reactions yielded by the semicircular canals, the 
physician can explore the central nervous system 
and ascertain whether or not a multitude of its 
connections are in a normal condition of health. — 


In no country has the practical application of | 


Bdrdny’s discoveries been more vigorously fol- 


lowed up than in the medical schools of the 


United States. That has been particularly the 
case in the University of Pennsylvania, where 
Dr. Isaac H. Jones holds the post of instructor 
in “neuro-otology,’’ and at the same time acts 
as laryngologist to the Philadelphia General Hos- 
pital. In the work under notice Dr. Jones not 
only introduces his readers to the latest teaching 
regarding the functions and connections of the 
labyrinth, but also adds certain discoveries 
of his own. He claims that the nerve- 
fibres from the external or horizontal canals 
pursue a separate course and form different con- 
nections in the central nervous system from the 
fibres which issue from the vertical canals—the 
superior and posterior. The section of this book 
in which Dr. Lewis Fisher gives an analysis of 
a great number of cases where a defect had 
occurred in the balancing mechanism of the body 
will prove of particular interest to clinicians. Of 
more immediate importance are the chapters 
devoted to a description of the tests applied to 
candidates for the aviation corps, for it is mani- 
fest that a sound and sensitive equilibrating 
mechanism is as necessary for a flying man as 
for a bird. The essential tests are based on 
Bardny’s discoveries. TLE ORD E 

Dr. Jones does not touch on the very interesting 
problem of how two functions so different in 
nature as are those of balancing and of hearing 


became associated in the same organ, nor is our 


knowledge sufficiently complete to permit us to 
tell the story in full. Yet from a double source— 
from the evidence of embryology and of compara- 
tive anatomy—we know for certain that the in- 
ternal ear was evolved as a balancing mechanism 
—as a sense-organ to provide the body with a 
knowledge of its position and of its movements 
—and that the part which serves the function 
of hearing is a comparatively late addition or 
extension. In making that addition Nature intro- 
duced no new principle, but by a slight modifica- 
tion of the apparatus used for registering changes 
in the position of the body she evolved an instru- 
ment for the registering of sound-waves and for 
their conversion into nerve stimuli. The basal 


design of the labyrinth is a minute closed sac i 


filled with fluid. On its floor is a carpet of cells 


bearing cilia; on the cilia is poised a load. The — 


slightest change in the position of the body of the 
animal is accompanied by a change in the position 
of the load and a bending of the cilia. In a 


manner which we can only guess, the mechanical — 
bending of the cilia is converted by their basal © 


cells into nerve stimuli. For the detection of 


bodily movements, part of the closed sac became i 
converted into semicircular canals, and across each | 


NATURE 


183 


; 
7 | May 8, 1919] 


“canal was drawn a barricade of cilia, also loaded. 
a canals are so set that a displacement of the 

uid within them accompanies every movement, 
_ the rate of the displacement being registered by 

the barricade of hair-cells set across their lumina. 
By the introduction of a few modifications an area 
te hair-cells was exposed to displacements of 


fluid set up by the impact of sound-waves. 

Pt _ Physiologists are only beginning to realise that 
_ Barany’s researches on the action of the balancing 
part of the labyrinth are at the same time throw- 
ing a novel light on the nature and action of its 
cochlear or auditory part. The machinery and 
the manner in which the machine works are the 
ame in both cases—that of registering a mass 
Macement of the contained fluid. The evolu- 


The space allotted to this subject is so restricted 
that only the most general outlines can be given. 
The chapter ends with a “summary of engineering 


considerations related to rocks.’’ Chap. ii. deals 
with rock weathering, explaining how the strata 
mentioned in the previous chapter became altered 
when exposed to atmospheric agents. The next 
three chapters deal respectively with streams, 
lakes, and water supply. Most of the information 
contained in these chapters is such as should be 
own by everyone who expects to live or journey 
peas a city where water is merely obtained 
y turning a tap and disposed of by means of 
drains. — 


' Under the heading of water supply several pages 
are given to military requirements. In dealing 
- with the volumes of water required by an army the 
demands from all sources—men, horses, wash- 
ing, etc.—are added together and divided by the 
number of men in the unit; the result is then 
given in gallons per soldier. The figure to-5o 
NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


gallons per day per soldier is thus arrived at. A 
point which is not brought out is that a distinc- 
tion can often be drawn between water for horses 
and water for human consumption. Emphasis is 
rightly laid on the importance of the time-factor 
in military water-supply schemes. Schedules for 
entering up details of wells, springs, etc., given 
on pp. 152-56, are those in use by the United 
States Geological Survey, and therefore have the 
advantage of having been tested by actual use. 

Chap. vi., on land forms, gives, with the help 
of excellent small diagrams, a good introduction 
to the study of the relationship of geological 
structure to the topography of an area. At the 
end of the chapter is a page of military problems. 
These are good in showing how geology should 
be considered in conjunction with other details of 
a military nature. Unfortunately, only a very small 
space is devoted to this side of the subject. 

Chap. vii. will be found useful in the teaching 
of map reading and map interpretation. The 
chapter deals with topographical, and not geo- 
logical, maps, but shows how the general geo- 
logical structure of an area can often be foretold 
by a study of the topography. The book ends 
with short notes on various minerals, with special 
reference to their uses in war. 

The work throughout is designed for teaching, 
and it is in some ways unfortunate that it bears 
the word “military ’’ in such prominence, for the 
book will be found to be of value to all who wish to 
have some of the everyday practical applications 
of geology put before them in an elementary way, 
or to those who desire a well-illustrated text-book 
for teaching purposes. From the military point 
of view it should be noted that the book is 
designed to help all officers to understand the 
elementary facts regarding the ground on which 
they are, or expect to be, fighting. No mention, 
however, is made of the need for a special geo- 
logical section of the Engineers composed of ex- 
perts who can have access to published works 
and maps, and be in personal touch with 
men who have worked in the area. There is no 
doubt that much time and energy would frequently 
have been saved during the war if all officers had 
known the principles set forth in this book. It 
should be borne in mind that unless expert advice 
is obtained for the larger engineering under- 
takings, the little knowledge which is a dangerous 
thing may lead to the starting of impracticable 
schemes. W. B. R. K. 


OUR BOOKSHELF, 


A Century of Science in America. With Special 
Reference to the “ American Journal of Science,’’ 
1818-1918. By Edward Salisbury Dana and 
Others. Pp. 458. (New Haven: Yale University 
Press; London: Oxford University Press, 
1918.) Price 17s. net. 

TuoucH the “prefatory note ’’ makes no mention 

of the fact, this handsomely produced work 

appears to be a reproduction for the library-shelf 
of the number of the American Journal of Science 


184 


NATURE 


| May 8, 1919 


issued in July, 1918 (see Nature, vol. cii., p. 50). 
The numerous portraits of American men of 
science give it distinction, and Clerk Maxwell, 
Huxley, and Charles Darwin are also represented, 
It is not stated that the portrait of Huxley is from 
Collier’s famous painting. Some of the articles, as 
previously noticed, cover the progress of a par- 
ticular science in the world at large during the 
century commemorated, 1818-1918. 

The American Journal of Science originated in 
the widely cultured mind of Benjamin Silliman, 
professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Yale 
College, New Haven, and it is natural that from 
the first it had as “a leading object’’ the illus- 
tration of ‘American natural history, and espe- 
cially our mineralogy and geology.’’ Silliman 
was fortunate in having James Dwight Dana as 
a son-in-law, and to this day men of science 
throughout the world look to the American 
Journal of Science for the publication of original 
researches on such subjects as fossil reptiles, 
coral-reefs, and especially synthetic mineralogy. 
This memorial volume appeals, then, particularly 
to the geologist, who will find that half its pages 
are devoted to subjects with which he has some 
direct acquaintance. It will, moreover, sup- 
eon the various published summaries of the 

istory of chemistry, physics, zoology, and botany 
by bringing into prominence the happy flow of 
communications that has moved in both directions 
across the Atlantic during the past hundred years 
of human thought and observation. 
Gi Anji 


La Genése de la Science des Cristaux.. By Héléne 
Metzger. Pp. 248. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 
1918.) Price 5.50 francs. 


TuIs is a history of the science of crystals during 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—that is, 
during the period of its origin and early develop- 
ment. The earliest serious attempts at a study of 
crystalline forms were those of the Dane, Nico- 
laus Steno (1669), and M. A. Cappeller (1723), 
but the first real advance was made by the French 
crystallographers, Romé de 1’Isle (1772) and the 
Abbé Haiiy (1784). Many quotations are given 
from the old authors, and their theories and quaint 
ideas are compared and commented upon. In 
different sections the subject is considered in its 
relations to (1) mineralogy, (2) biological sciences, 
and (3) physical sciences. Although the forma- 
tion of snow and ice crystals and the growth under 
the microscope of crystals from mineral waters 
and saline solutions attracted much attention 
during this period, the study of crystals has 
always been more intimately associated with 
mineralogy. The book concludes with a long list 
of authors quoted, and a more or less complete 
bibliography, in which there are several misprints. 
A rather discursive table of contents takes the 
place of an index, and, as is often the case in 
French books, there are no head-lines to the 
pages. The author is a member of the French 
Mineralogical Society, and has contributed to its 
Bulletin under her maiden-name of Bruhl. 
NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. uo ® 


[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. | 1 es 

The Cultivation of Sponges. = a 
THERE appeared in Nature of April 20, 1916, an 


abstract of an article by me on sponge culture which — 


was published in the West Indian Bulletin towards 
the end of 1915. In this article an account was given 


of Moore’s work in Florida, and of a more ‘recent — 
commercial undertaking at the Caicos Islands, in — 


which marketable sponges had been reared from 
cuttings on cement discs in comparatively shallow sea- 
water. ses ps Ka 

This interesting, and alleged highly profitable, 
industry is now attracting serious attention in the 
Bahamas, where there has been considerable deple-: 
tion of the natural beds. Farther south, in the Lesser 
Antilles, the Imperial Department of Agriculture for 
the West Indies, with which I am connected, has 
been trying for some time to arrange sponge rowing 
experiments at islands like Antigua and Barbados, 


where, even though the locally occurring s s are 


of inferior quality, suitable conditions may be found ~ 


for growing introduced types of better quality by the 
culture method. hk TEE BE 
The uncertainty of our knowledge concerning the 
behaviour of ponies amid different environments, 
and the paucity of our knowledge of West Indian 
sponges and their distribution, make a proper scientific 
inquiry into sponge culture very desirable. oreover 


ly Se) n Me , 
the prevailing scepticism in certain quarters regard- — 


ing the profitable character of sponge culture calls for 
a technical report on the economic side. A 

At present steps are being taken with the view of 
securing two marine zoologists for the British West. 


E 


Indies; one of them may be attached to the staff of 


WOES S ing 


pial 


=e 
ne 


the Imperial Department at Barbados, and the other . 


will probably be stationed in the Bahamas. It seems, 
however, that some considerable time will elapse’ 
before anything is definitely settled, and even then 
the investigation of a subject like West Indian. 
sponges and their culture requires careful planning 
and special qualifications on the part of the observers 

When in London recently I took the opportuni 


Museum (Natural History) and Prof. Dendy at King’s 
College. There can be no objection to stating that these 


rs. , 
of 
bringing the matter before Dr. Harmer at the British’ 


—s 


authorities consider that sponge culture in the West’ — 


Indies presents problems of great scientific interest, and , 


they suggest that the inquiry might well be pushed from 
the purely scientific aspect. It is obvious to the least 
imaginative that a study of sponges along the West 
Indian chain through 20° of latitude (1200 miles), 
and including environmental experiments with dif- 
ferent types, would be most valuable. 
of opinion that the inquiry is worthy of a 


sponges in this country. 


It is intended to bring these views to the notice. 


of the Colonial Office, and to submit that an official 


application for financial assistance and scientific guid-’ 


ance should be made to the Department of Scientific 
and Industrial Research. Suggestions as to any other. 
steps desirable will be appreciated. 


In concluding this letter, it may be pointed out that. 
during the war, owing to the naval occupation of the. 


Mediterranean, this country has been largely depen- 


dent upon the West Indies for its supply of sponges, 
which. are essential to. a large number of important: 


Prof. Dendy is’ 
cial 
expedition, for we krow very little about West Indian - 


_ May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


185 


industries. We can keep this increased trade only if 


_)we maintain West Indian production and, what is 
g ite as urgent, improve West Indian grades so that 
ey can compete with the Mediterranean. This may 
Or may not be achieved by means of sponge culture, 

_ but it is worth trying. The Americans have un- 
ues ly made progress with sponge culture in 

_ | Blorida, and a significant fact is recorded in a recent 
British Colonial Report on the Turks and Caicos 
inds to the effect that at one of these islands 
$000 acres of sea for sponge culture has been conceded 
fo a capitalist from New York. While we should 
prefer to see British enterprise of this nature, par- 
icularly in a British Possession, we have to recognise 


‘@ certain consistency in United States action. ost 
_ of the marine investigation in the West Atlantic has 


mérican; for instance, Prof. Nutting’s recent 
and former expeditions, the study years ago on the 
fishes of Porto Rico by the U.S. Government, and 
_ recent oceanographic work in the steamer 
. It is to be hoped that Great Britain will see 
vy to take up the sponge question, first from the 
then from the commercial, point of 
at a start will be made at the earliest 
date. W. R. Duntop. 
ne, Hythe, Kent, April 23. 


y to. 
2.20 


Pitas 25 Wasps. 
Warm spring weather which made its advent 
_ Frid y (April 18), and was continued on 
days, rought out numbers of humble-bees, 
vasps, and butterflies of various kinds. I have 
_ observed that the humble-bees precede the 
y a week or two. 
as ps mest (Vespa germanica) situated in the 
here in 1915 was a rather strong one, and 
on digging i ek + October I estimated the number 
of cells as 12,900. A nest of the same species which 
had in 1918 was much stronger. In 1915 the hourly 


& caer a . 
x % i 


aber of wasps ving in and out of their nest was 

the most abundant period, while in 1918 the 
10 fewer than 15,500. The record heavy rains 
ber last, however, swamped the nest and 
fo a premature termination, when but few 
of the young queens had taken to flight. If the nest of 
“1918 had a number of cells proportionate to that of 


=pDLeL 


es 


ior: 
y. RASEE 


; 1 the wet that they did not admit of detailed in- 
_ stigation. _ 


ible for quite 75,000 wasps. Needless to relate, 

lies were not troublesome in this neighbour- 

ing last summer! But which pest of the 

isps or house-flies, is the more tolerable? For 

I greatly prefer the wasps! 

San any reader ma me as to the number of 
Ss supposed to be associated with a very strong 
ae W. F. DENNING. 


3 
€ ee 


EES) oe) 

Shed tol. gh: ; emt c 

ee. mr Eitates Ie a 
“THE LUNAR TIDE IN THE ATMOSPHERE. 


. ie edge theory was first: applied with any 

- success to the atmosphere by Laplace, and 
he also first attempted to determine the tidal varia- 

tion of pressure from barometric observations. 
_ His material consisted of 4752 measurements of 
the height of the mercury column at Brest (lat. 
40° N.). These were far too few for the purpose, 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


| 


| 


however, and his result, given in tome v. of the 
“Mécanique Céleste,’? cannot be regarded as a 
determination of the quantity sought for, which is 
much smaller than Laplace’s value. Another lunar 
reduction of barometric data from Brest was made 
about thirty years ago by Bouquet de la Grye, 
but his series of observations (consisting of hourly 
values extending over a few years), while larger 
than that used by Laplace, still seems to have 
been inadequate. He arrived at a lunar daily 
inequality of pressure which was not by any means 
nearly semidiurnal in type, though the semidiurnal 
component—o’o20 sin (2t+ 100°) mm. of mercury 
—was larger than the probable true value of the 
tidal variation at Brest. 

The atmospheric tide was determined from a 
tropical series of barometric records so early as 
1847. There now exist more or less trustworthy 


determinations for five tropical stations—St. 
Helena, Singapore, Samoa, Hong-Kong, and 
Batavia. The results for the two last are from 


long series of hourly observations, extending over 
thirty or mare years, and are therefore of con- 
siderable accuracy. Though the tidal barometric 
variation has its maximum value at the equator, 
its magnitude there is very small. At Batavia 
(6° S.) it may be represented by the formula 


0°065 sin (2¢#+ 65°) mm. of mercury, 


where t denotes time reckoned from lunar transit 
at the rate of 360° per lunar day. The phase 
angle 65° indicates that maximum pressure occurs 
nearly an hour after the moon crosses the meri- 
dian. 

Until recently the only determination of the 
tide which could be considered as probably an 
approximately true one, among the results for 
extra-tropical stations, seems to be that obtained 
by Morano from five years’ hourly barometric 
observations at Rome (42° N.). Though the 
series of data was not large, the resulting ampli- 
tude and phase agree with what might be ex- 
pected in this latitude. Many other attempts to 
determine the tidal barometric variation in Euro- 
pean latitudes have been made without success. 
The most important of these investigations was 
due to Airy, who dealt with as many as 160,000 
hourly observations of the barometer at Green- 
wich (51° N.), ranging over the twenty years 
1854-73. : 

The barometric pressure is affected by a solar 
semidiurnal variation as well as, and of much 
greater amplitude than, the lunar tidal variation. 
Unless the former is properly abstracted from the 
hourly values before deducing from them the lunar 
inequality, the determination of the latter may 
be seriously affected by a residuum of the solar 
term. Two other causes operate to enhance the 
difficulty of detecting the lunar variation in the 
barometric records of stations in moderate and 
high latitudes. The first is the rapid diminution 
of the tidal amplitude as the latitude A increases. 
The second is the increase in the irregular fluctua- 
tions of the pressure. At Brest or Greenwich 
these range over several millimetres (of the mer- 


186 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


cury column) in the course of a day, far exceeding 
not only the lunar, but also the solar, diurnal 
variation, | 
Even after abstracting the latter periodic oscil- 
lation from the hourly values, the elimination of 
the irregular changes requires the use of a large 
amount of observational material. Airy’s dis- 
cussion shows that even twenty years’ data might 
prove insufficient. The Greenwich records of 
atmospheric pressure now extend over sixty years, 
but this threefold enlargement of the available 
material does not by itself ensure very much reduc- 
tion in the accidental error affecting the deter- 
mination. Hence, in attempting a new investiga- 
tion, improvement was sought by excluding all 
but relatively ‘‘ quiet ’’ days from its scope, on 
the ground that the diminution in the number of 
days used is outweighed in advantage by their 
better quality for the purpose in hand. ‘Rather 


Junar diurnal inequality of pressure to be deduced. _~ 
Wherever possible, simplifying devices were used — 
in computation, and the solar diurnal variation ~ 
was duly removed from the data to rid the results — 


of this important source of error. iat 
The accompanying figure 


represents the mean lunar daily 


one deduced from the observations (the inner two 


vertical lines mark out a complete lunar day, on — 


either side of which a small portion of the curve 
is repeated) ; 
component proves to be 


o'0090 sin (2t-+ 114°) mm. of mercury, © 


represented in the figure by the broken curve. 


AA’= sabe inch Hy. 
. 
+00/\ mm. Hg, 
td N 
‘ 
\ 
\ 
Ohh. 
—0-0)- mm. Hy. 3 
A’ 
Uppler Lower Uppler 
Tranisit.. -Tran\sit. Transit ; 


Fic. 1.—The lunar semidiurnal tide in the atmosphere at Greenwich, as determined from the Greenwich Records of 
Barometric Pressure, 1854-1917. 


less than one-third of the whole number of days 
in the sixty-four-year period 1854-1917 were re- 
tained, being those on which the range of pressure 
did not exceed o'r in. The hourly values conse- 
quently totalled about 160,000, as in Airy’s work. 

There are approximately twenty-five solar hours 
in a lunar day, so that the twenty-four-hourly 
values on each “quiet” solar day were sup- 
plemented by the last hourly value on the pre- 
ceding day. ‘Each such series of twenty-five 
observations was broken into two parts, pre- 
ceding and following the lunar transit on the day 
in question. The preceding portion was’ trans- 
posed so as to succeed the other, in order that the 
rearranged series might correspond with intervals 
of, in the average, 04, 14, 24, . . . 244 solar hours 
after lunar transit. These series were written in 
rows, and the numbers in each hourly column 
were then added up, so as to enable the mean 

NO. 2584, VOL. 103 | 


The whole range of this, in inches, is 0°00071, 


(taken from the — 
Q.J. Roy. Met. Soc., vol. xliv., p. 271, 1918) § 
inequality ‘of 
atmospheric pressure which was finally obtained. — 
The unbroken curve, which is almost entirely — 
semidiurnal, as tidal theory would predict, is the 


on harmonic analysis its semidiurnal — 


appreciably less than one-thousandth of an inch — 


(indicated in the diagram by AA’). The original 
observations were made to o‘oor in. of mercury 


(from a photographic record giving a fourfold 


magnification) ;.in the computations, however, the 
last figure in each hourly value was omitted (the 
previous digit being raised when necessary), the 
entries on the lunar sheets being made to o’or in. 
only. In the circumstances, considering the (rela- 


tively) large irregular changes of pressure, even ~ 


“ce 


on these ‘‘ quiet’’ days, it is somewhat remark- 
able that so small a variation can be detected so 
clearly. 


In such an investigation it is needful to guard — 


against obtaining a fictitious result which merely 
happens to be of semidiurnal type. This point may 
be tested by subdividing the data and examining 
the internal agreement of the results from the 


May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


187 


_ separate sub-groups. In the present case the sixty- 
four years were divided into three periods, 1854-73, 
1874-93, 1894-1917; the semidiurnal components 

obtained by analysis of the three corresponding 

mean hourly inequalities of pressure were, in mm. 
of mercury, 

BRASS 00080 sin (2t+ 96° 

a 0'0089 sin it I se 

ete o'0104 sin (2t+ 127°), 

between which there is sufficiently satisfactory 

accordance. 

On comparing the determinations for Batavia 

and Greenwich it appears that the amplitude of 

the lunar atmospheric tide varies approximately 

as cos*A, where A is the latitude. At Greenwich 
| _ the tide is nearly an hour in advance of the moon, 
whereas at Batavia the order is reversed. It is 
possible that the amplitude and phase are subject 
to some modification from local causes. The fact 

_ that the observed tide is larger than the equi- 

librium tidal theory would predict may be attri- 

buted to the occurrence of resonance with a free 

_ . period of atmospheric vibration of rather shorter 

_ duration. But, as Laplace suggested, the rise and 

_ fall of the oceans may also be partly responsible 
for the observed tide, and, if so, some differences 

might be expected between the results from 

| oceanic and continental stations in the same lati- 

_ tude. The lunar tidal range of pressure is equi- 

valent to the weight of a column of air of normal 

| density of height 44 ft. at Batavia and about 
| 7 in. at Greenwich. Hence in northern latitudes 
| quite a small tide, existing over a considerable 
area, might suffice to affect the tide in the atmo- 


S. CHAPMAN. 


_ INTER-ALLIED CO-OPERATION IN 
Bee aes CHEMISTRY. 
NTER-ALLIED co-operation in chemistry, of 
_ which a brief notice appeared in Nature for 
April 24, should be of interest to all men of 
science, for what is true of chemistry is very 
largely true of all branches of science. Men of 
genius have developed in all countries, and of the 
really important scientific discoveries the Allies 
have contributed at least their due proportion, if 
not more. But the total volume of scientific work 
turned out by Germany during the last fifty years 
has been immense, and in the application of scien- 
tific discoveries to chemical manufactures the 
Germans have been easily first. Moreover, in the 
laborious and useful work of abstracting, index- 
ing, and publishing, the Germans have displayed 
their usual methodical industry; and they have 
not by any means under-estimated their achieve- 
ments, or neglected to give them world-wide 
advertisement. 
A good deal of antipathy to Germans and 
German ways now prevails, especially in those 
countries which have experienced German methods 
of devastation. French chemists and chemical 
manufacturers can scarcely be expected during this 
generation to co-operate in any way with their 


NO. 2584. VOL. 103] 


voainenne Epemeremable degree. dt complete representation of pure and applied 


eastern neighbours, and they have invited the 
Allied chemists, pure and applied, to join them in 
undertaking a mass of work which hitherto has 
been done, and, on the whole, well done, by 
Germany. In chemical matters there has been 
during the war a considerable amount of real co- 
operation between the Allies. The French, Ameri- 
cans, and British have been of great help to each 
other in solving chemical problems, both of re- 
search and manufacture. It is felt that the Allies 
will all gain by continuing, so far as is possible, 
the co-operation thus begun. 

Prof. Moureu presided over the recent confer- 
ence in Paris, and among his French colleagues 
were Profs. Haller, Béhal, and Matignon, MM. 
Kestner, Poulenc, Marquis, and Gérard. The 
British delegates were Prof. Louis, Sir William 
Pope, Messrs. Chaston Chapman, W. F. Reid, 
E. Thompson, and S. Miall. America was repre- 
sented by Mr. Henry Wigglesworth, Lt.-Cols. 
Bartow, Norris, and Zanetti, Dr. Cottrell, and 
Major Keyes; Italy by Senator Paternd, Drs. 
Pomilio, _ Giordani, and Parodi-Delfino; and 
Belgium by MM. Chavanne and Crismer. 

It was unanimously decided to form an Inter- 
Allied Federal Council of not more than six repre- 
sentatives of each of the countries mentioned 
above, the members to hold office for three years, 
one-third to retire annually and be eligible for re- 
election. The executive body is to consist of a 
president, a vice-president, and a general secre- 
tary. M. Jean Gérard will provisionally act as the 
secretary. In addition to the council a consulta- 
tive committee will be formed, consisting of as 
many sections as may be necessary to secure the 


chemistry. The objects of the confederation are: 
To strengthen the bonds of esteem and friendship 
existing during the war between the Allied 
peoples; to organise permanent co-operation 
between the associations of the Allied nations; to 
co-ordinate their scientific and technical resources ; 
and to contribute towards the progress of 
chemistry in the whole of its domain. 

Neutral countries may be admitted later. The 
next meeting of the conference will be held in’ 
London on July 15-18, that being the date of the 
annual meeting of the Society of Chemical 
Industry. 

So far as Britain is concerned, the choice of 
representatives and the supervision of the arrange- 
ments for the first meeting will be in the hands 
of the Federal Council for Pure and Applied 
Chemistry, of which Sir William Pope is presi- 
dent and Prof. H. E. Armstrong the honorary 
secretary. Until the various nations concerned 
have chosen their representatives, little can be 
done, but Sir William Pope and Prof. Louis are 
provisionally acting as the British representatives, 
and are in communication with their French col- 
leagues. 

The meeting in Paris was held under the 
auspices of the French chemical societies, espe- 
cially the Société de Chimie Industrielle, the presi- 
dent of which, M. Paul Kestner, presided at some 


188 


NATURE 


[May 8, 191g 


of the meetings. The final meeting of the 
members of the conference was held at the Palais 
d’Orsay at a banquet presided over by M. 
Loucheur, the Minister of Industrial Reconstruc- 
tion, at which Lord Moulton was also present. 

During the meeting of the conference some in- 
teresting papers were read. Prof. H. Louis gave 
an excellent summary of the magnetic concentra- 
tion of poor iron-ores, a subject of special import- 
ance to our Allies at the present moment. 

Dr, F. Cottrell reported fully on the recent pro- 
duction of helium in the United States, describing 
the new plant which has been erected in the 
U.S.A. for the freezing of gases by the cylinder- 
expansion process. Helium is one of the most 
recent and best illustrations of the co-operation of 
science and practice. First detected in the sun by 
Sir Norman Lockyer by means of its spectrum, and 
afterwards found in the earth by 
Ramsay, it was detected in gases from subter- 
ranean sources by various observers, especially 
by Prof. Moureu, who published his results in the 
Annales de Chimie in 1915 and 1916, and gave 
some further particulars of his researches in the 
discussion on Dr. Cottrell’s paper. At the com- 
mencement of the armistice the practical work 
done in the United States, following that carried 
out in connection with the British Admiralty Board 
of Invention and Research (see Nature, February 
20), had resulted in the accumulation of a large 
quantity of helium, which is now available for 
other than warlike purposes... 

On April 16 many of the delegates visited the 
devastated region of Chauny, Tergnier, and St. 
Gobain. This is classic ground for the 
chemist, as it was here that the Leblanc soda 
process was first installed on a large manu- 
facturing scale, and the Gay-Lussac tower was 
also originated there, its inventor being a director 
of the St. Gobain Company. The date, 1665, on 
the ruined portal of the glass factory shows its 
antiquity. The ruin wrought by the invaders was 
systematic and complete; in the villages not even 
the humblest cottage remained uninjured, and 
what was an industrious and prosperous. com- 
munity has been totally ruined: let us hope for a 
short time only. 

The Inter-Allied Council has a big task in front 
of it, and the first thing will be for the various 
members of the council and committees to get to 
know each other. 
done, but the right men have also to be chosen 
to do it. It will be some time before the dif- 
ferent nations, speaking different languages and 
looking at matters from different points of view, 
can so organise themselves that they can accom- 


plish their task smoothly and efficiently. But the 


goodwill and determination which exist should be 
sufficient to enable them to achieve success. The 
various chemical societies in this country will no 
doubt communicate their wishes and ideas to the 
Federal Council, and by the end of-this summer 
it should be possible to put forward: some prac- 
ti¢al .scheme and a. carefully considered pro- 
gramme; ©) + +m 


NO. 2584, ‘VOL. 103] 


Sir William: 


Not only has the work to be. 


w 


THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
to 
€ 


A VISIT to the Royal Academy cannot fail to 
be of interest to those who take pleasur 
in the ways of Nature, the varying moods of 


which are shown in so many of the pictures ex- — 


hibited. Unfortunately, it has to be admitted that’ 
while there is much of interest to the scientific 


worker in each year’s exhibition, there is also — 


much that is jarring by reason of its lack of 
adherence to the truth. So much adverse com- 
ment is passed upon the works of the exhibitors: 
by artistic critics at the opening of the exhibition 


each summer that it is perhaps natural for artists — 


to make greater efforts to meet this criticism than 
a purely scientific criticism, which in general, 
though well deserved, remains unvoiced. To the 


O_o 


j 


' 


man of science no result can be pleasing which 


is produced merely for the sake of effect and in 
its production overrides the laws of Nature. As 
an example of this type may be cited “Off the 
Western Land ’’ (198) in the exhibition which 


opened at Burlington House at the beginning of 


the present week. It is difficult to believe that 


the combination of colours there depicted on the — 


sea and in the sky could ever be approached in 
Nature. In the same way the colouring of the 
clouds in “The House on the Sea Wall”’ (309) 
cannot be passed over without comment. The 
complete semicircular rainbow in “Passing 
Storm’’ (232) seems to be independent of the 


F 
9 
; 
F 


presence of raindrops in its formation. While — 
rain is seen to be falling in one part of the sky, the, _ 


artist appears to have gone out of his way to 


indicate that there is no rain in another part of. — 
‘the bow, the cumulus cloud behind showing up — 


with absolute clearness. 


A study of the landscapes in successive exhibi- — 


tions reveals the fact that an artist may often be 


‘known by his clouds, just as surely as by the type 


of country which he chooses for his subject. The 
typical cloud in a Leader is the soft cumulus, 
always produced with admirable effect. Arnesby 
Brown is another whose works may readily be 
distinguished by the cloud forms depicted, though 
the meteorologist is not always able to pass an 
entirely favourable verdict upon the result. The 
cloud effect in “(A Village by the Sea’ (96) by 
this artist deserves, however, its meed of 
praise. Peter Graham’s mountain scenes gene- 
rally show patches of mist amongst the hills, 


while this year, in “A Shower across the Hills’ 


(150), falling rain has been introduced with a 
very pleasing result. A study of the fairly 


numerous pictures in which a portrayal of rain — 


is attempted leads to the conclusion that the 
subject is far from an easy one to treat success- 
fully. In “By the Woodside’’ (H. Sylvester 
Stannard, 673) an unpretentious but natural sky_ 
showing through the trees adds much to the 
success of the picture. ee 
tracted an unusually large share of attention in 


this year’s exhibition, and they are generally dealt 
-with _successfully. lan 
{Snow ’’ (J.. Farquharson, 19) the soft, moist look 


In. “Through the Woodland 


ae th 


at 
\ 


i 


: 


Snow scenes have at- _ 


Fr 
ifr 
f 
’ 


May a 1919 | NATURE 189 


—s 
any rs me : 


of the s snow which half covers the ground allows | and in consequence of this he was able to join 
of no other conclusion than that a thaw has set | the Army only in 1917 to fill a post where scientific 
in, and that the snow covering will not long | knowledge rather than physical endurance was 
remain. In “Day Departing in the West ’ ’ (171) | required, and he was at the time of his death 
le ‘same artist has another aitractive snow pic- | senior chemist in the 4th Water Tank Company 
re. There is a curiously unnatural appearance | in France. 
out “The Bathers’ Pool’’ (765). Here a sandy A prominent characteristic of all that Davie did, 
. beach i is depicted, but the sand, instead of sloping | whether as teacher or as researcher, was that of 
y to the sea, is cut away in an almost vertical | precision, and his literary gifts enabled him, alike 
“cliff ’’ at the water’s edge, the face standing at | in the lecture hall and in his writings descriptive 
an angle which looks most unreal. of his scientific research, to present his facts and 
The sea scenes which appear in numerous pic- | arguments with a fluency of diction and a grace of 
call for little comment, and, though some are | style that ensured lucid exposition. His chief 
using, few are of outstanding excellence. In | research was in the domain of the Pteridophyta, 
ranch of painting, the gap left by the death | a natural consequence of his upbringing in the 
fie. Napier Hemy seems to remain unfilled. | home of work in the group under Prof. Bower. 
; _ Now ‘that the scientific spirit is beginning to per- | An investigation of the East Asiatic ferns of the 
= _ meate the world, and is no longer confined to a | genera Paranema and Diacalpe was his first essay 
Tt w ‘specialists, it may be hoped that artists will | (1912), and in the course of settling disputed points 
me to realise that a true representation of | of their relationships he entered the controversial 
ire may be not inconsistent with the highest | field of the “fern stele and pinna-trace,”’ wherein 
istic success, while a travesty of Nature must he reaped largely then and also later, carrying on 
to satisfy a large and growing section of the | his line of research from the ferns, through the 


: pu blic. J. S. D. Cycads, into the Angiosperms. 
i =. At Bas Davie’s grouping of the ferns by the form of 
RO BERT CHAPMAN DAVIE. the leaf-trace in his last paper, published so recently 


as 1918 during his absence, is essentially in har- 
( ) Fe Bay a ee an og ye pup mony with groupings to which Prof. Bower and 
a ie i i P , others had been led by analysis of other characters, 
. ® _sticcumbing to an attack of influenza on return | and shows that amidst the laborious examination 
Z| ome ‘after years of physical hardship in the war | of the dry bones of anatomy Davie’s research was 
On is of the saddest. That has come to Capt. | inspired throughout by thought of origins and 
Robert Chapman Davie, R.A.M.C., a botanist adaptations. . How, why, when, are its keynotes, 
| from) whom much was expected as teacher and | and the facts, bald statement of which as evidence 
_ tesearcher. Capt. Davie crossed the Channel on | of difference or likeness satisfied many of the older 
i ‘dpemebee home on January 25, was attacked by | writers on the same subject, interested Davie 
two days later, and after a week’s | solely from the point of view of interpretation. 
we of pneumonia at Largs on | This attitude finds expression in his most import- 
lars ant paper—delayed in publication through the 
3orn in a gene aaa manuscript vicar been sat yo by a fire at the 
Bi ay a asgow Hig printers’, and having to rewritten—in an 
at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated | interesting analysis of the relative degree in which 
. MAY in 1907, obtaining a first class in English | phyletic factors and those of specific adaptation 
_ literature. Later, in 1909, he took the degree of | have been operative in bringing about the forms 
eos Sc.,, Msngnishing himself particularly in botany | of leaf-trace development in connection with water 
and in chemistry. In botany he was Dobbie-Smith | supply in plants. If the precision of his mind led 
geld _medallist and also Donaldson research | him at the moment to segregate factors in the 
scholar. Whether botany or chemistry was to | several groups and classes of vascular plants with 
"attract him for his life-work he had difficulty in | a definiteness of generalisation which addition to 
_ decidin _ The enthusiasm of his botanical teacher, | the few data as yet available outside the ferns 
Pr ower, finally determined his devotion to | may show to require modification, the attempt 
be otany, and he became an assistant in the | and its methods are suggestive, and, carried 
otanical department of his alma mater. In 1912 | further, as was his intention, must, in his hands, 
A avie migrated to fill the post of assistant in the | have thrown much light upon the proper appraise- 
_ botanical department of the University of Edin- | ment of the value of anatomy in questions of 
irgh, and in 1913 he was appointed lecturer on | obscure relationships of the higher plants, and 


‘tany in the University. In 1915 he graduated | given clues helping to the understanding of their 
D.Sc. of the University of Glasgow. His appoint- | phylogeny in relation to cosmic history. 
_ ment a couple of years ago as one of the secre- On removal to Edinburgh, Davie took up the 
“taries of the botany section of the British Asso- study of the Proteacee from the phyletic point 
ciation pleased him greatly, and was an apt choice | of view; their conjectured relationship to Legu- 
of a man with much business capacity and wide | minose fascinated him. Assisted by a grant from 
botanical knowledge. An attack of, rheumatic | the Royal Society, he spent some months of 1914 
fever in early life had somewhat undermined his | in Brazil making observations and gathering 
héalth, causing him frequéntly some heart trouble, | material, especially of Roupala, which, through its 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


190 


NATURE 


| May 8, 1919 


heterophylly, promised enlightening information on 
the subject of the leaf-trace. Beyond an account 
of plants other than Proteaceze which he had col- 
lected, Davie had not been able to complete the 
record of the results of his exploration. Alert in 
body and in mind, keen and undemonstrative in 
his work, thorough in everything, Davie gave 
promise of taking a prominent place amongst those 
upon whom rests the responsibility of scientific 
education and of extending the boundaries of 
science. Botany loses in him a talented and 
devoted adherent. 


NOTES. 


On Friday, May 2, the Animal Anesthetics Bill 
passed its second reading in the House of Commons. 
The object of this Bill is to insist on the use of 
anesthetics in a large number of cutting operations 
on horses and dogs. The operations to which the Act 
should apply are specified in a schedule to the Act, in 
which a distinction is drawn between those which 
should be performed under general anzesthetics and those 
for which a local anesthetic is required. It is worth 
noting that-the Act does not apply to farm animals, 
on which operations for the improvement of their 
market value can continue to be performed without 
anzesthetics. Of the legislators who have been pro- 
minent in endeavouring to suppress experiments on 
animals performed with a view to prevention of 
human disease and suffering, we notice only the name 
of Sir J. G. Butcher as taking part in the discussion 
or supporting the Bill—another proof, if proof be 
needed, that the leading motive in these people is 
not kindness to animals or regard for their fellow- 
creatures, but opposition to the advance of science in 
general, and in our knowledge of the processes of life 
in particylar. 


In the House of Commons on May 2 the Bill to 
control the importation of goods infected, cr likely 
to be infected, with anthrax, and to provide for the 
disinfection of any such goods, was read a_ second 
time. Sir Hamar Greenwood, in moving the second 
reading, outlined the incidence of anthrax in_ this 
country and the findings of the Anthrax Committee. 
The Bill contains two principal provisions. It gives 
power by Order in Council to prohibit the importation 
of goods infected or likely to be infected, either abso- 
lutely or except at any specified ports, and it empowers 
the Secretary of State to provide and maintain the 
necessary works for the disinfection of goods. It is 
also likely that, under the auspices of the League of 
Nations, international action may be taken with a 
view to the control of anthrax. 


In the course of a discussion in the House of 
Commons on April 30 upon the ‘subject of agricul- 
tural policy, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board 
of Agriculture announced that the Government has 
decided to appoint a Royal Commission forthwith, 
and that all parties materially interested will be repre- 
sented. He pointed out that a quick report is needed 
to enable the Government to frame a policy in the 
next few months. This may be obtained by an interim 
report on the more important branches of agriculture. 
It must be ascertained what guaranteed prices are 
necessary in order that, while good wages are paid, 
the industry is in a position to pay them. With such 
guarantees the farmer will have some idea of his 
economic position during the next few years which he 
has lacked during the past. 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


AEROPLANES waiting at St. John’s, Newfoundland, — 


for the Atlantic flight are still weather-bound, and, so- 


far as can be judged from information issued as we — 


are going to press both by the Meteorological Office — 
and by the Air Minstry, there are storm areas in the 
Atlantic over a considerable portion of the route which | 
ossible | 
choice should be made of a period at which the 


would be followed in the flight. So far as 
Atlantic high-pressure area is centred over the Azores, 
when for the route eastwards the winds would prob- 
ably be westerly and generally of no great strength; 
the disturbances so commonly travelling eastwards 
would, under these conditions, be pushed to the north- 
wards by the region of high barometer. However un- 
satisfactory it may be to get no wireless information 
from ships over the Atlantic, it seems much more un- 
satisfactory to contemplate starting without suc 
information, since the chances of bad weather greatly 
preponderate. Settled weather on the western and 
eastern sides affords no idea as to the weather in mid- 
ocean. Under the auspices of the United States naval 
authorities, Curtiss seaplanes are now being entered 
for the Atlantic flight. It is intended to span the 
Atlantic by a succession of ‘‘hops.”” The start had 
been timed for the early part of this month, flying 
from Long Island to Halifax, thence to Trepassey, 
Newfoundland, and with fair conditions it was hoped 
to leave Trepassey for the Azores within ten days of 
the start from Long Island, and Lisbon was to be the 
next stop. A report in the Times of May 6 from New 
York says: ‘‘On the eve of their departure for New- 
foundland two of the American trans-Atlantic sea- 
planes were seriously damaged by fire.”? — 


‘Tue Army Medical Department announces the in- 
stitution of two new appointments—a_ Director of 
Pathology and a Director of Hygiene. According to 
the Times, it is understood that Sir William Leish- 
man is to be nominated to the former and’ Sir William 
Horrocks to the latter. The object of the scheme, 


which originates with the Director-General, Sir John 


Goodwin, is ‘‘to link up under a definitely planned 
organisation the activities of the different departments 
and individuals hitherto concerned with the various 
problems of preventive medicine, pathology, and 


tropical diseases bearing upon the health of the Army 


in peace and war.” Advisory committees are to be 
set up in each directorate, consisting of the Director 
as chairman, a deputy director, and the following 
members :—Hygiene: The professor of hygiene at the 
R.A.M. College, a representative of the War Office 
and of the Directorate of Fortifications and Works, 
a sanitary engineer, a civil professor of hygiene or 
medical officer of health of a county or large city, a 
physiologist, and a representative of the Local Govern- 
ment Board. Pathology: The professors of pathology 
and of tropical medicine at. the R.A.M. College, two 
civilian pathologists, a civilian professor or expert in 
tropical medicine, and a representative of the Medical 
Research Committee. The scheme is a thorough one, 
and should increase the efficiency of the Army Medical 
Department. 


THE death of Dr. Edmund Weiss, director of the 
Vienna Observatory for thirty-two years, occurred so 
long ago as June 21, 1917, but was not announced 
to the Paris Academy of Sciences, of which he was 
a correspondant, until March 24 last. Dr. Weiss 
was born at Freiwaldau, in Austrian Silesia, on 
August 26, 1837, but some years of his early life 
were spent in England, for his father held an appoint- 
ment as a physician in a health institution in this 
country. 
returned to his native land, and, after a course of 
education at Troppau and the Vienna University, he 


On the death of that relative Dr. Weiss 


i 


May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


IQI 


"was appointed assistant at the observatory in 1858, 
_ and on the death of Karl von Littrow in 1878 he 
_ succeeded to the directorship, which he held until 


' 1910. In his early years as an observer Dr. Weiss 


took part in important geodetic work, and retained 
“an active interest in that branch of science, being a 
“prominent member of the International Geodetic 
_ Organisation. In 1872 he visited England and North 
q “America for the purpose of studying the methods of 

observatories and optical works, and thereby gained 
_ knowledge which was of great value to him; for 


| though von Littrow had the satisfaction of seeing the 


building of the new Vienna Observatory at Wahring 
_ begun as the result of his efforts, he did not live to 
_ see its completion, and the planning of the equipment 
was largely due to his successor. Dr. Weiss observed 
the transit of Venus of 1874 from Jassy, and took 
part in several eclipse expeditions. He made many 
contributions to the literature of astronomy through 
the usual channels on the subjects of comets, meteors, 
and orbits, besides others of a popular kind. Also he 
Lari a revised edition of Oeltzen’s catalogue of 
eae 


Pp 


lander’s zones from 15° to 31° S. declination, 

ished in 1890. Dr. Weiss was elected a fellow 
of the Vienna Academy in 1878, and an associate of 
the Royal Astronomical Society in 1883. 


_ Dr. Paut Carus, the distinguished editor of the 
Monist and the Open Court, died on February 11 at 
his home in La Salle, Illinois, at the age of sixty- 
seven. Dr. Carus was born and educated in Ger- 
many, his father being the Superintendent-General of 
the Prussian State Church. He studied first at Stras- 
burg and afterwards at the Theological College of 
‘Tiibingen, where he obtained his doctorate in philo- 
‘sophy in 1876. He went to Chicago in 1887 to 
become managing editor for the Open Court Pub- 
(Denn an institution founded and richly endowed 
by his father-in-law, the late E. C. Hegeler. At the 
outbreak of the war Dr. Carus was notorious for his 
warm adyocacy of the German view of the origin of 
eoaree? he ie a to be a in the defeat of 
Germany, the development of the conflict having 
Bera a enlighten him. His sons fought in the 
American Army against Germany. Dr. Carus’s own 
writings show a wide and varied scholarship and 
range over many topics, taking the form sometimes 
of poetry, sometimes of philosophy. His chief interest 
was Oriental philosophy and religion, and he pursued 
it with the ardour of a propagandist. The Religion 
of Science Library which he founded has made avail- 
able at a low price a number of religious and scientific 

s, and also many reprints of philosophical classics. 
Particularly to be noted are his, English translations 
of Dedekind, Hilbert, Mach, and other distinguished 
mathematicians and _ physicists. 

THE current number of the Kew Bulletin gives par- 
ticulars of the career of M. H. Léveillé, who died on 
November 25 last in his fifty-sixth year. M. Léveillé 
was for a time professor of science at Pondicherry. 
He was the founder and permanent secretary of the 
Académie Internationale de Géographie Botanique, 
and edited for it Le Monde des Plantes, since renamed 
the Bulletin de Géographie Botanique. He was par- 
ticularly interested in the flora of China, and_pub- 
lished, among other works, a ‘‘ Catalogue des Plantes 
du Yun-Nan.” The same issue of the Bulletin also 
records the death of Mr. C. K. Bancroft, until eotatly 
Assistant Director and Government Botanist, Britis 
Guiana. Mr. Bancroft received his early scientific 
education at Harrison College, Barbados, and was the 
first to win a natural science scholarship in the West 
Indies, being awarded the Barbados scholarship in 
1905. After graduating at Cambridge he devoted his 
attention to botany, especially mycology and plant 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


pathology, and worked for a time at diseases of plants 
in the Jodrell Laboratory. In 1910 Mr. Bancroft was 
appointed Assistant Mycologist in the Federated Malay 
States, and three years later was made Assistant 
Director and Government Botanist, British Guiana, 
which position he occupied until breakdown in health 
brought about his resignation. 


Tue death of Sir Frank Crisp, Bart., on April 29, 
in his seventy-seventh year, removes from public life 
an eminent exponent of commercial law, and also a 
real force in scientific circles. Early in his career Sir 
Frank Crisp joined the Royal Microscopical Society, 
and in 1878 became one of its secretaries. He speedily 
improved the Journal of that body by enlisting the 
help of experts and publishing abstracts of biological 
articles, thus rendering a real service to science. He 
was unsparing of pains or purse, and when in 1889 he 
was compelled to end his secretarial labours he left 
the Journal established on a firm basis. Not less note- 
worthy was Sir Frank Crisp’s influence on the conduct 
of the Linnean Society. From 1879 to the day of his 
death he served practically continuously on its council, 
and from 1881 to 1905, a period of twenty-four years, 
he was treasurer. His quick grasp of essentials, 
strong common sense, and generous disposition were 
of the greatest value during his long term of office, 
and his memory, will be cherished as a large-hearted 
and clear-sighted adviser. His alpine garden at Henley 
is world-famous. 


THe death, on April 30, of Dr. F. J. Smith, 
honorary consulting physician to the London Hos- 
pital, has removed from the medical profession in 
London one of its best-known and most popular 
members. Born at Castle Donington, Leicestershire, 
on August 17, 1857, Dr. Smith was educated at the 
University of Oxford, where he was a scholar of 
Balliol, at the London Hospital, and at the Universi- 
ties of Leipzig and Halle. He was Radcliffe fellow 
during the years 1885-88. Dr. Smith’s professional 
work lay particularly in the direction of pathology 
and of medical jurisprudence. In the former subject 
he paid special attention to diseases of the heart, while 
in the latter he attained a deservedly high reputation 
as the editor of the last three editions of Taylor’s 
authoritative text-book. In 1904-6 he was president 
of the Hunterian Society, and was the orator of the 
society in 1900. 


Tue death is announced, at eighty-eight years of 
age, of Prof. E. Townsend, late professor of engineer- 
ing and Registrar of University College, Galway. 


Tue Electrical Research Committee has appointed 
Mr. E. B. Wedmore as director of research. 


Next Thursday, May 15, Prof. F. Keeble will 
deliver the first of a course of two lectures at the 
Royal Institution on intensive cultivation. The friday 
evening discourse on May 16 will be delivered by Dr. 
S. F. Harmer on sub-Antarctic whales and whalings. 


Ar a recent meeting of the council of the Marine 
Biological Association of the United Kingdom it was 
announced that Dr. G. P. Bidder and Mr. E. T. 
Browne had each undertaken to contribute a sum of 
5ool. towards a fund for the extension of the labora- 
tory at Plymouth. The new building will be com- 
menced at once, and the scheme, when completed, 
will provide both a new and larger aquarium and 
special laboratories for physiological work. 


- Tue British Scientific Research Association is about 
to appoint an assistant director of research at a salary 
of tocol, per annum. The person appointed will be 
mainly responsible, under the director of research, 


192 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


for the researches arising out of the needs of the elec- 
trical scientific instrument, the X-ray, and the electro- 
medical instrument industries. Applications for the 
appointment, accompanied by not more than three 
testimonials or references, must reach the secretary 
of the association, 26 Russell Square, W.C.1, by, at 
latest, May 21. 


At the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers 
on April 29 H.M. the King of Italy and H.R.H. the 
Prince of Wales were elected as honorary members 
of the institution. It was announced that the council 
had made the following awards for papers read and 
discussed at the meetings during the session 1918-19: 
—A Telford gold medal to George Hughes (Horwich), 
a Telford gold medal and an Indian premium to 
R. B. Joyner (Bombay), a Watt gold medal to W. S. 
Abell (London), a George Stephenson gold medal to 
the Hon, R. C. Parsons (London), a Webb prize to 
F. E. Gobey (Horwich), Telford premiums to James 
Caldwell (London), H. B. Sayers (London), J. Reney 
- Smith (Liverpool), and F. W. Scott (Benoni, Trans- 
vaal), and a Manby prize to E. L. Leeming (Man- 
chester). 


In the March issue of Man Mr. A. C. Breton 
describes some Mexican small clay heads found in 
great numbers on the site of Teotihuacan. Almost 
every site in that region has its distinctive type of 
these little heads. Although much battered and 
archaic in style, they deserve reproduction for the 
treatment of the eyes, which consist of double 
hollows separated by a ridge, with no pretensions to 
represent the actual eye. Another figure in stone 
represents a frog, and is apparently a rain-charm, 
the frog being in Mexico and elsewhere intimately 
associated with the coming of the rain. In_ this 
example the frog is depicted with hands uplifted in 
a praying attitude. while the tongue hangs out as if 
with thirst. Mexicans say that the frogs pray for 
the rain, and in Yucatan the croaking of the large 
frog is a sure sign of rain within three days. 


In the Rivista Italiana di Sociologia (vol. xxi.) Prof. 


Giuffrida-Ruggeri attempts to analyse into its comt- 
ponent elements the population of Abyssinia and the 
Italian colony of Eritrea. He claims that what he 
calls the ‘prehistoric stratifications’’ were composed 
of small negroes (pygmies), who came from the west 
and south, and the proto-Ethiopic people. To these 
were added the ‘“‘ historic stratifications,’’ Semites from 
Arabia and the ‘‘ deutero-Ethiopians ”’ or Gallas, who 
entered the Abyssinian domain in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Abyssinia may be regarded as an immense 
fortress or crucible in which these four racial in- 
gredients were mixed. In conformity with the 
popular dogma of ethnology, Prof. Giuffrida-Ruggeri 
attempts to associate certain types of culture with the 
different races, ignoring the fact that in the course of 
the development of any invention it has always hap- 
pened that the leaven of a new discovery is diffused 
abroad among the intelligent minorities of other 
peoples long before it has permeated the unintelligent 
lump of the bulk of the population in the home of its 
birth, so that by the time a practice or belief has 
been definitely shaped it is no longer the property of 
one *‘ race,” but of many peoples. Prof. Giuffrida- 
Ruggeri attributes the invention of agriculture, hut- 
construction, and the use of the bow to the primi- 
tive negro stratum; and to the proto-Ethiopians. the 
practice of erecting dolmens and monoliths, and the 
worship of the sun and stars, of fire and water, of 
trees, serpents, birds, elephants, etc., as well as of 
the force of fertility. “No adequate reasons are sug- 
gested for these daring speculations. 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] : 


Tue Journal of the American Museum of Natural 


History (part 1) contains a delightful article on the ~ 


water-birds of Louisiana, illustrated by some 
remarkable photographs. 
measures of 
the victim of the cruelty and greed of the plume- 
hunters, is now recovering its numbers, even though 
it had been reduced to the verge of extinction. The 


Thanks to very efficient 


rotection, the white egret, until lately 


author, Mr. Alfred Bailey, is also able to report that. | 


the roseate spoonbill, similarly terribly reduced in 
numbers by the plume-hunters, is now in a fair way 
to recovery. Their guardian is an ex-plume-hunter! 
Finally, this. number contains a series of “In 
Memoriam”’ articles on the late Col. Theodore Roose- 
velt, John Burroughs and Prof. H. F. Osborn being 
among the contributors, estates eas 


Tue report of the National Park Board, Tasmania, 
has just reached us. We gather from it that in 
1917 some 27,000 acres were enclosed to form a 
reservation for the native fauna and flora of Tas- 
mania. Though late in the day, this reservation, if 
it can be adequately protected against poachers— 
about which there seems to be some doubt—should 
perform a very real service to the State and the 


world at large from the point of view of the man of — 


science. The larger lakes in this enclosure, we are 


told, have been ‘‘restocked with fish. The Fisheries 


Commission assisted by defraying half the cost of : 


distributing 12,000 rainbow-trout fry.” We trust that 
this experiment will not be at the expense of the 
native fish, which would defeat the avowed ends of 


the Board. The Government was asked for an annual 


grant of sool. in order to develop the area. As a 
result 1501. was voted for the first year, 


In February last the New Zealand Institute, which 


ee 


consists of eight affiliated societies located in different — 


centres of the Dominion, held a science congress at 
Christchurch under the presidency of Dr. L. 
Cockayne. 
modelled on the lines of the British Association, 


with public lectures, papers and discussions, excur- — 
the congress being opened — 


sions and a garden-party, 
by his Excellency the Governor-General. Apparently 


The arrangements seem to have been — 


the New Zealand scientific workers no longer find the — 


Australasian Association for the Advancement of — 


Science adequate for their requirements, but we hope 
that the interchange of ideas and hospitality between 


the scientific workers in Australia and those in New — 
Zealand will not suffer any diminution as a result of — 


this interesting new departure. 


Tue study of cytology, and more especially of the 


mitotic phenomena that accompany the division of | 


the nucleus, has made such rapid progress in recent 
years that the question of terminology has become a 
very troublesome one, and the student who is not a 
specialist in this department is apt to find some diffi- 
culty in following the voluminous literature of the 
subject. In a memoir on ‘The Somatic Mitosis of 
Stegomyia fasciata,’ published in the _ Quarterl. 


Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. Ixiii., part 3), — 


Miss Lucy A. Carter, at the request of the editor, 


has given a glossary of the principal terms em 


which should be welcomed by many. The derivation 
of ‘‘synizesis "—‘‘ syn,” with; “hizo,” place—is not 
very satisfactory, for the word clearly means “as- 
sembling together’? or ‘‘placing together.” Pe 


A sup-commitrer of the Food (War) Committee of © 


the Royal Society has recently issued a report on 


the composition of potatoes grown in the United — 


loyed. 
Some of these terms are, no doubt, already su ciently 
familiar to ordinary students, but the idea is one — 


tet en 


Kingdom. The report is based on the results of deter- ; 


yes 


_ May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


193 


_minations of nitrogen and dry matter in 227 samples 
of ten varieties collected from. sixty-five growers in 
een English, seven Welsh, six Scottish, and 
twenty-three Irish counties. In addition to these, 
twenty “miscellaneous’’ samples were received and 
analysed. The report gives much valuable informa- 
}: ‘as to the average composition of the potatoes 
gr ‘in the United Kingdom, and discusses the 
Vari: ions in composition due to such’ causes as 
| et, manuring, and size of tuber. The com- 
sition of different varieties and of different groups 
| varieties is also compared. Further work on many 
these points is in progress. 


a! PD Perhaps the most 
nt point raised b 


Ss 


the issue of this report is 
eed for accurate information as to the composi- 
ion of almost all home-grown foods. When the 
rye Lohac Food (War) Committee was engaged in 
king its survey of the food supplies of the nation 
8421), one of the chief difficulties was the dearth 
‘accurate systematic analyses of all kinds of home- 
E napts foods, and the committee was forced to rely 
_ for the most part on American figures, which may not 
| es express the composition of British-grown 
products. The report in question removes this diffi- 
culty for British-grown potatoes. It is to be hoped that 
orts on similar lines may follow dealing with other 
eme-srown foods, but, unfortunately, work of this 
sind de es not appear to be anybody’s business. It is 
Some organisation was set up to maintain 


nent basis the survey of the food resources 
ition initiated by the Food (War) Committee 


me or 


ian alae ret a 


March issue of Terrestrial Magnetism and 
evic Eleciricity Dr. L. A. Bauer and Messrs. 
Fisk and g. J. Mauchly complete their 


} mothigdte Peary 


‘+ 


By tion of the magnetic observations taken 
ig the solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, and come to 
sions which ae be summarised as follows :-— 

2 able fects were observed during the eclipse 
| stations within the zone of visibility, and war- 

the statement that a solar eclipse causes a varia- 
rn ie earth’s magnetic field. The magnitude of 
variation is from a tenth to a fifth of the solar 
iurnal variation of the element cn a normal day. Its 
stion is, in general, opposite to that of the daylight 

ion of the solar diurnal change. The effects are 


ous ly modified by the altitude of the observing 


¢ eTICU ARS of a large oil-fuel reservoir at Rosyth 
given in the Engineer for April 4. The reservoir 
two sections, having a combined capacity of 
000 gallons, and is constructed of concrete on 
oundation. The retaining walls have an 


ds; each wall is in sections ranging from 54 ft. to 
8 ft. 3 ie expansion joints between. The 


he reservoir is covered with the roofing system 
nown as the Belfast lattice-timber truss, with spans 
f 50 ft. Every precaution to secure oil-tightness was 
observed in the construction, with satisfactory results 


in the finished structure. The complete work occupies 
rt} acres, and the roof area is 7} ‘acres. 
Stitt 6 
— Times Engineering Supplement for April con- 
_ tains an article by Sir George Greenhill on geometrical 
‘and mechanical fit. The ‘principles of geometrical fit 
were enunciated fifty years ago in the first edition: 
f Thomson and Tait’s ‘Natural Philosophy,” but 
message therein does not appear to havé reached 
the mechanical engineer yet: 
eee ctical rifle-rest described in Thomson and 
‘Tait appears to be’ too sitmple and subtle for the 
Official mind to grasp, so the’ old-fashioned sealed 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


ge height of 35 ft., and are reinforced with steel : 


has a minimum thickness of 2 ft. 9 in.,. 


he method of produc-’ 


pattern manifold point-rest is still at work, destitute 
of scientific theory, working against an excessive 
number of spring supports, and the rifle never return- 
ing exactly to the same position. It will be conceded 
by most people who have had business relations with 
instrument-makers that the principles of geometrical 
fits are still not generally understood. This is due, 
in part at any rate, to the conservative class of work- 
men employed. Sir George mentions the Cambridge 
Scientific Instrument Co. as using the geometrical fit 
principle, and might have added also the name of the 
firm of Barr and Stroud. There is no finer example 
of what can be done by geometrical appliances than 
the range-finder made by this firm. 


An illustrated account of a pulverised-fuel locomo- 
tive appears in the Engineer for April 25. The ap- 
pliance has been invented by Mr. J. G. Robinson, 
chief mechanical engineer of the Great Central Rail- 
way, and, owing to the success already obtained, one 
of the large 2-8-o engines is under construction with 
this apparatus. Up to the present the fuel employed 
consists of the settlings from the exhaust of the fans 
over the screening apparatus of the collieries, and 
has not received any treatment with the view of 
increasing its fineness, which is such that 80 per cent. 
will pass through a screen of 200 meshes per lineal 
inch; the ash content is about 1o per cent. Before 
being placed in the tender the fuel is dried by being 
stored for a few days over the flues of a battery of 
boilers. Considerable alterations have to be made 
in the internal arrangements of the fire-box in order 
to adapt it for burning pulverised fuel. The fuel is 
contained in a hopper in the tender, and fed to the 
furnace by conveyer screws driven by a small engine. 
On leaving the conveyers the fuel is met by a blast of 
air supplied by a fan driven by a de Laval steam 
turbine, and is led through pipes to the furnace. It 
would appear that this system of firing locomotives 
is at last attaining to a practical solution in this 
country as in America. 


THE second report issued by the Conjoint Board of 
Scientific Societies states that the number of con- 
stituent societies is now fifty-four, and a list of these 
bodies, together with the names of their representa- 
tive, is presented. A summary is given of the work 
of the various committees dealing respectively with 
(1) the Catalogue of Scientific Literature, (2) the 
application of science to agriculture, (3) national 
instruction in technical optics, (4) education, (5) the 
prevention of overlapping among scientific societies, 
(6) the metric system, (7) anthropological survey, 
(8) iron-ore, (9) water-power in the British Empire, 
(10) timber for aeroplane construction, (11) glue and 
other adhesives, (12) joint. buildings for technical 
societies, (13) the foundation of a geophysical institute, 
(14) oxides and silicates, and (15) patent laws. The 
report issued by Committee No. 1 is at present con- 
fidential. No. 2 is considering the design, construc- 
tion, and testing of electrical tractors and other agri- 
cultural machines. The committee dealing with 
education directs attention in a report on Civil Ser- 
vice examinations to the undesirable tendency to en- 
courage mathematical studies to the detriment of other 
scientific subjects. In dealing with the scientific needs 
of the Civil Service the preponderance of appoint- 
ments carrying literary rather than scientific qualifica- 
tions demands attention, and as appointments are 
at ‘present made largely by nominations, suitable men 
with scientific knowledge should be selected for appro- 
priate administrative posts. The report issued on 


; water-power in the British Empire has already been 


mentioned in these columns, and useful work has 
also been done in regard to. the supply of timber for 
aeroplanes, glue, paper, etc.-.The foundation of a 


eo 
,onmr Trt? 4 
s . . * 


194 


NATURE 


[May 8, 191y 


geophysical institute, which is to deal with geodesy, 
tidal phenomena, seismology, and allied matters, 
has been approved, and a small committee is now 
formulating a definite scheme. 


WE notice the following among forthcoming books 
of science :—* Air iy mt Notes and Examples,” 
Instructor-Capt. S. F. Card; ‘‘Tacheometer Tables,” 
Prof. H. Louis and G. W. Caunt; ‘The Principles 
of Electrical Engineering and their Application,” 
Prof. G. Kapp, vol. ii., Application (Edward Arnold); 
“The Pituitary,’ Blair Bell; ‘‘The Heart: Past 
and Present,’ Dr. E. Lea; ‘Injuries to the Head 
and Neck,’ Dr. H. Lawson Whale (Bailliére, Tindall, 
and Cox); ‘“‘The North Riding of Yorkshire,’’ Capt. 
W. J. Weston; ‘“‘ Dumbartonshire,’”’ Dr. F. Mort, each 
in the Cambridge County Geographies Series (Cam- 
bridge University Press); ‘‘Economic Farm Build- 
ings,” E. P. Lawrence; ‘‘The Universal Wages Cal- 
culator,’” C. E. Lewton (The Library Press, Ltd.); 
‘‘Krzepelin’s Psychiatry,’ vol. iii., Dementia Praecox, 
translated by Dr. R. Mary Barclay, edited by Dr. 
G. M. Robertson; ‘‘A Handbook of Surgery (Civil),”’ 
C. R. Whittaker (Edinburgh: E. and S. Livingstone) ; 
“The Principles of Child Physiology, Pure and 
Applied,” Dr. W. M. Feldman (Longmans and Co.). 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


DETERMINATION OF PROPER Morions.—In Circular 
No. 43 of the Union Observatory, Johannesburg, Mr. 
Innes publishes the result of an examination with the 
blink microscope of pairs of plates of eighty astro- 
graphic fields lent to him for the purpose by the 
Astronomer Royal, the plates of each pair being 
separated by an interval of nearly twenty years. The 
fields cover the zone of the sky from declination 65° 
to 67° N. through the whole twenty-four hours of 
right ascension, and out of the whole number of 
stars examined, estimated at 20,000, Mr. Innes has 
found nearly four hundred which have a measurable 
P.M., the large majority of which were previously un- 
known. The largest motions are 290", 179", and 
167" centennial on a Great circle. There are five 
between so” and 100", sixty-seven between 20” and 50”, 
and more than 300 less than 20” centennial. Two 
hundred and fifty of the stars are in the Bonn Durch- 
miisterung, and are, therefore, of all magnitudes down 
to 95 or 1o visual, whilst the remainder are of 
photographic magnitude 10 to 12, with a few fainter. 
It will be realised that the motion of a star thus 
determined is relative to the stars in a limited area 
surrounding it, and not to the heavens as a whole. 
The systematic character of the figures in the table 
gives assurance that Mr. Innes’s work forms a useful 
contribution to stellar statistics. 


Tue Bunk Microscope.—The fundamental prin- 
ciple of this instrument is somewhat obscured by its 
name. Having two similar photographs of the same 
field of stars taken at some interval of years apart, 
the obvious method of determining motion would be 
to superpose these plates with identical images fitting 
one on the other so far as possible, and then to search 
for those images which do not fit. As actual super- 
position is difficult, or impossible, for practical reasons, 
a method only slightly less simple is to adjust the 
plates side by side and measure the distances between 
identical images with a measuring bar. This is the 
principle of more than one type of instrument now 
being used to determine proper motion. In the blink 
microscope the images of the same star on the two 
plates are seen alternately by rapidly closing and 
opening shutters. Hence the name. Two images 
which fit fall on the same spot of the retina, but those 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


of a star which has motion do not, and give the sensa- 
tion of a jump. 
simple, but it is clear that the measurement must be 
made with discretion lest errors occur because of 


imperfect adjustment or lack of exact similarity of 


the plates. 


CALCULATION OF .OCCULTATIONS OF STARS BY THE 
Moon.—Mr. Arthur Snow publishes some tables for 


this purpose in Popular Astronomy for February, 
which should be of great use to those who do not 
live near one of the stations (Greenwich, Washington, 
etc.) for which special lists are available. He directs 
attention to the fact that the region of visibility of 
an occultation is a belt about half as wide as that 
for a total solar eclipse, crossing the parallels of lati- 
tude at a considerable angle, so that by no means all 
the places that lie between the published latitude limits 
enjoy a sight of the phenomenon. He gives full direc- 
tions, which enable the limits of visibility to be laid 
down on a map. 


X-RAYS AND BRITISH INDUSTRY. 


THE war has furthered the progress and develop- 

ment of many industries, but probably no 
department of science has received greater impetus 
than that of radiology, using the word in the general 
sense which it ought usefully to convey, and not in 
that restricted sense which the medical world has 
attached to it. The science and art of X-rays have 
developed enormously during the war, and nothing but 
good can result from the fact that the general medical 
practitioner has had his eyes opened to the vista 
which the X-rays have revealed. He now realises, as 
never before, that radiology is a new instrument of 


_ attack for him—a veritable handmaiden, whether he 


be physician or ‘surgeon. The new diploma of radio- 
logy which Cambridge and other universities are 


about to establish is tacit recognition of the import- 
ance of X-rays in a medical curriculum. We wel-. 


come the suggestion that a chair of radiology should 


be established at one of the universities in memory 


of the late Sir James Mackenzie Davidson. 
But it is not our purpose at the moment to dwell 
on the medical aspect of the rays. We are more 


concerned with a development to which the Germans, 


Americans. and ourselves have given considerable 
attention during the past vear or more. We refer to 
the examination of materials and built-up structures 
by X-rays—a subject to which a joint meeting of the 
R6éntgen and Faraday Societies in the meeting-room 
of the Royal Society devoted its attention on April 29. 

It is a very far cry from the days of Réntgen’s 
famous discoverv some twenty-two years ago to the 
present time. The technique has advanced amazingly, 
but it can scarcely be said that apparatus and equip- 
ment have made corresponding strides, although it 
is, of course, not denied that considerable progress 
has been made. We refer to this point later, but the 
question is tied up with the attention the subject 
has received at the hands of the physicist and elec- 
trical engineer. 

The meeting to: which we have referred served 
admirably to set out the development and present 
limitations of the industrial uses of X-rays, and those 
of our readers who are interested may be referred for 
details of the meeting to the journals of the two 
societies concerned. 

The great advantage of radiography is. of course, 
the fact that we can spv out the interior of an opaque 
bodv without injuring it in any way. Chief among 


the materials which have been examined by the 


X-rays is steel, both carbon and alloy. Naturally, 
the question of blow-holes and flaws in castings and 


The method of detection is therefore 


i 

5 
is 
x 
¢ 


sat hence ca) Ma pet A Et a a 


_ May 8, 1919] NATURE 195 
forgings and ingots has received attention, and, pro- | means of detecting hidden corrosion in metals—for 
vided that the thickness is not too great, the method | example, in gas cylinders, in ferro-concrete, or in the 
works well. X-ray scrutiny has also suggested im- | armouring of cables. Mention should be made of the 


ments in methods of casting and welding, as 
well as modifications in the composition of alloys, 
with a yiew to the surer production of sound 


s. 

epary alloy steels, such as tungsten steels, are, by 
reason of their greater opacity to X-rays, readily 
distinguishable from carbon steels. The method has 
also been applied, with, however, little or no success, 
to the detection of hair-cracks in steel castings. 
‘These cracks (which are of the order of 1/1000 in. 
across) have caused great trouble during the war in 
connection with the crank-shafts of aeroplane engines. 
The only way of attacking the problem would be to 
send the rays along the direction of the crack, but 
the difficulty is that these cracks refuse to confine 
themselves to one plane! 


. So far as the thickness of steel is concerned, several 


workers have taken radiographs through about 2. in. 
of steel, and this figure may be taken as the practical 
limit at the moment. Not that greater thicknesses 


_ have not been penetrated, but the exposure becomes 


intolerably long. In the case of aluminium and its 
alloys, thicknesses of 4 in. or 5 in. have been radio- 


‘graphed with ease. Incidentally, the method is very 
sensitive to minute differences in thickness—for 


example, the tool-marks used to face specimens are 
often clearly shown in radiographs of metals. 


The voltages normally employed have _ ranged 


between 100,000 and 150,000 volts, and the currents 


tube from 4 to 15 milliamperes. The 
question of protecting the operator in this work needs 
- attention. ‘ 


- In steel examination there is no possibility of using 


fluorescent screen. Practically all workers have 
used photographic methods, and, furthermore, have 
been driven to adopt methods of reinforcing the image 
on the plate by the use of intensifying screens, metal- 
g, or other devices. Pilon and Pearce have 

ined good results with photographic films sensitised 


on both sides and sandwiched between two intensifying 


screens. They found it possible to determine a thick- 
ness of 1/10 mm. through 45 mm. of steel. All 
have found it important to cut out all 
extraneous radiation. 
_ The X-ray method of examination is naturally very 
useful in examining explosive objects—for example, 
the details of the internal construction of torpedoes, 
shells, fuses, bombs, grenades, and cartridges. Air- 
craft construction demands both workmanship and 
material of the highest class, and a new grade of 
timber is now specified for this work of a quality 


‘such as has never been demanded previously. Knox 


and Kaye have turned the X-rays to account in 

ing aeroplane timber parts and plywood for 
faults which cannot be seen by ordinary visual 
examination. Concealed knots or gum-pockets, bad 


’ gluing, or poor workmanship are readily revealed. 


Only soft rays are necessary, and the great trans- 
parency of wood permits fluorescent-screen examina- 
‘tion—a necessity for routine inspection—and allows 
‘any thickness likely to occur in practice to be radio- 
graphed readily. 

_ The motor manufacturer has radiographed carburet- 
tors and magnetos while in operation, and so has 
heen enabled to detect elusive faults. The Hadfield 
Reséarch Laboratory, which has done much work 


on radio-steel examination, has extended the method 


to the scrutiny of carbon electrodes for electric steel 
furnaces. The Post Office has used the rays for 
testing the amount of mineral matter in gutta-percha. 
Woolwich Arsenal has also used the method. Radio- 
graphy would doubtless prove to be a convenient 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


coming importance of stereoscopic radiography. 

There is one other and entirely different way in 
which X-rays may supplement the radiographic 
method of examining material. Prof. W. H. Bragg, 
to whom the subject owes so much, has shown that 
the X-rays enable us to examine in detail the nature 
and extent of the crystallisation of a body. Now it 
appears to be the case that there is little in Nature 
which is not crystalline to a greater or less degree, 
and, further, it is certain that crystalline structure is 
of first importance in determining the quality of 
certain substances such as steel. A large field of 
research is here indicated. 

We do not anticipate any startling developments in 
the use of X-rays for the examination of steel until 
the present apparatus for generating X-rays has been 
vastly improved. We are led to inquire what part this 
country has played in the past in the development of 
either the high-potential generator or the X-ray tube. 
The answer is not very gratifying. The British 
generator is almost always an induction coil of which 
the present-day model differs but little in essentials 
from its predecessor of Spottiswoode’s day, except 
that it is capable of a “fatter’’ spark and greater 
output generally. It breaks down less frequently 
owing to closer attention to the insulation of both 
primary and secondary coils. But what of design? 
How many British coil-makers employ a designer 
who can honestly say that he is not working mostly 
empirically, by trial and error, by “hit and miss,”’ or 
whatever you like to call it? The fact is, the man 
who could do things any other way—by reasoned cal- 
culation and experiment—has so far not had it made 
worth his while to work at the subject. Moreover, 
how and where are men to be trained in the ground- 
work of the subject? In how many university physical 
or electrotechnical laboratories does the matter receive 
even the smallest attention? . 

What would prove to be the result of reasoned 
investigatory work on the induction coil? Compared 
with other types of high-tension transformer the 
present-day induction coil is not efficient, and the 
chances are that it never will be. At any rate, our 
American cousins have come to that conclusion, and 
are concentrating on _ closed-circuit, interrupterless 
transformers which can operate with any commercial 
A.C. supply, and are generally used in conjunction 
with some type of hot-cathode “ rectifier’’ to suppress 
the ‘“‘inverse’’ phase of potential. The British answer 
has mostly been to point out that the sinusoidal 
potential wave is not so efficient an X-ray producer 
as the peaked wave of an induction coil. Of the 
degree of practical importance of this difference we 
have no experimental knowledge. It is probably on 
a par with the oft-repeated, but untrue, statement 
that a Coolidge tube is not so good as an ordinary 
gas tube for securing first-class radiographs. 

This leads us to the question of the X-ray tube. 
Its present efficiency is of the order of 1/1000. We 
are led to inquire in what outstanding points has the 
British tube made progress since Sir Herbert Jack- 
son’s introduction of the concave cathode in 18q97— 
itself identical with one used by the late Sir William 
Crookes some twenty years previously. Again, has 
the British tube ever been superior to either the 
German or American? We know the answer most 
radiographers would give us. Before the war we 
could not even make the glass for the bulb. But 


that is another story. From the point of view of the 


Old Country, it is a regrettable fact that it should 
have been left to America to develop (in the shape 
of the Coolidge tube) pioneer research work done by 


196 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


Englishmen. The latest model of the Coolidge tube 
acts efficiently as its own rectifier, and the high- 
tension outfit is correspondingly ‘simplified. 

In simple justice one must add that the scientific 
énergies of this country have been far more distracted 
and dislocated by the war than have those of America. 
But the Department of Scientific and Industrial 
Research ought to have no hesitation in adding to 
the list of investigations it has tackled during and 
since the war. 

To return to the question of future developments of 
the X-ray scrutiny of metals. The question of the 
light alloys is relatively simple, but for the heavier 
metals we need photographic plates and fluorescent 
screens of much higher efficiency. In addition, we 
need a method of generating X-rays in far greater 
abundance and of far greater hardness (i.e. shorter 
wave-length) than we have at present. In this con- 
nection every investigator and user ought to devélop 
the habit of precise measurement of both current 
through the tube and, more important, the potential 
difference across the terminals. The voltage is com- 
monly left to be inferred as well as may be from the 
alternative spark-gap between electrodes the size and 
shape of which are rarely mentioned. Or, more fre- 
quently, the hardness of the rays is given in some 
arbitrary unit difficult to define or reproduce. But 
radiology generally rejoices in a wealth of indefinite 
units and measuring instruments, mostly introduced 
by workers who had enthusiasm but little physics. 
The subject of practical radiology has, unfortunately, 
been severely ignored by the physicist and the elec- 
trical engineer. Their assistance in this matter is 
earnestly needed both by the medical man and by 
the workers in this new field of the application of 
X-rays to the examination of materials. The Réntgen 
Society has on its roll of members most of the 
younger X-ray physicists in the country, and we 
suggest that it should take early steps to co-ordinate 
the unrivalled experience and equipment of its physical 
and medical members for the ultimate benefit of 
British industry. G. W. C. Kaye. 


RADIO-TELEGRAPHIC INVESTIGATIONS 
IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOLAR 
» ECLIPSE OF MAY 29, 19109. 

17 will be remembered that in a letter to NaTURE 
of February 13 last Sir Oliver Lodge, chairman 

of the British Association Committee for Radio- 
telegraphic Investigation, explained that his com- 
mittee did not contemplate taking a very active part 
in organising wireless observations during the forth- 
coming solar eclipse, and hoped that parties travelling 
to the eclipse zone for the observation of astronomical, 
meteorological, and magnetic phenomena might be 
able to make wireless telegraph observations also. 
Later it was found that the various parties charged 
with the other observations would be too fully occupied 
to. give any attention at all to wireless telegraphy, 
and therefore. the committee has arranged for the 
carrying out of the experiments to be described below. 
The umbra intersects the earth’s surface in an 
approximate circle of diameter of about 234 km. 
(126 sea-miles), and it moves at the slowest at a speed 
of about 0:57 km. (0-31 sea-mile) per second. Between 
11.30 and 12 (Greenwich mean time) it. travels 
across Bolivia and Brazil, and crosses the Atlantic 
close to the equator between 12 and 14.20, It then 
crosses the African continent from the French Congo 
to. Mozambique. . During the eclipse various wireless 
telegraph stations will emit signals consisting of letters 
of the alphabet changed according to a definite plan 
- at the end of each minute; the programme of letters 
is so arranged that no two come together in the same 


NO, 2584, VOL. 103] 


order more than once. They will be accurately timed — 
By this arrangement — 
the transmitting stations are relieved of the responsi- 
bility of timing the signals accurately, and the receiv. 
ing operators have nothing to do but to write down — 
each letter as they receive it and the number denoting 


at selected receiving stations. 


» 


its strength on the scale (o to g) familiar to all wire — 


less telegraphists. On the day before the eclipse the 
stations will send é 
near noon (G.M.T.). sai 

The British Admiralty stations at Ascension and 
the Azores will send continuously during the transit 
of the umbra across the Atlantic Ocean. Observin; 


Stations north of the equator will, for the most part, 


be asked to listen to Ascension for at least an 
round about the time when the umbra passes between 
themselves and, Ascension. Similarly, observers south 
of the equator will be asked for the most part to 
listen to the Azores. Certain selected stations north 
of the equator will be asked to listen to the Azores 
so as to afford check observations upon the variations 
that may be observed in signals passing across the 
central line of the eclipse, and similarly selected 
stations south of the central line will be asked to 
listen to Ascension. The great American station at 
Annapolis may also transmit a programme during a 
portion of the period of the eclipse, and it is hoped 
that arrangements may be made for special experi- 
ments between a few pairs of stations, such’ as Darien 
and the Falkland Islands, and an Egyptian station and 
a South African station. é: Stk 
The main portion of the experiment hinges upon 
Ascension. The umbral cone passes from west to 
east, and may be expected to affect in succession the 
strength in which signals are received at such stations 
as Demerara, Jamaica, the stations on the coast of 
the United States and Canada, and stations in Ire- 
land, England, France, Italy, the Mediterranean, 
and Egypt. Ye CT ly Tat yd 
It is by the kindness of the American Government 


and of our own Admiralty that the stations at Darien. 
and Annapolis, and at Ascension and in the Azores, 
are being used for the sending of the experimental 


waves. The Admiralty has, besides, provided many 
of the receiving stations both on land and sea, and 
other receiving stations are being put to work by 


the American, French, and Italian Governments, by 


our own Army and Air Force and also by the Mar- 
coni Co. in several parts of the globe. ts 
The observers’ results will be collated with the view 
of finding if the passage of the shadow cone between 
a sending and a receiving station causes any regular 
change in the strength of signals. According to some 
writers, the propagation of waves over long distances 
is greatly affected by the ionisation of the upper atmo- 
sphere. During a solar eclipse the cone of densest 
shadow removes all sunlight from the atmosphere 
within it, which may stop the ionising actions of sun- 
light and allow the recombination of separated ions 
to take place. This process starts in the penumbra, 


‘but it ig accomplished fully, or to its fullest extent, | 


only in the umbra. Thus at any particular fixe 
place in the air the penumbra, it is thought, first 
starts a gentle recombination of ions, and as the eclipse 
at that place progresses and darkness increases, re- 
combination of ions takes place more - and more 
quickly until the time of complete totality. After- 
wards the onward passage of the umbral cone allows 


sunlight to begin again its ionising action. Some-~ 


thing of this kind is, at any rate, supposed to be 
taking place at sunset and sunrise every day, and to 


be the main cause of the enormous variations ex- 
perienced in signal strengths at those times. ae 
- Jt is sometimes supposed that fhe electric waves . 


carrying signals take a curved trajectory in the atmo- 


practice signals for a short time 
~ % t W 


ee ee 


i Te a, 


iBvgs 


Pee 


May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


197 


sphere from one point to another. In this case signals 
passing between two stations at a short distance apart 
will traverse lower levels of the atmosphere than 
those passing between stations separated by a great 
tance. The eclipse probably affects the ionisation 
_the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere 
differently, and therefore we may expect to get 
erent effects on long- and short-range signals. 
Moreover, it has been shown to be probable that 
; Gee wave? are more affected than short waves by 
vanges of the ionisation of the air through which 
they travel. The elucidation of this point is one of 
of the observations. 


pone desirous of obtaining further information 
‘Should . 


communicate with Dr. W. Eccles, honorary 
of the committee, City and Guilds Technical 


College, Leonard Street, London, E.C.2. 


_ THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS AND THE 
oss Saplltsedi WAR. 


1E most obviously noteworthy feature of Dr. 

Stratton’s report on the work of the U.S. 
of Standards for the year ended June 30, 1918, 

extensive field of investigation covered. 

of the work was necessarily related to the 
spenditure increased from about 140,000. 


+ 
r 
4 


_ Government, is given as 20,000l.; and the number of 


B 


on new buildings and laboratories, additional 


14 to the growth of ordinary expenditure due to war 


tions. The value of the tests made, chiefly for the 
ersons employed as 1405, of whom 839 were engaged 
n research and emkticadons specially authorised by 

gress. ne res are useful as an indication of 


; oT oA aga has taken place. 


_ The rr ort opens with a brief account of the func- 
ions ar d organisation of the Bureau, which, if space 


1 Sa Ser 
5 
} 


inently the important réle the institution plays 
in connection with the national life and industry. 
_ The remainder of the report, some 180 pages, deals, 


for the most part in short paragraphs, with the in- 


numerable items of research and test work which 
have received attention in the various scientific and 
technical divisions. These departmental reports con- 
tain little more, in many instances, than a concise 
‘statement of matters investigated; in turning over the 
pages, among the many points of interest, a few only 
can be selected for comment. A new equipment has 
been provided for measuring expansion up to tem- 
peratures above 900° C. The examination of mine- 

ales, used for weighing coal mined, led to the detec- 

on and removal of serious errors due to faulty 
weights, improper installation, and neglect in mainten- 
ance. The testing of gauges for the Ordnance Depart- 
ment was undertaken by the Bureau, as in this 
country by the National Physical Laboratory, though 
on a much smaller scale than here. Branches were 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


_ in 1916-17 to more than 600,000l. in 1917-18, of which - 
_ 220,0001. appears under the head of “ National Security 
_ and Defence,” and is made up mainly of sums ex- 


established at New York and elsewhere, and the 
manufacture of gauges was commenced. 

In the electrical department ignition in petrol 
engines was studied, and improved porcelains for 
sparking plugs, developed by the ceramic laboratory, 
were put into production. A special method was 
devised for determining the velocity of projectiles. 
The method of ‘magnetic analysis” as a criterion of 
the quality of steel has been further investigated and 
applied in practice. The photometric work included 
tests of field searchlights and the investigation of gas- 
filled standards of spherical candle-power. For wire- 
less work a new building was nearly, completed. 
Sound-ranging was among the problems taken up by 
one of the electrical sections. An account is given of 
the relation of the Bureau to municipalities and public 
service commissions in securing safety and standardisa- 
tion in connection with electricity and gas supply; 
some particulars are included of the national electrical 
safety code. The subject of electrolysis of underground 
pipes, cables, and other metal structures from stray 
earth-currents is prominently mentioned, and may need 
to be taken up actively in this country. 

In the work of the heat department may be noted 
the determination of refrigeration constants, including 
the thermal constants of ammonia. The fire-resisting 
properties of structural materials, reinforced concrete, 
etc., under load were examined. An apparatus was 
completed for strength tests of metals at temperatures 
up to 800° C. The work on aeroplane power plant 
included the construction of an altitude laboratory for 
engine tests under reduced pressure and at various 
temperatures, and a number of tests on engines have 
been carried out. The construction of radiators has 
also been the subject of research. 

The researches in the optics department have in- 
cluded much spectroscopic work, dealing especially 
with the red and infra-red regions of the spectrum, 
landscape photography with red-sensitive plates, 
colour-filters, etc. The. great value of red-sensitive 
plates in penetrating haze has been demonstrated, and 
another important characteristic of these plates is 
said to be their power to detect camouflage designed 
to defeat the eye. Quantitative, as well as qualitative, 
methods of spectroscopic analysis have been em- 
ployed. Polarimetry has received much attention, 
especially in connection with the estimation of sugar, 
and interesting results have been obtained with regard 
to the natural rotation of quartz at high temperatures ; 
an abrupt change was found to occur at about 574° C. 
In connection with the polarimetric work intense 
monochromatic light sources were necessary, and, 
after experiment with cadmium amalgam lamps, a 
lamp using a new alloy has been produced. A novel 
method for the production of artificial daylight makes 
use of the rotatory dispersion of quartz. 

A considerable amount of attention in the optics and 
chemistry departments has been given to the produc- 
tion of optical glass. The Bureau is said to be 
shipping glass in quantity for the manufacture of 
optical instruments. Some seven or eight varieties 
of the most used glasses are being produced, includ- 
ing a dense barium crown. For this work a new 
glass laboratory was erected in 1917. Much investiga- 
tion has necessarily been devoted in this connection 
to the production of pots for melting. 

The work of the chemistrv section has included the 
study of electroplating and electrotyping; the im- 
provement of the electrolytic method of estimation of 
carbon in steel so that an accurate determination can 
now be made in 44 minutes; the testing of balloon 
fabrics and the investigation of balloon gases, together 
with chemical work on oils, rubber, paper, textiles, 
ink, glue, cement, bitumen, and other materials. It 


198 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


is noted that in the testing of balloon fabrics no 
satisfactory equivalent for exposure to weather has 
been found, confirming experience in this country. 
There was a greatly increased demand for. standard 
analysed samples as furnished by the Bureau. 

The engineering section of the Bureau is responsible 
for the control of a large amount of routine testing 
work of various kinds, some of which is carried out 
in branch laboratories. For work in aerodynamics a 
new building and wind-tunnel have been provided; 
the latter is octagonal in section, the distance between 
opposite faces being 44 ft., and a wind-speed of ninety 
miles per hour is obtained with an expenditure of 
85 h.p. Autographic instruments for measurements 
on aeroplanes in flight have been designed. Much 
work has also been done on materials for aircraft con- 
struction and the strength of aeroplane parts. 
inspection and testing of cement and concrete for the 
Government and the public are on a large scale, and 
have included investigations relating to concrete ships. 
Stress reversal tests on reinforced concrete beams 
have been carried out. Lubricating oils have been 
investigated. The textile division has given atten- 
tion to aeroplane and balloon fabrics; a cotton fabric 
for wing-covering was produced with the aid of the 
manufacturers which was considered superior to linen, 
and has been widely used. 

In the metallurgy division considerable developments 
have taken place, and a brief description is given of 
the new laboratories and equipment installed, which 
will be found of interest. As at the National Physical 
Laboratory, light alloys for the construction of air- 
craft and aircraft engines have received a great deal 
of attention, and evidence of co-operation appears in 
the adoption of a programme to supplement work 
done here. Stress is laid on the necessity for the sys- 
tematic study of constitution to secure further progress. 
The properties of metals at high temperatures are being 
investigated. Ceramics is also a subject on which 
much research is in progress. 

This brief survey will suffice to show that the report 
contains evidence of a vast amount of scientific and 
industrial research which will be of the greatest 
interest and importance to those who are working on 
parallel lines in this country. A special feature of 
the work of the Bureau is the attention given to 
methods of making available for ready reference 
throughout the country the results of the various 
investigations. Four separate series of publications 
are issued : (i) scientific papers, (2) technologic papers, 
(iii) circulars, and (iv) miscellaneous publications: 
these are widely distributed to institutions and 
libraries. The need in this country of more effective 
means for the rapid dissemination of technical in- 
formation among those to whom it is of value has 
been very apparent during the war, and in the con- 
sideration which is now being given to this matter 
the methods adopted by the Bureau will be found to 
merit careful examination. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


BIRMINGHAM.—Dr. S. W. J. Smith, F.R.S., assistant 
professor at the Imperial College, South Kensington, 
and for many years secretary of the Physical Society 
of London, has been elected to the Poynting chair of 
physics in the University. 

CaMBRIDGE.—Sir Ernest Rutherford, Cavendish pro- 
fessor of experimental physics, has been elected to a 
fellowship at Trinity College. ; 

Dr. H. Hartridge, of King’s College, has been 
appointed demonstrator of physiology until Septem- 
ber 30, Ig2r. 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


The / 


Mr. Bennett Melvill Jones and Mr. James ve i? 
m- q 


Lesley have been elected to junior fellowships at 
manuel College. Mr. Jones was placed in Class I. 
of the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, 1909, and has 


been awarded the Air Force Cross for his work with _ 


the Royal Air Force, of which he has been a tem- 
porary lieutenant-colonel. Mr. Lesley was placed in 
Class I., Part 1I., of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 
Ig10, and obtained the agricultural diploma. He was 
awarded a scholarship of the Board of Agriculture in 
1911, and was a student of the John Innes Institu- 
tion, 1912. He was temporary captain in the 
K.R.R.C., gained the Military’ Cross, and was 
a prisoner in Germany, 1917-18. ; 


Dr. Boon _ has been appointed to the chair of 
chemistry at Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh. 

Mr. R. W. H. Hawken has been appointed to 
succeed Prof. A. J. Gibson as professor of engineering 
in the University of Queensland. 

WE learn from the Morning Post that a donation 
of 10,000l. has been given to the Cape University by 
the National Bank of South Africa. sal ali 

Mr. W. J. Joun, formerly a wireless telegraphy 
engineer under the Admiralty, has been appointed 


lecturer in electrical engineering at the East London 


College. 


Tue Times announces that Dr. James Younger and. 
his wife have given 30,000l. to provide the University 
of St. Andrews with a memorial hall. The main 
hall, to be used for University purposes, is to have 
an organ and to accommodate a thousand. There 
will also be a smaller hall. 


AN ingenious astronomical model for schools and 
colleges, devised by Dr. W. Wilson, was described 
in Nature of May 2, 1918, p. 173. Demonstrations 
on the uses and working of this model are being given 
by the inventor in the show-room of Messrs. George’ 
Philip and Son, Ltd., 32 Fleet Street, and the con- 
cluding one will be on Saturday, May to, at 11.30 a.m. 


Mrs. ELLEN Morcan has bequeathed 1oool. to the 
University of Liverpool for a John H. Morgan 
scholarship to be awarded to students of the Uni- 
versity who have passed the Matriculation Examina- 
tion and intend to proceed to a degree of faculty of 
engineering, and who or whose parents are too poor 
to defray the ordinary expenses of pursuing an 
academic career at the University. " 

By the will of Dr. J. Percival, late Bishop of Here- 
ford, the following bequests will be made :—roool. to 
Appleby Grammar School; 20001. to Clifton Col- 
lege; 1o00l. each to Queen’s College, Oxford, and 


Trinity College, Oxford, all for helping scholars of 


distinguished ability who are in need of assistance 
to meet educational expenses; and roool, to the Bishop 
of Hereford for the education of one or two boys or 
girls. ein. a 
Tue President of the Board of Education has ap- 
pointed a Departmental Committee to inquire into 
the position occupied by English (language and litera- 
ture) in the educational system of England, and to 
advise how its study may best be promoted in schools 
of all types, including continuation schools, and in 
universities and other institutions of higher education, 
regard being had to (1) the requirements of a liberal 
education; (2) the needs of business, the professions, 
and the public services; and (3) the relation of English 
to other studies. The chairman of the Committee is 


Sir Henry Newbolt, and the secretary Mr. J. E. Hales, 


to whom all communications should be addressed at 
the Board of Education, Whitehall, London, S.W.1. 


Daas, sncsiiu SIR 


oe ae 


3 . business an address will be given by the 


iii te Ne aS at SoA NTR GEN 


_ May 8, 1919] 


NATURE 


199 


_ AFTER an interval of four years, due to the circum- 
Stances of war, the eighth annual general meeting 
of the Old Students Association of the Royal College 
of Science, London, will be held on Saturday, May 24, 
at 3.30 p.m., at the Imperial College Union, Prince 

Sonsort Road, South Kensington. The meeting will 
discuss the important questions raised by the petition 
_ to the governing body of the Imperial College, signed 


_ by past and present students of the Royal College of 
ES 


Science, requesting it to take immediate steps to 
raise the status.of the college to that of a university 
of technology, empowered to confer its own degrees 
_ in science and technology. At the conclusion of the 


retiring president, Prof. H. E. Armstrong. The 

eighth annual dinner of Old Students will be held at 

the Café Monico after the general meeting. Tickets 
y be obtained from the secretary, Nir. eee 
umberstone, 21 Gower Street, W.C.1. 


A CONFERENCE attended by representatives of the 
professorial and non-professorial teaching staffs of the 
university institutions of England, Wales, and Ire- 
land, with Mr. R. D. Laurie, of the University Col- 
Weituc. Ge Aberystwyth, as chairman, met at the 


errs 


ty of Sheffield on April 11 to discuss the 

mm with regard to superannuation, in view of 

_ the recent Act, which confers non-contributory pension 
_ benefits upon all teachers in State-aided institutions 
. university teachers. Since 1913 there has been 


eee ical 
a 


a pension scheme for universities of a contributory 
_ character, known as the Federated Superannuation 
_ Scheme, under which the State pays one-half of the 


a total contribution and the other half is paid by the 


_ beneficiary. This scheme, which in its present form 
_ compares very unfavourably with the non-contributory 
scheme under the Teachers (Superannuation) Act, is 


ma nly Rares however, to professorial staffs, as 
4 5 * 
aio 


of lecturers are in receipt of salaries so 
Wey cannot afford to make the necessary 
‘ibution. After discussion at the recent meeting, 
a motion, “That this conference wishes to urge 
strongly that the Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 
_ 1918, be extended so as to include the staffs of uni- 
Versities and university colleges,’ was carried with 
only one dissentient. A further resolution, carried 
unanimously, was :—“ That this conference urges that 
before any modification of the Federated Superannua- 
_ tion Scheme for university teachers be adopted, an 
_ opportunity be given to the various sections of the 
_ staffs of the universities to place their views directly 
_ before the President of the Board of Education and 
_ the Treasury, and that this resolution be communi- 


: cated immediately to the President of the Board of 


Education.” It was also decided to communicate with 


: all the associations of teachers in schools which come 


aww 


under the present Act to advise them of the action 
being taken by the conference. 


__ A CONFERENCE to direct attention to the position of 
science in the educational system of the country was 
held at the Central Hall, Westminster, on April 30, 
‘under the auspices of the League for the Promotion 
of Science in Education. The chair was taken by 
Lord Leverhulme, who said that our system of educa- 
‘tion should take into the fullest possible consideration 
‘the means that science had placed at our disposal in 
the daily life and industries of the nation. Three 
resolutions were submitted to the conference and 
carried unanimouslv. The first of these emphasised 
the importance of having an adequate representation 
of scientific men in all Government Departments, 
and in proposing it Mr. Sanderson, the headmaster 
of Oundle School, deplored the lack of scientific out- 
look bv Government officials, and criticised the new 
regulations for the Civil Service examinations. Sir 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


Yaak 


Philip Magnus, M.P., in seconding, emphasised the 
fact that the league did not in any way desire to 
favour scientific teaching at the expense of so-called 
humanistic studies. They wished, however, to en- 
courage the adoption of the scientific method in all 
branches of learning. Mr. Charles Bright supported 
the resolution, and suggested that men of. scientific 
and business experience might well be introduced into 
the personnel of Government Departments. Mr. 
Arthur Lynch, in proposing the second resolution 
calling for a pronouncement by the Government as 
to its attitude towards the recommendations of Sir 
. J. Thomson’s report, criticised the lack of 
scientific knowledge of Members of Parliament in 
matters of general education. Lord Headley seconded 
this resolution, and attributed the indifference to 
matters of this nature to the lack of scientific educa- 
tion, which alone could produce action and organising 
ability. The third resolution was proposed in a force- 
ful speech by Dr. H. B. Gray, formerly headmaster 
of Bradfield College, who expressed the view that the 
present public school and university system failed to 
produce that activity of mind and breadth of know- 
ledge which were necessary for dealing satisfactorily 
with modern problems. Mr. Edward Berkeley, a 
member of the council of the National Union of 
Manufacturers, seconded this resolution. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LonpDon. 

Royal Anthropological Institute, April 8.—Sir Everard 
im Thurn, president, in the chair.—Lieut. E. W. 
Pearson Chinnery: Reactions of certain New Guinea 
primitive people to Government control. It is the 
desire of Australia to put down cannibalism and 
general savagery and introduce civilisation among 
people of the Stone age in Papua without injury to 
them. Cannibalism and savagery are essential parts 
of the social and religious fabric of an uncivilised 
community, If they are to be suppressed without 
injury to the people, alternative practices of equal 
potency must be substituted to perpetuate material 
welfare and develop cultural institutions in accord- 
ance with the laws of the Government. Since the 
wild tribes of Papua received their first alien stimuli 
through the magistrates of their districts, progress 
depends on the ability of these officers to establish 
a proper ‘relationship of mutual understanding and 
confidence between Government and subjects. When 
this is attained the officers, by intensive study of the 
culture of their people, can acquire a knowledge of 
the modes of thought that produce customs antagonis- 
tic to civilised standards, and safely guide the people 
through the stages of transition. If a system of 
training district magistrates in anthropological 
methods is added to existing methods of administra- 
tion, Australia should, in the shortest possible time, 
achieve the credit of having conducted the savage of 
the Stone age. without injurv to him, to an attain- 
ment of the ideals of civilisation. 


Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, April 22.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair.—D. Berthelot: Notice on the work of 
Sir William Crookes.—G. Bigourdan: The work of 
Le Monnier at the meridian of Saint-Sulpice. The 
end of the observatory of the rue Saint-Honoré.—G. 
Julia: Some properties of integral or meromorphic 
functions.—A. Guldberg : The law of errors of Bravais. 
—G. Guillaumin: Certain particular solutions of the 
problem of sandy flow.—MM. Jouguet and Crussard : 
The velocity of deflagrations.—M. Amans: Equations 
of similitude in propulsive helices——M. Picon: The 


200 


NATURE 


[May 8, 1919 


action of the monosodium derivative of acetylene on 
some halogen esters of secondary and tertiary alcohols, 
The reaction. differs from that shown by halogen esters 
of primary alcohols, and the corresponding acetylene 
compounds are not formed. Halogen acid is eliminated 
and ethylene hydrocarbons are produced.—J. Amar; 
The curve of pulmonary ventilation. A study of the 
effects of physical fatigue on respiration. 

April 28.—M. Léon Guignard in’ the chair.—H. 
Parenty : Presentation of a miniature model of a steam 
recorder. The apparatus, a photograph of which is 
given, is based on the measurement of pressure in 
front and behind a constriction in the pipe.—A. Righi: 
Michelson’s experiment and its interpretation.—M. 
Carleman : The conformable representation of multiply 
connected domains.—L. Brouwer : The enumera- 
tion of finite groups: of topological transformations of 
a tore.—A. Denjoy: The true value ‘of definite 
integrals.—R. Biquard: A modification of the fluoro- 
metric method of measuring X-rays and its applica- 
tion to the measurement of the radiation from 
Coolidge bulbs. Measurements with | fluorescent 
screens cannot give a. value of the radiation in abso- 
lute measure, since the fraction of the incident energy 
absorbed by such screens may vary, according to the 
nature of the X-rays, between 53 and 20 per cent, 
of the whole, and matters are not improved by in- 
‘creasing the thickness of the screen, since the 
observed brightness is due to the superficial layers 
only. This difficulty is avoided by the use of a suffi- 


cient number of thin screens (0-2 mm.).—M. de 
Broglie: The spectroscopy of the X-ravs. The L ab- 
sorption spectrum of radium.—J. Bourcart : The 


presence of the Priabonian in the Salonica region. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Botany of the Living Piant. By Prof. F. O. 
Bower. Pp. x+580. (London: Macmillan and ie 
Ltd.) 25s. net. 

Premiers Eléments d’une Théorie du Quadrilatare 
Complet. By A. Oppermann. Pp. 76+plate. (Paris : 
Gauthier-Villars et Cie.) 

Technic of Surveying Instruments and Methods, 
including General and Detailed Instructions for Field 
and Office Work of Extended Students’ Surveys. By 
Profs. W. L. Webb and J. C. L. Fish. Pp. xvi+310. 
(New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: 
Chapman and Fall, Ltd.) gs. 6d. net. 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, May 8. 
Peete es ie or ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS (Joint Meeting w'th the Iron and 
Steel Institute), at 2.30.—J. Bibby: Developments in Iron and Steel 
i cg kades Furnaces.—W. H. Booth: The Booth-Hall Electric Furnace.— 
H, A. Greaves ; Application of Electrical Energy to the Melting of Metals. 
-—R. G. Mercer : Electric Furnaces in the United Kingdom, 1918.—Axel 
Sahlin : A New Type of Electric Furnace.—Victor Stobie : Large Electric 
Steel Melting Furnaces. 
Rovat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Dr. H. S. Hele-Shaw: Clutches. 
_InstiruTIon oF MininGc anD METALLURGY, at 5.30.—Annual General 
Meeting.—Hugh K. Picard: Presidential Address. As Standish Ball: 
The Work, of the Miner on the Western Front, 1915-18 
“Optica Society, at 7.30.—Prof. F. J. Cheshire: Presidential Address— 
Polarised Light. ad Rheinberg : Graticules. 


FRIDAY, May Bs 

RovaL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5 —A. Clayden: Note on the Blue 
Violet Absorption of Venus.—E. Doolittle : Note on Espin’s List of New 
Double Stars. —A. N. Brown: Obseryations of U Persei_in_1911-19.—A. 
Pannekoek : The Distance of the Milky Way.—Probable Papers: Rev. 
T. E. R: Phillips : Micrometrical Measures of Double Stars in 1918.— 
Rev. A. L. Cortie : The Spectrum of Nova Aquilz, 1918, July 29.—W. M. 
Smart: Note on the Position Line of Navigation. 

PuvsicaL Society, at 5.—A. E. Bawtree: Demonstration of a New 
Method of Producing Coloured Designs upon Glass.—F. J. Whipple: 


Absolute Scales of Pressure and Temperature.—Dr. A. O. Rankine: The 


Transmisslon of Speech by Light. 

Rovat InstITUTION, at 5.30.—Sir George Macartney : Chinese Turkistan— 
Past and Present. 

MaLacoLocicaL Society, at 6.—G. B..Sowerby: A New Species of 
Ampullaria in the Geneva Museum. —Dr. A. E. Boycott : Parthenogenesis 
in Paludestrina yénkinsi.—Tom Iredale : Notes on the Mollusca of Lord 
Howe Island. 


NO. 2584, VOL. 103] 


SA eR O NES May ro 
Roya InstiTuTION, at 3.—Prof. ‘H. S. Foxwell: : Chapters i in the Peychor 


logy of Industry. 
MONDAY, May 1 ia | 
Royat GEOGRAPHICAL Society, at 8,30,—A. ye ae Battye: Crete: its 
Scenery and Natural Features. uff 
TUESDAY, May 33 ens 
Roya INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. A. Keith : British Ethnology—The: ‘ 
of Ireland. +h 
Roya. ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 5.—Sir Everard im ' J 
Dwellings and Costumes of Old Fiji, iiusteated by Lantern se : 
Specimens. ei 
ZOOLOGICAL Society, at. 5.30,—Lt.-Col. S. Monckton Copeman : ) 
ments on Sex Determination. - 


WEDNESDAY, May 1 

Rovav Society oF ARTs, at 4.30.—H. ‘Kelway Bombet : Railway Trans- 
port in the United Kingdom. oe ta iS 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Major J. Erskine-D 
Wireless in the Koyal Air Force. 

British PsycuoLocicaL SocieTy Cocaine Section), eee 
London, 11 Chandos Street, W.1, at 8.30.—Dr. H. R. 
Inaugural Address—The Objects and Work of a Secthuil 

THURSDAY, Mav Hi = 

Roya INnsTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. F. Keeble : ‘inbeiaiil Cultivation 


Royat Society, at 4.30.—Probable Papers: Prof. W. H. Y mesh 
Area of Surfaces ; (2) Change of the Independent Variables in a 
Integral.—Prof. W one and R, Sarjant : je lg 
Chemistry of Coal. I. The Action of Pyridine upon the 


—Prof. E. F. Burton: A New Method of. Weighing ( Colloidal Particles.— 
W. E. Curtis: The Value of the Rydberg Constant for Spectre | Seri 
Royat Society or ARTs, at 4.30.—Prof. H. E. Ar Armstrong ; : So cies 
in India, with Special Reference to Indigo: eget 
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL potters.» at 6.—E. ‘A; Labdlaw as Aled 
Grinsted : The Telephone Service of Large Cities, with Special Reference 
to London. aia. 
CuEmiIcAL Society, at 8.—B. Blount and J. H. Sequeira: “Blue 
anc other Forms of Fluorides.—G. M. Bennett : The Ni on ¢ : 
ethyienediamine.—D. L. Hammick : The Destruction Mae 
Nitrating Acid.—J. C. Irvine and J. S. Dick: The ¢ 
Maltose. A New Example of Degradation in the Sugar Ri 
Manning and M. Nierenstein: The Tannin of the ee 
(Tsuga Canadensis, Carr). 
FRIDAY, May 16 
Roya laserruTaen, at 5.30.—Dr. S. F. Harmer: Satramarai Wins 


i 


and Whaling. 
SATURDAY, May 1 ie 

Roya InstITuTION, at 3.—Dr. J. Wells: Creea’s Personal ‘Chawieatsah 
seen in his Commentaries. cbresces 

4 bt oh Lae 
CONTENTS. a PAGE 

Joseph Black . . +) aes at eee 
The Functions of the Internal Ear, " By Prof, A. ey 
Keith, F.R.S.. .. 182 


Military Geology and Topography. By W, B R. K. 18 

Our Bookshelf . . : . sig mae 
Letters to the Editor :— ia 

The Cultivation of Bh den 17ers be R. Dunlop, ret). Ml 
R.N.V.R. iT ee ee 


Wasps.—W. F. Denning 185 
The cane Tide in the Atmosphere. (With Diagram. \ 
By Dr. S. Chapman . tua Ann PSS 
Inter-Allied Co-operation in ‘Chemistry . + sarelygiate Mme 
The Royal Academy. ByJ.S.D. ....... « 188 
Robert Chapman Davie... . ..° « «a; = 036 ee | 
DLOLES cea) Pre ar a 
Our Astronomical Column :— Tare ES 
Determination of Proper Motions . . .... +. « 194 
The Blink Microscope . al, LOA 
Calculation of Occultations of Stars by the Moon | ge 


X-Rays and British Industry. By Major G. W.C.- 
Kaye ‘2 194 
Radio- Telegraphic ‘Investigations in Connection 


homo Tae. sl 


with the Solar Eclipse of May 29,1919 ...-.. 196 
The Bureau of Standards andthe War ...... 197 | 
University and Educational inn Kabra sitet: a 
Societies and Academies... ......+24 + 199 
Books Received .. MM Oh 
‘Diary of Societies .... . 2 elke og Ti a ae 

——— 
- Editorial and Publishing Offices: ae 4 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., rae 
a MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2, aM 
Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the, ath A 
Publishers Bi) 

Editorial Communications to the Editor. as 
Telegraphic Address: Puusts, LONDON. 
amephome Number: GERRARD 8830. ~ SF ae 


by ) NATURE 


201 


fags ga a AY 15, 1919. 
Bite :'9 


: 


ad = 


y a. . ‘DYNAMICS. OF EVOLUTION. 
The ‘Origin and Evolution of Life on the Theory 
. .> “Action, Reaction, and Interaction of Energy. 


' Prof. “H: F. Osborn. Pp. xxxi+ 322. 

| {Condon 'G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1918.) 
_ - Price 25s. net. 

ya F ESSION of failure,’? Prof. Osborn 


writes, “is part of the essential honesty 
‘ific thought.’’ Wave after wave of evolu- 
y theory has prompted research, but, in 
cot! thettty new facts, there has been little 
h enlightenment since Darwin’s day. ‘The 
a. of the orderly evolution of the germ 
re entirely unknown.’’ So the author has 
Ol igh | for a fresh starting-point—“an energy 
ncef ‘tion of evolution.’’ He would take the 
ganon of physico-chemical science for a while, 
jing morphology and bionomics to the end. 
“are four main complexes of energy to be 


sic ered — -the inorganic environment, the 
.. zanism, “the heredity germ, and the animate 
vironment. How are they adjusted to one 


ther? What in particular are the relations of 
: heredity germ with the other complexes, for 
i we not slow to learn Weismann’s lesson 
‘ the essential question is as to germinal e¥olu- 
- | ely t as to bodily evolution? The heredity 

germ smains inconceivable as regards its develop- 
ment, its uaa and its evolution. Thus, in his 
preface, Prof. Osborn cleans the slate. His 
tial” honesty is a little depressing, but the 
eneral idea is: We have been thinking too much 
om Form backwards ; let us try to think from 


Ener forwards. 
eee as material systems are solidary 
i inorganic, but they are distinguished by 


ir more dominant constructive capacities, as 
ointed out very clearly long ago. Besides 
ss tions and reactions (capturing, storing, re- 
ng energy) which conform to the second law 
modynamics, there is in organisms a dis- 


‘or integrate—e.g. nervous impulses or chemical 
“Messengers. “Interaction ’’ has to do with the 
| co-ordination, balance, co-operation, compensa- 
tion, acceleration, and retardation of actions and 
_ reactions: In the course of development there is 
ites of this correlating and regulating, which 
_ Osborn” is not felicitous jin calling “the 

rer of heredity.”’ The central 
the book is thus stated: “In each 


aie ‘reaction, and interaction of four com- 
plexes of physico-chemical energy, namely, those 
of 


y 


Se) be (protoplasm and ‘body-chromatin), 


actions, and interactions of potential and kinetic 
energy in each organism selection is constantly 
oan wherever there is | competition with the 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


fnttive dominance of “interactions ’’ which unify 


pee iy the phenomena of life represent the. 


1) the inorganic environment, (2) the develop- 


; (4) the life 


corresponding actions, reactions, and interactions 
of other organisms. The author is quick to 
add that, “while this is a principle which largely 
governs the organism, it remains to be discovered 
whether it also governs the causes of the evolu- 
tion of the ra, This is Prof. Osborn’s “tetra- 
kinetic ”’ “tetraplastic ’’ theory. 

The constigetive part of the book opens with 
an interesting discussion of “the preparation of 
the earth for life,’’ the capture of the sun’s heat 
and light, the suitability of various elements to 
function in metabolism, and similar topics. As 
to the primary physico-chemical stages of life, the 
following steps ‘are speculatively suggested : The 
assemblage of several of the ten elements now 
essential to life, the integration of these in a 
novel way (“a new form of unity in the cosmos ’’) 
and in a state of colloidal suspension, the appear- 
ance and specialisation of catalysers (effecting bio- 
chemical co-ordination and correlation), the begin- 
ning of competition and natural selection. What 
primordial life-forms competed about we are not 
told; probably for a place in the sun. The attrac- 
tive agency of hydrogen and oxygen led to the 
incorporation of additional elements useful in 
energy-capture. But no great progress was pos- 
sible until interactions were established which 
| regulated and unified metabolism; and a_ vivid 
| account is given of the variety of chemical mes- 
sengers, both general and specific, which play so 
important a réle in the economy of the organism. 

Prof. Osborn then passes to consider bacteria 
as the forerunners of ordinary plant and animal 
protists; they show the capture, storage, and 
utilisation of energy in simplest expression; they 
form the primordial food supply; they lead on to 
the first true cells with differentiated protoplasm 
and chromatin.. Through the chromatin, excelling 
all other substances in the complexity of its mole- 
cular: ‘constitution, it became easier for an 
organism to: retain its integrity amid ceaseless 
metabolism: and from generation to generation. 
Another great step, with incalculably important 
results was implied in ‘the appearance of chloro- 
phyll, which hitched organisms in a new way to 
the sun, facilitating energy-capture enormously. 

In the second part of his book Prof. Osborn deals 
with the evolution of animal form, and proves him- 
self an entertaining and illuminating guide. What 
seemed to us in earlier pages an over-emphasis on 
the adequacy of physico-chemical formulations. is 
now corrected by a recognition of psychic 
powers which . -are in an indirect way “crea- 
tive’ of new form and new function.’ In 
‘the vivid sketch of the evolution of NaliBigien 

there are very. valuable features, notably (a) the 
correlation ‘of organismal and environmental 
changes; (b) the illustration of adaptive radiation 
of group after group to the twelve chief, habitats ; 
(c) the continual facing of the difficulty. that, 
unless one is a _thoroughgoing Lamarckian, the 
sources of the raw materials of evolution must ‘be 
looked for in the heredity germ, not in the 
organism; in the genotype, not in the phenotype; 
(d) the recognition of the simultaneous and cor- 


M 


202 


[May 15, 1919 


related evolution of a; multitude of. characters. in 
one organism (which is aptly likened to an ad- 
vancing army with units, companies, and. regi- 
ments); (e) the importance of what we verture 
to call. temporal. variations—+.e., plus: and minus 


changes in. the rate or tempo of the evolution of; 


various parts of the body, which. may perhaps be 
correlated, with variations in glands. of internal 
secretion;, (f), the: insistence on the paleeonto- 
logical evidence; which has accumulated since 
Waagen’s. day,, thanks in great. part to Prof. 
Osborn’s, own. industry, that the evolution of 
characters: often proceeds, by minute and definite 
changes;.and (g) what we confess.to having an in- 
corrigible pleasure in welcoming, an adniission that 
the “initiative ’’ of the organism counts. . Prof. 
Osborn’s concept: of, “‘interaction,’’ does: not. seem 
to.us.to.differ from the concept of) ‘correlation ’’ 
or “integration’’ with which many of. us have 
worked, but perhaps he has done more justice to 
it. than have others. At any rate, his clear view 
of the. dynamical; aspect of the organism has 
resulted in an uncommonly fresh and stimulating 
book which will make many. students of biology 
grateful. We wish we had space: for, more than 
a word of praise for the abundant, illustrations, 
which. are. very: original, and. telling. 
Jj, Aw, 


EXPERIMENTS, IN. BIOLOGICAL METHOD. 
(rt). The Quantitative Method’ in Biology. By 
Prof. Julius MacLeod. (“Publications of the 
University’ of .Manckhester,’’ Biological Series, 
No. 11.): Pp. xii+228. (Manchester: Uni- 
versity Press; London: Longmans, Green, and 
Co., 1919.) Price 15s. net. | 
(2)' A Textbook of Biology. For Students in 
General, Medical, and Technical Courses. By 
Profi William Martin Smallwood. Third 
edition, enlarged) and thoroughly _ revised. 
Pp. 306. (Philadelphia. and New York: Lea 
and Febiger, 1918:)' Price ros. 6d: net. 
At intervals, in every science,, investigators 
and teachers begin to become. dissatisfied 
with accepted methods.. They come to realise 
that. the methods in vogue were adapted to a 
certain stage in the development of. the science, 
and that as the science progresses changes. both 
in the means of investigation and in the manner 
of teaching become needful. The two books 
under review have one feature, and perhaps. only 


one, in.common; they both are attempts to intro-. 


duce improved methods, the one in investigation, 
the other in, teaching. 

(1) Prof: MacLeod, of Ghent, while resident at 
Manchester, has continued his. studies. on. what 
might. be called biometry. were not his methods 
so different from those of the English school. of 
biometricians, and expounds his aims for the 
benefit of British readers, He tells us that in the 
physical sciences “the. properties. of objects are 
measured and .expressed by means of. figures 
called constants,’’ while in biology “the proper- 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103 | 


“NATURE 


ties (characters) of the living things are usually 
described by means of terms’’ (long, short, 
narrow, oval, etc.). ‘The object of the present_ 
book is to describe a method by which biological 
constants may be established.’’ He begins by 
assuming that there is:a chemical basis forspecies, — 
for the living basis of each species is a mixture 
of chemical substances; and these specific mix- 
tures. diffen from, one another by. at least one 
entity. Species are thus essentially discontinu- 
ous,. but every. specific property is the resultant 
of. a. reaction. between the specific mixture and 
environmental. forces. Hence arises plasticity— . 
the variation. of species. due to environmental. 
differences. Variation due to plasticity and. 
that due to germinal change can be investigated. 
adequately only by quantitative methods, as: is. 
recognised. by. both the biometric and Men- 
delian. schools. But exact methods are needed, 
especially in systematic biology, and also in em- 
bryology, comparative; anatomy, and physiology, 
and it is suggested that many new facts and ideas. 
would come, to light if this were more generally 
recognised. For this purpose the author seeks. 
in each. species. investigated a number. of simple. 
properties, analogous with Mendelian unit char- 
acters, which can. be observed and recorded accu- 
rately. These he calls. primordia, and they are: 
such that each is the. expression of a state of 
equilibrium: at. the time when. it is observed,. 
though it may disappear or change to a different. 
primordium later... For example, the: petals of the 
forget-me-not are first. white, then pink, them 
blue; white and. pink are transitory primordia, 
blue is. persistent. Most primordia chosen. are 
measurable—lengths, numbers of segments, and. 


so. forth—but. such features as colour or texture — 


may also be used. ded ess 
By means of the study of such primordia, 
made by the author chiefly in plants and insects, 
a number of principles. are deduced, with which. 
all biologists are familiar in an indefinite. sense, 
but. which are rarely expressed in a concrete form. 
Of. these may. be mentioned especially gradation, 
defined as the variation of. a given property along 
a given axis (as, for example, the lengths of suc- 
cessive internodes in plants), and also a number: 
of. curious and ingenious comparisons between. . 
organic variation. and. the numerical, results of. 
chance in regard to the tossing of coins, throwing” 
of dice, etc. ee eo 
The main aim of the book, however, is to show 
that. by making’ sufficient; measurements of. inde-- 


pendently varying “primordia’’ true. biological — 


constants are obtained. For if a sufficient number — 


of specimens are examined (and the author shows 


that this number need not, be excessively large),. 


the maximal, and. sometimes. also. the minimal, 
value of each primordium is “a strictly determined 
biological constant,’’ so that a collection of such 


constants is not only an adequate and easily used. . 


diagnosis of the species, but. may be used. also 
for the study of development,, comparative 
anatomy, and the influence of environment (plas- _ 
ticity).. Though the book contains. much. that. is 


s/ May «15, 1919] 


NATURE 


203 


‘interesting, a large part of \it affords but tedious 
_ reading; somehow it suggests that organisms 
_ -feoked at in this light are not, and never have 

4 ‘been, alive. That we should learn much if Prof. 
_ Macleod’s method were adopted is probably very 
true, but it is difficult to imagine any large 
_ number of biologists adopting it. 

7 ot Prof. Smallwood’s “Text-book of Biology ”’ 
of a very different character. It is an intro- 
jon .to biology for elementary students, 

_jplanned so as'\to retain the main features of the 
_ “type -system, while at the same time offering 
‘a much wider outlook on'the subject than is given 
. “by most other ‘books of the'kind. ‘It has reached 
a third edition, and therefore doubtless meets .a 
q want, and yet it cannot be called satisfactory. 
_-In 300 pages largely occupied by figures, mostly 
_-wery good, it attempts ‘to ‘treat almost every 

nown aspect of ‘biology, and the impression 
given is “a little of everything and not enough 
sf anything.”’ A good elementary text-book based 

n biological principles rather than on types ‘is 
ertainly much to be desired, but it will mot be 


4 


oe ee 


uote 


a 
J 


ee ee St ee 
y 


? ‘an attempt in that direction, is by no 
7 in 1 L 


fee Foe ~ 
> ae a 


ates Gielen’ 
j Peat itse = 
é 


Phe Applications of ‘Electrolysis in ‘Chemical ‘In- 

aS oe y. By A.J. Hale. (Monographs on Indus- 
mistry.) Pp. ix+148. (London: Long- 
ans, Green, and Co., 1918.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
i be IS is ‘one “of the volumes of the series 
Nera of “Monographs on Industrial Chemistry ’’ 
‘now being ‘published under the general .editor- 
Ship .of - r Edward Thorpe. ‘The author jis 


Ls 
h i ceaddas 


+ 


demonstrator .and lecturer ‘in chemistry at the 
‘Finsbury Technical College; ‘his book is well 
printed and illustrated, and contains copious refer- 
enc to the ‘patent and other literature of the 


nee > Wot cis divided into an introduction and. eight 
chapters. The introduction and chap. i. (thirty- 
two pages in all, or two-ninths of the book) are 
devoted to the discussion of the general principles 
of electrolysis and methods of generating the 
current; the remaining seven chapters, extending 
to 111 pages, have to suffice, therefore, for the 
Special subject with which the book deals—namely, 
industrial .electrolysis. The ‘compression  re- 
quired tocover the ground in the allotted space 
is, infact, rather ‘too severe a handicap for ade- 
quate treatment, and the book would have gained 
in value had its length been doubled. As it is, 
, two..chapters have been given to the extraction 
and refining of metals, sand two. chapters ‘to the 
electrolysis of alkali chlorides; while one chapter 
each sis devoted tothe electrolytic production of 
the gases ‘hydrogen and oxygen, of inorganic 
estoy lours, and of organic compounds such as iodo- 
form, anthraquinone, etc. 
_ The description.of particular processes and cells 
is necessarily brief, and in the circumstances the 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


author would have been wise to devote less space 
to the earlier patents and processes of electrolysis 
(many of them ‘no longer in operation), and to 
give more detailed descriptions of the processes 
and cells now in actual use. For example, the 
Acker process of caustic soda manufacture by 
the electrolysis of fused salt has not been a’success 
as a practical process, yet the author has devoted 
nearly two pages and two illustrations to his . 
description of it, and some of the other cells and 
processes dealt with are similarly only of historical 
interest. 

As Sir Edward Thorpe pointed out in his 
general introduction to the series of mono- 
graphs to which this volume belongs: “In 
some cases, where the subjects touch the actual 
frontiers of progress, knowledge is ‘so very 
recent, and its application so very tentative, that 
both are almost certain to experience profound 
modification sooner or later. This, of course, ‘is 
inevitable.’’ It is ‘a pity that the author ‘has 
increased this ‘handicap of “being out of date 
before it appears’’ by including matter ‘in ‘the 
present volume that is only of historic value. 

However, the work will .prove of considerable 
value to students of electro-chemistry who wish 
to obtain a rapid survey of its industrial applica- 
tions, and also to engineers.and chemists who wish 
to trace the development of particular processes. 
As already stated, there are copious references to 
the earlier journal and patent literature, and good 
subject-matter ‘and name indexes, which add to 
the value of the book as a reference work on the 
subject with which it deals. J. Bui. K. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


America at School and at Work. By the Rev. Dr. 
H. B. Gray. Pp. xx+172. (London: Nisbet 
and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 5s. net. 


Tus is a highly valuable contribution to the solu- 
tion of present-day educational problems. Dr. 
H. B. Gray was joint author with Mr. S. Turner 
of a stimulating book issued in 1916 entitled 
“Eclipse or Empire?’’ The present work 
is the fruit of an extensive tour in the 
United States during the spring and summer 
of 1917, especially among the educational institu- 
tions of thé prosperous States of the Far West 
least affected by European influences, and isa 
remarkable revelation of the ‘spirit of enterprise 
shown by these States. The author is unstinting 
in his praise’of the “magnificent and far-reaching 
measure ’’ known as Mr. Fisher’s Education Act 
of 1918, from the operations of which he. antici- 
pates the most fruitful results for the future well- 
being of the nation. 

America has a tremendous problem to face— 
namely, to turn.into good American citizens in the 
shortest time ‘possible the great stream of: immi- 
grants which, annually, comes to its: shores from all 
parts of the ‘European world, and the instrument 
by which this salutary result is accomplished is 
chiefly the English langyage,.,the» medium for 


204 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919 


which is the elementary or grammar school, the 
high school and the technical schools, and finally 
the college or the university. ‘‘ Education is 
designed for the masses, and not for the classes,”’ 
so the author writes, and “it is the birthright 
of every citizen.’’ And so education becomes to 
the American youth his one inalienable asset. 
The author contrasts the enormous provision made 
in the States with that made in this country in 
the way of private benefaction and Government, 
State, and city grants, not only in aid of general 
education for all classes, but also in the means 
of continued education and the support of re- 
search as applied to agriculture and manufacture, 
and especially refers to the great industrial and 
commercial corporations which provide means for 
the thorough education of their apprentices. 


The book is full of most interesting examples © 


of the varied ways in which education for, and 
during the preliminary stages of, a vocation is 
made accessible. Administrators of education 
will find the book both a useful guide and a 
much needed stimulus. 


Catalogue of Lewis’s Medical and Scientific Circu- 
lating Library, including a Classified Index of 
Subjects, with the. Names of those Authors 
who have treated upon them. New edition, 
revised to the end of 1917. Pp. 492. (London: 


H. K. Lewis. and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 
12s, 6d. net. 
Tuis library catalogue is in two parts. A list of 


the books arranged in the alphabetic sequence of 
the authors’ names occupies the greater part of 
the volume, and is followed by an alphabetical 
list of subjects. In the author index the title of 
each book, its published price, and date of pub- 
lication are given. Although the published price 
may give some idea of the size of a book, it would 
improve the catalogue if the number of pages in 
each case were stated.. We would also suggest 
that for indicating the size of pages an approxi- 
mate statement of the height and width of the 
page in inches or centimetres is more useful as 
well as more accurate than such expressions as 
12mo, cr. 8vo, and roy. 8vo. 

The second part of the catalogue is its most 
interesting feature. This is an alphabetical list 
of subjects, the cross-references to the main list of 
books being merely the names of authors. Thus 
under “Molecules ’’’ we find Kelvin and Turner. 
Turning to the author index, we are led to Lord 
Kelvin’s lectures on “ Molecular Dynamics ’’ and 
to W. E. S. Turner on “Molecular Association.”’ 
As there are thirteen Turners in the list, it would 
have been better to give the author’s initials in 
the subject catalogue. Indeed, this should be 
done whenever there are several authors with the 
same surname. 

Although this catalogue has been compiled for 
a particular library, it will be helpful to those 
who are forming libraries of their own, the list 
of modern scientific books in the English language 
being very comprehensive. 


No. 2585, VOL. 103] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 


pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertaketo — 
return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected, manu-— 


scripts intended for this or any other part of NatuRE. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.| 


** Camouflage ’’’ of Ships in War. 


In his speech at the Royal Academy banquet the 
Prince of Wales referred to one of the factors of 
modern warfare which is of special scientific interest— 
the art of ‘‘camouflage.’’ In the highly successful 
‘‘camouflage”’ of ships as it was carried out during the 
closing phases of the war the principle made use of 
was that, familiar to biologists, of breaking up- con- 
tinuity of surface and outline by violent colour 
contrasts. 

I happened to have become specially interested in 
this problem of the ‘‘ camouflage ”’ of ships long before 
the war through a peculiar concatenation of circum- 
stances:—(1) I was professionally interested as a 
biologist in the obliterative colouring of animals; 
(2) during my sojourns in the Gran Chaco during the 


years 1889-91 and 1896-97 I had had the extraordinary 


efficiency of Nature’s methods of obliterative colouring 
constantly brought home to me by practical experi- 
ence; and (3) when present at the opening of the Kiel 
Canal in 1895, as one of the crew of . WL 
Hardy’s yacht Raven, I was. particularly impressed 
by the fact that, whereas the ships of the British 
squadron attending the festivities retained their 
beautiful colouring of cream funnels and black hulls, 
the French and German warships, on the other hand, 
had adopted an obliterative colouring of uniform grey 
—the shade differing somewhat in the two cases. 
During more recent years, holding a ‘consistent 
belief in the impending war, I continued to interest 
myself practically in the principles underlying the 
visibility of ships at sea and the possibility ake success- 
ful ‘‘camouflage.”’ After the outbreak of war, on my 
return to Glasgow in September, 1914, I proceeded 


to endeavour to impress upon the Admiralty the con- _ 


clusions at which I had arrived. These were briefly :— 
(1) That while it was not suggested that a ship 
at sea under average conditions could be rendered 
invisible in the strict sense, yet, on the other hand, it 
was quite feasible (a) to diminish greatly the 
conspicuousness of a distant ship, and (b) to stultify 
the enemy’s range-finders by confusing the details— 
such as, above all, vertical lines—of which they make 
use. It is unnecessary to recall that in range-finding 
as applied to ships at sea there are two factors in- 
volved: (a) the determination of distance, and (b) the 
determination of the rate and direction of relative 
movement. f i 
(2) That of the various methods which Nature 
makes use of in her obliterative colouring of animals 
there were two alone of practical value for applica- 
tion to ships: (a) the contrast colouring alread 
alluded to, and (b) the method of compensative shad- 


ing—the obliteration of relief by. counteracting the © 
light and shade to which the appearance of relief in — 


large objects is mainly due. This latter method is 


simply the application of the great principle of animal — 


coloration which owes its recognition to the distin- 
guished American artist, Mr. Abbott H. Thayer. _ 

I urged upon the Admiralty that, as a protection 
against long-range gunfire, these two basic principles 
should be applied to the colouring of ships. The hull 


ve 


OE ee a a eT ee eee 


and the upper works were, as a preliminary, to be — 


treated on the Thayer principle, dark shadows being 
lightened and high lights darkened, and then. the 
main protection applied in the form of strongly con- 


. 
i 


= 


; 


a 
4 


yieialnantan ial biciibdiaiapabiatt: aii 


; 
: 


f 


ab 


WP wien ene 


het : 


mehr a Sou eae 


_ marine menace had not yet become insistent. 


May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


205 


. 


trasting pigments, the boundary lines between the 
S running uninterruptedly across boats, guns, 
turrets, etc. Of course, precisely the same principles 
apply to ships viewed through the periscope of a sub- 
meas arine, but in these early days of the war the sub- 
The 
main principles outlined above were duly recognised 
by the Admiralty, one of my letters on the subject 
written in September being circulated to the Fleet 
arly in November, 1914.. Most unfortunately, their 
carrying into effect was left to the responsibility of the 
ges 1 officers immediately concerned, without any 
tific or artistic supervision. The result was a 
complete absence of system, and an effect in individual 
cases calculated to excite, according to one’s tempera- 
ment, derision or tears. In the summer of 1915 I was 
informed that the principle of parti-colouring had been 
alana Admiralty had now arrived at a 
definite decision as to ‘‘the most serviceable scheme 
of colouring for H.M. ships,” and that this scheme 
was one of uniform coloration. 
ontinued to press on the Government—incidentally 
ng myself rather a nuisance to some of my 
lat a pero of uniform colouring was not 
one, whether applied to ships or to service 
nat of all uniform colours the very worst, 
y day or night, was the black which was 
iil in use for destroyers, and so on. I also 
n urging that the only way of obtaining really 
tory results was to place the whole matter 
lip “camouflage” under the direction of one 
idual endowed with practical knowledge of the 
$, artistic sense, and grasp of the scientific 


Dt @ a. 


ciples in olved. 
At last, during the summer of 1917, I had th 
saiisfactic of seeing the principle of shitecolouting 
sme into its own. Discarded by the Admiralty as 
; two years: before, the value of the principle 
no’ v recognised and its application entrusted to 


skilled han¢ Bs Glaring defects which were at first 
conspicuous were remedied, and the later efforts, such 
ae S| SPs y ‘ s ? 

as the great aeroplanc-carrier, H.M.S. Argus, left little 
¥ pening for criticism. 


The importance of the subsidiary principle—that of 
smpensative shading—as an aid in “camouflage” 
infortunately, never fully grasped during the 
urse of the war. The distinguished expounder of 
principle, ‘Mr. Abbott H. Thayer, was in the 
frongest sympathy with the cause of the Allies, and 
nk it a great pity that it was not found possible 
list his practical help, which I feel sure would 
sn gladly and freely given. 
only fair to state, in conclusion, that in my 
nal communications upon this subject I laid 
upon the use of parti-colouring as a means of 
endering ships less conspicuous. [| also directed 


attention to its use in confusing the details, especially 


- vertical lines, which are made use of by the enemy’s 


finders, but I did not lay sufficient emphasis on 


this. Actual experience has shown that in submarine 


warfare this second function—in. particular, deter- 


mination of the factor of relative movement—is of 


overwhelming importance. But this does not affect the 
main point I desire to make, namely, that the leading 
principle underlying ship ‘‘ camouflage "—the breaking- 
up of the form of a vessel by strongly contrasting 
colours—is one familiar’ to biologists; that it was 
made known to the Admiralty in the early days of 
the war, although its carrying into practice was, un- 


_ fortunately, bungled; and that consequently newspaper 


paragraphs which date the discovery of the principle, 
instead of the more efficient application of it, from 
the year 1917 are distinctly misleading. 

‘3 J. Granam Kerr. 
University of Glasgow, Mav 6. 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


na) 


A Possible Case of Partial Sterilisation in Soil. 


WHEN on active service in France in 1918 | had, 
partly as a hobby and partly for food supplies, a arden 
on site of an old brickyard. The land had been 
waste land for certainly three years, and I_ believe 
more. It received a light dressing of dung in February 
and was dug up in that month; seeds were got in in 
March. In April or May the land received by chance 
a light top-dressing of a mixture of charcoal and brick- 
earth impregnated with ppsnenun carbonate and hexa- 
methylene tetramine. The crops obtained were, in 
my opinion, abnormally good, and much better than 
those obtained by some French gardeners on cultivated 
gardens near by. The chief crops grown were pota- 
toes, dwarf peas, and dwarf beans; the two last gave 
the best results in the order named. It is not asserted 
that the top-dressing brought about this result, as the 
history of the soil is necessarily rather obscure ; and 
as it was not designed as a scientific experiment there 
was no control plot, but it seems improbable that the 
small amounts of nitrogen and potassium ‘supplied by 
it could have’ made the garden much better than 
neighbouring ones, 

The suggestion is offered that the hexamethylene 
tetramine may have liberated formaldehyde by the 
action of dilute acids in the soil and caused partial 
sterilisation. eu 

I have since subjected to steam distillation (a) a solu- 
tion of hexamine, (b) untreated soil, garden soil, and 
(c) garden soil moistened with hexamine solution. 
Schifi’s reagent gave negative results in the case of 
(a) and (b), but positive results with (c). 

, F. KNOWLES. 

The Midland Agricultural College, 

Kingston, Derby. 


MINERAL PRODUCTION IN RELATION 
TO THE PEACE TREATY: 


is gradually becoming more and more. clear, 
as the history of the Great War is further 
examined, that one of the main objects of 
Germany in attacking her neighbours was com- 
mercial aggrandisement by destroying rival 
manufactories and by appropriating the raw 


material of industry wherever it lay conveniently 


situated for that purpose, this raw material being 
in the first instance all available mineral wealth. 
She had already done this with supreme success 
in 1871; the iron-ore fields of Lorraine then 
wrested from France had formed one of the main- 
stays of Germany’s industrial development, and 
she fully expected that the new war would yield 


proportionately valuable results. This was 
Germany’s avowed policy; in the words of one 
of the acknowledged German authorities, 


Frederick Naumann, the object of a country 
nowadays in going to war is purely “to benefit 
the economic development of the country,’’ and 
German writers have ever since the commence- 
ment of the war announced their fixed determina- 
tion to retain in German possession the iron-ore 
fields of French Lorraine, thus giving Germany 
‘“the practical monopoly of iron-ore in Europe,” 
and assuring her of victory in the future wars to 
which she was already looking forward. 

Until the actual boundaries, as roughly defined 
in Sections II, and III. of the Peace Treaty, have 
been accurately settled, it is only possible to form 


206 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919. 


a general idea of the extent to which Germany’s 
mineral production will be diminished by the: terri- 
tory of! which: she is to be deprived: Naturally, 
the first mineral to be considered is coal. 
Germany produced. rather more than 190 million 
tons. of. coal, of which; about 100 millions came 
from the Westphaliam coalfields, 34 millions from 
Upper: Silesia; and 15 millions from: the Saar coal- 
field. So faras can be seen'from the Peace Treaty, 
‘Germany is to cede to France the whole of the 
Saar coalfield in, compensation. for the destruction 
of. the coalfields. of. Northern France; seeing that 


the: Pas:de Calais district! produced in 1913 about. 


22 million tons: of coal, and the Nord. district 
about 8 millions, or approximately double the 


output of the Saar basin, the compensation thus 


afforded. does. not. err on. the side of liberality. 
It.is therefore to be hoped that under Section VIII. 
Germany will! be: compelled; to, deliver..over. to 
France as much coal as will bring» the: total. coal 
supplies of the latter’ up to at least her pre+war 
standard until her northern collieries are again 
fully equipped and in working order. 

It appears certain that, a considerable propor- 
tion: of the Silesian coalfields, will. be ceded to 
Poland, though: how much is by-no means. ‘settled 
as’ yet: It‘is important that’ Poland should have 
ample coal. supplies in order’ that! its industrial 
development may be free and unhampered by any 
dependence on its neighbours for this indispensable 
material. Even were the whole of the Silesian 
coalfields to pass into Polish hands, Germany 
would: still have an output equal, to three-fourths 
of its pre-war output in bituminous coal alone, 
whilst. if lignite is included in the calculation, as it 
really should be, the annual.output of Germany 
will only be diminished by about 18 per cent. 

The restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France 
affects two important deposits of minerals—the 
iron-ores. of Lorraine, and the potash deposits of 
Alsace. In 1913 Germany produced nearly 36 
million tons, of iron-ore, of which no fewer than 
284. millions were minette ore, more than 21 
million tons being produced in Lorraine. It 
‘is to. be hoped that in the detail of the clauses 
under which Germany renounces her treaties with 
Luxembourg conditions, will be included that will 
favour the delivery of the Luxembourg minette 
to Belgium rather than to Germany. Few things 
would,do more to restore the great iron industry 
of Belgium, which Germany set herself to destroy 
with the mest brutal deliberation, than such 
an. arrangement as would give Belgium pre- 
ferential treatment, in the matter of this ore. It 
will be seen that even without any minette 
Germany. will still have an annual production that 
could easily, be brought up to 10 million tons of 
iron-ore, or, say, 5 million tons of pig-iron, as 
against 14 million tons,in 1913. This production 
would be ample for the industrial needs of the 
German nation, though; not for the huge output 
of munitions of war of all kinds for which so 
much had been employed in the years preceding 
1914,, and such a drastic reduction of Germany’s 
output of iron is the best guarantee possible for 

NO. 2585, VOL. 103 | 


In 1913: 


a world peace; and the easiest and safest means. 
of protecting France from any future attempts of” 
German aggression. 

The restoration of Alsace to France implies the 
shattering of the German monopoly in potash 
salts, upon which she was relying for forcing other 
nations to trade with her. To quote from an. 


article in'a leading German paper written towards 


the end of r9o17: “The Alsace potash beds are’ 
amongst the richest that have ever been found. 
If. these deposits passed into. the hands of; the 
enemy, it would be the end of the German mono-. 
poly. of potash. We need: not. point out 
what would follow for our own potash industry 
and of what a financial weapon the enemy would 
deprive us’’ (see Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind.,. 
November 15, 1918). In 1913 Germany was ag 
ducing about 11 million. tons.of potash. salts, con- 
taining about 1 million, tons of pure potash. — The 
Alsatian deposits are:much purer, needing in many 
cases no refining, and’ much richer, averag 1g 22 
per cent. of potash, and’ it is calculated that th 
entire deposit, as at. present, known, conti 
than 300 million. tons. of potash; or. enough by 
itself, to, supply. the requirements. of) the world for 
many years: So jealous were the older companies. 
that) composed! the Potash Syndicate of Central’ 
Germany of the greater potential’ value — the 
Alsace deposits‘ that they allowed. the latter only 
an output equal to-s per cent. of the total German 
output. Several companies are, however, operat- 
ing already in the Alsatian field, and it may be 
confidently expected that the next’ few aii 
see such vigorous developments that all” the ! 
of the Allies can be supplied therefrom. 
this can be done, presumably the Germans wil 
called upon to ‘supply such potash: minerals as 
we may need; it would! probably be better that 
they should be made to furnish the raw reyes 
than the purified product; the ‘refining — 


this country will keep. our chemical works ‘yu, 


and provide employment; exporting the | raw 
material will also employ. usefully. the tonnage : 
taking foodstuffs, etc.,. to. Germany, and 
prevent the Germans: from using» those ships for 
exporting to us competitive articles of” manufac- 
ture: 

This general. review of the Peace ‘Thedtyliag i 
as it bears upon.mineral production shows, ee. 
fore, that it has: been conceived, in no oppressive. 
or illiberal,spirit.. Restitution to France of the irom 
and potash deposits taken from her in 1871 is but 
bare justice; the reparation of the damage done’ 
to the French coalfields by the cession of the Saar 
coal. basin is a partial compensation for the in- 
juries. inflicted on French industry, and; the trans- 
fer, of the Silesian. coalfields. to Poland is: necessary, 
in order to: secure: to that nation: am independent: 
economic existence. It) may be suggested that 
Belgium is entitled to somewhat more in the way 
of minerals than it appears to be receiving, but 
apart from this it. is to. be- hoped that the: con-- 
ditions set out. in) the ‘Peace, Treaty. represent. the: 
irreducible-minimum to which the Allies will agree. 


B: ‘Lours." 


' 


May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


207 


THEORY OF BOWED INSTRUMENTS: 


eet as the violin may ‘be to play, there 
are many who play to one who experiments 
upon it scientifically ; and, scatce as the experi- 
mentalist may be, the successful theorist is yet 
scarcer. But we have now before us the first part 
of an elaborate investigation in which mathe- 
matical theory and confirmatory experiments hap- 
pily alternate. Important and interesting results 
have already been reached, and others equally so 
are likely’ to follow, thus clearing up a number 
of points which have hitherto been obscure. 
“Helmholtz was able to show; by his vibration 


G-String Bowed. D-String Bowed. 


* With Idad of 17 
‘grammes fixed on 
top of bridge. 


Ditto ; fixed on leit 
foot of bridge: 


Ditto; hxedonright 
; foat. of bridge. 


Fic, .x.—Simultaneous vibration-curves illustrating effect of loading, the 


violin bridge on its horizontal motion transverse to the strings (observed | 


at the G-string corner). 


microscope, that the bowed point of 'a violin string 
might’ execute a motion the graph of which is a 


(upon a film on.a revolving drum) various, poimts 
of bowed strings, and.so obtained much informa- 
tion. on. the. subject of the vibrations possible. to 
the strings, themselves. 

Prof. E. H. Barton and his students. took simul- 
taneous, photographs. of the behaviour. of, the 
strings and,of,. the bridge, belly, or air of a mono- 
chord and of a violin.. But in none of the. fore- 
going cases was.a direct. mechanical theory, of the 
string, bridge, etc., attempted. This. has now 
been accomplished by Prof. C. V.. Raman. 

The equations. of motion of. the string, are 
written and solved for. the case of a periodic trans- 
verse force applied by. the bow, at a given position. 
The: equations, of motion of the bridge are next 
written and dealt with. Then follow photographs 


of simultaneous. vibration-curves. of belly and. G- 
string of a violoncello at the “wolf-note ’’ pitch, 
showing, cyclical, changes, of amplitude. The 


modus operandi of the bow, is.next examined, and 
a. simplified kinematical: theory. of the bowed 
string. based, upon. it. This) leads. to a, number 
of types of vibration: two-step, three-step, etc., 
zig-zag motions, appearing in. the corresponding 
graphs. 

Another, very interesting, subject is that of the 
effect of the mute, which, by. loading the’ bridge, 
enfeebles and veils. the tone of the instrument. 
To. investigate. this: effect; loads. were placed in 
different positions on the bridge of a violin, and 
simultaneous, vibration-curves of string and 
bridge taken. The results for the G-string and 
D-string are here reproduced (Fig. 1),, the dark 
zig-zag line on, light ground giving the displace- 
ment-time graph of the string, the light wavy, line 
on black ground being the graph of the bridge’s 


horizontal motion. transverse to the string. 
Similar results. were obtained for the other two 
string’s. 


Other points dealt with in the present. instal- 
ment of! the investigation are the effects| of the 
variation. of pressure and, velocity of bowing, the 
relation between pressure, and speed, and, the 
vibrations. obtained from; a ‘cello when played 
pizzicato. 

The paper contains twenty-eight text figures 
and twenty-six, full-page photographic reproduc- 
tions, many of them of. distinet, beauty and. in- 
structiveness. All these should be consulted in 
the original by those interested. Indeed, the 
entire work well, deserves careful study, present- 
ing, as it does, a, valuable contribution on the 


_ subject of bowed instruments. 


two-step zig-zag. He also surmised that the for- | 


ward speed of the bowed. place of the string 


equalled that of the bow when a good tone was | 


obtained. From, this: experimental. two-step. zig- 
zag Helmholtz proceeded 'tovhis theory of the well- 
bowed ' string. 

F. Krigar-Menzel and’ A. Raps photographed 


1.“ On. the Mechanical Theoryrofithe Vibrations of Bowed Strings and of 
Musical Instruments of the Violin Family, with, Experimental Verification 
of the Results.” Part 7. By'C.. Vi Raman: (Bulletin No. 15.) Pp. iii+ 

1588. (Calcutta: The: Indian Association for the Cultivation-of Science, 
1918.) Price 35. 4d. 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103 | 


STATISTICS OF SYNTHETIC DYES. 


pt was pointed out, in an article in Nature for 
November 21, 1918, that. one of the first 
things which ought to be done in efforts to re- 
suscitate the dye industry. in Great Britain is to 
survey the whole field of dyes and intermediate 
compounds, s@ as to determine the source. of 
supply, to ascertain more precisely the needs of 
the community, both for home purposes and for 
export trade, to concentrate attention on the 


208 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919 


production of indispensable colours, and to pre- 
vent waste of energy and material on the ‘manu- 
facture of the less important of these products. 
-We now learn from a report issued by the 
Commissioner for Dyes (Sir Evan D. Jones) that 
an attempt in this direction was made so early 
as September, 1914, by a committee of the 
Society of Dyers and Colourists. This attempt, 
however, was not successful in securing the in- 
formation so desirable in the interests of both 
manufacturers and users. 

Nothing further was done until 1916,~ when 
an influential committee was formed, and, after 
a number of meetings at the Board of Trade, a 
list of the necessary dyestuffs was drawn up. The 
‘committee was at that time unable to make any 
progress in allocating the manufacture of these 
dyestuffs: among British manufacturers. | Many 
changes have, however, taken place since that 
time, and such movements as the amalgamation 
of Levinstein’s with “British Dyes’’ is a step 
-which must have facilitated progress towards this 
very desirable understanding among manufac- 
turers. On the appointment of the Commissioner 
_ in June, 1917, a renewed effort was made to com- 
pile.a.census, and, with the assistance of Mr. 
W. E. Kay, representing the Calico Printers’ 
Association, Ltd.; Mr. Christopher Rawson, of 
the British Cotton and Wool Dyers’ Association, 
Ltd.; Mr. Thorp Whitaker, of the Bradford 
Dyers’ Association, Ltd.; and Mr. Ernest Bentz, 
of the English Sewing Cotton Co., Ltd., this has 
now beén done. 

The report (dated Newember 1, 1918) shbwe: the 
quantities of synthetic dyestuffs imported into 
this country’ during the year 1913. These statistics 
_ have been. prepared from returns supplied by the 
representatives of the importing firms, and agree 
- substantially with the figures for the total im- 
ports into this country during’ that year. The 


census has been compiled from the dyer’s point | 
of view rather than from that of the dyé manu-’ 


facturer, and the dyes have been classified accord- 
ing to their dyeing qualities, and not according 
to their chemical constitution. The difficulties of 
classification have been considerable, owing to 
the variety of distinctive names and the fact that 
many of the colours are mixtures. 
of the amounts stated varies in certain cases, and 
as regards some colours the figures under- 
- state the actual colour consumption in the country. 
This necessarily arises from the fact that the list 
gives the importations for one year only, and 
more accurate figures could not be secured except 
by taking the average of a series of years. 

The summary shows that in 1913 the total 
weight of dyestuffs imported amounted to 
40,071,368 lb. The great majority came from 
Germany. Switzerland supplied important, 
though relatively small, amounts of dyes of 
all colours. These are, however, not shown 
in detail, as the facts were supplied in confidence 
_ by Swiss manufacturers, and the totals of each 
class can alone be given. 


NO. 2585, VOL. TOR}. 


. for at least a year. 


The accuracy © 


Section xii. contains an interesting list of inter- 
mediate. products, such as naphthols, naphthyl- 
amines, the nitranilines, phenylglycine, resorcine, 
etc., which are not dyes, but are necessary 
to the production of dyes, as well as other) pro-_ 
ducts. 

It is hoped that the census will serve among ~ 
other things as a useful guide in estimating the 
requirements of the colour-using industries, and 
form a basis for determining the capacity of 
plant which it may be necessary to erect. In the 
present census about 10,000 colours are enume- 
rated, but these do not represent nearly so large 
a number of individual colouring matters. 


NOTES. 


AN expedition left this country recently, ee 
auspices of the Royal Society, to make a scienti 
survey of the pastoral peoples in East Central Aft 
It is hoped that a more careful study of the — 
and economic conditions of these people will add con- 
siderably to science, while a more accurate knowledgs 
of their physical "conditions, mental abilities, — 
relationship to each other will enable those con 
to develop them so that they may become useful an 
profitable members of the Ea The tribes to peng 
visited are the Gallas near Mombasa, the Kikuyt 
Masai at Nairobi, the Ziba and Watuturu near 
on the west and south-west of Lake Victoria, the 
Bahima of Ankole, the Banyoro, the Bagesu on Mount 
Elgon, and the Gallas on the frontier of Abyssinia. 
Then, following the Nile to Khartoum, it is pro. 
posed to see as many Nilotic tribes as. , paying 
especial attention to the Banyuli and Badamu. at tS 
expedition is under the direction of the Rev. John 
Roscoe, rector of Ovington, formerly for many years 
C.M.S. missionary in Uganda. Mr. Roscoe sailed in 
the s.s. Clan Menzie on April 15, and will be awhy 

The funds for the Bg Rd have 
been provided by the generosity of Mr. P. 
of Glenreasdell, The Royal Society was pac to perved 
take the administration of Mr. Mackie’s ift, and 
appointed a committee to control the expe hay 
Prof. A. Keith as chairman. 


ener Oh 


e3 


THE retiring president of the Chemical Suid 
recently described to the members how Britis 
chemists had managed greatly to outstrip German 
chemists in the technical preparation of ‘mustard 
gas,” which is obtained by the interaction of ethylene 
and sulphur chloride. The method devised was com- 
municated to our Allies in France and in America. 
An article on the United States Chemical Warfare 
Service, appearing in the Scientific American for 
March 29, shows what was being done i in that country 
as regards this and other ‘‘ poison gases ’’ when active 
hostilities ceased last November. During the winter 
of 1917-18, as a result of the growing importance of 
gas warfare and of the representations made by British 
and French officials, the United States authorities 
decided to erect a very large chlorine plant. The site 
selected was largely farm land under cultivation, ‘so 
that housing accommodation had to be erected and 
transport facilities provided before a start could be 
made. By July the chlorine plant, designed to produce 
1oo tons per day, was ready to deliver chlorine, but 
the chemical installation for working the gas up was 
not so far advanced, and did not begin’ operations 
until September. Nevertheless, at the close of hostili- 
ties the: staff. had developed the. gas-making facilities 


)} May's, 1919] 


3 


NATURE 


209 


Bea 


‘too tons of **poison gas" daily, and, but for the armis- 
tice, that quantity would have been doubled: by the 
beginning of the present year. What this would have 

ant may be understood when it is stated that the 

Il Output of ‘‘poison gas”’ from the German fac- 

was only thirty tons per day. Indeed, as regards 
us ‘gas”’ itself, it has been learned since 
stice that the largest daily quantity the 
enemy could manufacture was from six to eight tons, 

- only about one-fourth of the amount which the 
rican chemists alone were producing in November. 


ie 


_ Tue Ricur Hon. Sir Joun H. A. Macponatp (Lord 
_ Kinsburgh), F.R.S., who died at Edinburgh on May 9 
in his « ty-third year,was keenly interested in science, 
and joi the Institution of Electrical Engineers 
ly after its foundation. He was educated at the 
sities of Edinburgh and Basle. Called to the 
Bar in 1859, Sir John Macdonald soon ob- 
considerable success in his profession, and 
long and distinguished public career filled 
nportant positions. He held the office of 
-General for Scotland during the years 
and four years later became Lord Advocate. 
- holding the latter office he sat in Parliament 
mber for Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Universi- 
(1885-88), and carried through the House of 
- an Act which introduced considerable 
Scottish criminal administration. In 1 
Macdonald was appointed Lord Justice-Clerk 
nd and Lord President of the Second Division 
ourt of Session, an office which he held until 
arly in his career he interested himself 
‘the Volunteer Force, and served in it for 
‘s, during which he continuously and per- 
strove to bring about reforms in drill and 
eventually the majority of his suggestions 
sted by the military authorities. Sir John 
numerous books and other works on matters 
to electricity, law, and tactics, and many 
and rae wee awarded to him in con- 
n with his life-saving and electrical inventions. 
_ A tarGe and distinguished gathering assembled at 
the Guildhall on the evening of May 8 at the jubilee 
_ banquet of the Iron and Steel Institute, founded in 
1869. M. Eugéne Schneider, the president, occupied 
the chair; and read messages from the King and the 
of .Wales wishing prosperity to the institute. 
josing the toast of ‘‘ Peace, Progress, and 
the president referred to.the moral situa- 
tion of the Allied: nations, especially the British and 
_ French, who were bearing on their shoulders the main 
“burden of peace. He said that the task of men of 
| will. made more difficult by short-sighted 
tho imagined that they possessed an infallible 
; : 


i “a 


special device which held in every case 
ry. circumstance. The mass of French and 
ing-men, however, instinctively distrusted 


as the task impossible? Some master- 

“would be able to rear a new edifice wherein 
ry tenant would find pleasure to live, provided 
‘social problems were dealt with by those who were 
‘wo of the title ‘leaders of men.’’ Discussing the 
future relations between employers and employed, the 
president emphasised that these can be satisfactorily 
“brought about only by educating both classes. Future 
captains of industry must learn to know their own 
men, and working-men must be able to judge their 
employers otherwise than by hearsay. Future en- 
‘gineers must include in their training a few months 
‘probation in the workshops as_ ordinary. 
men, and not lose the benefit of mingling with them. 


NO. 2585, VOL.. 103] 


‘such a fate that they could produce more than 


working- | 


‘Island. 


» Department. 


THe U.S. National Academy of Sciences held a 
very successful annual meeting at Washington on 
April 28-30. Many of the subjects discussed dealt 
with the war, while other papers presented recent 
developments in pure and applied science. The 
academy is the scientific adviser of the United States 
Government, co-operating with the different Depart- 
ments and Bureaux in the execution of the more prac- 
tical developments. Another function is the representa- 
tion of the United States by academy members in inter- 
national affairs, some of the members having served 
as foreign scientific attachés in Europe during the war. 
The most important of the allied branches of the 
academy is the National Research Council, which body 
has carried on some very valuable work for the War 
and Navy Departments, particularly relating to sub- 
marine defence, nitrate supply, radio communication, 
ordnance, wireless control, searchlights, etc., features 
of which were described during the recent meeting. 
At the annual dinner of the academy, held on April 29, 
gold medals were presented to Prince Albert of Monaco 
and Prof. Charles Fabry, of the University of Mar- 
seilles, for their contributions to the advance of science. 
Dr. Charles D. Walcott, president of the academy, 
made the prepeustons. The award of.the Henry 
Draper gold medal to Prof. Fabry was made for his 
notable investigations in the science of astronomical 
physics, particularly his researches in connection with 
the light of the sun and other astral bodies; while the 
original contributions of Prince Albert of Monaco on 
oceanography received the highest recognition of the 
academy in the form of the Alexander Agassiz gold 
medal, established through funds provided by Sir fohn 
Murray. This is the second award of the Agassiz 
medal, the first having been presented to Dr. aw 
Hjort, of Bergen. 

A new American Arctic expedition proposes~ to 
start in a few..weeks to explore the untraversed. part 
of the Arctic Ocean between Bering Strait and the 
North Pole. The expedition, which was postponed a 
few years ago, is to be under the leadership of Capt. 
R. A. Bartlett, and will be supported by the Aero Club 
of America. The Geographical Review.for March 
(vol. vii., No. 3) gives’ some details of*the plans. 
Flying bases are to be established at Cape Columbia 
on Grant Land, at Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia or on 
Nicholas Land to the north of it, and at Wrangel 
The expedition will have a large aeroplane 
capable of making the flight of more than 1100 miles 
from Cape Chelyuskin to the Pole, and several smaller 
aeroplanes for shorter flights. The main base of the 
expedition will be at Etah, in Greenland. In addition 
to the vessels required to establish the bases, it is 


: proposed to send a small vessel through: Bering Strait 


and force her into the pack in the hope that she will 
drift across to the European side of the Arctic Ocean, © 
thus emulating Capt. R. Amundsen in his expedition 
now in .progress. Capt. Bartlett’s expedition is 
planned to take three years. 


In spite of the chaotic conditions in Russia, a new 
hydrographical expedition to the seas north of Siberia 
is being planned by the Russian Hydrographical 
From La Géographie (vol. xxxii., No. 4) 
we learn that the expedition will be divided into two 


| parts: one under Comdr. Vilkitski will work between 


the White Sea and Cape Chelyuskin, the other under 
Comdr. Novopashenni between Cape Chelyuskin and 
Bering Strait. The coasts are to be surveyed, coastal 
waters sounded, and ice conditions studied throughout 


a whole year. It is also proposed to set up several 
meteorological stations fitted with wireless te egreeh : 
The sites suggested are at White Island (off Yamal), 


the north of Novaya Zemlva, Obdorsk, Cape Chelyu- 
skin, the mouths of the Lena and the Kolima, the 


210 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919 


New. Siberia: Islands, and: Koliuchin Island. These 


stations: will co-operate: with those already. existing at) 
r Strait, Cape Mare Sale (Yamal), and Dickson, 
Island (Yenisei).. Attention is to be paid to economic. 


Yugo 


conditions and the: possibilities of trade. 


SIR. EDWARD SHARPEY. SCHAFER. writes that. the- 
remarks made inja note in NaTuRE of May 1, p. 173». 
with. reference to: his. address on ‘‘ The Position of 


Physiology in:Medicine”’ is apt to give the impression 
that. he would. favour a.plan of. allowing. the. student 
to. see something of. hospital. work at the commence- 
ment of his course., We regret. the. possibility. of. this: 
misunderstanding, The suggestion was made as an 
attempt. to remedy, the admitted difficulty of .convincit 

the: student, of. the. value. of, physiology. 
Sharpey. Schafer, om, the contrary, contends.that. it is 
a positive disadvantage to give any premature attention 
to clinical, medicine. and surgery; and that it is not only, 
useless. for understanding these subjects, but also fatal 
to, the attainment of a proper grasp of physiology, 
which must, in the first:instanoe, be studied.as: a, pure 


science. We. are. glad to have. the opportunity. of. 


making; his position, clear. 


Pror. G. Eitiot Smit has: been. elected president 


of the Manchester Literary and' Philosophical Society. 


Tie ninth annual May lecture of! the Institute: of | 
Metals will be delivered by Prof. F. Soddy on:*‘ Radios. 


activity,” at Caxton: Hall, Caxton Street, Westminster; 
on: Monday, May 10, at'8 p.m. 


Sir Napier Saw, has. resumed, the administrative. 


duties:of the directorship of the Meteorological Office, , 


from: which he was. relieved. in. May. of last year. by. 
the appointment of Col. H. G. Lyons. to. be acting 
director for the period of the war. 


In connection with the fifty-sixth annual meeting 
of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, which. is 
to be held in London on, July 21-24 inclusive, there 
isto be a memorial lecture as a tribute to the memory 
of the late Lt.-Col. E. F. Harrison. 


We are asked. to state that, in compliance with, a 
suggestion by the Ministry of Labour, Appointments 
Department, the. library and reading-room of the 
Society,of Engineers (Incorporated), 17 Victoria Street, 
Westminster, S.W.1, have been placed at the disposal 
of officers at. present looking out for appointments in 
the engineering and. allied professions. All such 
officers are also cordially invited to attend the ordinary 
meetings of the. society, particulars of which may be 
obtained. on application to the secretary. 


Dr. FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN died recently in New 


York at the age of sixty. He was an instructor in: 
chemistry at Columbia University from) 1883 to 1897, 


since which time he had been mainly occupied: as a 
consulting research chemist. He was a specialist in 
the chemistry of sugar, and had written largely om that 
subject. 


Tue Smithsonian Institution at Washington has: 


announced that the studies carried on at Calama, in 


Chile, and Mount Wilson, in California, with regard . 


to solar radiation.and ‘its effect on weather: conditions 
have proved so satisfactory that it contemplates estab- 
lishing three or four additional observing: stations in 
widely separated and almost ‘cloudless regions, suchas 
Egypt, India, South Africa, and Australia: 


made at the Calama station: 


Tue death is announced, in his eighty-sixth year, 


of Prof! Charles Brinckerhoff Richards; who was pro- 
NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


Sir Edward. 


It) is: 
reported that the weather forecasts of’ the Govern~. 
ment of Argentina are mow based on observations: 


fessor; of mechanical engineering at Yale from 1884.to 
1909. Prof. Richards, was: frequently. called’ spon 
Tou, a 


the American Government, as; an expert adviser, , 
in 1889, was, U.S. Commissioner, to. the Paris» 

tion to. report.on all mechanical exhibits; He - 7 
made a Chevalier) of the Legion, of. Honour for his. 
invention of the. Richards. steam-engine- indicator. — 
Prof; Richards; edited. the engineering: and; other 
technical words in. Webster’s: International Dictionary. 


By the death of. Mr..G. M. Apsey on May 3 the — 
Admiralty. loses one of ifs most faithful servants, and l 
the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors one of its best- 
known and valued officers: A’ summary of Mr. — 
Apsey’s career: is given in Engineering for May 9. He 
entered Sheerness Dockyard in 1877, and became: a © 
student at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in 7 
1882. He was inspecting: officer for torpedo-boat — 
destroyers from 1895 to 1902, and became chief con-~ 
structor at Gibraltar in 1913. He also served’ at” 
Rosyth and Portsmouth, and joined the Department ~ 
of the Director of’ Dockyards in July, 1916. He was” 

in his fifty-sixth year at the time of his death, = 


Tue North-East Coast’ Institution of Engineers and 
Shipbuilders is to hold a summer meeting at New- 
castle-on-Tyne on: July 9-11. Tike Sala 
have been arranged: for :—‘‘ Women’s: Work in En-. 
gineering-and Shipbuilding during the War,” the Hon. 
Lady: Parsons;: “Shipbuilding and Marine Engineer-. — 
ing done? on the: North-East) Coast during the War,” — 
E. L. Orde; ‘Aviation during the: War; and. its. — 
Possiblé Future,” Lord Weir; ‘Dazzling of Ships,” — 
Lti-Comdr. Wilkinson; ‘‘ Limits of Thermal Efficiency, — 
in Diesel and other Internal-combustion Engines,’ Sir — 
Dugald) Clerk; ‘‘ Ship-repairing, during. the War,” — 
M: C. James and L. E. Smith; ‘Transmission of — 
Power,’ G; Constantinesco; and a lecture by Prof... 
J. C. McLennan. at Belaghe ai al 


Tue Home Secretary has appointed a Committee — 
to inquire and: report on possible improvements in — 
miners’ lamps. as regards safety and illumination and 
alterations which may be desirable in the present — 
methods of testing and approving such lamps for the — 
purposes of Section 33 of the Coal Mines Act, 1917. _ 
The Committee consists of Mt. W. Walker (chair-.— 
man), Prof, F. Edwin Armstrong, Mr. T. G. Davies, — 
Mr. V. Hartshorn, M.P., Mr. G. A. Mitcheson, Mr. 
S, Roebuck, Mr. J. Wallwork, and Dr. R: V. — 
Wheeler, Director of the Home Office: erimental — 
Station at Eskmeals. Mr. E. G. Fudge is the secre- 
tary, and communications on the subject should be — 
addressed to him at the Home Office; Whitehall, — 
S.W.1. Ste grab as 

Arcuotocists. will. welcome, the appearance in- 
L’Anthropologie (vol. xxix., Nos. 1-2) of another 
instalment-of L’Abbé H. Breuil’s valuable accounts of - 
paintings. in, Spanish. caves. He now deals with cis-— 
coveries made in. 1909 in the valley of Bateucas, Sala- 
manca. If these drawings in artistic skill fall short of 
those already discovered at. Altamira, Marsoulas, or 
La Mourthe, they still possess much interest, including | 
rude figures of ‘human beings, animals, and fish. Ther, 
question of the. age of these paintings is still under — 
discussion, but*M: Breuil remarks .that, it seems diffi- 
cult to assign. the Bateucas. frescoes to the Neolithic 
age in the apparent absence of any monument. or 
object in the: vicinity characteristic of that period. 


In the. Quarterly Review for April Dr. R. R: Marett; — 
taking as his text Sir James Frazer’s “ Folk-lore: in 
the Old Testament,” discusses the current modes of — 
interpreting  folk-beliefs, and suggests a method! more: 
in accordance with the psychology of the _s 


_ May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


2415 


Hither oon has been defined) as ‘ the» study of 
: leontology of human culture,” whereas 
sophy, treats it, ‘‘not’ as so much dead 
, but as the outcome of an organic process, 
atthe of an existing or recently existing folk-life;’’ 
espite the vast mass of detailed evidence that lies 
dy to hand, there has never been attempted a com- 
pre ; ive description of the mental life of the folk 
. “our, doors, much less a general analysis. that makes 
out -how and why it.is so markedly, gregarious in its 
distinctive manifestations. In other words, tradition 
wist be treated’ as the live expression of the. collective 
onsciousness. And in considering the material. we 
bm due allowance for the fact. that: lack: of 
vw) ng May or may not imply loss of meaning. This 
importan “paper deserves the attention of all students 
c “popular beliefs. 
Brateitterge! we 
Mr: pe -GurNEY’s sy Ornithological Notes. from 
‘orfollc, ,»? in British Birds; for April, make 
cor adin i or, among other things, he tells us 
-reason to» believe that as many. as 
bitterns bred in Norfolk during the spring 


mmer of 1918. At least five out. of these six. 


uccessfully. The great crested grebe, the 


merease as the result of the jealous protection 
d Bower ithe. area of the Broads. district. 


eived ‘the report of the Director-General 
calthy New South Wales, for the year 
ee 1916. It contains, a, mass of 


‘matter concerning the health. of 
interest that the minimal legal 
bir the Hat in milk is.3-2 per cent., 


Oh art dh ed 


reve SMC, of fe fl 
on. has been. carried out on dengue fever in 
s transmission by certain mosquitoes, the 
; a filterable virus in the disease, and 
vations on. immunity, length of the incubation 


wa ad spther, clinical features. 


he’ae and. p anarians of Ceylon have been the sub- 

ie ct of co nsic id able attention, but those of India have 
ne rto t een. almost entirely neglected, so that records 
of the. atter are rare; incomplete, and uncertain. 
ie. aes, . Whitehouse thas’ published (Records 
um, vol. xvi., part 1, January, 1919) a 

tic account of Indian land planarians based 
cimens. in the Indian Museum. the 
scies recorded in this paper, ten (five 
described as_ new) belong to the well-known genus 
Bipa ium, e (four new) to Pelmatoplana, and one 
nel oft ie genera Dolichoplana. and Cotyloplana. 


Dr. pie wie 
arin of the Carnegie Institution of 
ash ing the year 1916, which has only 
ee . ‘be us, contains a record of much work 
‘ite Talend of biologists. During a month’s 
ed of Tohago Dr. Th. Mortensen was 
the larval development of ten West 
dian re inoderms, the larvae in several cases being 
|. through . the metamorphosis. The physical 
: ns at Tobago are described as being unusually 
good fo - work, of. this character. Dr. H. Lyman 
“lari als o describes the location of the T obago labora- 
te ae an ideal one for Echinoderm studies, 
; rE rae gives an account of his studies on 
of the nervous system of Cassiopea, 
‘Shee. A . Goldfarb déscribes experiments on the 
and deat of germ-cells, the eggs and’ sperm | 


NO. 2585, 1 VOL. 103] 


=e 
oe 
3 


gee report on the Department of 


hea 
Heat 


I. an say aa and. the bearded tit are also: 


of the sea-urchin, Toxopneustes variegatus, having. 
been used for the experiments. 


Two translations lately received from Sir Robert 
Hadfield refer to recent: developments in Germany. 
One of these is entitled’ ‘The Union of’ Technical 
Men,” the inaugural meeting of which was- held in 
Berlin fourteen ays after the signing of ‘the armistice. 
Its chief object is to ensure that technologists may 
bring their influence to bear on the Government, Par- 
liament, and the economic life of the country. To 
attain: this object an endeavour will be made to bring 
representatives of all’ branches of technical practice, 
from the foreman to the technical chief, into one com- 
prehensive organisation. More than two thousand: 
technical men attended the inaugural meeting, and 
papers were read by Siegfried Hartmann and Engineer 
Genest. The other document is a translation of an 
address by Herr Krupp von Bohlen on ‘Co-operation 
and Profit-sharing, In this address the lecturer 
dealt with a number of problems relating to the co- 
operation of workers in the undertakifig and _profit- 
sharing, and intimated,that many changes would have 
to be made in the firm to keep pace with, the present 
trend of the times with a view to, continued develop-- 
ment on sound;lines, 


In a paper read before the Washington: Academy 
of Sciences in June, which. is reproduced in the: 
Monthly Weather Review of the United States’ 
Weather Bureau for October, Prof. W. S. Franklin; 
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, directs. 
attention to a much-needed’ change of’ emphasis in 
meteorological research. Hitherto it' has mostly been: 
occupied too exclusively in averaging large’ col- 
lections of observations, when a more detailed study . 
of the movements of individual storms, andthe. deter- 
mination of) the correlation between storms of the 
same type on successive days, would be of much 
greater service in. weather prediction. Prof; Franklin 
believes that such an intensive study of, weather condi- 
tions: would! establish the conclusion that at certain 
critical times in the life-history of a. storm the ex- 
penditure of a very moderate amount of energy mould 
enable the subsequent movement of the storm to be 
controlled. > 


Tue, following. books. of: scientific interest: are an- 
nounced. for publication in. the, near. future :—‘‘ The 
School Gardener,” J. Norris (Cassell and Co., Lid.); 
‘‘ Psycho-Analysis and; its Place in Life,’’ "Mi, K. 
Bradby (Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton) ; 
‘Universitatum et Eminentium Scholarum Index 
Generalis.: Annuaire Général. des Universités. (The 
Year-book of the Pane SHS) Prof. R. de Montessus: 
de Ballore (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et.Cie); a transla- 
tion, by Teixeira de Mattos, of, another volume by 
Fabre. to be called “The Sacred: Beetle” (Hodder 
and Stoughton); “Bird Behaviour,” F. Finn, and. 
“Insect Artisans and their Work,” E. Ste both in 
the Nature Library (Hutchinson’ and Co):  Tele- 
phonic Transmission, Theoretical and Applied,” J. G. 
Hill; “Currency and Credit,” R. G. Hawtrey; and a 
new. edition—the fourth—of “ The Principles of a 
tric-wave Telegraphy and Telephony,” Prof. J. 
Fleming (Longmans and Co.). 


Tue latest ge hes (No. 178) of Messrs. W. Heffer 
and Sons, Ltd., Cambridge, possesses a sentimental’ 
as well’ as a scientific value, seeing that it contains 
selections from the libraries of the late Canon Merle 
Norman and’ the late Sit William H. Preece. It 
should’ be of’ especial’ interest and use to readers: of 
NATURE, pei th coi entirely to books relating’ to 
science. 1300 works are listed’ under ‘the 


a 


212 


NATURE 


| May 15, 1919 


following . headings :—Agriculture and Husbandry, 
Anthropology and Ethnology, Botany, Chemistry, 
Geology, Mineralogy, and Palzontology, Zoology and 
Biology, Physiology, Anatomy, and Medicine, with the 
subsection of Dentistry, Mathematics and Physics, 
Astronomy, and Engineering. The catalogue is strong 
in books published in Germany, and therefore not 
easily procurable at the present time. An interesting 
item offered for sale is a collection of about eight 
hundred pamphlets dealing mainly with genetics and 
variation, formed by the late J. R. Gregory, of the 
University of Cambridge. Messrs. Heffer have also 
for disposal a complete set of the Reports of the 
Scientific Results of the Challenger Expedition, with 
letters by Sir C. Wyville Thomson, Sir John Murray, 
and Sir George S. Nares inserted. or 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

‘CoMING CownyuNcTions.—The planets Venus and 
Jupiter, which are now conspicuous objects in the 
evening sky, will be in conjunction in right ascension 
on May 25, Venus being 2° 7’ N. in declination. The 
moon, which will be new an hour after noon on 
May 29, will be in conjunction with Jupiter in the 
early morning of June 1, and with Venus in the 
evening of the same day, and the picture presented 
by the young moon and the two planets in the even- 
ings of May 31 and June 1 may be of interest, though 
the conjunctions are not close. Venus will make close 
sonjunction with Saturn on July 2, when the distance 
between the two objects will be only 10’. The appear- 
ance of these three planets so near together in the 
evening sky is noteworthy. 


-Mars.—A memoir on Mars from the pen of Mr. 
Harold Thomson, president of the British Astro- 
nomical Association, appears in Scientia for May. 
Mr. Thomson narrates concisely the facts known about 
the planet from observation, and takes the very proper 
view-that it is not specially the function of the astro- 
nomer to indulge in speculations as to the possibility 
of inhabitants of other worlds based on such facts, but 
only to collect them. Nevertheless, he makes the point 
that the changes in the form of the dark markings 
.and in their positions may represent changes on the 
.surface of the planet which have analogies on our 
earth. in the destruction of large forest areas, the 
ploughing up of vast tracts of land, or the changes 
caused by the operations of husbandry, and this may 
‘supply. arguments to those who assert the existence 
of. intelligent beings on Mars of as ‘great weight as 
- those furnished by the canals. The author gives no 
definitive opinion of his own on the’ question, but 
‘suggests that further observation may lead to sub- 
stantial increase in our knowledge of the physical 
conditions of the planet. 


“AVIATION: AND WEATHER. 
A EEA flying is steadily increasing in interest 
with the delay occasioned by the weather and by 
the increase in the number .of competitors with the 
lapse of time. If any season of the year is favourable 
to a westerly flight it is the spring, and certainly just 
at present the prevailing east winds over the Atlantic 
near the surface of the sea would, in a measure, en- 
courage the aspirants for a flight from the British 
Isles westwards. . St. John’s, Newfoundland, is evi- 
dently a badly chosen spot for a start on an easterly 
- flight, if only for the reason that should a start be 
made the prevailing fogs would not allow of a safe return 
if for any reason a return is necessary. In a westerly 
flight from the European side certain localities must 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


a 


be avoided for landing, due to the well-known pre. — 


valence of fog. The shoal-water in the neighbourhood 


of St. John’s is evidently an important factor in the — 


formation of fog, and with easterly winds fogs 


to be much intensified. The United States naval sea- ~ 
planes have accomplished their first stages as far as — 
Newfoundland satisfactorily, but the next stage to the — 
Adverse winds would — 
materially hamper their flight, and at present it — 
scarcely seems that contrary winds can be avoided on — 
a part at least of the route to be chosen. American — 
warships are stationed between Newfoundland and — 


Azores is a more severe test. 


the Azores at such distances apart as must afford 
considerable confidence to those engaged in the flight. 
The brightness of the moon just now will be 
additional advantage if winds and weather promise to 
be favourable. 

Flight from England to Australia 
as enticing to pilots of aircraft as the Atlantic flight. 
The Times of May 12 announces that “the pre- 
liminary conditions of the Australian Government's 
offer of a 10,000l. prize for the first Australian air- 
man to fly from Great Britain to the Commonwealth 
have been arranged at a conference attended by repre- 
sentatives of Mr. Andrew Fisher, High Commissioner 
for Australia in London, the Royal Aero Club, and 
the Air Miriistry.”’. It is stipulated that the prize must 
be won before the close of 1920. 
be completed in 720 hours, and a. disabled machine 
must not be towed more than 100 miles, and not 
more than twenty miles at one time. The probable 
route will include, amongst other places, Paris, Rome, 
Bagdad, Calcutta, Singapore, Batavia, and Port 
Darwin. There is plenty of work’ for meteorologists 
at present to decide the most favourable passage for 
aeronauts engaged in commercial aircraft traffic, and 


this second prize for a long route will require much | 


thought and calculation. A good deal is known with 


regard to the winds near the earth’s surface, but for 


a.large portion of the route little has been ascer- 


air: 


Flying and the weather at sea by wireless reports 


from ships is dealt with by the Admiralty in a “ Notice 
to Mariners” (No. 880, 1919). Arrangements are 
being made for the regular supply of information 
three times a day, at 1 a.m., 7 a.m., and I p.m., 
Greenwich mean time, when vessels are within a cer- 
tain distance of stations being established in the north- 
eastern Atlantic. 
information by wireless from ships at sea all over 
the world, and it is hoped.that the information re- 
ceived will be of use for the requirements of aircraft 
and admit of ships being supplied with trust- 
worthy weather reports and. forecasts wherever they 
may be. Much of the success of the undertaking 
depends on the rapidity of passing such data by wire- 
less from the ship to the coast station and on to the 
Weather Office. 
to exercise care not to interfere with the transmission 
of the wireless messages to the shore. 
the scheme is undertaken by the British Meteorological 


Office, and revision of the scheme will necessarily be | 


made from time to time. It is. proposed that ships 
communicating the weather information should send 
out a warning which is designed to notify ships within 
range that a report is about to be made. and that they 
should therefore avoid interfering. A wireless weather 


bulletin issued to ships may take the form Of. ania 
official weather report giving the existing weather. 


conditions, or an official weather forecast giving the 
probable future weather conditions. The ‘Notice to 
Mariners’? will necessarily be studied by all vessels 
interested in the weather advance proposed. 


an — 


is now becoming — 


The distance must 


tained as to the direction and velocity of the upper 


It is proposed to collect weather 


ad 


oclpetedae 


Ships not supplving data are asked — 


At present — 


ay 
ee 


a 
4 


_ May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


a 


213 


"FUEL ECONOMY. 


ERY nation which. joined in the war suddenly 


CV 
4 fe found its productive man-power reduced. while 
_ the productive capacity of the country had to be 


_ considered from a money point of view, 
_ in their true aspect as being quantity problems. 


ate 


a ase as, 


$3" 
; | 0. 
. ** 


_ view, can be effected without even mentioning the 


increased. Questions of economy, which used to be 
now appeared 
It 
_ Was not easy to discard the old methods, 
at a time when attention had to be riveted on the 

sien, Becgit subjects which arose out of the war, and 
the University of Illinois is to be congratulated on 
having drawn up a set of most useful instructions as 
how fuel economy, from the quantitative point of 


a 


are 


| 


sa i EE al 


_ sentatives of locomotive en 
would almost seem as if their influence had had the | 
‘Salutary effect of toning down scientific truths to a 


2 is a set of diagrams illustrative of heat or energy 


_ saving in costs. The committee which drew up the 
instructions had the assistance of an advisory com- 
mittee, which included railway 


‘evel where they could be understood by firemen. 
_ the nearest approach to what might be called science 


S Pete Mis 


especially 


cause a lot of waste, for it is estimated that 20 per 
cent. of fuel is burnt by a locomotive while raising 
steam and while waiting for a job, or on the road 


| when the signals are against it. 


bry i 70% 
“Meat which is usefully 
_ employed oc aad 


LEAN. 


Fic. 1. 


first, which, slightly modified, is shown 
I, deals only with the steam-raising losses in 
worked locomotives burning good American 


losses. 
in Fig. 


coal. The second diagram is a coloured locomotive 
overlaid with energy streams, which, in addition to 
the information contained in the first diagram, shows 
what becomes of the energy contained in the steam. 
_ Five per cent. is lost by radiation, 6 per cent. is used 
for auxiliary purposes, 52 per cent. escapes with the 
exhaust steam, and only 6 per cent. of energy is con- 
verted into useful work at the drawbar. 
The Bulletin then proceeds to deal with these | 
various losses and to explain how engineers and fire- 
men can reduce them, the firing instructions being 
beautifully illustrated, but the committee does not stop | 
there; it shows how coal is wasted before it reaches 
the locomotive both during transport and when stored, 
for, so it a pears, American coal-dumps seem to take 
fire fairly frequently. Railway officials, from signal- 
men to repair works managers, are also told that they 


is The Economic Use of Coal in Railway Lo:omotives.” University of 
Hlinois Bulletin, vo'. xvi., No. 2, 1913. 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


: | per head of population. 
en ae : 
sh pe glia rs | of these 150,000,000 tons are doing useful work. 
: 


In view of our present shortage of coal, it would 
be very desirable that this Bulletin should be widely 
circulated in this country, not only amongst railway- 
men, who are, of course, chiefly interested, but also 
amongst the general public, who with its help would 
gain some insight into the complexity of’ railway 
management. is will be all the more desirable if 
the State purchase of railways is to be carried ‘out. 

The paper contains some interesting statistics about 
American coal, from which we learn that 22 per cent. 
(150,000,000 tons) is consumed in locomotives for haul- 
ing purposes alone, which is a little more than one ton 
Unfortunately, only 6 per cent. 


Doubtless, from a money-making point of view, this 
enormous loss of 94 per cent. cannot be materially 
reduced, but from a national point of view encourage- 
ment should be given to quantitative saving in order 
to prolong the time during which our coal resources 
may remain at our disposal. 


THE EFFICIENCY OF INVENTIONS. 


A PAPER entitled “ Efficient Invention,” with special 

reference to patents affected by the war, was 
read before the Institution of Automobile Engineers by 
Mr. Douglas Leechman on February 5. The author 
recommends the Government to secure the con- 
fidence of the inventor by understanding, appreciating, 
and encouraging him. It is further suggested that 
(1) the present surplus of 100,000l. a year between 
the receipts and expenditure of the Patent Office 
should be surrendered to the inventor by way of reduc- 
tions in the renewal fees payable on patents, and 
(2) the period of protection lost owing to the war 
should be added to the term of the patents affected. 
A proposal is also made that all patents which have 
expired since August 4, 1914, should be restored for @ 
period equal to the duration of the war. Mr. Leech- 
man states that the efficiency of inventions from the 
point of view of the patentee depends upon (1) the 
nature of the invention, (2) the capabilities of the 
inventor and his opportunities for working or placing 
the invention, (3) the way in which the invention is 
received, and (4) the law relating to inventions. He 
comments upon each of these matters, and expresses 
the opinion that the average inventor is lacking im 
the commercial instinct. A recommendation is made 
that some business experience should be included in 
the instruction given to inventors. Sound advice is 
also offered with regard to the steps which should be 
taken when inventions are being placed on the market 
and in connection with dealings with licensees. It 
may be doubted whether Mr. Leechman’s proposal to 
restore indiscriminately all patents which expired 
during the war would either achieve the end desired 


| or even prove tolerably satisfactory; its adoption 


would certainly prejudicially affect many persons who 
have legitimately embarked upon the manufacture of 


| the articles the expired patents of which it is pro- 


posed to revive. A more equitable method of dealing 
with the patentees who have suffered exceptional hard- 
ship owing to the decision of the Government to con- 
centrate the energies of the country on the production 
of munitions would be to ascertain the probable extent 
of the loss in each particular case, and to provide 
compensation accordingly out of a fund voted by. Par- 
liament for this purpose. 


214 


NATURE 


‘CHEMISTRY *IN ‘THE NATIONAL 
SERVICE. * 

Leese the autumn of 1914 a great change has 

taken place in .the public.attitude towards the 
natural sciences, and towards chemistry in ;particular. 
One of .the .recognised duties of the spokesmen of 
seience during the past sixty years or more has been 
that. of endeavouring to bring home to the .general 
public. and to its: administrators the danger of. neglect- 
ing the cultivation of pure and applied science. “The 
eloquent .discourses of our predecessors, Lyon Play- 


fair, Roscoe, Meldola, and the veterans. happily still. 
with us, Tilden and.Armstrong, all past-presidents of 
our society, on the national importance of chemistry 


are well known to all-of us, but we cannot claim that 


these utterances produced an effect compatible with 


their gravity. 

‘Recent events have, however, .given a stimulus to 
the popular appreciation. of the need for wider applica- 
tion .to scientific investigation of all kinds which is 
incomparably .greater than had been excited by the 
-previous half-century of the spoken and written word. 
‘It may be useful at the ;present time to ‘consider a 
few of the causes for this change in public opinion, 
partly because of the clarification of ideas which 
emerges from free discussion, partly because of the 
desirability of recording certain facts and particulars 
which may be .of value to future historians of the 
strenuous period now ending and giving place. to 
another still more strenuous. 

At this time four years ago an urgent call was 
made for the services in a military capacity of all 
the chemists who could be spared from civil life. 
Large numbers were taken into the Army, and formed 
the nucleus of the magnificent Gas Warfare Service 
which has been slowly but efficiently developed. 
Many of these colleagues of ours are now returning 
to. their legitimate ‘spheres in the industrial and 
scientific life of the Empire, but many will not 
return; among those who have fallen I would refer 
more particularly to one who was well known to most 
present for the invaluable services which he rendered 
on the defensive side of chemical warfare. Lt.-Col. 
Harrison was one of the great. discoveries of the war, 
and his death on the eve of the armistice was one 
of, its many great tragedies; the protection against 
gas-poisoning which has been employed by our own 
and Allied troops, a protection far more efficient than 
that ensured by the devices elaborated at leisure by 
the Central Powers, was due mainly to his wide 
knowledge, great organising ability, and unfailing 
resourcefulness in emergency. A movement for the 
establishment. of a memorial to Col. Harrison was 
set on foot by the Chemical Warfare Committee, of 
' which he was the Controller at the time of his death, 
and a considerable sum has been collected from those 
who had been associated with him in his work for 
the Services. The Chemical Warfare Committee has 
approached the council of the Chemical Society, and 
has offered, under certain. conditions, to place a 
memorial tablet or other suitable permanent memorial 
in these rooms, and also, under ‘certain further condi- 
tions, to establish a trust fund to be ‘held by the 
society. The council has with sreat pleasure inti- 
mated its willingness to accept these sifts, and one 
of the first duties of your new council will be to decide 
how best to carry out the provisions of the trust deed. 

The efficiency of the British gas protection, ‘which 
called for the exhibition of so much scientific skill 
both in ‘research and in manufacture, and led ‘to its 
adoption by our Allies, is one striking illustration of 
the paramount importance of ‘science which has ap- 

1 Presidential address delivered to the Chemical Society on Murch 27 by 
Sir William J. Pope. K.B.E., F.R.S. 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


-out unduly disturbing ‘other interests, 


pealed to the :general public. This: subject is, how- — 
ever, but a small branch of the enormous chemical — 
problem which presented itself to ‘the ‘nation nearly — 
‘five years ago, and ‘led to ‘the organisation unde 


Lord Moulton of the Department of Explosives Su 
plies. ‘During the working out of this' problem issue 


os 


presented ‘themselves ‘which are | probably “dhesteniiee q 


aes 


from any ;which have ever arisen ’béfore. 


Thus, as ‘the magnitude of ‘the ‘struggle became — 


gradually obvious, it was realised that ‘the whole of 


the resources of the Empire would’ have ‘to be utilised 
‘fully if ‘swecess was ‘to be attained. 
all available chemical products ‘had ‘to be‘ taken ‘and 
‘schemes ‘for ‘their exploitation laid -down; all — 
materials ‘had to be apportioned out ‘in ‘accordance ~ 


‘A census of 


with ‘the ‘principle that ‘whatever was “used for the 
manufacture of ome ‘particular war material left 


a ‘corresponding shortage of »raw material in con- ~ 
‘nection with the manufacture of ‘some other, and — 
perhaps equally ‘essential, ‘product. The intricacy of 


gauging the chlorine output of “the ‘country, of deter- 
mining how to increase'it at the maximum rate with- 
of nin 
it most advantageously for use as liquid chlorine an 
for the manufacture of phosgene, sulphur chloride, 
carbon tetrachloride, bleaching powder, and many 
other war materials, is such as would disarm criticism 
even if the result’ had been failure instead 
success. This novel mode of presentment, involvin 
recognition of the principle that the Em toad 
only dispose of certain limited and measurable quanti- 
ties of raw materials, was but one of the many fresh 
views which forced themselves upon a newly created 
Ministerial-Department. Labour, fuel, and transport 
had to be discussed in an analogous manner. 2 
The cessation of hostilities found this country manu- 


facturing, roughly, 100,000 tons per annum each of | 


nitric acid and sulphur trioxide with an efficiency of 
about and gi per cent. respectively of that 
theoretically obtainable; we were also making 
60,000 tons of T.N.T. and 35,000 tons of cordite per 
annum. ‘These productions were for all practical pur- 
poses upon a permanent basis, and ‘could have been 
continued indefinitely. The factories necessary for 
securing this huge production were erected by the 
Government, and for several reasons. | First, for 
economy in production. In spite of the large initial 
cost of installation, and including rapid amortisation, 
the national production of*cordite was better in quality 
than, and of approximately one-half the cost of, that 
imported from America. Secondly, for certainty of 
supply. which could »be:ensured ‘only ‘by a home «pro- 
duction not subject to the:risks:of oversea: transport. 


With this necessity for gigantic -production the’ — 


urgency for economy in manufacture netessarily went 
hand in ‘hand. One of ‘the most ;interesting docu- 
ments of the war is the second report on costs and 
efficiencies for H:M. factories controlled by the 
Department of Explosives Supplies, «which has | been 
recently issued. This report contains a minute 
analysis of the working costs for each period of each 


factory engaged upon «individual items of .manufac- 
ture; it states what proportion.of the cost per ton of | 


product is borne by labour, raw materials, fuel, 
maintenance, etc., and iprovides ‘an incitement to 
further effort towards economy, of »woerking by giving 
a ‘‘ bogey’ cost+sheet made up of the most. efficien 
details of ,cost ‘selected from . the ,complete : analysis 
of.expenses. :It.will be clear that an immense amount 
of organising .power..was required to achieve this 
stupendous | result; it was due largely to the; genius 
and energy.of Mr. K. B. Quinan. i cued as & 

It must be remembered, however, that this per- 
manent memorial to British chemical activity in pro- 
duction was rendered possible only by the intense 


[May 15, ‘1919 _ | 


brilliant s 


os 


P Maw: 1g:1919] 


NATURE) 


215 


effort of thes army: of chemists: and engineers enlisted 
under the command of: Lord Moulton. The necessity 
_ for-utilising all\the chemical resources of the country 
to the utmost: led, im direct relationship with the 
census of raw materials previously mentioned, to the 
attempt to extract the last possible fraction | of 
_ efficiency in each component process, The huge: pro- 
duction just! indicated made it very profitable to carry 
out a vast amount of careful scientific investigation 
_ of. details of manufacture; so many fellows of this 
society: devoted their best efforts to this work that 
it would be invidious to mention names. Our col- 
_ leagues have had ample opportunity. to realise that 
Ga eke eibiacnee, is ees - ‘be found: in: the labora- 
tory, the workshop, and the factory quite as much as 
m the battleficld. 
An instructive example of the operations of the 
gle for economy in the production of a given 
efiect: is found: in: the’ rivalry which: arose between 
rie acid’ and ammonium: nitrate for use as high 
papasots » Pieric acid’ costs. about 185]. per ton to 
make, — 


ammonium nitrate about 5ol., and T.N.T. 
900; per ton; the high cost: of picric acid 
of course, limited production. A: mixture of 
arts: of ammonium) nitrate with twenty parts 

“T.N.T., known as: amatol, was introduced early 
by the Research Department. at. Woolwich as_ being 
a bow! » 5 per cent. more powerful as’a high explosive, 
ess_b S ‘and more difficult to detonate, and, of 


c urs: less costly to manufacture. The course 
of Atak has' been marked by continued progress 
at the hands of‘our research chemists in the prepara- 


= 


> 


» picrie acid as the American standard high 
ve, to the approaching elimination of picric 
m the Italian) military programme, and to the 
nt, in the main, of picric acid by amatol in 
service. 


artiment question arises in connection with 
jat our, production of: the chemical materials 
for a great European war was negligibly 
1 1914 and has gradually attained satisfactory 

;; We know that the great chemical fac- 
| ae Europe could divert their peace pro- 
action of chemical ‘products to a war output at very 

t notice. None of these huge installations requires 
‘time for the design and construction of chemical 
» for new purposes; all possess’ a series of 


ee ee eee ” i “oe sien i'n 
DINE aan Atty gl ae kite hy ari eS 


ygether rapidly to form a piece of plant capable of 
» for throwing anv ordinary laboratory operation 
into la le practice. Stills. condensers, pressure 
vessels, filter presses. cooling arrangements of coils, 
and the like. are available in standard sizes and with 
; gs. in such a manner that the installa- 
on a works scale of a laboratorv operation is 
of its: most formidable difficulties. The 
® demands an answer is whv. when 


time: gradually to develov their war production 


The question is best answered’ by an example. 

Tn July, 1917. the Germans first used against the 
lies: a new offensive material. 88-dichloroethyl’ sul- 
hide, (CH,CL:CH:):S, and with very great success. 
This substance, the so-called “‘mustard gas,”” has but’ 
little odour. and exposure to it causes comparatively 

few fatalities; inhalation of, or contact with, its 
vapour gives rise to acute pneumonia when inhaled, 
tor the’ production’ of: painful sores. and to temporary, 
or’ even permanent, blindness: Whilst, as has been 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


standard’ items of equipment which can be fitted: 


sives, noxious materials. etc., from nothing?’ 


stated, the actual mortality, is low, and the use of the 
substance may to this extent be described, as; humane, 
the casualties produced: are very numerous; slight 
exposure to a material so toxic and so. difficult to 
detectileads, ini general, to six. weeks in hospital. The. 
preparation of BBdichloroethyl sulphide was described 
by Vietor Meyer in, 1886, and involved. the several 
operations: indicated: by the following set of. 
equations :—_ 

(1) CH) : CHy+HCIO=CH,Cl.CH,OH: 

(2) 2CH,Cl.CH).OH +NayS=(HO.CH, CH,),S+2NaCh 

(3) (HO.CHy.CH,);$ + 2HCI=(CH,CLCH,),S. + 2,0; 
When it is realised that operation No. r is difficult, 
and. that the products of reactions (1) and (2) are 
soluble. in water, it will be understood that no small 
difficulties must present themselves in the manufac- 
ture of 88-dichloroethyl sulphide by this process on a 
large scale.. The examination of the German product 
made it quite clear, however, that the process. of 
manufacture adopted was that indicated by the above 
set of equations; the over-all yield of product: is 
perhaps 40. to 60 per. cent. of the theory. In view of 
the difficulties of manufacture, it was fairly certain 
that. no chemical installation for its production could 
be established under the control of, the Allies within 
any reasonable, time; the Central nations thus sup- 
posed that they held the monopoly of a very powerful 
instrument, of. war.. : 

Most: British organic chemists were, I think, amazed 
at the method of production adopted by the German 
manufacturers; to apply such a technically cumbrous 
process for the manufacture of so simple a compound 
seemed quite irrational. By the end of January, 1918, 
a process for making B8-dichloroethyl sulphide had been 
worked out in the British laboratories which ocon- 
sisted. of the reaction expressed. by the following. 
equation :— 

2CH, : CH, +S,Clj=(CH.CI.CH,),S+S. 
The vield obtained in the laboratory was 98 to 99 per 
cent, of that theoretically possible. The new method 
was communicated to France and America; and in- 
stalled by the three great Allies on a large scale: at 
the conclusion of the armistice the available daily 
production of mustard gas by the Allies was equal to 
the monthly production of the Central nations. 

The answer to the question just put is now avails. 
able. The German Chemical Service was inefficient ; 
the scientific chemists under its: control were incom- 
petent. 

The Allied production of mustard gas hed a poten- 
tialitv of the order of thirty times as great as that of 
the German; the cost of the German material was of 
the order of thirty times as great as that of our pro- 
duct, Cost of production under the conditions prevail- 
ing for this particular material means. in the end, 
expenditure in Jabour; that we were able to produce 
at something of the order of one-thirtieth of the cost 
of the German production means that by the allocation 
of the same quantitv of raw materials we could secure 
thirtv times the output. The relative strain on the 
productive resources of the Allies and the Central 
nations caused by the demand for a certain quantitv 
of mustard gas if measured, roughly, by the ratio of? 
one to thirty. ; 

Whilst: many instances similar to that of mustard 
gas might’ be quoted to show that Germanv has been 
badlv d by her scientific men during the war. it 
would be difficult to overrate the effects of! the skill’ 
and perseverance exhibited by the German chemical 
manufacturer. The command of great and long- 
established factories for fine chemical manufacture: 
enabled’ the German technologist to throw faultv 
academic projects ravidlv into large-scale production. 
The cost—namely, the strain on national resources— 


216 


NATURE 


| May 15, 1919 


was enormous, but that an output could have been 
achieved is a significant tribute to the potentialities 
represented by the large German fine chemical fac- 
tories. Both in Britain and in Germany production in 
chemical manufacture has been. multiplied during the 
war, but necessarily in a different manner. Our large 
production: is almost entirely of war importance, and 
most of the works installed during the war must now 
be dismantled as a result of the cessation of hostilities ; 
the German expansions, on the other hand, constitute 
a permanent addition to the potentialities of peace 
manufacture of staple marketable products. The war 
has left Germany with vastly increased resources as a 
manufacturer of much-needed chemical products. 

The view that our country is superior to Germany 
in the possession of creative scientific power has always 
been maintained in modern times by students of philo- 
sophy and history; the correctness of the view has 
been amply demonstrated during the last four years. 
Whilst our nation has overcome its initial handicap 
by a continuous flow of novel scientific devices of 
military value, our enemies passed through the war 
with little more in the shape of novel effects than 
those laboriously elaborated during the preceding 
years of peace. The more brilliant position which 
Germany has so long held in applied science arose 
from the keen appreciation exhibited by German public 
and official authorities of the rich economic fruits to 
be reaped from the systematic exploitation of scientific 
industry as compared with the neglect. of scientific 
effort shown by corresponding classes in this country. 
Even yet but small encouragement exists for those 
who. desire to see pure and applied science flourish as 
it. deserves in Great Britain. Although it may be long 
before the scientific industries of Central Europe 
regain their former predominance, there seems but 
little prospect of sufficient official encouragement being 
given in this country to scientific and industrial initia- 
tive to ensure our position in the competition with 
other nations. 

In this: connection it is interesting to notice what 
is happening in the United States.. Immediately after 
her entry into the war America initiated a census of 
chemists, and-in July, 1917, a fully detailed descrip- 
tion .was available of some 15,000. chemists resident 
in the States; a research staff consisting of 1200 
technical. men, with appropriate assistance, was en- 
listed for the Research Division of the Chemical: War- 
fare Service alone. Since America was. only in the 
war for about eighteen months. this powerful 
organisation had not time to make its efforts pro- 
perly felt. Apart from small improvements or changes 


in detail, practically all the American chemical.equip-: 


ment, for both offence and defence, was manufac- 
tured on the detailed plans furnished by Great Britain 
or France; the available time was too short to allow 
full play to American. genius for novelty and for 
magnitude of production. The necessity for co-opera- 
tion brought large numbers of young and _ active 
American chemical officers to Europe; it gave those 
officers for eighteen months the entry to practically 
every chemical works of importance in. England and 
France, ‘and unrivalled opportunities for accurately 
judging European chemical methods: and - markets: 
Those men have now returned to their ordinary 
scientific and technical pursuits in the States, and it 
cannot be expected that: they have left behind them 
the unique experience which they have gained of 
European conditions. ; 

e may- anticipate that competition in pure and 
applied chemistry between Europe and America) will 
become increasingly keener. during the years to come. 
The competition is already intense, and gives: little 
promise as yet of turning in our favour; it is, in 
fact, difficult to see how manv of the staple products 

NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


production was controlled in that the manufacturers 


of fine chemical manufacture can hold their own ins 


Great Britain against American competition under 


the conditions. which arose during the first three years — 
of the war. 
flourished. in the States free from Government con- 
trol, whilst in this country the establishment of a 
fine chemical industry in war-time was naturally 
rendered far more difficult by State control of works, 
materials, and labour. i 
The. bearing of this may be made clearer by an 
instance. The manufacture of saccharin was in- 
stalled in England after the outbreak of war, but the 


were only permitted to sell at a profit of 10 per cent. 
on the cost, this profit being, in turn, subject to the 
excess profits tax; further, to prevent the economic 
difficulties which were foreseen if saccharin competed 
with sugar, the price of English-made saccharin was 
fixed at a figure which involved the very large addi- 
tion of gos. per lb. to the price, this addition being 
appropriated by the Government. | Simultaneously, 
saccharin was manufactured free of all control in the 
States; it came into this country unrestricted and 
on such terms that the American producer took the 
30s. per Ib. just mentioned in addition to the con- 
siderable profit previously made by reason of lower 
cost of manufacture. America, having thus been 
assisted by our Government to build up a large reserve 
of profits, is now actually selling saccharin in England 
at 11s. per lb.—a price at which it cannot be produced 
here—apparently with the legitimate trade purpose of 
destroying the English manufacture and afterwards 
running up the price. ate 

Many cases may be quoted as closely analogous to 
that of saccharin, notably in connection with acetic 
acid, glycerol, acetone, and methyl alcohol and their 
products, in which British procedure has facilitated 
profiteering in foreign countries during the war. The 
excess profits tax operated insidiously in tempting 
British manufacturers to keep prices high so as to. 
retain a margin with which to write off capital ex- 
penditure in spite of the tax; the foreign competitor, 
free from Government control of raw materials and 
exempt from the excess profits tax, was able to take 
full advantage of the ruling high rates. It will be of 
interest to see how the problems introduced by these» 
actual occurrences are to be solved advantageously 
for Great Britain in the great reconstruction upon 
which our administrators are now engaged. 

Sufficient has probably now been said in justifica- 
tion of the rapid appreciation of science, and especially 
of that branch of science with which we are 
particularly concerned, in the public and ‘administra- 
tive’ eye. The sudden incidence of new_ scientific 
modes of military and naval attack, and the quick 
improvisation and development of equally scientific 
means of reply, both of which have been so frequently 
exhibited during the past five vears, must have seemed 
uncanny to the lay observer, who only realised the 
effects. but did not understand the causes.” “ 

At the present time, however. most fellows of this 
societv have little leisure to reflect upon the ghastly 
tragedy in which it has been our privilege to assist; 
the curtain has fallen upon this. but is rising again 
upon ‘the greatest epoch in the history of the world. 
The coming struggle for scientific and industrial posi- ~ 
tion, upon ithe results’ of which must rest the whole 
intellectual, artistic, and material future of our race, 
will call for longer, greater, more persistent, and more - 
intelligent’ effort than any which we have hitherto © 
exerted. We are forced to consider whether we have — 
reason to hope that the recent lessons have been well — 
brought home. and whether the free play given to~ 
scientific creation and production during the last five 
vears is to persist unhampered in the future. For 


During these years peace production. — 


vee / > aoa 
ae , Sokal ise Se a 
aol cla ebbing) £7; it =~ 


al Al 


ate 


we re 


= Dg rey 


[pore 


May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


217 


' purposes of war our administrators gave every 
_ incentive to scientific. investigation; money, men, 
and material were provided for the asking, free 
_ from Treasury control—free, in facty from all control 
other than that of the scientific worker able and 
- willing to organise and execute a necessary piece of 
| Work eli: eal 

_ J see no reason to think that the lesson has been 
_ properly learnt, and every reason to anticipate a re- 
establishment of that parsimonious treatment of 
' scientific effort which seems now to belong to a past 
age, but with which we were all well acquainted five 
_years ago. The control of scientific research is again 
Peaving the hands of the scientific man and being 
“resumed by the lay administrator. The old remark 
‘has been resuscitated quite recently that “it is a 
commonplace among administrators to fear the 
expert.” The non-technical administrator has no 
_ means of distinguishing the expert from the charlatan ; 
_ he has, perforce, to regard the scientific expert as the 
‘lineal descendant of the ‘‘adept”’’ of alchemical times, 
_whose main claim to recollection is based upon the 
_adroitness with which he was able to divert public 
_ funds to his own base purposes. 

_ It is quite clear that if scientific research is to be 
assisted by the State—and unless so aided it will 
languish, and carry with it into decadence every 
activity of the Empire—it must be administered by 
men of scientific training and eminence; any other 
mode of procedure will necessarily lead to the 
_ strangulation of scientific effort by departmental red 
‘tape. In this connection it is again instructive to 
_ refer to American practice. Our blood-relatives across 
_ the Atlantic had three years in which to study in 
—— which we were making in war, and 
_ it cannot but be useful to observe the manner in which 
they propose to profit by our experience. 

In 1916 President Wilson, a university professor 
and an expert, now one of the most imposing figures 
_ in terrestrial affairs, called upon the National Academy 
_ of Sciences at Washington to nominate the members 
_ of a *‘ National Research Council”; the object of this 
" new organisation was stated to be that of co-ordinating 
_ the scientific work of the country in order that the 
_ scientific problems both of war and of peace might 
be more efficiently solved. The National Research 
_ Councifis under the presidency of one of the most 
_ eminent among the active American men of science, 
_ Prof. George E. Hale, of the Mount Wilson Observa- 
_ tory, and has large funds at its command for research 
_ purposes. Two points are conspicuous in connection 
_ with the American prosramme—first, the substitution 
of ¢ ofessional lay administrator by the ordinary 


os 


te 


_ Office staff; secondly, the recognition of the close 
_ interdependence of pure and applied science. The con- 
' tention which has long been advanced in this country. 
_ that an adequate output of purely academic chemical 
- research work and the existence of a flourishing fine 
' chemical industry are mutually essential, is here tacitly 
- accepted; the former seeks in the industries remunera- 
- tive eons for the products of its training, and the 
_ fine chemical industry looks to the scientific investiga- 
tor for inspiration and new diréctions for enterprise. 
The nation which possesses an extensive organic 
chemical industry controls chemical warfare, the pro- 
tior pharmaceutical and photographic products, 
the textile industry, and many other great departments 
of human activity. 

The operations of the’ great American organisation 
for the stimulation of scientific research work are 
already making themselves felt. They have produced 

just recently an entirely novel method for oxidising 
naphthalene to phthalic acid. presumably by the use 
' df atmospheric oxvgen and a catalvst. which gives a 
95 per cent. vield, and are responsible for the huge 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


nitrogen fixation scheme now under installation .in the 
States. These two illustrations alone, the one small 
and the other large,.leave us in no doubt as to the 
influence which .the National Research Council is 
destined to exert.on scientific and technical progress 
throughout the world. .- 

If British science is to,make itself adequately felt 
in the great intellectual and material advances of the 
near future, British men of science must be entrusted 
with the initiative power and the command of money 
which they have enjoyed during the past few years; 
unless this is done our Empire will, as before, continue 
to fall behind other great nations as a contributor to 
the increasing mass of pure and applied scientific 
knowledge. ° ; 

In an address which I had the honour of delivering 
in this room a year ago attention was directed to the 
necessity for closer co-operation between the large 
societies representing the various chemical interests 
in Great Britain. During the past year action has 
been taken in this matter, and some fifteen of the 
societies have now collaborated in the establishment of 
a Federal Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry, 
the function of which is to advance, safeguard, and 
voice the interests of chemical. science. The Federal 
Council consists of representatives nominated by the 
component bodies, and is already occupying itself 
actively with the questions within its purview; it has 
moved with some success in connection with the 
claims of experimental science to recognition in the 
recently established scheme for education within the 
Army, with the provision of fine chemicals for research 
purposes, with the remuneration of scientific posts, and 
with other matters, The Federal Council will continue 
to apply itself to those questions which are of import- 
ance to chemists as a class, leaving more _ specific 
chemical interests to be dealt with by the appropriate 
constituent societies. A very similar project for the 
consolidation of the larger chemical interests is in 
course of execution by our French colleagues. 

It is bevond question that a central house for ac- 
commodating the chemical societies in a manner more 
proportionate to their importance than is at present 
possible should be provided; that a common chemical 
library far more complete than any now available in 
this countrv should be at our service: and that some 
comprehensive scheme for the publication of compendia 
of chemical knowledge should be put into operation. A 
verv imposins and costly programme confronts the 
recent amalgamation of chemical interests, but the 
universal approval which greeted the proposition for 
creating a Federal Council for Pure and Applied 
Chemistrv is a hanpv augury for the future usefulness 
of the new organisation. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
. INTELLIGENCE. 


BIRMINGHAM.—At a meeting in Birmingham on 
May 8 of representatives of the engineering profession 
and others, the Lord Mayor presiding, a provisional 
scheme for celebrating the centenary of the death of 
James Watt was agreed upon. We are glad to note 
that the scheme includes the endowment of a chair of 
engineering at the University. A point which is some- 
times overlooked in such matters was made by Sir 
Oliver Lodge, who reminded the meeting that endow- 
ments of this kind, though most desirable, should not 
be regarded as gifts conferring benefit only on the Uni- 
versity. The University acted as a trustee, and every 
new chair endowed involved expense. Apparently no 
definite opinion was expressed as to the salary which 
should be attached to the chair; this would no doubt 
depend upon the sum collected for the memorial. 


248 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919) 


Taking into consideration, ‘however, ‘the vast benefits 
accruing to’ the world from the: genius of James Watt, 
we may hope that the- ‘endowment will be a liberal 
one, so’ that the ‘full services of the best possible men 
may be secured. Ifa considerable sum could also be 
allotted as an endowment for the depattment ‘over 
which the professor would preside, and a further 
amount ‘to provide ‘valuable research scholarships ‘for 
promising students from any part of the Empire, a 
memorial worthy of the subject might be established. 
For example, the appointment of a professor, for ten 
-years at a time, with.a salary of s5o0ool..per annum, 
with a like sum towards the upkeep of the department, 
and, in addition, the provision of ten scholarships each 
of sool. per annum tenable for two years, might cost 
300,0001., but the money would be profitably invested. 

The evacuation of the University buildings by the 
‘military hospital authorities is proceeding rapidly, and 
it is hoped that the departments of -physics and 
chemistry at least may be reinstated in their proper 
_ quarters by October next. The appointments of the 
new professors of physics and chemistry (Prof. S. W. J. 
Smith and Prof. G. T. Morgan) have accordingly been 
made.as from July 1 in order that they may supervise 
the restoration of their respective.departments. 


‘CaMBRIDGE.—A ‘gift of 210,000l. ‘to ‘the University 
for a ‘chemical ‘school was announced by the Vice- 
‘Chancellor, Dr. A. E. ‘Shipley, at the meeting of the 
Senate on May 13. ‘Particulars were given in the 
‘following extracts from a letter from Mr. R. Waley 
‘Cohen':—‘‘It has been an immense pleasure to me 
to be able to write to Sir William Pope and tell him 
that ‘the British oil companies have agreed to join 
together in a‘scheme for endowing ‘a chemical school 
at Cambridge. "The Burma Oil Co. have agreed to 
‘contribute. 50,0o00l.; the  Anglo-Persian Oil Co. < 
50,0001. ; ‘the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Coa., | 50,0001. ; 
and Lord ‘Cowdray and the Hon. Clive Pearson 
between them 50,000l., making the total of 200,000l. 
which is required. | Mr. Deterding, who has taken 
very great interest in the scheme from the beginning, 
‘has offered to make the 200,000!. into guineas by 
adding a personal contribution of his own of 10,0001.” 


Lonpon.—The annual ‘report of the’ Vice-Chancellor 
‘of the University (Sir Cooper Perry), which was 
read ‘at ‘the ‘presentation day ceremonv in the 
Albert “Hall on May 9, was naturally written in a 
more cheerful strain 'than previous reports during the 
war. Cedant arma togae—at last the University ‘is 
able to turn from ‘the works of war, to which’ the 
Vice-Chancellor was’ able to refer with just pride, both 
in the fields of battle and of science applied to warfare, 
to a conflict in which ‘‘the weapons are no longer 
‘reeking tube and iron shard,’ but the highest quali- 
ties of insight )and ‘spiritual temper.”’ ‘The list of 
gifts and benefactions during the past year indicates 
the wide appeal of the University, including generous 
provision for the teaching of aviation, modern Greek, 
‘Portuguese (in .all of ‘which new chairs have been 
established), and a German field-gun given by ‘the 
‘War Office in recognition of the work of the Olicers 
‘Training Corps during the war. -Progress has been 
made with the scheme for degrees in commerce, and 
an institute of Pin is to be established at Uni- 
versity College. 


 Oxrorp.—At a ‘prolonged ‘sitting of Gonpreteliia 
held on May 6, various amendments ‘to ‘the ‘statute 
which aims, amongst other objects, at making ‘Greek 
optional instead ‘of ‘compulsory in ‘Responsions ‘were 
taken into consideration. ‘Most of the amendments 
would ‘have ‘had ‘the ‘effect 6f 4imiting ‘somewhat “the 
choice 6f ‘subjects, but all were rejected except one, 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103 | 


which makes it siodisetd ‘to omit all the sabes 
“Group II” (English, French, ‘and German), ‘and 
another concerning the fee for entrance to ‘the 
examination. The statute as amended ‘will have to 
‘come before a further’ meeting of Congregation, and 
if passed ‘by that body, to be ‘submitted to’ Convoea- 
tion, where the final decision will be taken, ‘4 . we 
altdes 
Mr.>G. R. Benner? Has been appointed. principal 
of the Technical Institute, Newport, Mon, 


“Mr. ANDREW W. YounG has been appointed to. the 
post.of lecturer on pure and applied mathemz at 
the Sir John Cass Technical aaNet Jewry treet, 
Aldgate, E.C.3. Piiee gece 


Pror. C. R. 'MAarsnart, arGreesor of materia ‘medica 
and therapeutics, ‘University of St. pepe ‘has been 
appointed to the Regius chair of materia ‘in the © 
University of Aberdeen, vacant by the’ ‘Sin of 
Prof. Theodore Cash. 


APPLICATIONS are invited ‘for’ thes ‘heltaka 
in connection with' the Armstrong College, Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne :—The ‘Earl “Grey memotial fellowship, 
‘value 300l.; the Royal! (1851). Exhibition scholarship, 
value 200l.; ‘and industrial bursaries, each ‘of the 
value of r50l. The names of candidates must reach — 
‘the secretary of the college by, at latest, Ay Kp f 


fiat 


Tue -Higher Education ‘Sub-Committee ‘of. the © 
London Gounty Council has had. under.consi sideration 
the .report of ‘the Government ‘Gomnuitige sappouy 
‘to inquire into ‘the position. of natural science i 
‘educational system of Great Britain. In view. the 
importance of .the subject, and of the the .value , of the 
report, it is desirable that the conclusions s and recom- 
mendations should ;receive the fullest consideration 
and discussion @mong those conceal jst ne ane 2 
of natural science. The sub-committee has therefore © 
‘arranged a. meeting ‘at County Hall, Spring Gardens, j 
at four. o’clock on; Friday’ Shane. ae 30, to. a 
the principals of the-schools of. the University, head- — 
‘masters and headmistresses of - Pee, sand ‘central ‘ 
schools, principals of ‘polytechnics | ‘and technical insti- — 
tutes, and:science teachers of these colleges and-schools _ 
shave been invited. Sir J. J. Thomson, chairman of — 
the Government: Committee, has consented to addréss — 
‘the meeting, and Sir Cyril Cobb, chairman of the © 
Education Committee of the London: lest ee : 
will talse the chair. ‘ 


F editatis ) 


"ANNOUNCEMENT is made in :the Ti imes . that. ‘the 3 
Government proposes (if Parliament agrees) to expend 
during the next five years about 2,000,000l, on agri- 
cultural research and agricultural education. 
stantial scholarships will be offered to men Ee 
distinguished ‘themselves in the natural. vat. ae 
universities; and a certain. gy yi be s -cted . for 

loyment:.in -universities an er ee 
Busco is already carried on at:Cambridge, Rotham- 
sted, Bristol, and Reading; but whereas at present — 
‘there are probably not more than forty men-in.Emg- — 
land and Wales engaged on pure research in agricul- _ 
tural science, .it.is-hoped that during the mext,decade 
or so. the number. may be raised to.about .r50- Another 
feature will be the encouragement of higher agricul- — 
tural education)in colleges by:means of grants and in 
other ways. There ‘are about .a dozen’ agricultural _ 
colleges in (England .and Wales, and itis hoped..to — 
-brmg the ‘farmer -into more » sympathetic | touch avith 
them by the creation of .more ‘demonstration ‘farms 
, and of a'keener sense of the general vette: Ghregtenee E 
| in :agriculture. 


/May 15, 1919] 


NATURE 


"219 


» ©» SOCIETIES’ AND ACADEMIES. 
re Sei cee: Lonpon. 
Royal Microscopical Society, April 16.—Mr. J. E. 
-president, in the chair.—J. Strachan: The 
e ae dendritic growths in paper. The forma- 
rat interestin ng and curious growths was’ for- 
erly attributed to the oxidation of a particle of 
nze oF brass included in the sheet of paper during 
; n =. Later investigations have proved, how- 
eter, that the chemical reactions. producing these 


ems more complex. The particle of bronze 
‘a ed by chemical residues in the paper, chief 
Sagem 


is. hate of aluminium, with the 
3 r of soluble sulphate of copper. The latter 
“creeps ‘alon the fibres in solution. The sulphate of 
copper is then reduced to insoluble black sulphide 
of oppel hs ee constitutes the majority of recent 
% rae : . This sulphide is further oxidised 
ag in to sulphate, am so by alternate oxidation and 
a alone the Tides, 


compounds may be 
site The final action in old 
© <i eR resulting .in the formation: of 
sr sulphate. The chemistry of these growths 
‘is important in that they indicate, by secondary re- 
actions, the nature of chemical actions taking place in 


tl ation of paper paring ageing, in which the 
lose i is attacked by chemical residues from various 
rees. A new micro-chemical test for the detection 
coppe putpls 
eke on containing the double cyanide of 
iur ehacademiine. ‘The black copper ‘sulphide 
solves, but is exactly 4 chee by a>brilliant yellow 
- eaeeoenaent of cadmium sulphide, forming a yellow 
eee The principle of this mode of testing , by 
ry appears to be capable of further applica- 


‘ . 
o A 
1S 


ae hen emica] manipulation.—Dr. E. Penard : 
1a boltoni, S. Kent. ‘In spite of recent state- 
the ‘contrary, the genus Folliculina ‘is un- 
sented in fresh-water, and the vermi- 
be described*as Lagynus ocellatus by Daday) 
ent, as ety suspected by several authors, 
: contradicted by others, a free-swimming form 
gr by a Betinerpoosie of the whole individual. 


Society, April 29.—Prof. E. W..MacBride, 
sident, in the chair.—Dr. W. T. Calman: 
cree boring animals. Attention was directed to 
- the economic ice tasics of the scientific investigation 
of ‘these forms of marine animals in relation to the 
| ae damage caused by them to the timbers of 
“wooden ‘ships and to piers, and to the grt of 
by ‘breakwaters and similar constructions.—G,. ‘Jennison : 
in the open air in ‘England. Attention 
. — , the fact that the sanimal -had dived 
ous condition for a period. of 
eS Sigh yeas in the private pours of its owner, 
ie r jae Butter; of ‘Cannock, Staffordshire. 


_ Linnean Society, May 1.—Sir David Prain, president, 
fhe chair. —J. Smith: Forms assumed by ‘the pappus 
tee. As all the facts adduced in support of 

rhe Peat theory can be explained by assuming 
‘that the s im cettain cases is partly a develop- 
revo of the Jhairs ‘which were inserted on the now 
ut*once free calyx-segments, the evidence in 

antor rof the trichome or emergence nature of the 
-admits of no other conclusion than that which 

pus ‘to’ be'hairs, free or fixed, derived in 
‘their evolution from the: hairs of the achene, or some- 
‘times also from the hairs.of the now aborted calyx- 
limb.—J..M. F.. Drummond ; The flora of,a small area 
in Palestine. The author gave the route covered b 
‘the 52nd _ Division (of ‘which he »was a »member 
between El Arish “and the ) neighbourhood of Jaffa. 
Collections were made at various points along this 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


consists in the application to the , 


be ‘and “the” che of Arsuf, fifteen miles ‘north of 
affa, was specially escribed, ‘with ‘the topogra 
and climate. “Phe edaphic plant!formations were alt 
with, especially two—the “Calcareous ‘Knoll”’ flora 
and the “ Cistus Moor”'; the former is of the nature of 
“garigue, and- contains many geophytes and annuals, 
with many minor xerophilous characters, but few 
‘extreme | types, ‘with ‘only one switch-plant and no 
succulents. Cistus’Moor has’a closed carpet of vegeta- 
tion, few geophytes or annuals. Cistineze anda tus- 
sock-grass Spredeninete possibly akin to the Cistus- 
maqui of Spain. Garigue and Steppe prevail .in 
western Palestine; Maqui was not seen at all .by the 
author. Possibly this state of affairs is partly due 
to man’s. interference. 


were 


Royal Irish Academy, April /28.—Dr. R. F. Scharff, 
vice-president, in the chair—N. Colgan; The :occur- 
rence of tropical drift seeds -on the ‘Irish Atlantic 
coasts. Seeds or fruits of no‘ fewer than‘eight tropical 
species have been found, cast up from time to 
time, on the Irish coasts. . All ‘the species are native 
or naturalised in the West Indies, and all have highly 
buoyant seeds, capable, as Dr. Guppy has shown, : of 
floating for twelve months and upwards. The Irish 
stations for these drift seeds range from Donegal 
to Kerry, and the records of their occurrence are 
spread over a couple of centuries. It has been. sug- 
_gested that the passa rc these ocean waifs is effected 
“by ‘human agency. e author decides in favour of 
the idea that the ekad drift seeds cast up on the 
Irish ‘Atlantic beaches are wafted ‘thither ‘from ‘their 
West Indian home’by ‘natural agencies. An account 
of the seeds and of the plants which produce ‘them 
is given.D. P. Montagu: A-study in regeneration in 
wheat (Triticum :vulgare). A number of ‘simultaneous 
sowings of wheat were made, and shoots were am- 
putated; at various. stages \in*their,development. The 
various ‘theories of regeneration were, reviewed: in ‘the 
light of the facts disclosed in Triticum,, and two hypo- 
‘theses were put forward, viz. (1). the .regeneration 
observed may be. traced to the disturbance in the 


| normal -absorption-transpitation-equilibrium, following 


the removal of the shoots by. amputation, and, (2) the 
regeneration observed may be regarded as ‘due to the 
disturbance, consequent on the injury involved in the 
amputation, of the normal enzyme-balance. Such a 
disturbance leads to hydrolysis of glucoside within the 
plant, the cy¢lic element functioning as the direct 
causal activator of the regenerating growths, while 
the carbohydrate split-product is i to build up 
the regenerating - tissue. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Outlines ‘of Theoretical Chemistry. By Dr. F. H. 
‘Getman. “Second edition. ‘Pp. xiiit+539. (New York: 
J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman cand 
“Hall, Ltd.) ‘16s.°6d. net. 

Applied Optics. The Computation of Optical 
Systems, being the ‘‘Handbuch der Angewandten 
Optik” of Dr. ‘A. Steinheil and Dr. E. Voit, trans- 
lated and edited by J: W. French. Vol. ii. Pp. wvi+ 
207+plates v.— ndon: Blackie and Son, ‘Ltd.) 
12s. 6d. net 

‘Reports of the Progress of Applied Chemi 
Issued by the Society of Chemical Industry. Vol. iii. 
Pp. 495+ (London: Society of Chemical Industry.) 
Ios. 

How and What to Read. ‘Suggestions towards a 
Home Libr. By R. B. Buckley. Pp. 176. 
(London :, Wil iams and Norgate.) 2s, 6d, net. 

Meteorologia Aeronautica. By Prof. G. Crestani. 
| Pp. xv+315. (Milano: U. Hoepli.) .8.50 lire. 


220” 


NATURE 


[May 15, 1919 


Dizionario Internazionale di Aeronavigazione e 
Costruzioni Aeronautiche. Italiano, Francese, Inglese, 
Tedesco. By M.:Dander. Pp. viit+227. (Milano: 
U. Hoepli.) 6.50 lire. 
_A Practical Handbook of -British Birds. | Edited by 
H. F. | Witherby... Part ii. 

(London: Witherby and Co.) 4s. net. 

The Theory of Heat. By Prof. T. Preston. 
edition. Edited by Prof. J. R. Cotter. Pp. xix+84o. 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 25s. net. 

Text-book of Embryology. Vol. ii., Vertebrata with 
the exception of Mammalia. By Prof. J. Graham 
Kerr. Pp. xii+591. (London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd.) 31s. 6d. net. 

Manual of Tree Diseases. By Dr. W. H. Rankin. 
Pp. xx+398. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 12s. 6d. net. 

‘Our National Forests. A Short Popular Account of 
the Work of the U.S. Forest Service on the National 
Forests. By Dr. R. H. D: Boerker. Pp. Ixix+238. 
(New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Mac- 
millan and Co., Ltd.) 12s. 6d. net. 

- The Mycetozoa: A Short History of their Study 
in Britain. By G. Lister. Pp. 54. (Essex Field 
Club Special Memoirs, vol. vi) Stratford: Essex 
Field Club; London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 
Ltd.) 3s. net. 

Boiler Chemistry and Feed-water Supplies. By 
J. H. Paul. Pp. ix+242. (London: Longmans and 
Co.) 14s. net. 


Text-book of Physical Chemistry. By Prof. A. T. | 


Lincoln. Pp. viii+547. (London: 
and Co., Ltd.) 12s.. 6d. net. 


A Text-book of Physiology. By Drs. M. Flack and 


G. G. Harrap 


L. Hilt. Pp. viii+800. (London: E. Arnold.) 25s. } 
net. 


Les Applications de la Physique Pendant la Guerre. 
By H. Vigneron. Pp. viiit322. (Paris: Masson et 
Cie.) 7 francs net. 

Cotton Spinning. By W. Scott Taggart. Vol. i., 
Including all Processes up to the End of Carding. 
Sixth edition. Pp. liii+322. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd.) 7s. 6d. net. 

The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition: The Use of 
Food for the Preservation of Vitality and Health. 
By E..V. McCollum. Pp. ix+199. (New York: The 
ppulan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 

S.:Od.) net. . aay 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, May 15. 

Roya. InsTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. F. Keeble: Intensive Cultivation. 

Rovat Society, at 4:—Election of Fellows.—At 4.30.—Prof. W. H. 
Young: (1) The Area of Surfaces; (2) Change of the Independent 
Variables in a Multiple Integral.—Prof. W. A. Bone and R. J. Sarjant : 
Researches on the Chemistry of Coal. I. The Action of Pyridine upon 
the Coal Substance.—Prof. E. F. Burton: A New Method of Weighing 
Colloidal Particles—W. E. Curtis: The Value of the Rydberg Constant 
for Spectral Series. 

Royat Society or Arts, at 4.30.—Prof. H. E. Armstrong : Soil Deficiencies 
in India, with Special Reference to Indigo. 

MATHEMATICAL Society. at 5.—G. N. Watson: Zeros of Lommel’s Poly- 
nomials.—W. H.. Young: The Triangulation Method of Defining the 
Area ofa Surface. - 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—E. A. Laidlaw and W. H. 
Grinsted : The Telephone Service of Large Cities, with Special Reference 
to London. ; 

Cuemicat Society, at 8.—B. Blount and J. H. Sequeira: ‘Blue John” 
and other Forms of Fluorides.—G. M. Bennett : The Nitration of Diphenyl- 
ethylenediamine.—D. L. Hammick : The Destruction of Picric Acid in 
Nitrating Acid.—J. C. Irvine and J. S. Dick: The Constitution of 
Maltose. A New Example of Degradation in the Sugar Group.—R. J. 
Manning and M, Nierenstein; The-Tannin of the Canadian Hemlock 
(Tsuga Canadensis, Carr). x : j 


FRIDAY, May 16. + 


Roya. InstitTuTIon, at 5.30.—Dr. S. F. Harmer : Sub-Antarctic Whales 
and Whaling. 


NO. 2585, VOL. 103] 


Pp. 65-128+3 plates. - 
Third © 


MONDAY, May. 19. cohgs ra pe Ss. 
Rovat GEOGRAPHICAL Society, at 5.—Capt. W. B. R. King: The Use 
of Geology in War. aw 
INSTITUTE ‘or ' METALS, at: 8.—Ninth Annual May Lecture—Prof. 
oddy: Radio-activity. ; 


‘ ‘TUESDAY, May 20. a 
nore ie ai at 3.—Prof. A. Keith: British Ethnology—The People 
of Ireland. . ei any a 
British AssoctaTion Gropuysicat Discussions (Royal Astronomica 
Society, Burlington House), at 5.—Col. H. G. Lyons will open a dis 
cussion-on The Functions of a Geodetic Institute.’ Followed by Sir 
mor, Sir C.F. Close, Mr..A. R. Hinks, and others. — 
InsTITUTION oF. PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS, at 5.30.—Dr. F. Mollwo 
Perkin and T. C. Palmer: The Chemist and Engineer in Relation to t 
Petroleum Industry. Pit : 
Wie] WEDNESDAY, May 21. ; 5 @ 
Royav Society or ARTS, at 4:30.—Sir Francis T. Piggott: The Princip! 
o {Japanese Design. , se ah, ‘ + es 
Rovat ‘METEOROLOGICAL: SocieTy, ‘at ‘5.—Capt. C, J. P;Cave and J. 5S 
Dines: Further Measuréments on the Rate'of Ascent of Pilot Balloons. 
. E. Clark and H. B. Adames : Report on the Phenological Observations 
or 1918. , fi Mt < i 
GEOLOGICAL; SOCIETY, Jat ‘5.30. py 
‘ THURSDAY, May 22.) | EpGR 
Roya. INsTiTuTIoN, at.3.—Prof..F. Keeble: Intensive Cultivation. 
Roya Society, at 4.30.—Probable. Papers: Prof. W. Sollas: The 
Structure of Lysorophus as Exposed by Serial Sections.—O. Rosenhein : 
A Preliminary Study of the Energy Expenditure and Food Requirement 
of Women Workers.—M. Greenwood, C. Hodson, and A. E. Tebb : Report 
on the Metabolism of Female. Munition Workers.. 4 
INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Dr. §. Chapman : Electrica 
Phenomena occurring in High Atmospheric Levels. 


SATURDAY; May 24. 
LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 3-—Anniversary, Meeting. Vitae 


¢ 


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Dynamics of Evolution, ByJ.A.T. .... bo gl 
Experiments in Biological Method. By L. D,. . . 202 
Industrial Electrolysis. ByJ. B.C. K. .... Va) 12038 
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“Camouflage” of Ships in War.—Prof. J. Graham - 
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Fi Knowles s,249 383 : 
Mineral Production in Relation to the Peace — 
Treaty. By Prof. H. Louis 
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a abl MAY 22, 1919. 


APPLIED CHEMIS TR Y. 


() Coal-tar Dyes and Intermediates. 
_ Barry Barnett. (Industrial Chemistry Series.) 
_ Pp. xviii+213. (London: Bailliére, Tindall, 
and Cox, 1919.) Price ros. 6d. net. 

ay ‘Coal-tar and some of its Products. By 

ur ‘R. Warnes. (Pitman’s Common Com- 
ities and Industries.) Pp. xxii+105. (Lon- 

n: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 

. 6d. pet... 

Van Nostrand’s Chemical Annual. Fourth 

4 issue, Ry Thoroughly revised and enlarged. 


By E. de 


a ted by Prof. John C. Olsen. Assistant 

ditor, M. P. Matthias. Pp. xviii+778. (Lon- 
fn Constable and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 
155. net. 


“HIS. sesbunie; bi Mr. E. de B. Barnett, 
+ is one of)the series of works on indus- 
chemistry now being published under the 
ip of Dr. Samuel Rideal. The series aims 
t giving a comprehensive survey of the present 
ion of the chemical industries, the various 
jects. being treated from the chemical rather 
: feoin. the engineering point of view. The 
appeal mainly to the advanced student, 
»mind, in the opinion of the editor, “is 
piok crammed with the hard facts and details 
of his subject which crowd out the power of 
realising the industry as a whole,’’ and who, “on 
commencing his industrial: career, is positively 
ped by his academic knowledge because 
his lack of information on current industrial 
” There is, no doubt, room for differ- 

ence of ‘opinion.’ as to the best course of instruc- 
a to be pursued in the case of one who is being 
e} ‘for a career in applied science, and it 
‘may be that the change from the purely academic 
side to that of application has hitherto been too 


ibs 


abrupt, and that something in the nature of an 


intermediate course on the principles of techno- 


; pease desirable. This fact, indeed, is now gene- 


‘recognised, and we have the evidence for it 


im the creation of such places as the Imperial 
_ College at South Kensington, and in the exten- 
_ sion of the newer universities, such as’ Man- 


Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham, «all 


_ chester, | 
ee have largely developed their techno- 


side, either by the establishment of new 


_ chairs or, as in the cases of Manchester and Glas- 


gow, by uniting themselves with schools of tech- 


nology already existing. Conditions arising out 


the war will no doubt accelerate this movement, 


not only in this country, but also throughout the 
_ British Dominions. 


As. we know, it has given 
an enormous impetus to ‘technical education in 
America and in Japan, and bids fair to jeopardise 
the industrial future of Germany, at least in the 
chemical arts. Whatever the future may have in 


store for our: defeated enemy, there can be no 


doubt whatever that her supremacy in certain 
NO. 2586, VoL. 103] 


} 7 39e NATURE 


| 


branches of manufacturing chemistry is irretriev- 
ably gone. 

The book under. review appears, therefore, at 
an opportune time, and it is one of many similar 
productions which aim at rousing British chemical. 
manufacturers to a sense of their present oppor- 
tunity. It deals with an industry which took 
its rise in this country, but was in large 
measure lost to us through a variety of causes, not 
the least of which was our deplorable educational 
system and the supine inactivity of public opinion 
which failed to insist upon its betterment. We 
are, however, quickly changing all that, and we 
may confidently hope that the coming generation 
will see a marked improvement. The manufac- 
ture of the so-called coal-tar dyes has already 
received a great extension in this country, and 
is rapidly assuming the position of-a staple in- 
dustry. | It is bound to pass through many a 
critical phase in the near future, but the conjoint 
efforts of our.schools of ‘instruction, with wise 
management onthe part ‘of our producers, 
together with the benevolent ‘attitude of Parlia- 
ment, will, we trust, serve to steer it safely 
through its difficulties. This country. will never ° 
again have such an opportunity to recover its lost 
position in this industry, and it would now be 
the height of unwisdom for it to neglect its 
chance. 

The book before us, of course, makes no pre- 
tension to be a complete treatise on» the subject 
with which it deals. It ean scarcely be expected 
that a volume of some 200 pages would adequately » 
cover so vast a field. It gives, however, a fairly 
satisfactory apercu of the various processes in- 
volved in the manufacture of what are known as 
“intermediates ’’—that is, of compounds em- 
ployed in the manufacture of actual dyestuffs, 
such as nitration, amidation, sulphonation, 
hydroxylation, etc.—and describes the mode of 
production and uses of the more important of 
these substances and of their main chemical and 
physical properties. This constitutes part i. of 
the book, and is made up of five sections, extend- 
ing in all to some eighty-three pages. It is natu- 
rally highly condensed, and no attempt is made 
to illustrate it by any figures of the plant’ in 
actual use, which we consider an unfortunate 
omission. Drawings of plant, such as an engineer 
would make, do more to present what the editor 
calls “the reality of the living industry ’’ than 
whole pages of verbal description. 

Part ‘ii., which constitutes the bulk of 
the work, is divided into fourteen sections, : 
each dealing with a special group of dyestuffs. 
These sections are naturally of very unequal 
length, such groups as the azo-dyes, the triphenyl- 
methane dyes, the azines, the indigoid dyestuffs, 
and the anthraquinone dyes—among the more 
important of the synthetic dyes—extending over 
several pages, whilst the nitroso- and nitro-dyes, 
the indamines and indophenols, oxazines, thi- 
azines, quinolines, acridines, and sulphide dyes are 
somewhat summarily - dismissed: A valuable 


N 


222 


NATURE 


[May 22, 1919 


feature of the book is its bibliography and :its 
summary of patent literature, which may render 
it of use to the works chemist. The main draw- 
back :is, ‘of course, that such summaries ‘in so 
progressive a subject rapidly become out of 
date. 

The book concludes with a short statement con- 
cerning ‘the .possible future of a synthetic dye- 
stuff industry in Great Britain. Here theauthor is 
on debatable ground, and certain of his views may 
be open to criticism. Indeed, he concedes that 
the ‘question whether such an industry can be 
established ‘here on a paying basis admits ofa 
considerable difference of opinion, The high cost 
of transport has in the past been a severe -handi- 
cap, and there can be no doubt that the railway 
companies have done little to promote the ‘in- 
terests of the manufacturers; it remains to be seen, 
however, whether nationalisation and the re-open- 
ing of inland waterways and coasting harbours 
will -effect ‘the desired:improvement. The:author 
pleads for at least stemporary protection to -the 
“key ’’ industries, and especially to the dyestuff 
industry, which has in effect been promised by ‘the 
Government. He naturally welcomes the financial 
assistance -by loans :and grants-in-aid already 
made ‘by the State for capital cost of plant and 
depreciation and specialised technical research, 
but he sees many difficulties in complying with 
the conditions imposed by the Board of Trade, 
and in his opinion -the success of the whole 
scheme of bureaucratic sadministration «is very 
questionable. He :thinks a better scheme \would 
be -to establish .a° central ‘‘ Board . of Chemical 
Industry ’’.on the same lines as the U.S. Bureau 
of Chemistry, and he gives a sketch of its con- 
stitution and functions. As it is suggested that the 
proposed ‘Board should be a: Government :depart- 
ment, it is;not very obvious how it differs, or at 
least »need differ, from the organisation already 
proposed, as ithe admitted aims and duties .are 
identical. Much, of course, depends upon facili- 
ties for the manufacture of ‘‘intermediates,’’ and 
it is suggested that benzol and toluol producers 
might themselves convert these products and sell 
them ‘to the actual dye-makers, or thatthe coke- 
oven undertakings might take over their manu- 
facture. This would, no doubt, be a great: advan- 
tage froma purely economic point of view, and 
allow -the smaller dye-makers -to compete on 
better terms with the larger concerns, «and «so 
tend to diminish the chance of the monopoly which 
the present combine is not unlikely to bring 
about. 

(2) This little book is a member of Pitman’s 
series of Common Commodities and Industries. 
It attempts to explain within the limits of 100 


crown octavo: pages the main features. of the origin © 


and uses of coalstar and,of the methods employed 
to obtain commercially valuable materials from 
it. Although :necessarily wery slight in treat- 


ment, it possesses certain features of value which | 


are lacking in the work justinoticed. It is fairly 


well illustrated, and its descriptions of manufac-: 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103} 


considerable experience of the industry. 


turing processes. are adequate, considering its. 
scope. The book covers, however, much less. 


‘ground than Mr. Barnett’s work, and it is not so 


much concerned \with synthetic dyestuffs as with 


‘such products as benzol, toluol, sulphate of am- 


monia, carbolic acid, creosote, pitch, etc.—in — 
words, with the primary products of the tar-d 
tiller. It appeals to the business man and t 
student of commerce rather than to the chemical 
student or the technologist. Its author is the 
‘lecturer on coal-tar distillation at the ‘Hull Tech- 
‘nical College, and the book is evidently. based upon 
It is well 
written and eminently readable, and merits the 
attention of the special class for which it is. 
‘intended. 

(3) This book is now in its fourth issue. Tt. is 
a type of work which is becoming increasingly 
common, and of which practically every country 
which is concerned to any extent with chemistry 
and the ¢hemical arts can furnish:examples. They 
are mairily intended for the chemical analyst, 
‘works manager, and consultant, and are com- 
|piled-on very much ‘the same lines. ‘They consist 
for the most part-of tables, such as the chemical 
and physical constants of the elements, critical 
data of gases, gravimetric factors and their 
logarithms, molecular and atomic weights and 
their logarithms, and a collection of useful 
analytical factors, physical constants of inorganic 
and organic compounds, hydrometer 
specific gravity ‘tables, thermochemical data, 
tables .of weights and ‘measures, a list of defini- 
‘tions -of fundamental units of weight and mass, 
etc. An unusual ‘feature is a list of 
problems illustrating methods of. calculation occa- 
sionally ‘needed ‘in industry, with their answers. 
Certain of these are not original, and may be 
found ‘in works dealing with chemical arithmetic. 


But the list is fairly representative, although it 


might be assumed that any user of the annual 
would have already familiarised himself with such 


‘tables, 


ra S| ne eae ee 


calculations during his studentship. The compila~ ‘ 


tion concludes with a list of the more important 


books interesting to the chemist which have beer 


published ‘since October, 1913, with» their ‘gene gal 


American currency. 


The value of a compilation of this'kind- depends: 
wholly upon its accuracy, and it is evident: iene 

he 
most ‘trustworthy data have been ‘selected, and 
the editors ‘have had the assistance of a.competent 
bedy of experts, who have dealt with special — 
work is called an 
it should be noted that the several 
editions are not necessarily revised in each ‘suc- 
cessive year. The first issue appeared in 1906, | 


no ‘pains have ‘been spared to ensure ‘this. 


groups. Although the 


“annual,”’ 


the second in 1909, the third in 1913, and the 
present issue is dated November, |1917. ‘Consider- 


ing, however, the nature of the subject-matter, it 


is reasonably certain that the book has been: kept 
well up to:date, and that it fully realises its aim 
as a convenient reference book of numerical 
data. 


, May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


223 


fa GEOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
INDIA. 


A 4b Biihoplesny of Indian Geology and Physical 
Sage with an Annotated Index. of 
linerals of Economic Value. Compiled by 
~ H. D. La Touche. Parti., “A Bibliography 
f Indian Geology and Physical Geography ”’ 
"part ii, “An Annotated Index of the Minerals 
nomic Value.” Pp. xxviii+571 and 
(Calcutta: The Geological Survey of 
ndon: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 
mand 1918.) Price, part i., 5s. 4d. ; part ii., 


‘ 
a 


IGISTS, and especially students of 
Asiatic geology; owe a debt of gratitude to 
Me te Touche for having prepared, and to the 
Geological Survey of India for publishing, these 
foe naatid volumes, which the printer and paper- 
_maker have made distinctly portly. The first is 
ya bibliography of all that has been: published re- 
garding the geology of India and adjacent coun- 
pinion: arranged by authors, with a\ separate head- 
all anonymous writings, and we note that 
Mr. La Touche has refrained from the needless 
antry of classing: those unsigned contributions 
_as anonymous of which the authorship was openly 
‘avowed and is well known. The bibliography 
-seems_ ‘very complete, for a somewhat critical 
search has: failed’ to: discover any omissions and 
has met with only one error, where two authors, 
who happen to have the same surname and 
Deke had their. separate identities merged 

\e person. 
Z ond, volume will probably prove of wider 
1 an annotated index to all published 
mati ion regarding rocks or minerals of 
1omic value. It is conveniently arranged in 
order of the substances dealt with, 
ind under each heading is given a brief review 
f re sie occurrences and production where the 
nineral has been worked, with references to the 
nal authorities enumerated in the first 
ume. -Glancing over this annotated index, we 
"the ‘the. production of diamonds, for which 
dia vas especially famed in olden days, had 
ane, 0 some me 55 carats in 1915, the latest: date 
uoted by Mr. a Touche, and to 18 carats in 
31 a the latest date for which returns have been 
ished. The more plebeian form of carbon, 
5wn as coal, has become a very important. in- 
; try in Thdia, and of it more than 18,000,000 
tons a a year are now mined. Iron, too, has Become 
an important industry, and in 1917 nearly 365,000 
tons of pig-iron and steel: were produced. by the 
companies concerned in the industry. 
influence of the war on mineral production 
has been marked; it’ is apparent even in the work 
under review, and becomes more noticeable when 
s compared with the review of mineral pro- 
“lett during 1917. The output of tungsten has 
nearly doubled, more than 4500 tons of wolfram 
having been produced i itr Thdia during 1917; mostly 
“Tavoy district of Burma, Vanadium, at 


“NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


present one of the most. keenly sought after ofall 
metals, figures: in Mr. La Touche’s work: by a 
single reference to the reputed presence of 2 per 
cent. in the:ash: of certain lignite. of Travancore. 
Of magnesite, the production has :risen from about 
400 tons: in 1914 to more than 18,o00 tons in 1917. 
Mica; of which 40,000 cwt: had once ‘been: pro- 
duced; fell:to)2'7,000 cwt. in: 1915, but. the demand 
for war needs had once more raised the quantity 
returned as’ production: to more than 40,000; owt. 
in 1917; in. the same year more tham 62,000 cwt. 
were exported; a discrepancy which gives rise to 
a'naive:comment by the Director of the Geological 
Survey that’ “there is: a thriving: trade in. mica 
theft in some of the mining: areas, and: stolen mica 
naturally does not appear in the output returns.’”’ 

Such are some of the reflections which have 
occurred to us in examining this work,. but its real 
value is as a book: of reference: As such; it will 
be invaluable, and:the constant: standby of all who 
are in any way concerned with the mineral. re- 
sources of our Indian’ Empire,.or with the import- 
ant contributions which it has: made to pure 
geology andi the kindred sciences. 


RESEARCH ON WOUNDS: OF WAR. 


Ambulance de “L’Qcéan,’’ La Panne. . Tome ii., 
faso: 1.. Travaux publiés. sous la Direction; du 
Dr. A. Depage. Pp. 376. (Paris: Masson. et 

. Cie; London: H. K. Lewis and. Co.,. Ltd., 
1918.), Price 18 francs. net. 


“HIS volume contains, in the first half, articles 
dealing with operative and post-operative 
methods and results of various wounds in war. 
In: the second half more stress is laid upon the . 
bacteriological aspect and histological appearances 
of war-injured tissues. In the first artiele,. by 
Dr. Depage, is a general discussion of excision 
and delayed) primary and secondary’ suture of 
wounds.. The author deals with the application 
of: this: method’ of treatment: to various: regions: of 
the body, and: lays’ particular: stress om avoiding 
transverse incisions in‘ the limbs; which, although 
giving free access, lead to unduly severe loss: of 
tissue and difficulty in suture. The percentage 
results’ of success: obtained are excellent. 

Dr. e and: Dr. Delrez then report on a 
series of cases of severe injury to the feet; with 
or without involvement of the bones’ and joints. 
Very good photographs and radiographs show 
the wounds of some of! the more’ severe in the 
various stages and the final results. The authors 
strongly recommend the removal of the astragalus 
to assist in the early drainage, and very complete 
inversion until the tissues are clean, after which 
the: surfaces are approximated. and fixed. with: wire 
sutures. 

Dr. Delrez contributes a long article upon that 
most controversial subject—wounds of the knee- 
joint. After discussing the indications for imme- 
diate amputation; he gives examples and figures 
of a large number of cases, dividing them into 
classes according to the extent and nature of 


224 


NATURE 


[May 22, 1919 


injury to the neighbouring bones. He finds that 
the limit of conservative operation is when there is 
an injury of the patella and condyles at the same 
time, and recommends resection and fixation for 
permanent ankylosis. The rest of the article dis- 
cusses wounds of the ankle and wrist, elbow and 
shoulder, and also the treatment of septic arthritis 
that supervenes when the original excision of the 
wound fails to attain primary union. Dr. Neuman 
then contributes the results of laparotomies per- 
formed from June, 1915, to March, 1918. He 
begins with a short historical review of the treat- 
ment of abdominal penetrating wounds, and then 
shows the personal statistics, which clearly em- 
phasise the importance of an advanced post for 
laparotomies. The article then contains a detailed 
classification of the different types of abdominal 
wounds, with the appropriate treatment for each 
type and the statistical results. The article by Dr. 
Janssen contains a valuable review of the history 
of cranio-plastic operations, and a detailed account 
of his own method of cartilaginous or osteoperio- 
stitic heteroplastic grafts and the after-results. 

Prof. Dustin contributes an article on the 
fasciculation of the various nerves of the arm and 
cervical plexus, and points out the importance of 
the arrangement of the fibres in estimating the 
prognosis of total section. Dr. Harde reports the 
relative frequency of the tetanus bacillus and 
other anaerobic organisms in:a large series of 
wounds, and shows that very few cases ever 
develop clinical manifestations of the organisms, 
although they can be bacteriologically identified 
from the tissues. Further contributions on 
microbic growth and the mechanism of elimina- 
tion of organisms from the circulation bring us to 
the last and longest article, by Prof. Levaditi. 

'This is a critical investigation into the effects 
of streptococcal invasion. » The sections are 
arranged as follows: (1) The method of invasion, 
early and late; (2) the morphological and cultural 
characteristics of the different types discovered ; 
(3) the reasons why clinical manifestations do not 
necessarily follow invasion; (4) hypersensibility 
and- acquired immunity arising during the period 
of infection; (5) the effects of vaccination. Many 
charts of individual patients and details of their 
treatment and complications illustrate this 
important research. 

The whole production is excellently printed and 
illustrated, and contains important contributions 
to some of the most intricate of war problems. 

L. J. Austin. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Faith in Fetters. By the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing. 
Pp. 223. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 
1919.) Price 6s. net. 


TuHE author, a veteran naturalist of distineban a 
great authority on Crustaceans, has here raised 
a protest against the continuance of superstition 
in modern theological doctrines and religious con- 
ceptions. The conventionally orthodox attitude to 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


the Bible is an anachronism. But he tilts too often 
against windmills, and there is more than a hint 
of wooden literalism in the examples he gives of 
Biblical contradictions and of anthropomorphisms 
which have become grotesque. The science of 


literature and of folklore has surely changed the | 


educated man’s attitude to the Bible much more 
than Mr. 
suggest. 


morphisms. To take these literally may be super- 
stitious, but it is surely possible to read them 
sympathetically as historical survivals. A theo- 
logical or philosophical idea may be living and 
useful, though its particular form has eva 
musty. 

From internal evidence the author shows that 

“the supposed inspiration and consequential in- 
fallibility of the Old Testament Scriptures rests on 
no solid foundation.’’ But it seems to us that in 
his prosaic, unscientific treatment of the literature 
in question Mr. Stebbing leads his readers into a 
way of looking at things not less erroneous thana 
belief in “‘inspiration.’’ If the author thinks that 
Church councils should make clear that they offi- 
cially accept the scientific view of the Scriptures 


which the best modern scholars have expounded 


and many humble, clear-headed preachers adopt 
every Sunday, we are with him; but it should 
surely be possible to get rid of superstition without 
jettisoning imagination. 


Le Tube Coolidge. 
Médicales et Industrielles. 
Pp. iii+83. (Paris: 
Price 4 francs net. 

M. Piton has written an interesting and timely 

brochure upon the Coolidge X-ray tube. He first 

enters into a description of the three types of 
these tubes which are available at the present 


Par Pilon. 
Masson et Cie, 1919.) 


time, namely, the standard tube, the first model — 


of the inventor and the one ordinarily used; 
Modeéle A, in which attention is especially directed 
towards the production of a very fine focus on the 
anti-cathode;. and, lastly, the radiator type of 
tube, which was designed to meet the special 
requirements of the American Army . Medical 
Service; this tube is a beautiful example of the 
inventive genius of Dr. Coolidge, the diameter 
of. the tube being reduced to as little as 8 cm. 
The second part deals with the radiation emitted 
by the tubes, the data being selected from the 


work of Coolidge and Moore, de Broglie, and 
others; a number of well-chosen illustrations ex- 


hibit the conditions necessary for clearness in 
radiographic images. 

The concluding section is, for the main pact 
a reply to various criticisms which have been 
passed upon the performance of the Coolidge type 
of tube. 
trial applications of X-rays, and a final word is 
wisely said as to the necessity for the adequate pro- 
tection of operators against the powerful and 
penetrating radiation from the modern X-ray tube. 


Ses Applications Scientifiques, 


A small section is devoted to the indus- 


Stebbing’s mode of treatment would ~ 
The Thirty-nine Articles do not fare — 
much better at his hands than do the Scriptures, — 
for they are redolent with impossible anthropo- — 


_ 


| May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


225 


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 
— of anonymous communications. | 


_ The Inheritance of Acquired Characters. 

Sox years ago I directed attention (Eugenics Review, 
January, 1917, Transactions of the South-Eastern 
Eater 2 of Scientific Societies, 1917) to a remarkable 

of experiments by Kammerer, carried out in 

the B Biologische Versuchs-anstalt, Vienna, the results 
of which were published in a number of papers ap- 
ring in the Archiv fiir Entwicklungsmechanik. 
Tn these these experiments Kammerer subjected a number 
of amphibia and reptiles to the. action 

of a modified environment throughout a period ex- 
eg from their early youth until the attainment 
: maturity, and as a result modifications, 
th of structure and habit, were produced. When 
se altered individuals were allowed to pair and 
young, these young showed traces of the 
infil nc to which their parents had been subjected 
iin two ways, viz. (a) when they continued to live 
pa! t environment, the modifications of struc- 
ieee habit which had appeared in the parents 
‘in intensified form in the young ; 
en they were transferred back to the original 
vent proper to the species to which they 

_they still showed, in their younger stages 


oj growin 
f structure | as the parents had exhibited. 
e e results, as I pointed out, would, 
finitely establish the inheritability of  ac- 
the most 


ceived by ‘many of his zoological colleagues, 
iy ut also on the Continent, with a storm of 
Petts were cast on his bona-fides, and 
ashionable to ignore his results in dis- 
>. laws of heredity. One of the most in- 
es ammerer’s experiments had for its sub- 
f hadnt toad ’’ Alytes. This beast differs 
a toads, and, indeed, from the Anura in 
generz he circumstance that the sexes pair on 
3 ae, not, as is the rule among eee the 
water. In all ‘these water-breeding forms the male is 
vided with a horny patch situated on the hand 
below the index finger, in order to enable him to retain 
his hold of the female when he clasps her under the 
oa all know, the eggs are fertilised after bein 
af and the young emerge as tadpoles provided wi 


ree feathery external gills on each side of the head; 
but these s become covered over by the growth of 
. eenacee fold from the hyoid arch and then 


) pleiai g and are functionally replaced by more in- 
te gills. 

. ee male is devoid of the horny patch 
a the | as the skin of the female, being com- 
parativel y dry, is sufficiently adhesive to allow him 
to priisel his hold without it. When the eggs are 
laid—as is usual amongst toads, in long strings—the 
male, after fertilising them, winds them round his 
legs, and thus encumbered he lives in seclusion for 
several weeks until the young are ready to hatch 
out. He then visits the water, and the young emerge 
as advanced tadpoles, in which the external gills have 
already been covered over. The eggs are fewer in 
number, much larger in size, and more abundantly 
provided with yolk than those of other Anura. 

Now Kammerer states that if Alytes be kept under 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


, some degree of the same change in habits 


shar fundamental - 
ions in biology. But Kammerer’s results were. 
not » 


conditions of greater warmth than they are normally 
accustomed to, they will live and flourish if provided 
with a tank of water in which they can bathe if they 
feel so inclined. In these circumstances they 
begin to pair in the water, and the eggs slip off the 
legs of the male and lie in the water. Most perish, 

but, by keeping the water aseptic, a few will develop. 

These, reared to maturity, produce, when sexually 
ripe, more numerous eggs of smaller size than is 
normal to the species, and the young hatch out at 
an earlier stage of development. If we open the egg 
of a normal Alytes, we discover that the embryo is 
provided with only one external gill on each side. 

Now in this F, generation the tadpoles emerge in this. 
stage, and Kammerer figures free-swimming tadpoles 
of Alytes with one large external gill on each side. 

When the F, tadpoles are reared to maturity, they 
pair in the water and give rise to tadpoles with three 
external gills on each side, and these tadpoles, rea 

to maturity, develop into ‘males with a horny p 

on the finger. 

Concerning this experiment, our leading authority 
on genetics, Prof. Bateson, thus speaks in his latest 
book (‘‘ Problems of Genetics,” p. 201) :—‘‘To my 
mind this is the critical observation. If it can be 
substantiated it would go far to proving Kammerefr’s 
case. The , which Kammerér gives [of s 
horny patch: E. W. M.] are quite inadequate, and 
as they merely indicate a dark patch on the thumbs, 
it is not possible to form any opinion as to the 

nature of the structure they represent. I wrote 
to Dr. Kammerer in July, 1910, asking him for the 
loan of such a specimen, and on visting the Bio- 
logische Versuchs-anstalt in September of the same 
year, I made the same request, but hitherto none have 
been produced.”’ 

Now during the war it has been difficult to obtain 
German scientific publications, but, through the kind 
permission of the Board of Trade, we have been en- 
abled to import all the numbers of the Archiv fiir 
Entwicklungsmechanik published during the war. In 
the latest of these, published in Berlin early in 
the present year, there is a paper by Kammerer in 
which he c the results of further rearing of Alytes 
under conditions of greater warmth than normal. His 
original description of the horny patch on the hand. 
of the male was based on its appearance in males 
of the F, generation, but he describes now males of 
the F, generation, in which the horny patch is so 
marked that its development exceeds that in the 
normal male toad (Bufo). He gives photographs of 
two Alytes males side by side, one of a normal male, 
one of a modified male, and in this latter the horny 
wart can clearly be made out. Further, he gives ‘a 
whole plate of figures of sections through the skin 
of the hands of normal and modified males, and the 
last show unequivocally the characteristic horny 
papilla which make up the patch. 

It must, we think, be conceded that Kammerer has 
fairly taken up the ‘gauntlet thrown down to him by 
Prof. Bateson, and the present position of the matter 
is that a strong prima-facie case for the inheritability 
of acquired variations has been made out. Of course, 
it is open to those who have attributed fraud to 
Kammerer to assert that the whole of the evidence 
adduced in this paper has been manufactured out of 
whole-cloth, even though the photograph of the modi- 
fied male is stated to have been taken by an American 
student in Vienna and not by Kammerer himself. 
Such doubting Thomases could be convinced only by 
a journey to Vienna and an inspection of the modified 
males, for it is unreasonable to expect Kammerer 
to send these priceless specimens to any zoologist who 
chooses to doubt his word. It is to be hoped that, 


226 


NATURE 


[May 22, 1919 


once. peace is signed, this journey will not be delayed. 
Meanwhile, the average zoologist who reads Kam- 
merer’s paper may be. pardoned if ‘he feels that the 
hypothesis. of wholesale premeditated fraud is a_ diffi- 
cult one to sustain. 

It may perhaps be said that no notice should be 
taken of Kammerer’s results until some other inves- 
tigator repeats them. Such a course is not pursued 
with regard to any other zoological investigations. 
When new discoveries are published we thankfully 
receive them. We keep, perhaps, an open mind until 
they are repeated, but freely concede that a prima- 
facie case has been made out for them. 


To .Mendelian critics I would .point out that the. 


difficulty of instituting experiments designed to test 
the inheritability of acquired characters is colossal. 
Compared. with them, the carrying out of experi- 


ments in Mendelian inheritance is child’s play. 
With the kind concurrence of Dr. Chalmers 
Mitchell, I have persuaded. Mr. E. Boulenger, 


Curator of Reptiles, to make preliminary arrange- 
ments to have some of Kammerer’s experiments 
repeated in the Zoological Gardens. I found that a 
minimum of six years would be required before de- 
cisive results could -be obtained. This new paper of 
Kammerer’s appears to \represent the result of seven 
or eight years’ work. The proper rejoinder of the 
Mendelian is not to gibe at the absence of confirmatory 
evidence from .other investigators (and some even of 
this is available), but to obey the Scriptural, injunc- 
tion, ‘‘Go thou and do likewise.”’ 

E. W. MacBripe. ~ 

Imperial College of Science, May 7. 


The Conditions attached to Government Grants for 
Scientific Research. 


May I.again direct attention to the conditions under 


which grants are made to individual research workers | 


by the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 
and Industrial Research (London: H.M. Stationery 
Office, 1919. Price 6d.)? The matter is of some im- 
portance, as.not only’ are those who refuse to accept 
these conditions debarred from participating in. the 
grants made from the public purse for scientific. -re- 
search, but other sources which \used to be available, 


and to which such .conditions were not -attached, . 


are also being cut off. I. understand, for example, 
that the ‘Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scot- 
land intends wery largely in the future to discontinue 


its grants in aid of research, and to refer applicants: 


to the Government. 


By accepting a grant ‘under these conditions, .a ) 


research worker undertakes not to publish his or her 


results without the consent of the Committee, and: 


gives up the ownership. in the commercial rights of 


his discoveries, which .othenwise, under the Patent law, | 


belong to him. It is the Committee, not the inventor 
or discoverer, that is to determine to what extent 
and in what proportion the Committee and those 
who have made the discoveries are to secure the 


ownership of the -results by patent, presumably on | 


the ground that the Committee has provided the funds 
for the research. 
the Committee to state precisely what is the share 


it claims, whether the share is limited to the amount : 


of the monetary contribution, or if it intends to make 
a profit? I understood the money was given by Par- 
liament to foster research, not to exploit it. As it is,a 


worker accepting a grant: places himself absolutely, as’ 


regards the legal right to his own property, in the 
hands of a Committee, and if, as is bound to occur, 


differences ‘arise as to what is the share of the dis- | 


coverer or who is the discoverer, the matter is not 
NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


If that is ithe ground, ought not’! 


put into the hands of an impartial arbitrator ‘to settle, 


but is settled by one of the parties in the dispute. — 


In precisely ‘the same way, with existing secret 
patents, if a dispute arises between a patentee and 
the ‘Government, it is the Treasury, who pays for 
the use of the patent, that settles the dispute. = 
The condition .is justified on three grounds. First, 
on the ground -of national interest, especially in the 
present abnormal circumstances, and that it is not 
in the national interest that results of commercial 
value should be made available to other countries to 
the detriment of our own. As regards actual war 
conditions, patents containing any information likely 
to ‘be of use to the enemy have not been published, 
so this is secured independently of the question of the 
ownership of the patent. As regards the future, one 
is justified in asking whether it is the intention of 
the Committee that the results of researches obtained 
by the expenditure of national funds should be kept 
secret, as most scientific men would regard this as 
short-sighted. Bay" 
The second ground is that, where results are to be 
patented, delay in publication is in the interest of the 
investigator. This is scarcely relevant. It is surely 
in the highest degree dangerous to delay applying 
for a provisional patent until the results have been — 
communicated ‘to the Committee and its consent 


obtained, for any person who, by lawful or unlawful 


means, gets the information is then in a position to 
prevent ‘the real discoverer from protecting himself. — 

The third ground is that it is the object of the De- 
partment to secure to the discoverer a fair share in 
any profits that may accrue from his discovery. Ad- 
mittedly, the class of inventors and discoverers is in 
very great need of being protected from the sharp 
practices that have sprung up under the shadow of 
the Patent law, and primarily from the Government 
itself. But why should a small part of them who 


receive Government funds, be singled out and pro-— 
tected? If the discoverer prefers to secure for him- 
self the legal ownership of his discoveries, rather than — 
for the Committee, ‘I do not think he should be de- 
barred from participating in this money. The most, I 
think. the Committee has a right to stipulate is that. 
its interest is limited to the amount it has con-_ 
tributed, and that, in the event of a dispute, the 
matter shall be referred to an impartial arbitrator for 
settlement. FREDERICK SODDY. — 


THE AILANTIC. FLIGHT. 


‘Cee attempt to cross the Atlantic by aeroplane, 
though as yet unsuccessful, has produced one 
record-breaking long-distance flight. The Amer- 
iean, seaplane, NC4, has flown, from, Newfound-. 
land to the Azores, a distance of 1380 miles, thus 
establishing a record for distance. Trepassey 
Bay was left on May 16 at 10.05 p.m. G.M-T., 
and Horta, Island of Fayal, Azores, was reached 
at 1.23 on the following afternoon, the duration 
of the flight being 15 hours 18 minutes. 
and) Commander 


Mr. Harry ‘G. Hawker 
Mackenzie Grieve started from St. Johns, 
Newfoundland, on May 18, at 5.45 G.M.T., 


for a direct flight to the British Isles, but 
no news. has since. been heard of them. | 
It is greatly to be regretted that this daring 
attempt has failed, and we sincerely hope that — 
the two brave aviators, who flew the Sopwith — 
machine, have been rescued by a passing ship. 


_ May. 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


227 


_ itis probable that Mr. Hawker’s failure was due 
to bad weather, and in this respect it seems a 
pity that so difficult a feat should have become a 
race between various competitors. Had Mr. 

_ Hawker waited until the weather conditions were 
eally favourable, there seems little doubt that ke 
have succeeded. 


. the immense progress that has been made 
in the last ten years. In 1909 Blériot first flew 
_ across the Channel, and his feat was then regarded 
in yery much the same light as is the Atlantic 

Bee es cay, We must, therefore, not be dis- 


x: ed by the failure of the first attempt to fly 

st from the New World to the Old, and 
altho! the Atlantic flight cannot now be con- 

‘ed as a commercial project, it may well be 
that in ten years’ time it will be as simple an 
undertaking as a commercial flight from Paris 
to London is at the present day. 


¢ 


It is worthy of note that the great progress in 


e made since Blériot’s Channel flight 


is has. been lue in great measure to improvements 
in the engine, and only secondarily to better aero- 


F dynamic design. It is highly probable that 


e€ improvement will be the main factor 
ing the development of long-distance com- 


mercial flying in the future. 


_ The main difficulty of trans-Atlantic flying will 
_ always be ‘the weather, but it is to be hoped that 
an extended research into the meteorological con- 
ditions at various altitudes will do much to 
si ‘y the problem by enabling aviators to 
_ choose the most favourable route and altitude of 
. merely tse R 
mwhile, we can but await the attempts of 
competitors for the honour of the Atlantic 


oO 
- conquest by air, in the certainty that effort will 
not be relaxed, until the flight is accomplished, 
and in the hope that Mr. Hawker and his navi- 
gator have been spared to make another attempt. 


| Trans-Atlantic Flying and Weather. 
‘Tt cannot be too well understood that a flight 
from Newfoundland to the Azores at this time 
of year is vastly different from a flight to the 
‘Isles. The Azores flight is made within a 
one where fair weather prevails. The stages to 

bon and thence to Plymouth may offer con- 
jerable difficulties. For seaplanes, and with 
3 er, fairly close to hand, the risk to 
life is 

awe! 


reatly lessened. 

Piper the direct flight from St. Johns, 
Newfoundland, to the British Isles is concerned, 
it is at present not easy to minimise the risks. 

Weather undoubtedly is the controlling factor. 
There are usually exceptionally few days in the 
year when the North Atlantic is free from cyclonic 
listurbances, but of all seasons the present time 
is probably normally the most favourable. The 
conditions, however, vary so immensely in 
different years that to choose a period for a trans- 

Atlantic ‘flight without reference to the actual 

existing weather conditions involves immense 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


n considering the present situation, it is well to | 


danger. For a practically safe flight eastwards 
the prevailing distribution of atmospheric pressure 
over the Atlantic should be anticyclonic, with 
direct indication that no cyclonic disturbances 
exist along the route. In these conditions, which 
synchronous charts of the Atlantic show to exist 
occasionally, aircraft would have a_ steady 
westerly wind over the whole course. On the . 
other hand, when cyclonic disturbances are known 
to exist in the open Atlantic, as they have for 
several days past, and for a much longer period, 
stormy and probably adverse winds would have 
to be negotiated for a considerable distance. The 
information given in the International section of 
the Daily Weather Report, issued by the 
Meteorological Office, which includes wireless 
reports from the Atlantic, shows what complete 
data have been available for those taking part in 
the flight. A moderate south-easterly gale was 
blowing at the surface well to the westward of the 
Irish coast at the time of the eastern flight, whilst 
nothing definite was known as to the direction 
and velocity of the upper air. Information as to 
the drift of the air over the open sea in any part 
of the world is of the crudest form, although even 
that might be of great value. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL 
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN GREAT 
BRITAIN. 


ie was for long a reproach to this country ‘that 

so little attention was paid to agricultural 
research and education. The first step. to remedy 
this state of affairs was taken in 1910, when Mr. 
Lloyd George set up the Development -Commis- 
sion and provided it ‘with funds for the promotion 
of research and of various schemes and methods 
calculated to assist the agricultural industry, Out 
of its funds the Commission in 1911 made a 
grant to the Board of Agriculture of 50,000l. per 
annum for the carrying out of the Board’s scheme 
to promote agricultural research and education, 
and this sum was allocated to various institutions 
and colleges, thereby allowing much-needed ex- 
tensions of laboratories and staffs. It \is a con- 
dition of the grant that a report on the work of 
the linstitution should be sent each year to the 
Board, and these reports as published have beem 
duly reviewed in the columns of Nature. 

There is little doubt that this grant saved the 
agricultural colleges and research institutions 
from losing their best men. Up to 1970 it was 
recognised that a good man had little prospect in 
this country, and must perforce seek for posts 
overseas, either in some part of the Empire or 
in the United States. A score of names can be 
recollected of men who went, not primarily 
because they wanted to go, but because they saw 
no alternative. Although a few ‘stayed on, they 
recognised the risk they ran. Had nothing 
occurred \to\ justify them, the profession would 
soon, and deservedly, have acquired a bad reputa- 


228 


NATURE 


[May 22, 1919 


tion, and few desirable recruits would have 
entered it. : 
All this was changed in 1910 with the appoint- 
ment of the Development Commission, and the 
thoroughness with which that body did its duty by 
encouraging agricultural research and education 
deserves wide recognition. Colleges and research 
institutions were enabled to build up staffs with 
adequate technical knowledge and expert in study- 
ing agricultural problems. The country has 
already derived considerable benefit; during the 
war it must have recovered most of its expendi- 


ture as a result of having at its service a body of. 


experts already trained, instead of having to wait 
until new men could learn the work. 


After eight years of its first scheme the Board | 


of Agriculture is clearly satisfied with the results, 
for it has now decided on a still further develop- 
ment. The Board’s proposals involve an expendi- 
ture on agricultural research and education, not 
of 50,0001. a year, but of 400,000l..a year. .Re- 


search, it is understood, is to be subsidised at the 


rate of 100,000l. a year; the colleges are to 


receive 50,0001. a year; the remainder is intended 


for country and other work. 

A certain number of men (and presumably of 
women also) who have distinguished themselves in 
natural .science at the universities. will receive 
scholarships that will enable them to specialise in 
agricultural science and to fit themselves for ap- 
pointments at research institutions and agricul- 
tural colleges. A scholarship scheme has been:in 
existence’ since 1911, and useful experience has 
been gained of its operation. Perhaps the most 
notable feature of this accumulated experience is 
the serious responsibility placed on the teacher 
who nominates a candidate. 
unsuitable men have been put forward by well- 
meaning sponsors who realised’ that their candi- 
date was not quite good enough for pure science, 


but hoped he might do for agriculture.’ Indeed, 


one or ‘two schools’ of pure science ‘are in rather 
bad odour at agricultural ‘institutions for this 
reason. ' Unfortunately agricultural science, while 
offering excellent careers for men of the proper 
outlook and calibre, is the blindest of blind alleys 
for those who‘are unsuitable. 

Given the right type of man, a career will be 
open to him. At the present time there are some 
forty permanent research posts at the agricultural 
institutions. It is proposed (according to the 
Times) to raise this number’ gradually ‘to 150. 
The salaries, we learn from another source, will 
compare favourably with those: offered at the 
universities, the headship of a small department 
being equivalent to a senior lectureship and that 
of a large department to a professorship; in addi- 
tion, the university superannuation scheme is to 


apply. The work, we know, is of the highest in- 


terest and importance: geet 

Agricultural education is also to be developed. 
There are already in existence a number of agri- 
cultural colleges to serve the country—in England 
and Wales alone there are about twelve, without 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


It has happened that: 


counting the Scottish and Irish colleges—and they 
develop on more extensive lines. — oh 

The work of the colleges is mainly related to’ 
the needs of the coming generation of farmers; 
it is proposed, however, to bring them into closer 


will receive further grants enabling them Bs. 3 


% 


touch with men at present farming by the estab- 


lishment of demonstration farms and other organ- 
isations calculated to achieve the same purpose. ~ 
At the present time the link betwéen the college’ 
and the school is not very definite; we have in 
this country very few schools similar to the Rural 
High Schools of the United States. Oundle 
among the large schools, and Dauntsey and Bre-’ 
wood among the grammar schools, have agri- 
cultural sides where boys receive the proper train- 
ing preliminary to an agricultural college course, 
but there are few places to which a farmer or 
labourer could send his son if for any reason the 
long school and college course were not possible. 
It is proposed to erect more farm institutes where 
intelligent boys can go for winter courses, and 
girls can be taught in summer; a certain amount 
of this kind of work has been done, and its value 
demonstrated. Finally, there is to be provision 
for giving short courses to school teachers who 
will be engaged in the new continuation schools 
in. rural. districts. Se esis 
Although full details are not yet published, 
sufficient is known to show that the scheme is of 
the first importance, and the Board of Agriculture 
is to be congratulated on the bold lines of the 
proposal. The scheme has yet to be accepted 
by the House of Commons, and may undergo 


changes; it cannot be fully discussed until it is 


officially published in all its details. For the 
moment: the great point for satisfaction is that 
the Board of Agriculture has shown itself so com- 
pletely alive to the need for research and educa- 
tion, and has so fully satisfied itself that science’ 
can help agriculture.’ The band of scientific 
workers. who have rendered such devoted service 
during the probationary period may also be con- 
gratulated on the result of their labours. _ 
Some of these workers have themselves issued 
through the Agricultural Education Association a 
memorandum on the reconstruction of agricultural 
education in England and Wales,! which is. of 
interest as showing their side, and will be of still 
greater interest when the Board’s scheme is 
finally issued. The memorandum is very wide 
in its scope, and deals with rural continuation 
schools, county work, farm institutes, agricultural 
colleges, university agricultural education, agri- 
cultural research, dairy education, horticultural 
education, poultry-keeping, co-operative experi-. 
mental work, experimental and other farms, status 
of workers, and co-ordination in educational work. 


The. general summary is contained in sixty-two 
paragraphs at the end, and as it relates largely 


to matters of detail it cannot well be further 
shortened. In the main the 1911 scheme is judged 


to have succeeded, though it now needs consider-— 


1 Obtainable from the Secretary of the Agricultural Education Association, 
Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop, } 


: 
@ 
f 


. . 


eee 2452979) 


NATURE 


229 


fable amplification and, of course, more money. 
y Tbe, need is emphasised for more county work, 
y mae farm institutes, more exper! imental farms, 
and valuable information is given as to the best 
bas i enctthods of carrying out the purpose of these 
Various institutions, but no great change is sug- 
| Sgested... It is entirely satisfactory to everyone 
“concerned that the men who have had to carry out 
the scheme should regard it so favourably. © The 
_ foundations have already been well laid; let us 
Z — the’ building will be ae of its purpose. 
E. J. Russet. 


eee Pipe FINANCIAL POSITION OF 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY. 
“HE University of Cambridge in general, and 
+ its scientific departments in particular, find 
4 ‘themselves in a grave position financially as a 
>. t of the diminution of the value of money 
; Dbrought about by the war. Towards the end of 
last term the heads of the scientific departments 
. presented to the Council of the Senate a statement 
5 owing that to provide for the efficient working 
of Pik departments on the pre-war scale, without 
_making’ allowance for any extension of activity, 
_ an additional income of 17,0001. was required to 
meet the increased cost of wages and maintenance. 
further pointed out that in addition to the 
; higher tt of living a new factor had arisen, in 
various departments had to face an increased 
competition with activities outside the University 
for the’ services of the most competent scientific 
men; and they were of opinion that an average 
_ imerease of 50 per cent. in the pre-war payments 
to the teaching staff was required if the University 
was” to” continue to command the best scientific 
talent. ‘in the country. This increase of stipends 
woul _ require an additional income of 15,o000l., 
ig 32,0001. in all. 
cia SB yovember of last year the acting vice- 
higuedtior received a letter from the President of 
the Board of Education inviting him to send a 
% statement as to the needs of the University in 
order that “the Government should obtain a con- 
‘spectus of the needs of higher education over the 
_ whole country.”’ In response to this request the 
eer vice-chancellor sent a summary of the pro- 
needs of the University, and in March 
nformal deputation, consisting of the master 
Caius, the president of Queens’, the master of 
Downing, Dr. Stewart, Sir J. Larmor, and Sir 
' a Pope, waited on Mr. Fisher for the purpose 
a 


to the ° leh out of Parbomentle funds 
except on the condition that in due course a com- 
prehensive inquiry into the whole resources of the 
University and its colleges, and into the use which 
is being made of them, should be instituted by 
the Government. Subject to the acceptance of this. 
condition by the University, the Government would 
NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


be prepared to instruct the Standing Committee 
which is to be formed to advise the Government 
concerning grants to universities and colleges to 
submit recommendations with a view to an emer- 
gency grant being made to the University during 
the current financial year to meet the immediately 
urgent needs of salaries and maintenance. The 
Government would also be prepared, after the 
completion of the inquiry, to consider, in conjunc- 
tion with the University, if it should so desire, 
the conditions under which a grant designed to 
meet the permanent requirements of the University 
might be miade. 

This letter was communicated to the Senate, and 
the proposals which it involved were formulated 
by the Council and submitted for discussion in 
the Senate on May 13. In the important debate 
which took place the proposals were supported by 
a number of the most prominent members of the 
University, including the provost of King’s, Sir 
J. J. Thomson, the president of Queens’, Sir 
W. J. Pope, and Prof. Sims Woodhead. They 
were opposed by the master of Corpus, Mr. 
Whibley, and, in part, by Dr. E. H.. Griffiths. 
The question as to whether the University is pre- 
pared to accept financial assistance from the 
Government under the conditions laid down in Mr. 
Fisher’s letter will probably be submitted to the 
vote of the Senate in the near future. 

The discussion in the Senate was opened by 
the vice-chancellor with the announcement that a 
munificent gift had been offered to the University, 
the British oil companies having agreed to join 
together in a scheme for endowing the chemical 
department, the Burma Oil Co., the Anglo-Persian 
Oil Co., and the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. each 
offering 50,000l1., Lord Cowdray. and the Hon. 
Clive Pearson between them 50,000l., and Mr. 
Deterding 10,000l., making a total of 200,000 
guineas. This generous offer to one of its great 
scientific departments meets with very high appre- 
ciation in the University. 


THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND 
SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE. 


Gik LEONARD ROGERS’S recent presi» 
“7 dential address to the Indian Science Con- 
gress at Bombay is a forcible protest against the 
long conflict between scientific enthusiasm and 
official apathy. The benefits conferred on long- 
suffering humanity by scientific investigation have 
strangely not sufficed to remove this dull resist- 
ance. Twenty years ago the present writer made 
a note in the visitors’ book at the leper station 
of Almora to the effect that no systematic investi- 
gations were being made in India into the terrible 
disease leprosy. It is true that individual workers 
here and there in India, among them Sir Leonard 
Rogers, have carried on researches, but what con- 
certed efforts has the Government of India made 
towards stamping out the disease, and where are 
the leprosy laboratories with their staffs of trained 
investigators? The cause and mode of trans- 
mission of elephantiasis and allied conditions 


230. 


[May.22, 1919/ 


are known, but what has been done towards map- 
ping out the distribution of these diseases, making 
a survey of the mosquitoes known to. transmit 
them, and eradicating these mosquitoes? Again, 
are the investigations carried on in India in 
respect of malaria at all commensurate with the 
magnitude of the problem? Has kala-azar, one 
of the deadliest of diseases, been systematically 
attacked except by the enterprise of commercial 
companies? We are aware that a few commis- 
sions have investigated and reported on the 
epidemic outbreaks of this disease, but more than 
that is required, viz. patient, systematic research. 
Fortunately, this hitherto incurable disease 
appears to be now readily curable by tartar 
emetic, and if research.can discover the mode of 
transmission of the disease the possibility of its 
extermination is great, 

Sir Leonard Rogers points out the value of 
“team’’ work. No better examples could be 
given than the researches made, through force. of 
circumstances. during the war on malaria and 
dysentery. It is this team work that is required 
in India, and, indeed, we have one excellent 
example of it, viz. the work of the Plague Com- 
mission. In our indictment of official apathy we 
had written. on the subject of that devastating, 
widespread disease ankylostomiasis, or hook- 
worm disease, but even as we. wrote we learned 
that the Government of Bengal is instituting a 
campaign against it. If it be said that medical 
research. is not being neglected in India, that 
large sums of money have recently been devoted 
to it, and that tropical schools are being formed 
in Bombay and Calcutta, we would say that these 
are good signs, but we still want more proof that 
those in high places are purged of their ignor- 
ance, and that at last the claims of scientific 
medicine are fully admitted. 

J. We Wa Ds 


NOTES. 


Tue Croonian lecture of the Royal Society will be 
delivered on Thursday next, May 29, by Dr. H. H. 
Dale ‘on “‘ The Biological Significance of Anaphylaxis.”’ 


Sir J. J. THomson has been appointed by an Order 
of ‘Council to be a member of the Advisory Council 
to the Committee of ithe Privy Council for Scientific 
and, Industrial Research. 


Tue Prince or Wates, Sir J. J. Thomson, 
Master of Trinity ‘College, Cambridge, and president 
of ‘the ‘Royal Society, and Sir Norman Moore, ‘Bart., 
president iof the Royal College of Physicians, have been 
elected to the Standing Committee of the British 
Museum. 


Tue Prince oF WatEs ‘will be proposed for election 
to the Royal Society at to-day’s meeting. He will be 
elected under the rule which provides that a prince 
of the blood royal may be proposed at an ordinary 
meeting of the society by any fellow, and may be put 
to the ‘vote for election on the same day, provided 
that public notice of such proposal has been given 
at the preceding meeting. 


At a meeting of the Royal Society held on May 15 
the following candidates nominated by the council 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


NATURE 


‘delivered by Sir John Rose Bradford on a 


the need for economising 


were elected fellows of the society :—Prof. F. A. Bai ’ 5 
bridge, Dr. G. Barger, Dr. S. Chapman, Sir C. F.) 


Close, Dr. J. W. Evans, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, 


Dr. G. S. Graham-Smith, Mr. E. Heron-Allen, Dr. 


W. D. Matthew, Prof. C. G. Seligman, Prof. B. Di 


Steele, Major G. I. Taylor, Dr. G. N. Watson, Dr. 


J. C. Willis, and Prof. T. B. Wood, ie 
Tue Cullum geographical medal of the American 


‘Geographical Society for the present year thas ‘been 


awarded to M. E. de Margerie, the translator into 
Een me iia ‘Das Antlitz der Erde,” and an 
acknowledged :authority upon the physical, geography 
of the United States of America. —_ 


Mr. W. R. Duntop referred in his letter on the 
cultivation of sponges, published in Nature. of May 8, 
to the present position of the subject in relation to 


‘the Colonial Office. We understand that nothing has 


been. officially decided there in regard to a marine 
zoologist for the Imperial Department. of Agriculture 
(W.1I.), but the subject of sponge culture is engaging 
attention, and the question of sending a marine 
zoologist to study sponges in the West Indies -will 
shortly come before a Committee. lO, TR Mer 


On Tuesday next, May 27, Prof. W. H. Bragg will 
deliver the first of two lectures at the Royal Institu- 
tion on listening under water (the Tyndall lectures). 
On Thursday, May 29, Sir Valentine Chirol will give 
the first of two lectures: on ithe Balkans. The Friday 
evening discourse on May 30, at 5.30 :0’clock, 


passing” virus. in certain diseases. The closing dis- 
course of the session will be given on June 6 b 

Sir Ernest Rutherford on ‘‘ Atomic Brojedtiles” and 
their Collisions with Light Atoms.” 2 2 2 


Tue Research Defence Society has presented to the 
Home Secretary a protest against the Dogs’. Protec- 
tion Bill. Although the signing of such a document 
by physiologists may seobie be regarded as natural, 
it is noteworthy that we find also the names of all 
the leading members of the medical profession, many 
dignitaries of the Church, men of affairs, and 
members of the legal and literary professions. It is 
pointed out that the passing .of the Bill would be 


¥ 


‘disastrous to the future of medical science in this 


country, while the interests of national ‘health ‘and 
efficiency would be seriously prejudiced: The latest 
report of the Medical Research Committee is referred 
to. as showing the service rendered by physiological, 
experiments, for which the use of dogs is essential. 


Mr. H. S. Baw, late Assistant Inspector of Mines, 
G.H.Q., France, has communicated a valuable account 
of the work of the miner .on the Western front to 
the Institution of Mining and. Metallurgy (Bulletin, 
April, 1919, pp- 1-53). One of the most interesting 
sections of the paper is that which deals with mine 
listening instruments. The geophone, which repro- 
duces the sound exactly, magnifies the intensity two 


and a half times. A single instrument is ‘used when — 


the object is merely to detect the existence and nature 
of sounds made by enemy miners, and. a pair when 
the direction of the source of sound is required. The 
two geophones are placed on the ground about 18 in. 
apart, each connected with an ear of the listener, and 
they are moved until the sound jis reproduced equally 
in both ears, the direction of the sound-source being” 
then at right angles: to the line joining the geophones. 
Observations. were made at ‘the end of a gallery, and, 
owing to the danger incurred at such a post and to 
man-power, the seismo- 


microphone came into use, as. many as fifty galleries 


“ filter- 


being connected up to a switchboard’ of a central lis- 


/ May 22, 1919] 


NATURE az 


_ tening chamber, situated in some quiet spot behind 
the mining system. When sounds were heard in any 
icular gallery a listener was sent there with geo- 
phones to investigate. The enemy is known to ‘have 
used several types of mine listening instruments, but 
no trace has been found of any instrument for the 
_ determination,of direction. 
ANNOUNCEMENT is made of the death of Gen. 
_ Stefanik, who may be better known to astronomers jas 
_ Dr. Milan Stefanik, formerly attached to the Meudon 
Observatory. Dr. Stefanik was the son of a Slovak 
id about 1905, ‘being then quite a young man, 
bi ee ady a doctor of science of Prague’ University, 
joined the Meudon Observatory as pupil astronomer, 
and, at the invitation of Dr. Janssen, proceeded to 
— Spain > the ce from that observatory to 
i, e the total solar eclipse of August 30, 1905, and 
“made spectroscopic observations on that occasion. 
‘During the succeeding year he pursued spectroscopic 
‘investi gation of various kinds at Meudon, showing 
nuity in improving apparatus, and made a special 


dy of the infra-red spectrum. In 1906 he went, 
ith others of the staff, to the subsidiary observatory 
Blanc, where he continued his study of the 
from the point of view of telluric absorp- 
his observations from different altitudes 
fain. In 1910 Dr. Stefanik established 
n exp an observatory in the island of 


sa 
- 


y placed to observe the solar eclipse of 
, 1911, when the line of totality crossed the 
-He made the short journey to the island of 


British observing parties under the 

f Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer and Father Cortie, 

‘the weather was not entirely favourable, 

that he obtained some successful results. 

1911, he was awarded the Wilde 

ri y the Paris Academy. At the outbreak 

he Dr. Stefanik was in Paris engaged in 

A Steed. (yh pies once joined the French Army 

soldier, refusing a scientific appointment 
Mi 


} 
ate 
jim by Marshal Foch, Shortly, however, he 
_ eommissioned rank, and rapidly passed 
h all grades to that of general. He met his 
t' a comparatively early age in an aeroplane 
a flight from Italy to Bratislava, the 
lis native land of Slovakia. 


- announced, Col. D.. Rintoul, senior 
uster and head of the physics department 
liege, died.at Clifton.on April 21 of pneu- 
onia. Born at Forteviot, Perthshire, in 1862, 
Rintoul received his earlier education at St. Andrews 
d Edinburgh; he proceeded to Corpus Christi 
olleg Capit idge, in 1881, and eventually became 
ww of his college. In December, 1385, he was 

inte ior physics master at Clifton in) succes- 
to the late Prof. Worthington, who had left to 
_ become headmaster of the Royal Naval Engineering 
College, Devonport. With Rintoul in charge of 
_ physies and Shenstone of chemistry, Clifton more than 
maintained its prominent place among public schools 
science teaching. Rintoul’s own words, “If a 
teacher is wise the will encourage all independence of 
wht,” best show the principles upon which he 
sd in school, while his firmness of character, quick- 
3, and directness made his teaching distinctive. 
om 1904 to 1918 he was a housemaster. Always a 
kesh eelcier, Rintoul joined the 2nd Gloucester R.E. 
in 1888, retiring after some twenty years’ service with 
the honorary rank of lieut.-colonel; he held the Terri- 
torial officers’ decoration, and on the formation of the 
T.F. was nominated by the War Office as one 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


‘pursue his researches, and was therefore: 


n the Tonga group, where he had for his 


of the military representatives on the T.F. County 
Association. When the late Major H. Clissold left 
Clifton in 1914 to raise a field company, \Rintoul 
came out of his retirement, and again took command: 
of the school corps, bringing it to a high state of 
efficiency, and! for this service was specially thanked 
by the War Office. Rintoul’s busy life made it im- 
possible for him to do much original research, yet 
the many novel features of his own laboratory reflected 
his marked mental alertness and his live interest in 
all recent developments of his subject. Shortly before 
his death he gave valuable help to the Secondary 
School, Examination Council, His elder son, Lieut. 
D. W. Rintoul, R.A.M.C., was killed in, Flanders 
in I9l. 


Sir W. Ripceway contributes to the Quarterly 
Review for April an interesting paper on the subject 
of ancestor worship and the Chinese drama. He 
remarks that it is not merely triumphs and victories 
that are the themes of early dramas, any more than 
they are in the most advaneed. They are drawn 
from appalling catastrophes and striking reversals of 
fortune, as in the Muharram celebrations of ‘the Shiah 
Mohammedans, and in many examples from Greece, 
China, and Japan. There is no need to assume that 
China borrowed these themes from Greece or Greece 
from China, as such honouring of the dead is world- 
wide. Neither in China nor anywhere else did tragedy 
arise from the worship of seasonal or vegetational 
Sean da but in the veneration and worship of the 

ead. 


In Folk-lore (vol. xxix., No. 4) Miss W. S. Black- 
man contributes an interesting article on the rosary 
in magic and religion, largely based on ‘the extensive 
collection in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. The’ 
use of the rosary, which claims ‘high antiquity in the 
East, is based on that of knots as mnemonic signs, ' 
the highest development of which appears in the 
Peruvian Quipus. The Mohammedan form is usually 
assigned to Buddhism; but tradition and passages in 
the earlier literature point to a primitive type of 
rosary, such as would not be used if borrowed from 
a people who already possessed it in.a highly developed 
form. The period of its introduction into Europe is 
usually fixed as that of the Crusades; but we learn 
from William of Malmesbury that Lady Godiva, wife 
of Count Leofric, who died before 1070, had a circlet 
of gems which, she used, in reciting her prayers. It 
seems, therefore, probable that the rosary has been 
evolved independently at more centres. than ene from . 
the use of knots, as mnemonic records. 


Tue Avicultural Magazine for May contains a tem- 
perately worded and convincing plea for the establish- 
ment of a bureau of economic ornithology, which, we 
trust, will be productive of good results. The urgenc 
of the need for such an addition to the Board of Agri- 
culture is, unfortunately, far from being realised, and 
it is highly probable that any attempt to press this 
matter would be met with the assurance that the time 
for such a scheme was not opportune, nor would its 
cost be justified. We fear that Dr. Collinge, the 
author of ‘the article, is preaching to deaf ears, but 
sooner or later even the Board of Agriculture may. be 
induced to listen to his plea. 


Tne devélopment of the pericardiaco-peritoneal canal” 
in the dogfish (Sevilium) and Acanthias has been re- 
examined by Mr. E. S. Goodrich (Journal of Anatomy, 
vol. liii., part 1, pp. 1-r3, October, 1918). This canal 
leads in the adult from the pericardial to the peri- 
toneal eccelom, and opens into the latter by paired 
apertures. Balfour suggested that the canal is a. 
remnant ofthe wider communication ‘between the two 


r ; 


232 


NATURE 


[May 22, 191) 


cavities in the embryo, but Hochstetter (1900) main- 
tained that the early communication between the 
cavities became closed completely, and that the canal 
opening from one to the other in the adult is a new 
formation. Mr. Goodrich shows, with the help of 
excellent figures, that Balfour’s original view is 
essentially correct, and that Hochstetter was mistaken 
in his interpretation. © 


AmonG the Notes from the Laboratory of the Wis- 
consin Geological and Natural History Survey is one 
(No. 11, issued December, 1918) by Mr. R. A. Mutt- 
kowski on a qualitative and quantitative survey of 
the fauna, with Special reference to the insects, of 
Lake Mendota, which has an area of about 15 square 
miles and a maximum depth of 84 ft. That it forms 
a rich collecting ground is evidenced by. striking 
records, e.g. a Myriophyllum plant with seven 
branches, totalling a length of 4 metres, held more 
than 15,000 specimens of Hydra fusca. Larve of 
Corethra punctipennis, which are abundant in_ the 
lake, are found in daylight in the bottom mud, where 
they. chiefly hunt their food, but at night they come 
to the surface. Catches made in the summer of 1916 
by means of a dredge showed that the number of 
larve in a square metre of the bottom ranged from 
2000 to 18,000. Despite the transparency of the larva 
and pupa, these are eaten in large numbers by the 
fish of the lake, perch gorged with these larve being 
frequently found. The larve of the Ceratopogonine 
genera Palpomyia and Probezzia, when grasped in 
the water, straighten out and become rigid—one of 
the few cases where aquatic insects feign death in 
their normal environment. These larve are ‘slender 
and elongate, and also resemble in their colour the 
filamentous alge among which they live, but, never- 
theless. they are frequent in the stomachs of the lake- 
fish. The author cannot confirm Prof. Miall’s state- 
ment that those lJarvze of Chironomus which live at 
the bottom and burrow in mud possess haemoglobin, 
while those which live near the surface have colour- 
less blood. He emphasises the absolute lack of any 
correlation between colour and oxygen-supply. 


Mr. W. G. Crate (Notes from the Royal Botanic 
Garden, Edinburgh, vol. xi., November, 1918) has 
investigated the regional spread of moisture in 
deciduous-leaved trees during’ the felling season—that 
is; from late autumn until-early spring. The species 
selected for examination was the sycamore (Acer 
pseudoplatanus), and the results, which are indicated 
by graphs and coloured diagrams of cross-sections, 
show that at the beginning of the season the centre 
of the tree is very wet, and at the end of the season 
there is a very wet region almost on the outside, while 
the centre is very dry. Between these two extremes 
are all the intermediate stages. The processes 
during the season are interpreted as follows: As the 
result of the water moving inwards from the outer 
zones, beginning at the base of the trunk, there is 
created an area of maximum moisture content, in any 
given cross-section, at the centre of the trunk. This 
inward current and the consequent plane of maxi- 
mum moisture content at the centre gradually extend 
upwards in the trunk to the topmost region; but 
before this is reached and the centre of the trunk at 
the top of the bole has become a region of maximum 
moisture content, a radial movement has begun at 
the bottom of the trunk. This radial movement also 
progresses upwards, and by. its means the region of 
maximum moisture content passes almost to the out- 
side of the trunk, leaving the centre the driest region. 
The movements upwards and radially, both inwards 
and outwards, are going on synchronously at different 


levels in the trunk. The expressions ‘‘the sap is. 


down” in autumn and ‘the sap is up” in spring are, 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


therefore, meaningless; we should. say rather ‘the’ 


sap is in” (the centre) or ‘‘the sap is out” (near the 


bark). 


much to remove the prejudice against summer fell- 
ing. The new facts brought to light also raise points 


of scientific interest as to the explanation of the — 


activities in the tree during the so-called dormant 


period, or the reasons for the arrangement of the 


various pits in the tissue-elements. 


THe Sub-Committee of the Food Investigation 
Board has issued an interim report on refrigerator- 
cars, in which many improvements are suggested 
which could be carried out on existing cars, and 
others which could be applied in designing new cars. 
On the whole, the report reveals an unsatisfactory 
state of. affairs, with divided responsibility falling 
partly upon the owners of the goods and partly upon 
the railway companies. Tests were made on several 
cars, both standing and running, showing that the 


insulation is not so effective as is desirable; that the 


deficiency in air-tightness is a serious matter; and 
that the practice of icing the ice-tanks is altogether 
inefficient. Another point worthy of note is the fact 
that the cubic capacity of cars now in use is much 
in excess of what they can carry when they are 
charged up to the safe load with frozen produce. This 
is rather an unfortunate state of things. It is well 
known that in order to. obtain the best results in a 
chamber containing frozen produce it is desirable that 


“it should be filled and; well stowed, whereas in some 


cases the Committee found quite 35 per cent. of the 
car-space was vacant. This defect might be remedied 
by so designing the axles, etc., as to allow the present 
cars to be loaded to their capacity. The Committee 
would have pleasure in receiving from railway com- 
panies designs for refrigerator-cars embodying its 
recommendations. mes tet 


A CORRESPONDENT forwards us a newspaper cutting 
from South Africa directing attention to the possibili- 
ties of the prickly pear (Opuntia, spp.) as a source’ 
of industrial alcohol and other products. The plant in 
question covers thousands of acres of good soil in 
South Africa, and is a pest to farmers. ‘To utilise it 
profitably would be a notable achievement in turning 
a waste product to account. Syrup can be obtain 
from the plant, the seeds contain an extractable oil, 
and an official report made some years ago is quoted 
as indicating that alcohol might be produced from 
the ‘‘tunas”’ or fruits at a relatively low cost. It may 
be remarked that the question of producing alcohol 
from the prickly pear has been carefully studied in 
‘Australia; the conclusion drawn, however, was un- 
favourable. Analysis showed that the total sugar 


content of the most common Australian species, - 


Opuntia inermis, was only 0-6 per cent., and the 
highest amount of sugar in any of the species 
examined was but 2 per cent. Distillation experiments 
yielded alcohol equivalent to only 0-5 per cent. of the 
weight of the plant used, so that the manufacture 


was considered unprofitable, and, indeed, scarcely — 
is 


practicable. But the South African prickly 
said to be much richer in sugar than the Australian 
product, and this, of course, may make all the differ- 
ence between success and failure in utilising the plant. 


In the Transactions of the Institution of Engineers. 


and Shipbuilders in Scotland for December last there 


is published an interesting paper by Mr. W. B. Hird — 


on ‘Electrical Ship Propulsion.” The relative advan- 


tages of the various electrical methods of driving the - 
propeller shaft are given, and also the results of trials _ 


on ships with electrical gearing. To illustrate the 


flexibility of the electric drive the author quotes the » 


These results in water-distribution are con- — 
firmed by experiments on other trees, and should do 


Or bu eae ES 


_ May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


233 


claims made for the equipment of the American battle- 
cruisers. They are designed for a speed of thirty-five 
‘knots, and require 180,000 h.p. to be delivered to four 
_propellers running at 250 revolutions per minute. Sup- 
; that one motor out of the eight breaks down, it 
can be instantly disconnected, and the loss in total 
power being only one-eighth, the speed would only be 
‘reduced by about one knot. For cruising speeds the 
bi will attain twenty-six knots with only two 
ac sets and four motors at work, and nineteen 
ts with one generating set only and four motors in 
_ use. At full power the efficiency claimed is 93 per 
cent. On the other hand, it was pointed out that the 
electric gear was considerably heavier than the 
“mechanical gear, and its efficiency is about 2 per 
cent. lower. The author considers that there were 
, Spheres of usefulness for both the ‘‘ geared turbine” 
and the “turbo-electric system,” and that in some cases 
they might with advantage be used in combination. 


i 


__ $ir Ducatp CierK read a paper on ‘“‘ The Distribu- 
tion of Heat, Light, and Motive Power by Gas and 
Electricity ’’ to the Royal Society of Arts on March 109. 
‘He takes as his basis of comparison for heating the 
amount of fuel consumed per thermal unit available in 
the gas or electricity, for lighting the amount of fuel 
consumed per candle-hour, and for motive power the 
wer-hours available per pound of fuel. From 
oint of view of coal conservation, he concludes 
_gas-heating should be used. Judging on this 
: , there is little to choose between gas and electric 
lighting, but he is strongly in favour of gas motive 
- power. Sir Dugald Clerk points out that of. the 
- coal-gas consumed in the United Kingdom probably 
| per cent. is used for heating, 35 per cent. for 
ghting, and to per cent. for motive power. He cal- 
culates that if electricity were used for these pur- 
eS 92 per cent. more heat units would be con- 


_ stations would undoubtedly effect immense economies 
by abolishing many of the present wasteful electrical 
tations. Electricity was very largely used for driving 
@ machinery upon which the winning of the war 
depended. It is difficult to believe that gas-engines 
would have been so successful. The rapidly extending 
use of electricity for cooking proves that more items 
han the thermal efficiency have to be taken into 
act yunt before a just comparison can be made. 
_ Sik Rosert Haprievp has sent us a translation of 
a recent statement by M. Honoré giving some account 
of the French Steel and Iron Masters’ Association. 
t appears from this that in recent years French ferro- 
metallurgy has shown a pronounced tendency towards 
: entration of effort. From 383 in 1875 the number 
of works dropped to 208 in 1912, while the total iron 
and steel production increased from 900,000 to 
bee ‘tons. Whereas, therefore, the capacity of 
the works averaged 2350 tons in 1875, it had been 
1 to 21,700 tons in 1912. As the works grew 
ewer in number, but individually stronger, they were 
led, by reasons of transport, supplies, etc., to group 
themselves in regions favourable to production. In 
1875 pig-iron was manufactured in fifty-seven depart- 
ments; in 1912 four-fifths of the pig-iron and three- 
fourths of the steel production had been concentrated 
in two departments, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Nord. The 
Steel and Iron Masters’ Association dates from 1864. 


7) 
ae Sel 


After twenty years it became the Employers’ Federa-_ 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


tion of Iron Masters, the exclusive object of which 
was the study and defence of the economic, industrial, 
and commercial interests of the ferro-metallurgical 


industry. In 1914 the association numbered 252 ad- 
herents, representing 97 per cent. of the French pro- 
duction of pig-iron and 93 per cent, of steel. The 


total capital involved was 1150 million francs, and the 
number of workmen employed about 200,000, who in 
Ig12 received 400,000,000 francs. 


In a lecture on ‘‘ The Sudd Reservoir,’’ delivered 
at a meeting of the Institute of Egypt at 
Cairo on February 17, Sir William Willcocks 
reaffirms the claim that the problem of  reser- 
voir storage in the Nile Valley for irrigation 
purposes has been solved by Mr. John Wells ana 
himself in their report on the sudd region of 
the White Nile. In support of his contention he ad- 
duces certain figures to show that, under the con. 
ditions prevailing in the Lower Nile, there is a shortage 
of 6 milliards of cubic metres of water out of the 
133 milliards required annually for cultivation pur- 
poses in Egypt. This is after deducting 2 milliards 
as the capacity of the Aswan Reservoir as it stands. 
Sir William estimates that the 6 milliards deficiency 
can be made good from the natural storage supplies 
in the sudd region at a cost of about 6,000,0001.(E.). 
He also advocates the entire reconstruction of the As- 
wan Dam at a cost of 3,000,0001.(E.), on the ground 
that the present dam is not high enough and pos- 
sesses ‘‘ serious defects and shortcomings.’’ The sudd 
region has, of course, long been regarded as an 
unfortunate blemish on the White Nile, both as re- 
gards navigation and drainage. It is covered with 
a dense mass of decayed vegetation, papyrus roots, 
reeds, and grasses, resembling peat almost in its con- 
sistency, and offering an obstruction which on more 
than one occasion: has had to be cut through for 
something like fifty miles in order to obtain a pas- 
sage for boats. Sir William characterises it as one 
of the most wonderful reservoirs in the world. ‘A 
score of milliards of cubic metres of water stand well! 
above the level of the flat plain as though they were 
congealed. . It is a veritable glacier at the head of the 
White Nile, and feeds it as the Himalayan glaciers 
feed the Ganges.”’ 


One of the most interesting ships added to the 
Navy during the war was the seaplane-carrying ship 
Argus, built by Messrs. William Beardmore and Co., 
Ltd., at Dalmuir. A fully illustrated account of this 
ship appears in Engineering for March 28. There is 
absolutely no obstruction on the flying-deck, not even 
funnels, and there’ is space under this deck for the 
accommodation and repair of seaplanes. She is, 
therefore, a floating hangar, the space given up for 
this purpose being 330 ft. long, 68 ft. wide overall, 
and 48 ft: clear, with a clear height of about 20 ft., 
and is of a capacity regarded as sufficient to accom- 
modate twenty seaplanes. Hoists are provided from 
the hangar to the flying-deck, and cranes are avail- 
able for lifting the seaplanes from the water on to 
the hangar-deck. The vessel was laid down originally 
as a first-class passenger and cargo steamer, and the 
Admiralty decided in 1916 to have her completed as 
a seaplane carrier. The navigating bridge, bridge- 
houses, wireless offices, etc., are placed forward under 
the flying-deck. The chart-house is capable of being 
raised above the flying-deck level or lowered to a 
stowing position under the flying-deck by hydraulic 
power, and when in a raised position commands a 
clear all-round view. 


Mr. F. Epwarps, 83 High Street, Marylebone, 
W.1, has just issued a Catalogue (No. 389) of upwards 
of nine hundred’ new and second-hand works dealing 


234 


NATURE 


[May 22, 1919 


with anthropology, follt-lore, archeology, and kindred 
subjects. Among the items listed we notice a batch 
of: fifty-eight volumes of the: Folk-lore Society’s pub- 
lications, comprising the Folk Lore Record, the 
Folk Lore Journal; Folk Lore, County Folk 
Lore, and’ ‘‘ Extra’ Publications’’; a complete set of 
the Psychical’ Research  Society’s Proceedings; 
Wright’s “Phe English Dialect Dictionary,” 6 vols.; 
Catlin’s ‘“‘ North American Indian Portfolio” (coloured 
illustrations); long runs of the Journal of the Royal 
Anthropological Institute and of Man, and Reports 1 
to. 28 of the Bureau. of American. Ethnology. The 
catalogue is. sent, free upon application. 


Tue following: are: among the announcements: of 
forthcoming books of science :—‘‘ The Environment of 
Vertebrate Life in the’ Late Paleozoic in North 
America: A: Paleogeographic Study,” E. Case 
(Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington); 
‘*Psychoses of) the War, including Neurasthenia and 
Shell: Shock,” Lt.-Col. H.C. Marr; ‘‘The Nervous 
Child,’ Dr. H. C. Cameron (Henry Frowde and 
Hodder and) Stoughton). 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


JuprreR.—Observers of the surface of this planet 
have remarked that not for many years past has 
Jupiter presented so many interesting details as it 
has in, the. apparition that is now. passing away. It 


has been noticed that the south equatorial belt has . 


been unusually. faint and its components extremely 
narrow, but it has. gained redness in some parts, whilst 
the north equatorial belt has been losing its redness. 
This apparent transference of colour appears to be a 
periodic phenomenon: The feature known as the 
south tropical disturbance, first seen in’ 1go1, the 
movement of which, especially with reference to that 
of the red spot, has been observed continuously since 
that time, became’ faint in the early months of this 
year,. and in April this marking, together with the 
hollow in the south equatorial belt, in which’ the red 
spot lies, had quite disappeared, whilst the spot itself 
was seen only by some observers and in favourable 
circumstances. 

Nova AguiLa, 1918.—Observations of the nova of 
last year that have been already made in the morning 
sky show that the star is now fainter than sixth 
magnitude; for it has been estimated! to be. about 
o'r magnitude fainter than the neighbouring. star 
B.D. +0-4027°, which: appears as 6-26 in: the: Revised 
Harvard Photometry. A’ note from: the Bergedorf 
(Hamburg) Observatory in the Astronomische Nach- 
richten of April 7 describes its spectrum about’ the 
date April 4 as consisting essentially of three bright 
lines in the red, yellow, and blue-green, and its: ap- 
pearance’ in the ordinary stellar eyepiece as a small 
reddish-yellow image covered by a bluish-green’ disc. 
The difference of focus gives a decided parallactic 
effect, looking slantwise, and the appearance is that 
of a double star with components of these colours. 

‘“ANNUAIRE DE L’OBSERVATOIRE RoyAL DE BEL- 
GiquE.”—The volumes: of this publication for the years 
1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918 have lately been received. 
The first. was printed and published in 1914 in the 
ordinary course, but the last three bear. the date 1918 
on. the cover, and the preface to each is signed by 
M. Stroobant,, Chief Astronomer of the observatory, 
vice. the. Director, the date of signing being 1918 
November 11, the day of the armistice. These facts 
are significant, and the explanation is that the three 
books were printed in Brussels year by year without 
the knowledge of the occupying” Power: during: the 
war, but were not issued because’ they: would: have 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


| had to be submitted to the enemy censor. The 


Annuaire for 1916, like the earlier volumes of the 

series, comprises what is practically a complete treatise — 
on descriptive astronomy. ‘There will be found in it — 
definitions, descriptions, tables, photographs of nebule, 
comets, and star clusters, and a history of the recent — 
progress of astronomy. The later volumes are less 
complete, and much of the information about the 
current’ events of astronomy had: to be omitted 
because astronomical publications did not reach 
Belgium during the war. M. Stroobant, who 

is to be congratulated on carrying on in such 
unusual and painful circumstances. is responsible for 
the preparation. because’ M. Lecointe, the Director 
of the: Royal Observatory, has beem serving im the 
Belgiam Army. It: iss worthy of remark. that: Green- 
wich civil time, which: is the official time of the, 
country, is used throughout, and this doubtless was 
one reason for keeping these volumes from the eyes 
of the enemy. The preface to the edition for the 
current year, 1919. which was signed on 1918 Novem- 

ber 18, contains the pleasing announcement that, as 
the country is now liberated, the Annuaire will be 
able to appear in the future unfettered. 


SCIENCE AND THE CEASSICS, 
>HE Classical Association held its annual meetin 
By at Oxford on May 16-17, and Sir Willian Oclos 
delivered the presidential address on ‘ Ol 
Humanity and the New Science.” Sir William beg: 
by referring to the history of the Divinity School, in 
which the meeting was held. It had been frequented, 
he said, by Linacre,, who, in. addition to hanes 
pioneer in medical’ education, had achieved a great 
reputation as a scholar. It had known the fiiee 

ee 


n 


when. the natural sciences were so much neglect 
that the belief was solemnly maintained ‘tan foal 
had been buried in the earth to test man’s belief it 
the» omnipotence of the Creator. The last century 


Son 


had. witnessed extraordinary developments in 
scientific knowledge of every sort, and "the 
interest. taken. in. discovery on one hand, and 


social progress.on the other, had rather thrown the 
old. humanities into the background. might be 
maintained,, from the part played by Science during 
the. war, that its. chief result had been to add to the 
sum of human. misery; but, all things considered, 
such, utilisation: of discovery could not be fairly used 
as: a reproach against Science; the fault lay in the 
degradation. of the human mind which the horrors 
of. the last five years had brought about. Sir William 
was rather inelined to subscribe to the opinion that 
the invention of firearms had been one oF the main 
causes which saved the human. race from. destruction. 
But. to assure the. continued: well-being of. the. race 
a. different kind. of education. was. necessary.. “The 
solution. of. the difficulty, would be found in. the union 
of. Science with the Humanities.. Germany,. in which 
scientific. education had been systematically, developed, 


nevertheless. had paid far greater attention to. the 


study. of. the classics than. any other modern nation. 
The. attitude of our modern. society towards classical 
education might be. compared. with. that. of. ants and 
wasps, which protect their larva,, but. require. from 
them.a. return in. the form: of a. honey whieh they 
secrete; and. if. the larvee.do not exude it freely, the 
V.A.D.; wasps. will nip. their. patients’ heads to cause _ 
a. quicker flow.. The: academic larvae. of to-day were 
much to. blame, and. it was. for them to see to it that 
they. exude. their nectar. more. willingly.. There, had 
been practically, no. change in) the. papers. set. for 
“Greats.” between. 1831. and: 19193. and, indeed, in 
1267. the teaching: of the schools was. very much. as it 


y ie’ 


) 


— Ages: 


spirit of Hippoera 
| aes 


excellent condition, 


) May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


235 


i _now... Classical education bulked .teo large.in -the 
versity, and the unequal distribution prin cause 


for jjust xesentment. Though biology provided a 

)in._ the-destruction of millions of eggs. inorder 

© produce-one salmon, jand |though the Oxford, system 

nally produced a man like Ingram Bywater, 

f ines and the lost opportunities, of the. countless 

who were destroyed in the process ought to be 

ad. It would be far better for the average 

to infect him with the spirit .of the humanities 

n to »waste his jtime by too much laborious atten- 
tos; atical detail. 

\great philosophers of .old—-Hippocrates, Galen, 


: astus, ‘Hero, Aristarchus, and others—fertilised 
e and went far on the way towards under- 
standing the system of Nature, but in the Middle 
e thread was broken; -Roger Bacon was ‘the 
Sere Mi siudent with .a modern outlook, and 
the loss of connection with the Humanities was a 
e “set-bacl +4 Science. 
+ Modern men of science might well read such books 
as Lueretius’s “De Rerum Natura,” \in which a great 
~~ fox erp discovery -had ,been foreshadowed; 
An 


era should at hesitate to point this out. 

‘of empt was ‘being made at Oxford to start.a 
new .Honours ‘School ,of .Philosophy in jrelation to 
S( . This should ,prevent scientific men from 
dost in the baekwaters:af premature research. 
ro Ik .of this school should not ‘be limited 
to modern ideas, but the continuity of the history of 
Seience through all the ages should be grasped. There 


_ Was a great need of both general and individual jre- 


construetion, and this should ibe undertaken .in the 
tes’s maxim, 4v yap waph prravOperin, 

Gpeart xai dedorexvin—' The ilove of humanity is the 
_ basis of the love of science.” ; 


je ‘Loan ‘Exhibition of Early Scientific Instruments. 


Qn May 16 Sir William Osler opened a loan exhibi- 


n.of most remark instruments and manuscripts 


illustrating the ‘scientific history of Oxford from the 
fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The greater 


ut of the instruments now shown have .never 
1 publicly exhibited before. They have been un- 
in cupboards and .corners of libraries of .col- 
es and university departments. They are, for the 
part, in their original state and of corresponding 


e. 
The two earliest dated Persian and Moorish -astro- 
6S, AD. 987 and aD. 1067, lent .by Mr. Lewis 
vans, form a worthy introduction .to :a. wonderful 
rie “of instruments lent .by Merton .College. - One 


r of the Saphea type is considered |by Mr. 
t to have been the instrument left by ‘Simon 
' either to the college or to its great astronomer, 

e, early in the fourteenth century. The energies 
early astronomers were largely directed to the 


_- preparation of astronomical ‘tables, which had.a wide 


| circulation, and ‘Oxford was regarded very much as 
enwich jis now. 

The later astronomical exhibits illustrate the instru. 

mental equipment of the Earl of Orrery, who -must 

ave been acquainted with the first members of the 

1 Soci Manv of this instruments are ‘still in 


the state in which -he left them .to -Christ ‘Church. , 


His telescopes of 8 ft.,.9 ft., and 12 ft. focal length, 
many-draw vellum tubes and lignum vite lens- 
mounts ‘by Marshall and Wilson, form a unique 


There is .also a Marshall microscope of 1603 |in 
as well as -some magnificent 
Planetavia and other astronomical models by Rowley, 
the. maker of the original :orrery. lant 

The. -slidesrule .of 1654 in the South Kensington 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


these .is ‘traditionally associated with Chaucer, and 


Museum, described in Narure of March 5, 1914, by 
Mr. Baxandall as the .earliest known -slide-rule, must 
now yield to an. instrument lent by St. John’s Col- 
lege, dated 1635. It is in the form of a brass disc 
1 ft. 6 in. in diameter engraved with Qughtred’s 
circles of proportion. Would space permit, the series 
of volvelles .or calculating discs showing the age of 
the moon from manuscripts of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries, and some early surveying instru- 
ments, are worthy of more particular description, ‘as 
well as many other treasures now shown to the public 
for the first time. .A printed catalogue of the principal 
exhibits, prepared by Mr. R. ‘Gunther, of .Magdalen 
College, is published by the Clarendon Press, price ts. 


ELECTRIC FURNACES. 


] HE importance of electro-metallurgy at the 
present time was made evident at the joint 
meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and 
the Iron and Steel Institute on May 8, when six 
papers were read on electric furnaces. ‘The descrip- 
tions given by the various authors related almost 
exclusively to furnaces suitable for ‘the iron and steel 
industry, of which ‘there are at present 117 at work 
in this country, as compared with 287 in the United 
States and 43 in Canada. The nominal output of the 
British furnaces was given by Mr. R. G. Mercer as 
31,250 tons per month, but, owing to various causes, 
the actual production was only about 65 per cent. of 
this amount. It will, be seen from these figures that 
electric steel is now .a well-established commercial 
product, and with the;advent of cheaper electric power 
large developments may be witnessed. 

The features common to .all electric steel furnaces 
are (1) the use of alternating current with suitable 
transformers and (2) the formation .of an are between 
carbon electrodes above the charge, which plays upon 
the slag on the surface. It is customary to place one 
or more electrodes beneath the hearth of the furnace, 
so that a of ‘the current may flow through the 
charge when the hearth becomes hot ‘enough to act 
as a-conduetor, the mixing of the molten metal being 
therebv facilitated. The electrical connections vary 
according to .whether single-, two-, or three-phase 
current is,emploved, it being necessary in all.cases to 
obtain a balanced polyphase load onthe service lines. 

In the two-phase furnace described ‘by Mr. W. K. 
Booth two main electrodes are used, together with an 
auxiliary electrode which, at starting, is embedded in 
the charge, and serves to draw the arc between the 
charge and the main -electrodes. Two other elec- 
tredes are located in the hearth, which, when hot, 
permits current to |flow crosswise from. these .elec- 
trodes through the metal to the main -electrodes, the 
auxiliary then being withdrawn. Jn Sahlin’s furnace, 
the electrodes enter at the sides, forming pairs inclined 


naces described bv Mr. Victor Stobie vertical .elec- 
trodes are wused, the number depending on ‘the size 
of the hearth, and the distribution being such as ‘to 
ensure the heating of the whole surface of the charge. 
The hearth electrodes are stated ‘by Mr. Stobie to, be 
undesirable :in Jarge furnaces, though .essential jin 
small, .ones. ‘A -special feature .of Stobie furnaces. is 
a device for sealing the entrance of the electrode 
to the furnace, wherebv oxidation .at this points pre- 
vented. The special .electrical connections for .obtain- 
ing .a balanced load constitute the .characteristic 
features of the furnaces dealt with by Mr. J. Bibby 
and "Mr. jH. A. Greaves, the former of whom -gave: 


236 


NATURE 


| May 22, 1919 


an interesting account of the design of electric reduc- 
tion furnaces for the production of pig-iron from ore, 
a process which becomes economically sound when 
1 horse-power-year of electrical energy does not cost 
more than 2:3 tons of coke, and is now coming 
into extensive use in Sweden and elsewhere. In this 
country steel refining for ingots and castings and the 
production of ferro-manganese and: steel alloys con- 
stitute the chief uses of electric furnaces at present. 
The relative merits of amorphous carbon and 
graphite for electrodes were dealt with in several of 
the papers read, the balance of evidence being in 
favour of graphite, which, owing to its superior con- 
ductivity, permits of the use of narrower electrodes. 
Dolomite is generally used to form the hearth, but 
acid linings are said also to be employed in some 
cases. In spite of the higher cost of heat produced 
electrically over the use of fuel, the superior quality 
of the products, the small wastage by oxidation, and 
the ease with which scrap may be utilised justify the 
use of the electric furnace. It is to be hoped that the 
experience gained with steel will lead to the produc- 
tion of artificial abrasives such as carborundum and 
alundum in Britain, and also to the development of 
the higher refractories needed in many metallurgical 
processes. Cuas. R. Dartine. 


BRITISH OPTICAL RESEARCH. 


WE have before us_ several books and a large 

number of reprints from various scientific 
publications, all of which represent work done by 
members of the scientific staff of Messrs.. Adam 
Hilger, Ltd., since the beginning of the war. We 
must welcome not only the fact that a British optical 
firm has realised the value of a considerable staff of 
highly qualified scientific collaborators, but more par- 
ticularly the circumstance that this staff is encouraged 
by the firm in the publication of its work, and in 
thus helping to hasten the recovery by this country 
of the leading position in applied optics which it 
undoubtedly held in a rather distant past, but which 
it had almost completely lost in more recent years, 
largely through the narrow outlook of a majority of 
optical firms in seeking only immediate and certain 
profit and keeping down or totally excluding ‘‘non- 
productive’’ labour, but also through the failure of 
our educational institutions to teach real optics 
capable of application to actual technical problems 
instead of the transparent sham beloved by examiners 
and their text-books. 

From the practical optician’s point of view the 
most valuable of the publications are probably those 
by Mr. Twyman, the present head of the firm, which 
deal with the Hilger interferometer for the correction 
of lenses and prisms (Phil. Mag., January, 1918, and 
Photogr. Journ., November, 1918). By directly in- 
dicating the residual imperfections of a lens or prism 
in the form of a contour-map built up of interference- 
fringes, this instrument enables a skilled workman 
systematically to remove those imperfections and to 
perform, without other guidance, the process of ‘‘ figur- 
ing” which hitherto had to be directed by a highly 
skilled. and experienced observer on the basis of 
repeated tests of the lens or prism by the in- and 
out-of-focus appearance of a real or artificial star, 
and which then was an expensive, slow, and uncertain 
operation. For. the present this valuable method ‘is, 
unfortunately, limited to small sizes owing to the cost 
and difficulty of producing large plano-parallel plates 
of the requisite almost absolute perfection. 


Mr. Twyman also contributes an instructive paper 


on the annealing of glass (Trans. Soc. of Glass 
Technol., vol. i., 1917), which deals more especially 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


with the importance of passing the glass very slowly 
through a comparatively short range of temperature. 
In describing methods of fixing this range, and in 
working out the law according to which the viscosity 
of the glass increases within the critical range, Mr. 
Twyman goes decidedly beyond the publications of 
the Jena works on this subject of ‘fine annealing.” — 

Two members of the staff, Mr. R. G. Parker and 
Mr. A. J. Dalladay, describe another valuable innova- 
tion in optical precision work, viz. the permanent 
union of very closely fitting polished glass surfaces by 
raising them to a very closely gauged temperature 
at which they become welded together without any 
distortion which would affect their optical perfection 
(Trans. Faraday Society, vol, xii., part 1, 1916). In 
the case of glasses which agree sufficiently closely 
in their rate of expansion, this tigre to prove a 
very decided’ improvement on the usual cementing 


processes. ee Oh, 

In an interesting paper to the Physical Society 
(Proc., vol. xxx., part ili.) Mr. Simeon discusses the 
accuracy attainable with critical angle refractometers. ° 
As is probably widely known, these instruments are’ 
now built by Messrs. Hilger, Ltd. ae 

‘Dr. L. Silberstein, the scientific adviser of the 


firm, is widely known as an extremely able mathe-' 
matical physicist. is The Electro 
‘magnetic Theory of Light” and on ‘‘A Simplified 


His two books on ‘‘The Electro-— 


Method of Tracing Rays” have already been reviewed 


‘in these columns. In the collected researches before 
‘us we find five additional contributions from his pen 


to the Phil. Mag. A paper _on “ Fluorescent Vapours 


and their Magneto-optic Properties” and two on’ 


“Molecular Refractivity and Atomic Interaction” ‘are 
purely theoretical investigations on subjects only = 
remotely connected with technical optics. Ina pa 

on ‘Multiple Reflections” (November, 1916) Dr. 
Silberstein gives a very general treatment, by his 


finding purposes. i 
Distribution round the Focus of a Lens at Various 


no appreciable change in the light distribution on 
trving a change of focus’ of ‘‘even” 10X. - It is greatly 


_ May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


237 


to be ho that this valuable work will be further 
‘developed, as it deals with a matter of the highest 
im nee and interest. 
- ‘We have finally to notice a most useful reference- 
' book, ‘* Tables of Refractive Indices,” vol. i., ‘‘ Essential 
Oils,” compiled by R. Kanthack, which has just been 


‘oe ta by ‘the firm.- A glance at the introductory 
‘list of 282 references to the widely scattered literature 
drawn. v in this compilation is alone sufficient to 
_ emphasise the value of the little volume. 

+ We shall look forward with great interest to further 
additions to this first list of the achievements of the 
scientific staff of Messrs. Adam Hilger, Ltd. 
oye F , A. E. C. 


Pa a ~ —— abasic oes ae a —_ 
ieee 


A NEW BRITISH WHALE. 
Dp S. F. HARMER’S report on Cetacea stranded 


the Briti 


; whale (M esoplodon mirus). 


ale was recorded. 

__ cavirostri from Liscannor, Co, Clare. This was a 
quite pardonable error, since the skeleton reached the 
_ museum in a roughly cleaned condition, and display- 
“ing two large terminal mandibular incisors closely 


ilar to those of a Ziphius. When the cleaned skull 
me to be examined, however, it became evident that 
‘had been made. This is the only male 
s yet been recorded, and, so far, but three 
of this animal are known. The first recorded 
, a female, was taken at Beaufort Harbour, 

North Carolina, on July 26, 1912, and was described 
Be Repco ‘Mr. F. W. True. It now appears that a 
third example is in the possession of the Galway 
Museum. This was taken in Galway Bay somewhere 
about 1899. Some very useful measurements of the 
skull, a p sraph of the mandible, and comparisons 


_ between the teeth of the Liscannor specimen and those 
of other apnins of Mesoplodon and Ziphius, add 
_ greatly to the value of this account. The mandible of 
Berar it may be remembered, bears two pairs of 
teeth; a pair at the extreme end of the mandible and 
a pair further back. Dr. Harmer suggests, and he is 
“probably right, that the teeth of Ziphius, Mesoplodon 
mirus, and M. hectori answer to the anterior pair, 
while those of Mesoplodon bidens and allied species 
are homologous with the posterior pair. 
Since each succeeding report adds greatly to the 
_ value of those which have preceded it, we trust that 
these annual summaries will long be continued, for 
‘they will add immensely to our knowledge of the 
migrations of the Cetacea of our seas. Already they 
show that some species are not so rare as they were 
‘supposed to be until this investigation was embarked 
upon. — 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 


INTELLIGENCE. 
Epineurcu.—A lectureship on the subject of 
° isation of industry and commerce is to be in- 


stituted, the endowment fund having been supplied by 
subscriptions from members of the following. bodies : 
_—Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh Mer- 
chant Company, Leith Chamber of Commerce, Leith 
+. Sigil Society, and the Institute of Bankers in 
otland. 
Prof. Pringle Pattison has intimated his resigna- 
‘tion as from September 30 next of the chair of logic 
and metaphysics. 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103 | 


Oxrorp.—Several professorships which have been 
suspended during the war have now been restored by 
decree. of Convocation. Among these are the pro- 
fessorships: of . logic, geometry, and experimental 
philosophy. _ An election to the latter has already 
taken place, as previously recorded in NATURE. 

The preamble of a. statute admitting women as 
candidates for diplomas in science and other subjects 
has recently been passed by Congregation. 

On May 20 the same body accepted the preamble 
of a statute introducing many changes in the First 
Public Examination (commonly known as ‘“* Modera- 
tions”). Among these is the incorporation as optional 
subjects in this examination of mechanics and physics, 
chemistry, zoology, and botany. 


Tue Times announces that the sum of 200,000l. is 
being provided by the Victorian Government to en- 
able Melbourne University to complete its buildings. 


Apptications for the filling of the chair of biology in 
the University of Melbourne, consequent upon the 
retirement of Sir W. Baldwin Spencer, are invited by 
the Agent-General for Victoria, Melbourne Place, 
Strand, W.C.2. The duties of the new professor will 
begin in March, 1920. 


A Wiretess Press message from New York states 
that Harvard University has raised a fund of 80o0l. to 
found a scholarship, to be known as the Choate 
memorial scholarship, which will provide for the 
exchange of students between the American university 
and Cambridge. 

A LIMITED number of free places tenable at the 
Imperial College of Science and Technology, - South 
Rensne tons are being offered by the London County 
Council to students capable of profiting. by an ad- 
vanced course of instruction. Applications have to 
be made upon special forms, obtainable from the 
Education Officer, L.C.C., Victoria .Embankment, 
W.C.2, and returned by Saturday, June 14. 


Tue University Court of the University of Aberdeen 
will. in July, under the Georgina McRobert founda- 
tion, appoint a lecturer in pathology, with special 
reference to malignant disease. The lecturer should 
possess special knowledge of pathological chemistry, 
and will be expected to conduct research and to! give 
instruction in subjects connected with his investiga- 
tions. Applications for the post must be received on 
or before June 24. 


Tue regulations respecting the open competitive 
examinations (August, 1921) for clerkships (Class I.) 
in the Home Civil Service have now been published by 
the Civil Service Commission. The examination will 
be in two parts. The papers in Section A, which must 
be taken by all candidates, are:—Essay, English, 
questions on contemporary subjects, science, transla- 
tion from one language. These all carry equal marks. 
In addition, there is a viva-voce examination which is 
valued as equal to three of the foregoing. In Section B 
a very wide choice of subjects is offered. In this there 
seems to be a fair balance, and ample opportunity is 
offered to students of mathematics or science. It is 
interesting to compare these regulations with the re- 
commendations of Sir. J. J. Thomson’s Committee. 
They do not, for instance, require “‘all candidates to 
supply evidence of a continuous course of training in 
science extending over several years.’”? They do offer 
some encouragement towards the study of the sub- 


ject, though the. extent of this will depend on two 


factors: reasonable opportunity for the student of 
science in the essav paper, and the appointment of 
a representative of science among the — viva-voce 


238 


NATURE 


[Mav 22, igt9 


examiners. The Thomson Committee recommended : 
‘‘ That many permanent posts ‘can best be filled by men. 
selected, not by the ordinary competitive examination, 
but at a riper age om the ground of ‘high’ scientific; 
qualifications: and professional experience.’’ It is to be! 
hoped. that this point will not be overlooked; it is’ of 
paramount importance to the Empire. 


Tue Education Section of the British Association’ 
has. prepared! a full. programme for the meeting to: 
be held at Bournemouth. On Tuesday, September 9, 
Sir Napier Shaw will deliver his. presidential address) 
at 10 o’clock,, the latter part of the morning being! 
devoted to. the consideration of the free-place system, | 
with especial reference to the’ question’ of maintenance! 
grants and the tenure of the free-place holders. In’ 
the afternoon a discussion upon the teaching of. 
English will take place. On Wednesday, Septem-: 
ber ro, the morning will be devoted to. considering’ 
“The Method and Substance of. Science Teaching” ; 
several well-known educationists have promised to take: 
part inthe discussion, and an interesting debate is ex- 
pected upon the two reports recently issued by’ Sir’ 
Joseph Thomson’s and: Sir Richard! Gregory’s com-: 
mittees. During the Wednesday afternoon a joint. 
meeting with Section F (Economics) will) consider’ the: 
question of ‘‘ Education in Relatiom to Business.’’ The 
future of continuation schools is. to be discussed on 
the Thursday morning, and, in view of. the changes: 
which the new Education. Act will.cause in these, this: 
should prove one of the most interesting features. of 
the meeting; for Thursday afternoon. an animated: 
debate upon the relation of humanistic: and scientific: 
studies is being arranged. It is hoped that Bishop: 
~Welldon will be able to open a discussion upon 
“Training in Citizenship” on the Friday morning; and) 
in the afternoon of that day the question of private 
schools will be considered, the latter subject being 
one of especial interest in towns like Bournemouth. | 
Communications. intended for the section should be 
addressed to the Recorder, Mr. Douglas Berridge, 
the College, Malvern. . 


University Bulletin. No. 19, of the University of 
Illinois is devoted to a pictorial description of build- 
ings,, laboratories, and. other facilities for instruction 
and: research: at the College of Engineering and 
Engineering Experiment. Station of the University. 


The work. of the college includes twelve four-year 


courses leading to degrees. The feature in which 
the institution differs most from European practice is 
the experiment station, an organisation created in 1903 
to stimulate engineering education and to promote 
the investigation of practical problems. Its control 
is vested in a director, the heads of the departments 
of the college of engineering, and the professor’ of 
industrial’ chemistry. The researches are chiefly con- 
dicted by full-time research assistants, ‘research 
graduate students, and special investigators engaged 
for a. limited time on single problems. The Univer- 
sity. maintains fourteen graduate studentships for re- 


search, and two have been founded by the Iflinois 


Gas Association. Each carries a stipend of 500 dollars 
and freedom from fees, and leads to a degree of 
M.Sc. Half the time of these students is devoted to 
research, and the remainder is available for study. 
The station has published 110 bulletins and’ eight 
circulars, mainly distributed’ free. 
interesting photographs are given of the buildings, 
laboratories, libraries, testing machines, 
machinery, arrangement for testing locomotives, elec- 
tric railway test car, and training quarters for the 
cadet corps. A department not usually found in 


engineering .colleges, at any. rate in so. comprehensive | 


a form, is that of ceramic engineering. It deals with 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


In this pamphlet | 


mining | 


———— 


the technology of industries concerned with clay, 
cement, lime, gypsum, and enamelled ware. 


It is satisfactory to observe that. serious efforts: are — 
being made tg provide for the soldiers belonging to — 
the Army of Occupation in Germany reasonable — 

and: technical, 


educational facilities—general, scientific, C 
It is extremely important that. men so situated, with 


$1 


glass, 


probably much leisure time at their disposal, should — | 


have opportunities. of pursuing their studies and. of 
continuing, the experience they have already. gained in 
their former avocations, and even of taking up: some 
new pursuit, where they have the initial gift of artistic 
expression, so that when they return to civil life 
they may readily find openings for effective employ- 
ment. In a recent issue of the Cologne Post, a daily 
paper published in English for the Army Rhine, 
attention is directed to the establishment in the 
Handels_ Realschule in Cologne of academic and 
commercial courses with a wide range of. subjects, and 
to the Army Technical. College which it ss peneeed 
to open in a well-equipped factory at Siegburg, where 
arrangements are made by which the apprentice or 
improver can continue the practice of his. vocation; 
where also men and officers of artistic aptitudes ‘can 
take up specific arts and crafts; and where men of 
satisfactory education can pursue their ‘othains so as 
to qualify them: for degrees in engineering or cognate 
subjects. Stress is laid upon due preparation for such 
courses. and the great value of scientific direction, so 
that. workers shall know not only what to do, but 
also why they do it. Mere empiricism is discouraged, 
and a thorough grounding in the science of technical 
pursuits. made a matter of chief moment. ‘There is, 
moreover, already a science college at Bonn where 
any. soldier. desirous of taking up agricultural pur- 
suits. can enter upon the study of the science of agri- 
culture and the allied sciences. Sy iS 57 


of the 


es eo 


BSE sae piisie ty 


SOCIETIES AND' ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. aaa 

Physical. Society, March 28.—Prof.. C. H. Lees, 
president, in the chair.—Sir Richard Glazebrook ; 
Metrology in the industries. In opening’ this discus- 
sion Sir Richard Glazebrook, traced. briefly the early 
history of metrology: The first application of really 
accurate measurement to mechanical engineering was 
chiefly due to Sir Joseph. Whitworth, who taught 
people to make’ their length measurements. with. great 
accuracy and, introduced reference gauges. The next 
step was the use of limit gauges. This. greatly 
simplified: the gauging of repetition work;. At the time 
of the Boer War the supplies’ of ammunition, especially 
breech plugs of guns, were not interchangeable as 
obtained from. different shops. This led to the forma- 
tion of the Engineering Standards Committee on 
Gauges, which tackled the problem of producing 
accurate gauges with defined limits and tolerance, and 
by 1914. a certain number of firms had introduced the 
use of limit gauges.. In  r9r5 the demand for muni- 
tions on a great scale brought home the great import- 


ance of interchangeability and the need for strict __ 


standardisation of gauges. When screw gauges were 
first tested at the National Physical Laboratory the 
rejections totalled 75 to 80 per cent.; but after two 
years this was reduced to about 20 per cent. Now, if 
we are to maintain our position in peace, the mainten 
ance of interchangeability. in engineering manu- 
facture is equally necessary, so that we may manu- 
facture in quantity. -Much has. yet to be done if we 
are to keep ahead, and the co-ordination of resear 
with routine testing is vital to the progress of the 
science. 


May 22, 1919] 


NATURE 


239 | 


_ Aristotelian Society, April 15. 
the chair.—Prof. J. B. Baillie: The stereoscopic 
character of knowledge. In knowledge the mind 
seeks to become conscious. of the individuality of the 
ee gale integrity. In the»process of know- 
ge the whole energy of the individual mind is 
eee and not simply one particular function. The 
te achievement of knowledge is the fulfilment 

or realisation of the individual mind as. a single whole 
_ of individuality existing and subsisting in interdepend- 
~@ world of equally real individual beings. 
of knowledge as consisting in a mere linear 
“succession of oon which a means to and sub- 
_ ordinate to an / ig set aside as inaccurate because 
“the end is present in the process from first to last, 
and bec: the life of the mind, of which knowing 
is one mode, grows and maintains itself by the simul- 
ous co-operation: of all its functions in their in- 


—Prof. G. D. Hicks in 


_ stereoscopic or realistic in character. 
_ im the sense that it presents the real in its solid 


rall eg ale of the water to the action of 
a en count under the microscope 
of individual cells contained 


in t 


_ deposit. By adding a small quantity (4 c.c.) of the 
_ sample of sea-water ito be examined: to a large quantity 
$ litres) of a suitable sterile culture medium, sub- 
_ dividmg into a number (70) of small flasks, and allow- 
_ img the organisms in these flasks to develop, the 
_ author has shown that a very much larger number 

dl ow pagan are present than the centri- 
would lead one to suppose. 


: a \ Society, May .7.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 
n the chair.—Major R. W. Brock: Geo- 


tog estine. The following formations are 
iia recognised +, ae 
QUATERNARY. _ Alluvium. Dunes; Valley and Plains clay, 
Nee SS ia and Silt; Desert Crust. Heavy 
st ol ao gies *t Diluvium. Terrestrial. Lisan Formation | volcanic 
Se hed Pee ig SRE (Jordan+lake-beds).,| flows, 
' at Marine. Upper Calcareous Sand- | basalts, 
A Bales : Lit stone and Limestone. | ashes, 
PR eR as 9th Lower Calcareous Sand: | 'tuffs, etc. 
4 CEA Be: fringe Pi : :. stone: ; : 
DER’ ee jocene. acustrine. } 
See ue Eocene. Nummulitic perme. ; ; 
Pee Fie anian é A 
eo adh Sac ee. é ; ; Senonian { Campanian }sleaies 
al on s antonian 4 
: Sas oar ( Upper ~ Turonian 
"Mesozoic... Cretaceous. - Cenomanian. 
; = 5 : ae Nubian Sandstone. 
; Jebel-Usdum formation (?). 
i _ Jurassic. On Lebanon and Hermon only. 
, PALOZOIC. Carboniferous... Possibly south-east of the Dead Sea. 
Trin. * Cambrian: Dolomite and sandstone. 


Pre-Camprian. Volcanics and arkose. 

¥, : granites and porphyries. 
‘ite be : ‘Grey granites, gneiss, and‘crystalline schists. 
The structure was shown to be that of a tableland 
bisected by a great rift-valley (graben), and flanked 
by a coastal plain. A’ section was exhibited illustrat- 
ing East Jordanland acting as a horst; the boundary 
faults of the Jordan, Trench;, the unequal sinking of 
the contained blocks; the western section of the table- 


wo. 2886, VoL. 103] 


» kands. 


‘tion stirred in an. open tro 
refractive index takes place at a definite temperature, 


land sunken with relation to the eastern, and’ thrown 
into an asymmetric anticline, the limbs of which’ rise 
in’ steps: through monoclinal’ flexures or faults. 


Optical Society, May 8.—Prof. F. J. Cheshire: The 
polarisation of light. The lecture was. illustrated 
throughout by means of projection apparatus invented 
and designed by the lecturer, an important feature of 
the apparatus being the form of polariser in which a 
modified double-image prism was employed instead 
of the usual Nicol. It was explained that the spar 
required for this particular prism was only about one- 
eighth of that required for a Nicol prism of the same 
aperture.—J, Rheinberg: Graticules. Starting with 
the origin of the term graticules, which are defined 
as the “measuring, scales.or marks placed in the focal 
plane of an optical instrument for the purpose of 
determining the size, distance, direction, position, or 
numbers, of the object viewed coincidently with the 
scale itself,’’ the paper discusses in detail the various 
methods of manufacture in this country and abroad 
up to the period of the war, which led to the Ger- 
mans having a practical monopoly of the article except 
in the case of simple patterns,, such as. cross-lines and 
simple patterns. without numerals. This is followed 
by some: aceount of the research work done during the 
war, which led to the production’ of graticules by the 
author, first by grainless photography, and ultimately 
by filmless photography, enabling graticules to be 
turned out in large quantities, not only of the kinds 
hitherto only produced abroad, but also of many. new 
The. optical: peculiarities, of the various kinds 
are next discussed, and a chapter deals, with graticule 
design, showing: how, with the variety and. choice 


- now available,, it is necessary to co-ordinate the grati- 


cule to the design of the optical instrument and its 
purpose as a whole. A number of new uses: for grati- 
cules are: put forward, and it is suggested that new 
applications, some of which have already been 
initiated, might easily lead) to important improvements 
in many types of optical apparatus: 

Zoological Society, May 13.—Prof. E. W. Mac- 
Bride, vice-president, in the chair—N. Taylor: A 
unique case of asymmetrical duplicity in the chick.— 
Lt.-Col. S. Monckton Copeman: Experiments on sex 
determination. 

Mathematical Society, May 15.—Mr. J. E. Campbell, 
president, in the aie. Brot G. N.. Watson: The 
zeroes of Lommel’s polynomials.—Prof. W. H. 
Young: The triangulation method of defining th 
area of a surface. 

MANCHESTER, 

Literary and Philosophical Society, April 29.—Prof. 

G. Elliot Smith, president, in the chair.—Sir Henry 
: Some features in the growth of crystals. 


Crystals not only change their form during growth by 


the development of new faces, but also often display 
a tendency to appear first as needles and then in 
regular forms, seeming’ to pass through two stages. 
Experiments were made by the author many years 
ago in an attempt to determine the concentration of 
the solution. in. contact with a growing crystal, the 
refractive index being measured by the method of 
total internal reflection. These experiments led to 
the conclusion that in. a cooling supersaturated solu- 
trough, a sudden change in 


and that this is due to the sudden appearance of new 
erystals or to the suddenly increased growth of the 
crystals already present. Enclosed in a sealed tube 
and shaken, the solution yields a shower of crystals 
at this temperature alone, although,. for caine in 
the case of sodium nitrate, it is about 10° below that 
of saturation. Further experiments on a large 


NATURE 


iMay 22, 1919 


number of aqueous solutions and binary mixtures, 
such as salol mixed with betol, confirmed the con- 
clusion that a supersaturated solution passes at a 
definite temperature into a condition (the labile. state) 
in which spontaneous crystallisation can be induced 
by mechanical means, whereas above this temperature 
(the metastable state) crystals only grow by inocula- 
tion of the solution with crystalline germs. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Cultural Reality. By Dr. F. Znaniecki. Pp 
359. (Chicago: University of Chicago 
2.50 dollars net. 

Le Francais Enseigné par la Méthode Intuldve et 


<, Set 
| Press.) 


‘ Directe. ‘By Prof. P. Dessagnes. Pp. viiit304. 
(Paris: Masson et Cie.) 5 francs net. | 
A Manual of Machine Design. By F. Castle. Pp. 


ix+351. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.)...7s. 6d. 
- The Principles Underlying Radio-Communication. 
- (Radio Pamphlet No. 40, December 10, 1913, Signal 
Corps, U.S. Army.) Pp. 355. (Washington : Govern- 
ment Printing Office.) ©. 

Aquatic Microscopy for Beginners, or Common 


Objects from the Ponds and Ditches. By Dr. A. C. 
Stokes. Fourth edition.’ Pp. ix+324. (New York: 
J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and 
Hall, Ltd.) tos. 6d. net. 

Fats and Fatty Degeneration. By Prof. M. H. 
Fischer and Dr. M. O. Hooker. Pp. ixt+15s.. (New 


York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 

and Hall, Ltd.) 9s. 6d. net. 
Shore Processes ‘and Shoreline Development. 

Prof. D. W. Johnson. Pp. xvii+584. 

J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: 
Hall, Ltd.) 23s. net. 


By 
(New York: 
Chapman and 


Macmillan’s Geographical Exercise Books. Africa. 
With questions by B. ‘C. Wallis. Pp. 48. (London : 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 1s. 6d. 

Songs from a Watch-Tower. By R. H. McCartney. 
Pp. 131. (Chicago and New York: Fleming H. 
Revell Co.) 


Fresh Hope and Health for Hospital Patients and 
Invalids. By C. Muller. Second edition. Pp. 63. 
(London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 2s. net. 

Biochemical Catalysts in Life and Industry. Proteo- 
lytic Enzymes... By Prof. J. Effront. Translated by 
Prof. S. C. Prescott, assisted by C. S..Venable. Pp. 
' xi+752. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 23s. net. 

Fresh-water Biology. By Prof. H. B. Ward and 
G. C. Whipple and others. Pp. ix+1111. (London: 
G. Bell and Sons,. Ltd.) 28s. net. 

‘British Museum ‘(Natural History). 
Acari. ~No. 1., The Genus Demodex, Owen. By 
S. Hirst. Pp.. 44+xiii, plates. (London: British 
Museum (Natural History); Longmans and Co., and 
others.) Ios. . 

A Course in Machine Drawing and Sketching. By 
J. H. Dale. Pp. vi+186. (London and Edinburgh : 
W. and R. Chambers, Ltd.) 3s. 6d. net. 


Studies on 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 
THURSDAY, May 22. 

Roya INSTITUTION, at 3.—Prof. F. Keeble: Intensive Cultivation. 

RoyAL Society, at 4.30.—Prof. W. J. Sollas: The Structure of Lysorophus 
as Exposed by Serial Sections.—O. Rosenhein: A Preliminarv Study 
of the Energy Expenditure and Food Requirements of Women Workers. 
—M. Greenwood, C. Hodson, and A. E. Tebb: Report on the Metabolism 
of Female Munition Workers. 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Dr. S. Chapman : Electrical 
Phenomena occurring in High Atmospheric Levels. - 

FRIDAY, May 23 

Puvsicat Society, at 5.—Lewis F. Richanieon : A Form ‘of Knudsen’ s 

Vacuum Manometer.—Gilbert D. West : Theories of Thermal Transpira- 


tion.—Prof. W..H. Eccles: Demonstration ote eo Heing- -fork sustained by 
Thermionic Tubes. 


NO. 2586, VOL. 103] 


London : Chapman 


ZOOLOGICAL SocIETY, at 5.30.—J. 


SATURDAY, May 2}. siahihs 
LINNEAN SocigTY, at 3.—Anniversary Meeting. — a iri 
MONDAY, May 26. 

Roya. Society oF ARTS, at 4.30. —Capt. F. KE, D. Acland: A New Prime 

Mover of High Efficiency and British Origin. 


Royat GEOGRAPHICAL SocIETY, at 8.30.—Capt. A. de C. parr: Recent (i 


Journeys in Manchuria. 
TUESDAY, May 27 
Rovat InsTiTuTION, at 3.—Prof. W. H. Brage: Listening under 


ah 
’ 


Water. — 
Rovat Society or Arts, at 4.30.—Lt.-Col. the Hon. Sir John McCall: 


Science and Industry in Australia. 
T. Cunningham: Result ofa Mendelian 
Experiment on Fowls, including the Production of a Pile Breed.—Miss 
Kathleen F. Lander : Some Points in the Anatomy of the Takin (2 

taxicolor whitei).—E. P. Allis: Certain Features of the Otic Res of 
the Chondrocranium of Lepidosteus, and Comparison with other 1 
and higher Vertebrates. t 


WEDNESDAY, May 2 
Roya Society or ARTS, at 4.30.—H. J. akin 


Glass Making ey. 
and: During the War. 
THURSDAY, May 20. 


_ Institution. or ELEcTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 2.30.—Annual. General 


Meeting. s 
RovaL INSTITUTION, at 3.—Sir Valentine Chirol : The Balkans. 
Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Croonian Lecture—Dr, H ‘Dale: The 

Biological Significance of Anaphylaxis. ; 
RoyaL AERONAUTICAL SOcIETY, ‘at o.~ Squadrons ‘Commander G. M. 

Dyott : Flying in South America. 


FRIDAY, May 


- Roya INSTITUTION, at 5.30.—Sir John R. Bradford : At Filter passing 


Virus in Certain Diseases. 


; ee heiieg or MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Discussion resumed. by 


. Rosenhain on Paper by Dr. W. H. Hatfield: The M 
_abbrsaotyg of Steel, with some comaidenttion of the uestion of Brittlene 
ILLUMINATING ENGINRERING SOCIETY, at 8.— » Willcox : | The Gas 
filled Lamp and its Effect on Tluminating Engineering. 
SATURDAY, May 31. 
BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL Society, at 3.30.—F.,E. Bar 


Rows 


tlett and 


Smith: Listening to Sounds of Minimal Intensity: —E. ‘Ba the 
‘Relations of A°sthetics to Psy ioe 1d a f iis 

: ‘~ x 

CONTENTS. + ee PAR 

Applied Chemistry . <)h ia ye 


_ A Geological Bibliography of India . 


Our Bookshelf . : 
Letters to the Editor:— rei 
The Inheritance of’ Acquired Characters. —Prof. F 


. 223 
Research on Wounds of War. es! Melo? L. a “Austia. 223 
224 


aS a 


E. W. MacBride, F.R.S. J 225 

The Conditions attached to Government Grater for aa 

a Research. Bro.” Frederick Soddy, 

F.R.S . 116 sal Ci Sg i in = RG 

The Atlantic Flight. is 226 
The Development of Agricultural ‘Research and 

Education in Great. Britain. By Dr. E. J. 

Russell, F.R.S. ¢°227 
The Financial Position of Cambridge University . 229 
The Government of India and. Scientific Medicine. 

By J. W.W.S.... aes asi satis ban he a aa Can 
Notes... Stet ben te pei cine: t alge 
Our Astronomical Column :- a BR yg Tae 

Jupiter : Hite (on. 09: ee ea 

Nova Aquile, 1918 . BSR BE te i ee eae. 

“© Annuaire de l’Observatoire Royal de Belgique ” en 2354 
Science and the Classics . . a tae ace eae 
Electric Furnaces, By Chas. R. ’ Darling Sees 
British Optical Research. By A. E.C. ..... + 236 
A New British Whale -.....:. 3) PBF 
University and Educational tnteliigenes Via te RE 287 
Societies and Academies. .........-+.-+. 238 
Books Received ... + eee ope 240 
Diary of Societies) . 2. 1 se ee te eh es 


Editorial and | Publishing Offices : 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 


ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 
Publishers 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusts, LONDON. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830... ae 


rT Med owt 


Die: » NATURE 


241 
THURSDAY, MAY 29, i919. nature of the varied hues of the cornflower, salvia, 
iudite pansy, . aster, chrysanthemum, peony, _ holly- 


NATURAL ORGANIC COLOURING 
wane MATTERS. 
The Natural Organic Colouring Matters. By Prof. 
_ A. G. Perkin and Dr. A. E. Everest. _(Mono- 
_ graphs on Industrial Chemistry.) Pp. xxii+ 655. 
_ (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.,. 1918.) 
Price 28s, net. se 
ppeanis comprehensive treatise is the first English 
‘*. monograph to deal exhaustively with 
the fascinating but complex chemistry, of the 
natural organic colouring matters. The historical 
aspect of the subject-matter and the scheme of 
classification are unfolded in the introduction, after 
which eighteen groups of natural dyes are 
described. The first chapter deals with the anthra- 
quinone group, containing alizarin, the colour 
srinciple of madder root, which shares with indigo 
of the nitrogenous indole group the distinction of 
_ being one of the dyes of an antiquity so remote 
that it precedes the dawn of history. Although 
the importance of alizarin and its synthetic deriva- 
_ tives has overshadowed that of its other naturally 
occurring congeners, yet it should not be over- 
looked that the anthraquinone group contains also 
-. €ochineal, a colour principle originally obtained 
from Mexico, and utilised in the ancient American 
civilisations long before it became known to Euro- 
peans. Lac and kermes, the Asiatic counterparts 
_ of cochineal, also contain colour principles belong- 
. ing to the anthraquinone group. It is remarkable 
that naphthalene, which figures so largely in the 
production of synthetic dyes, is represented among 
natural colouring matters only by the small naph- 
thoquinone group. : 
_ The majority of the natural yellow colouring 
‘matters are derived from xanthone or flavone, and 
much of our knowledge of these two groups is 
' derived from the researches of Prof. A. G. Perkin, 
one of the authors, who has devoted himself ‘for 
many years to the study of this intricate branch 
of organic chemistry. The flavone and flavanone 
groups have also received the attention of 4 band 
of Irish workers under the guidance and inspira- 
tion of Prof. Hugh Ryan. 
_ The researches of Willstatter, carried out in the 
i Sercrauey endowed Kaiser Wilhelm Institute at 
Dahlem, partly with the. assistance of British and 
_ American collaborators, including Dr. Everest, the 
_ joint author of this treatise, have led to the elucida- 
_ tion of the chemical nature of many colouring 
_ matters of the y-pyran group. The anthocyan 
_ pigments, present as glucosides in many. flowers 
and coloured fruits, form a comparatively large 
_¢lass of natural colouring matters derived from 
_ pelargonidin, cyanidin, and delphinidin. - These 
fundamental anthocyanidins are in all probability 
produced from the yellow flavonol sap. pigments 
_ by a process of acid reduction. They are oxonium 
CO nds, which are generally isolated. in .the 
form of their crystalline chlorides. These - re- 
searches, which have demonstrated the chemical 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


Et 


hock, and many other flowers, and of the colours 
of the ripe cranberry, bilberry, and black grape, 
are of the utmost scientific importance in extend- 
ing our knowledge of the products of plant life. 

The dihydropyrane group includes hzematein, 
the colour principle of 1 »gwood, the most important 
natural dyewood, which is still extensively 
employed by dyers. 

The chapter on the colouring matters of un- 
known constitution shows that there is still ample 
scope for patient study and systematic research 
among the natural dyes. There is a special reason 
now why these laudable efforts should be supported 
to the fullest extent and with Governmental assist- 
ance. Many of the plants yielding unclassified 
dyes have a tropical or subtropical habitat, and 
the fortunes of war are bringing these localities 
more even than formerly under the control of the 
Allied nations, to the exclusion of the Teutonic 
States. It behoves the statesmen of the victorious 
Allies to encourage to the fullest extent the work 
of those trained observers who are prepared to 
devote themselves to the study of these interesting 
and possibly utilitarian problems. The treatise 
under review, which presents a complete epitome 
of the researches carried out on natural dyes, will 
prove to be not only an indispensable work of 
reference, but also a source of inspiration to any 
scientific worker wishing to extend the boundaries 
of our present knowledge of these colouring 
matters. G. M. 


EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY. 


Can We Compete? Germany’s Assets in Finance, 
Trade, Education, Consular Training, etc., and 
a Proposed British ‘War-cost Reduction Pro- 
‘gramme. By G. E. Mappin. Pp. 159+chart. 
(London: Skeffington and Son, Ltd., n.d.) 
Price 4s. 6d. net. 


R. MAPPIN’S book consists virtually of a 
number of essays on a. wide variety of 
subjects, which include technical universities, 
town planning, land registration, the training of 
women to become self-supporting, the reclamation 
of peat bogs, etc. . 

From his observations as a student in Germany, 
Mr. Mappin describes how the different problems 
are there dealt with, and, where a comparison is 
possible with our methods, suggests the lines on 
which our industry, commerce, and_ education 
should be reorganised. The book lacks co-ordina- 
tion between its various sections, and is written 
in a sketchy and unconvincing way. In making: 
out a case in favour of certain proposals on 
German lines, the author over-emphasises the pre-. 
vailing state of affairs in this country. Further, 
he does not appear to be fully familiar with many 
of the conditions he seeks to reform, advancement 
in some respects having proceeded far beyond his 
proposals. 

In common with many would-be reformers, Mr. 


O 


242 


NATURE 


Mappin appears to believe that there is a 
desperate need for an alteration in the conduct of 
affairs in this country, simply because similar 
affairs are undertaken on different lines else- 
where, and apparently he does not recognise that 
the success of national plans depends principally 
on the character, customs, and environment of 
the people, and that on this account what is 
successful in one country may be a failure in 
another. 

Dealing with minor aspects of the book, many 

réaders who have had opportunities of considering 
the matter will not agree with the author that 
British universities and technical colleges are ‘so 
lacking as he maintains in their ability to display 
clearly the kind of courses that they ‘provide. 
While many will agree that our public schools 
need much in the way of reform, they will scarcely 
support the contention that a boy goes to'such a 
school merely to get information. 
- The author urges the claims of works schools, 
but is apparently unaware of the fact that ‘there 
are numbers of well-established works schools in 
this country—some of very long standing. His 
suggestion that such schools should be supported 
financially by the premiums obtained from gentle- 
men apprentices is deplorable. Fortunately, the 
premium system in connection with manufactur- 
ing firms is fast dying out, and in this respect we 
have little to learn from Germany. 

In reading ‘the chapter relating to co-operation 
in works, one wonders whether the ‘author is 


aware of the Whitley report, or of the ‘wide-. 


spread adoption of works committees. 

In an appendix on technical universities em- 
phasis is laid’on the importance of practical work 
in co-ordination with the university training, and 
it is pointed out that in German universities one 
year of practical training. is required before a 
degree is conferred. Apparently, Mr. Mappin is 
not aware that almost everyone in this country 
who has made a study of engineering training, 
and particularly the university authorities, are 
_ fully agreed that not one year, but at least two 
or even three years of practical training are neces- 
sary in addition to the university course, and that 
this practice is the prevailing one in this country 
for engineering students. 

It is manifestly impossible to deal with the 
entire reform of industry, commerce, and educa- 
tion in this country in a volume of 159 pages, and 
the best that can be expected is the creation of a 
consciousness for a need for reform. This the 
author accomplishes to a considerable extent, but, 
to be convincing, the English conditions require 
much more thorough and accurate treatment than 
is accorded to them. 

Throughout the book the author seems to con- 
sider only what he believes to be the deficiencies 
of ‘this ‘country, ‘and fails‘to take into account our 
assets. The war ‘was won largely because of the 
character of the people—their individuality, 
adaptability, and inherent industrial capacity. 
These factors will be predominant in the competi- 
tive times of peace. 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


ESSEX. WATER ‘SUPPLY. 


The Water Supply of Essex from Underground — 


Sources. By W.. Whitaker and Dr. J. © 
Thresh; the Rainfall by Dr. 
(Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 
and Wales. 


Stationery Office, 1916.) Price 15s. 
bia issue of this volume, actually printed in 
1916, was delayed by the War Office until 
November of last year. It is an important addition 
to the series of county water-supply memoirs, of 
which a dozen have already been ‘published. dn 
consequence of the wide extent of the county, and 
the many interesting ‘problems connected ‘with its 
water resources, this memoir exceeds in size any 
previous volume of the series. Along with ‘the 
latest information ‘concerning water supply, it 
contains many extracts from old records, showing 
the conditions in past times, and furnishing ‘an 
instructive illustration of the progréss that has 
been made in public health. 
The separate sections are contributed by ou 


the geology and water resources have been treated 
in great detail by Mr. W. Whitaker, who during 
his official connection with the Survey obtained 
an intimate knowledge of the geology of the 
county, and since his retirement has devoted par- 
ticular attention to its ‘sources of water. Dr. J. C. 
Thresh, for many ‘years the medical officer of 
health for Essex, through a ‘prolonged study of 
the chemistry of the local waters, has contributed 
a remarkably comprehensive account of the 
subject, that is of the greatest general interest. 
Again, as in previous memoirs, the rainfall of 
the county has been dealt with by Dr. H. R. Mill, 
the director of the British Rainfall Organisation. 
With the exception of ‘the metropolitan area, 
Essex is dependent for its water supply on wells, 
with some slight assistance from ‘springs. — 
chalk is the chief source, though in many parts, 
where reached only at great depths, it fails to 
yield large supplies. This is attributed ‘to ‘the 
relatively narrow and tight fissures, which probably 


exist beneath a considerable thickness of overlying 


beds. Second only to the chalk as water-bearing 
strata follow the sands, clays, and gravel ‘beds of 
the Lower London Tertiaries, which in Essex ‘are 
of more importance from a water-supply aspect 
than in ‘any other county. 
Clay, London Clay, drift gravels, and sands afford 


small local ‘supplies of water at a relatively low 
cost, although their quality is not always above 


reproach. 


One of the most interesting ‘sections of this 
volume is that in which the chemistry of the chalk’ 


waters is discussed by Dr. Thresh. The waters 
obtained from the chalk, where deer 


carbonate, with a considerable amount of salt, 


in contrast to the normal hard ¢chalk-water occur- 


ring at, or near, the chalk outcrop itself. Dr. 
Thresh shows by experiment that, by mixing dif- 


Finally, the- Boulder 


covered 
by Tertiary beds, are soft, and contain sodium — 


H. R. Mill 
England _ 
Sir Aubrey Strahan, director.) ~ 
Pp. iv+510+iv maps. (London: His Majesty’s 


OE 7 od lS eb abi 


\s 


leading authorities in these special subjects. Thus — 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


243 


ferent proportions of chalk water and sea water, 
and by passing the mixtures through Thanet Sand, 
the resulting filtrates can be made almost identical 
with the varying deep-well waters of Essex. It was 
already known that calcareous waters become 
softened after passing through certain silicates of 
alumina with potash, and Dr. Thresh advances 
the theory that a similar action occurs in the 
chalk waters of Essex, where they are in contact 
with, or have passed through, the Thanet Sand 
alia yet the presence of sodium chloride being 
due to a slight influx of tidal or sea water. 
4 Nearly four-fifths of this volume is devoted. to 
the geological sections, water records, and water 
pres ami hundreds of wells in the county ; 
d; following a model index, four folding maps 
ill te the distribution in Essex of the alkaline 
and saline chalk-wells, the chalk water-levels, and 
the isohyetal distribution of rainfall. 
_ The amount of work. involved in the preparation 
of this memoir must have been very great, but 
the uti ity of a treatise of this kind is, in direct 
; ro rtion to the amount of information provided, 
| those, therefore, who make, or are likely to 


par eral this series of memoirs cannot 
but be grateful to the Geological Survey and the 
authors for the valuable and comprehensive data 
1corporated within the present volume. 
t Hj, L. 


Bris 


‘e 


is ois a> TE é 
Robe iti: 


OUR BOOKSHELF. _ 
ern Chemistry and Chemical Industry cf 


‘as in other British countries, the war 

been the means of directing attention to 
d opportunities, to unexplored and unex- 

ed natural resources, and to new possibilities 

dustrial, development. 

_ Prof. Chaudhuri is apparently so much im- 


pressed with these matters that he has been | 


unable to confine his attention to the subjects on 
which he set out to write, He provides his readers 
with a map of India “showing chief vegetable 
produces [sic],”’ throws in “some thoughts on in- 
dustrial problem in India,’’ and finally devotes a 
whole chapter to a review of recent developments 
in chemical industry in India. In spite of the 
inclusion of this interesting but irrelevant matter, 
he contrives to give a useful account of the 
chemistry of cellulose and starch, and of the great 
industries which depend on these important raw 
materials. The author has unfortunately suc- 
eumbed all too frequently to the temptation to 
overload his description with unnecessary details, 
and has thereby been led in some cases into 
making statements which, to say the least, require 
qualification. He says, for example, that “there 
are ‘various; kinds, of arrowroots—Indian, Bra- 
zilian, English, etc. They are all made at the 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


present day from starch, which is, obtained from 
different sources ’’’; and again: “Arrowroot de- 
rives its name from the fact that the juice (cas- 
sava-root juice) was used, by the West Indians as 
a.poison for the tips. of their arrows.’’ There was 
no need to. refer to, a comparatively unimportant 
variety of starch such as arrowroot in a small 
book of this kind, and the information given is 
misleading, if not actually inaccurate. T. A. H, 


The A BC of Aviation. By Capt. Victor W. 
Pagé. Pp. 274. (New York: The Norman W. 
Henley Publishing Co. ; London: Crosby Lock- 
wood and Son, 1918.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 


“Tue A B C of Aviation ’’ justifies its title in 
that it i a very elementary treatment of the 
subject of aviation. The writer was chief engineer 
officer at the Signal Corps Aviation School, 
Mineola, U.S.A., and a good idea of the contents 
of the book is obtained by imagining the author 
to have set down in print what he observed of 
the aeroplanes and aeroplane parts which have 
passed through the stores. of an aviation school, 
It is essentially superficial. both, as to. theory, and 
construction, and cannot be recommended as a 
serious introduetion to the study of aerostatics or 
aerodynamics, or even for constructional design. 
The diagrams of the flow of air round an aero- 
plane wing are graphic, but very unreal; they 
show a large region of stagnant air over half the 
upper surface, which has no counterpart in the 
real flow of air over a wing. 

The work is profusely illustrated with line draw- 
ings dealing chiefly with aviation, but with cursory 
reference to the balloon and airship, and the most 
useful feature of the book is. its wealth, of. illus- 
trative detail. Skeleton drawings are given of 
wings, fuselage, ailerons, elevators, and rudders. 
Each part of the aeroplane has its separate figure 
with a simple, clear statement of its name. There 
are full facilities for finding the disposition of the 
control surfaces, wires, etc., and the connections 
of the pilot’s control column and, rudder bar to the 
elevators, ailerons, and rudder. The engine con- 
trols are not dealt with in such a complete and 
simple manner, probably because the author has 
dealt, with that branch of aviation in an earlier 
work. 


Organic Chemistry, or Chemistry of the Carbon 
Compounds. By Victor von Richter. Vol. i., 
“Chemistry of the Aliphatic Series.’’ Newly 
translated and revised from the German edition 
(after Prof. E. F. Smith’s third American 
edition) by Dr. P: E. Spielmann. Second: (re- 
vised) edition. Pp. xvi+719. (London: Kegan 
Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 
Price 21s. net. . 


Tue first edition of Dr. Spielmann’s translation 
was reviewed in our issue of March 16, 1916 
(vol. xcvii., p, 54), and it is sufficient to say that 
the opportunity offered by the need for a second 
edition has been taken to correct certain, misprints 
in formule and numbers which. previously had 
escaped notice. 


244 


NATURE 


[May 29, 1919 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 
return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 
scripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE, 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 


The Ganadian Government and the Proposed Hunting 


_ of Garibou with Aeroplanes. 

In several English periodicals that have reached 
me I find reference to the correspondence in the Times 
concerning a suggestion emanating from Toronto that 
our barren-ground caribou might be driven in large 
numbers into corrals by means of aeroplanes and 
slaughtered in order to increase the meat supply. 
Such a suggestion has naturally created some alarm 
in the minds of many naturalists, sportsmen, and 
others in England, and hopes have been expressed 
that no such scheme would be permitted. 

It is with the view of assuring zoologists in England 
and all those who are interested in the conservation 
of wild life that they need have no fear that such a 
scheme would be sanctioned by the Canadian Govern- 
ment, if it’ follows, as is usual, the recommendations 
of its advisers, that I am taking the opportunity of 
presenting a few of the facts concerning the subject. 

On the recommendation of the Commission of Con- 
servation and the Government’s Advisory Board on 
Wild Life Protection, an inter-departmental committee, 
the North-West Game Act was completely revised two 
years ago. This Act governs the protection of game, 
fur-bearing animals, and wild life generally through- 
out the North-West Territories, which region includes 
all the portion of Canada north of latitude 60° (ex- 
cluding Yukon Territory, which is governed, however, 
by an ordinance generally similar in its provisions, and 
Quebec). The -main reasons for this revision were 
to give greater protection to the bison, musk-ox, 
caribou, and fur-bearing animals. 

No person, other than a native, may hunt or kill 
caribou or other game without a licence from the 
Minister of the Interior. Such control is exercised 
for the express purpose of preventing harmful or 
excessive killing. 

The idea of hunting caribou with aeroplanes is not 
new. Similar proposals have been made by different 
people at various times since the development of the 
aeroplane and its use in the war; some enthusiasts 
have added Maxim-guns to their means of offence. 
But to all such suggestions a deaf ear has been 
turned. During the war repeated efforts were made 
to secure a general relaxation of the game laws to 
permit the killing of game for food owing to the high 
price of meat. The Canadian Government resolutely 
opposed any such action, and a similar firm stand 
was taken by the Provincial Governments. It was 
realised that any such relaxation of the laws and the 
resulting excessive killing would mean the destruction 
almost to the point of extermination of many species of 
our game animals. The utilisation under Government 
control of the enormous herds of barren-ground 
caribou aS a means of supplementing the domestic 
meat supply was very carefully considered by the 
Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, but it was 
decided that the existing means of transportation and 
storage rendered any scheme of that nature imprac- 
ticable at the present time. There is no doubt that 
with adequate protection it will be possible in the 
future to utilise the caribou, and, we hope, the musk- 
ox, which are the grazing animals most suited to that 
vast territory. But at the present time a policy of 
careful protection is being carried on by _ the 
Canadian Government. 

All who are interested in the conservation of wild 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


life may rest assured that the Canadian Government q 


r 


is carrying on a vigorous policy in this matter. In 


February last the first national conference on wild- 
life protection was held in Ottawa, and attended | 


officials and representatives from all the provinces of 4 


the Dominion. I am now preparing a report on 


wild life of Canada and its conservation, which will © 
probably be issued: by the Commission of Conservation — 
This volume will indicate the extent — 
to which those responsible for the conservation of our 
Canadian wild life are fulfilling their responsibilities to 


during the year. 


posterity. Canadians are realising that Canada is the 
last stronghold for the greater portion of the big-game 
animals of North America, and are taking the 


before it is too late. The rescue of the bison from 
the border-line of extermination will for ever stand as 
a monument to the foresight of the Canadian Govern- 
ment. C. Gorpon Hewitt. 
Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada, 
May 2," : ih 


X-Rays and British Industry. 


Tue remarks made by Major G. W. C. Kaye in his 4 


article upon ‘X-Rays and British Industry” 
(NaTuRE, May 8) reflect so gravely upon British 
manufacturers that I must ask for the courtesy of a 
little space in order to comment on them, — 


Major Kaye apparently takes the view that British 


manufacturers, in the first place, persist in recom- 


‘mending induction coils rather than the more up-to- 
date transformers or interrupterless machines; and, — 


secondly, do not put really intelligent design and con- 
struction even into the manufacture of the coils. 

It is quite true that the invention of the interrupter- 
less machine was due originally to an American, 


namely, Mr. H. Clyde Snook, but my firm placed — 


machines of this type on the market before, I thinlx, — 


any American firm had produced them, and can — 
pioneers in Europe of — 


i A 


certainly claim to be the 
modern X-ray apparatus. 


The difficulty in this country has lain not so much z 


a 


with the manufacturer as with the conservatism of 


medical men, the majority of whom have refused © 


for years even to consider a closed-circuit transformer 


neces- ig 
sary measures to ensure their adequate protection — 


mem oR tga! 


2 
] 


as compared with an induction coil, and, to a certain — 
extent, hold the same opinion even to the present day. -— 
Even now, although we are selling interrupterless 


machines almost faster than we can make them, it 
is unfortunately the case that the bull of our output 


has to be sold abroad, and that there is still, com- — 


paratively speaking, littke demand for them in this 
country, the medical public being still apparently con- 
tent with putting in apparatus which would be 
laughed at in almost any other country in the world. 

I should also like to say that, although I regard 


the induction coil as obsolete for ordinary ewig ed 


it does still possess certain advantages for other wor 
notably therapeutic treatment, and I cannot agree 


with Major Kaye in his statement that the induction — 


coil of to-day differs but little from its predecessor 
of Spottiswoode’s day. 

My firm bought the business of the late Mr. Alfred 
Apps, and therefore I am in a position to contrast 
the methods of Mr. Apps (rightly referred to in his 
day as the ‘prince of coil-makers”) with the methods 
of the present day, and I can assure Major Kaye 


that progress has been a little more than he thinks, | 


and that there have been rather more intelligent design 
and electrical knowledge applied to the instrument 
than he quite appreciates. : 
R. S. Wricut 
(Newton and Wright, Ltd.). 
72 Wigmore Street, W.r1. ie 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


245 


Messrs. NEWTON AND WriGur deserve great credit 
for their pertinacity in endeavouring to convince the 
British medical world of the particular merits of the 
Snook transformer. There is little doubt that, apart from 
gratifying the conservatism of a considerable section 
of their customers, most British coil manufacturers 
will presently be found concentrating their efforts on 
some type of interrupterless transformer. 

_ The induction coil is no longer the best equipment 
for the X-ray operator. It is essentially inefficient, 
and, in addition, is often badly served by the (mercury) 
break. It has been pointed out to me that I made no 
mention in my article of Prof. Taylor Jones’s admir- 
able work on’ the induction coil. This was far from 
my intention. My concern would rather be with the 
extent to which his published results have affected the 
anes of the British coil manufacturer. Dr. N. R. 
mpbell recounts further interesting work on the 
iy in recent issues of the Philosophical Magazine. 
oh, ‘ future does not lie with the induction coil, but 
rather with the closed-circuit A.C. transformer and 
some variety of hot-cathode valve (somewhat the same 
as in wireless telegraphy). This arrangement requires 
neither interrupter nor commutator, and the resulting 
simplicity will undoubtedly appeal to the medical man. 


_ Unless British manufacturers ‘‘ get busy” on some 


such lines, the American manufacturer will have it 
all his own way in the future, certainly for overseas 


An effective association of. British manufacturers 
might result in this country taking the lead in X-ray 
matters instead of developing American inventions. 
. : ; G. W. C. Kaye. 


rng: oe Wasps. 

_A MODERATELY sized underground nest of the 
common wasp (Vespa vulgaris) examined by me on 
July 27, 1915, in Selkirkshire, was 8 in. in diameter, 
and contained an adult population of 417 workers and 


the at en. In addition, the six cell-flats of the nest 
“1159 eggs, 1216 larve, and 1076 pupa, all 


of the first brood; 288 eggs, 248 larve, and 144 pupz 


of the second brood; and 42 eggs, 30 larve, and 
14 pup2 of the third brood. The actual living total 


‘time of examination, including eggs, larve, 
, and adults, was therefore 4635. In addition, 
had apparently hatched from the cells then 
ccupied by second and third broods 852 individuals, 
of which only 417 were accounted for when the nest 
was exterminated; the surplus brings the total to 
more than 5000. This was a nest which, when it 
was destroyed, had completed only the least active 
half of the wasp season. 
_ A full account of the distribution of the different 
stages within the nest, and the deductions drawn 
therefrom as to the rates of egg-laying, cell-building, 
hatching, and mortality, appeared in the Scottish 


te 


' Naturalist for November, 1915. 


In the same paper will be found particulars of the 
inmates of two other nests of the same species: one 
examined by Mr. A. Macdonald in September, 1915, 


- in Kincardineshire, contained 1197 adults, 652 larve, 


and 680 pupa, while the remainder of 5321 cells either 

contained eggs or were empty; the other, examined 

in October, 1912, by Mr. . Evans in Midlothian, 

was found to contain 11,560 cells, and was estimated 

to have Pees no fewer than 25,000 wasps in the 

course of the season. James Ritcnir. 
Edinburgh, May 12. 


Durtinc the year 1909 I destroyed 113 wasp-nests, also 
87 in 1911, carefully took out the combs un en, and 
counted’ all the wasps that I could find (all wasps 
previously able to fly). They were mostly Vespa vul- 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103 | 


garis, V. germanica, and a very few V. rufa and 
V. sylvestris. During 1910 I could find only one nest 


of V. rufa. Subjoined are a few records. 
Wasp Records. 

1909 1 & at least in all nests. 

July 2x... 6combs, 547 2 ? No large cells in comb. 
a9 23 oes 9 ” 1475 55 ” ” 
ys 24 Kad | 49 » 44299,67 66. V. rufa, 
» «625 5." %s 396 , 
» 26 7 9 ooo ,, 
99° BO) % + ” 389 x», 106 6 6, 29 29. 
» 29 6 472 ,, Vespa sylvestris. 
» 29 - 6 ” 600 ,, 
» 3° 9 ” 25°99 +, 
ie oe Ose 2344 4, One large-celled comb. 

Aug. i. Oss ta 2240 ,, No ee oa 
» 3 9 » 2560 , 
ae. | 474, 2413}, Two Ff a V. germanica, 
irr ic. 8 ” 2557 One ” ” 
» 8 ae TO 45 3019 sg ” ” 
3 tae C Rpet 287 ,, 15699. V. sylvestris. 
> 8 tos 4287 ,, One big-celled comb. V. germanica. 
TQII 

Aug. ) cot; SB ise 3420 ,, ‘Three Py ‘“ ” 


These are a few records from about 300 acres of 
land here. I should conclude that 5000 99 wasps 
able to fly constitute a strong working nest of V. vul- 
garis or V. germanica, and perhaps V. norvegica. 

RicHarD F. Burton. 

Longner Hall, Salop, May. 9. 


THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 
the result of an executive order issued by 


S 
A President Wilson on May 11, 1918, the tem- 


porary arrangement inaugurated two years pre- 
viously has acquired permanence as the National 
Research Council of the United States. The 
history of this organisation is instructive in show- 
ing that in time of national stress the Govern- 
mental authorities appreciate the necessity for 
active co-operation from scientific bodies or in- 
dividuals who have in peace conditions received 
but little recognition or support. 

During the War of the Rebellion, Abraham 
Lincoln caused the incorporation of the National 
Academy of Sciences, corresponding to the Royal 
Society, in order to have available, for national 
purposes, a body of men who were representative 
in their branches of science. Their duty was to 
investigate any problem of national importance 
when called upon to do so by a Government De- 
partment. The expenses of the work were to be 
defrayed by the State, but the academy received 
no compensation whatsoever. In the fifty-three 
years of peace which followed, the National 
Academy pursued its course as an ordinary 
scientific organisation of the highest class, giving 
advice to the Government from time to time when 
called upon to do so. 

After the attack on the Sussex in April, 1916, 
the National Academy offered its services to the 
President for organising the research facilities of 
the country in order to prepare for any eventual 
active part of the United States in the war. This 
offer was accepted by the President, and the 
National Research Council was constituted. In 
July of that year the success which followed the 
organisation of research work by the National 
Academy of Sciences had already been sufficient 
to call forth the thanks of President Wilson. 


246 


NATURE 


[May 29, 1919 


During the succeeding eighteen months the 
National Research Council was ‘thoroughly 
organised, and throughout this period rendered 
the greatest service to the nation in directing and 
conducting investigations connected with the 
prosecution of the war and with national welfare. 
Its activities were not confined to research alone, 
but a very important division occupied itself with 
general relations. Information was_ collected 
from foreign sources and distributed to those 
workers who had need of it. Large questions of 
reconstruction, education, and foreign relations 
were handled from the scientific and industrial 
aspects. 

The technical divisions of the Céusiea were as 
follows: Military; engineering; physics, mathe- 
matics, astronomy, and geophysics ; chemistry and 
chemical ‘technology; geology and geography ; 
medicine and related sciences; agriculture, botany, 
forestry, zoology, and fisheries. Under these 
heads a large number of members were co-opted 
to deal with special subjects. 

As will be seen, 
enabled the National Research Council to bring 
under its ‘direction practically everyone available 


whose capacity for research work was a national - 


asset. 

So successfully did the Council carry out the 
programme assigned to it that on May 11 of last 
year the President requested the National 
Academy to perpetuate the National Research 
Council in order that it might be available not 
only for war-time problems, but also for the large 
issues of peace. 

The six. paragraphs in which the President sums 
up the duties of the National Research Council are 
the clearest exposition possible of the relations of 
research and research workers to national effici- 
ency, but they also point out what are the obliga- 
tions of the nation towards stimulating investiga- 
tion in the United States. ‘Stress is laid on co- 
operative work, but it is pointed out that co- 
operation. must be of such a type as to ensure in- 
dividual initiative. 

It is especially noteworthy in the President’s 
order that collaboration of the scientific and téch- 
nical branches of the Government, both military 
and civil, with the National Research Council 
is required. The nominations, however, ‘to 
the Council from the Government bureaux are 
made by the president of the National Academy of 
Sciences. They are then designated by the Presi- 
dent of the United States to take their place on 
the National Research Council. In this way the 
Government representatives are men whose scien- 
tific qualifications are vouched for by the president 
of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Thus it is that the national direction of research 
work in the United States has become vested in 
a body of men whose conduct of research work 
during the war period of that country has shown 
that they are competent to handle the great 
problems which go with peace and reconstruction. 
The scheme is a wise one, because it calls for 
the closest co-operation between the Government 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103 | 


this very complete system . 


and the research worker, but leaves the decision — 
as to the methods of attack in the problems in- q 


under the BF 
National Research Council was carried on with 


volved in the hands of experts. 
The financing of investigations 


funds which aggregated 54,0961. for the fiscal 
year 1919. ‘These were derived from the Rocke- 
feller Foundation, the Carnegie Institution, ‘and 
the President’s Fund. 

Two important developments have taken’ place 
since the foundation of the Council. The first is 
the result of the Rockefeller Foundation entrust- 
ing to the Council the sum of 100,o00l, for ex- 
penditure within a'period of five years for research 
in physics and chemistry in educational institu- 
tions in the United States. The primary feature 
of the project is the initiation of research fellow- 
ships. This -will open a. scientific career to a 
larger number of able investigators, and will meet 
an urgent need of the univers.ties and industries. 
It is expected ‘that fifteen to twenty fellowships 
will be available during the coming year. 

The second development brings the Council i into 
the closest touch with the scientific and technical 
societies of the United States. By a recent 
decision of the Council the majority of the members 
of a division must be representatives elected by 
the leading scientific societies. In the division of 
chemistry and chemical technology, for example, 
nine members are elected hy the Chemical Society, 
one each by the Electrochemical and Ceramic 
Societies, and one by the Institute of Chemical 
Engineers. Only six members are chosen by the 
Council - itself. 

There can be ‘no doubt that this. programme, in 
which the direction of ‘national research work is 
placed in the hands of capable men of: “science, 


in which ample opportunity is afforded younger — 


men of originality to develop their genius, and 


in which the head of the State and his advisers 


have actively attested'the vital necessity of original 
investigation in any scheme of national efficiency, 
initiates ‘an era of ‘scientific productiveness for 
the United States far greater even than the im- 
portant output to which we were accustomed 
before the war. C OE Bde ‘ 


WATER-POWER DEVELOPMENTS. 


ies prominence which has recently been given 
to the latent possibilities of © power in 
streams, at present, from an industrial point of 
view, 


such a degree that reports and articles on the 
subject are now being published in close sequence, 
and we ‘are appreciably increasing our ‘knowledge 
of the conditions prevailing in appropriate regions, 
and of the measures which are desirable for ex- 
ploiting such sources of power. The Royal 
Swedish Waterfalls Board is losing no time in 
developing the mountainous supplies of Lapland. 
The -Canadian -water-power departments are 
equally active as regards ‘the hydrometric !survey 
of ‘Canada. 


running to waste, has had the effect of ‘ 
stimulating public and professional interest to . 


‘Our °own Government has taken the 


world’s coal-fields, «yet, 


_ May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


247 


welcome step of appointing a Board of Trade 
Committee to investigate the water-power re- 
sources of Great Britain and Ireland. Apart from 
State-controlled undertakings, we have the activi- 
ties of unofficial bodies like the Water-power Com- 
mittee of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies, 
the second report of which lies before us. It 
is a useful statement of information gleaned from 
inquiries in various parts of the world, but princi- 
pally within the British Empire, since the 
publication in July, 1918, of the first report, which 
Was summarised in Nature of September 10, 
1918. It dwells particularly and justifiably on the 
great strides which are being made in Canada. 
A ‘perusal ‘of this report in conjunction with a 
‘on “Science and Industry in Canada,’’ read 
Prof. J. C. McLennan before the Royal Society 
‘Arts on March 4, certainly leads to a feeling of 


admiration for the energetic manner in which the 


ion has set about compensating itself for 
the shortage in its available coal supply. Although 
Canada takes second place in the list of the 
owing to their geo- 
graphical distribution and the difficulties of pro- 
Suidtiog, she has.at present to rely to a very con- 
le extent on supplies from the United 
States. 
‘The .total estimated water-power of Canada 


is stated by Prof. McLennan to aggregate 
ei aan h.p., divided somewhat as follows :— 
ene Qik ' » Per at H.P. 
‘Ontario A see «e+ _ 5,800,000 
Manic a eke mj +++ 6,000,000 
itoba, ‘Sas atc ewan, "A erta, 
North-West Territories . i 18 Bs 5PM 
British.Columbia ... mee 3,000,000 
Remainder of Dominion ... : ee 500,000 


According to a census rempaoved in February ~ 
dast I 
‘total 


the Dominion Water-power Branch, the 
ydro-electric - power actually developed is 
2,305,310 h.p., which is roughly 12 per cent. of 
the total ‘available. Of this quantity, rather under 


one-tenth is’ ‘exported to the United States, despite 


the fact that it is badly needed by Canadian indus- 
tries in order to meet their increasing require- 
ments. We have therefore the singular situation 
of Canada exporting electric power, of which she 
has none to spare, to the United States, and 
importing in return coal, of which she has abun- 
dant,. but unworked, supplies. This artificial and 


- uneconomical exchange i is Causing no little concern 
in-responsible circles, because, if the United States 
should see fit to restrict its coal exports.on the 


perfectly reasonable, ground that the whole output 
is .required | internally for .the ;domestic manufac- 
ture of raw material, those} provinces in Canada 
(comprising “the «most populous manufacturing 
districts) which are remote ‘from the Dominion 

coal-fields would suffer most, although they are 
rich in. hydro-electric, possibilities. Under Federal 
law no.inconsiderable portion of the energy gener- 
ated:may be diverted to the ‘United States. Take 
the Niagara ‘Falls, for instance. ‘Of 388,500 h.p. 
generated on the Canadian side in rgr7, no less 


‘than 125,000 h.p. was exported to the United 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103! 


States, in addition to 265,000 h.p. developed .on 
the American side itself. It is a delicate question, 
calling for delicate handling; fortunately the rela- 
tions between the two countries are of the friend- 
liest description. 

Some of the largest Canadian installations, 
either completed or in hand, are .Chippewa, 
300,000 h.p.; Ontario Power Co., 210,000 hip. ; 
Shawinigan Falls, 200,000 h.p. 

Developments in Australia are not nearly so 
marked; indeed, there is little additional informa- 
tion forthcoming. The chief electrical engineer 
of New South Wales estimates that 300,000 h.p. 
is continuously available from eighteen schemes 
already investigated. The chief of these are the 
Snowy River (137,400 h.p.) and the Clarence 
(100,000 h.p.). 

There is little also to record from South Africa. 
In New Zealand there is some activity over a 
scheme by which 130,000 h,p. will be developed 
at three important sites on North Island. 

The report .of the Committee of the ‘Conjoint 
Board concludes with an admonition to the engi- 
neers of Great Britain tobe ready ‘to take their 
part in inevitable and impending enterprises . of 
great magnitude in hydro-electrical engineering. 
The Committee utters a warning that Canadian, 
American, and Continental engineers will continue 
to exercise a controlling interest in such projects 
unless an effort be made to contest the situation. 
It also’ directs attention to the lack of (facilities 
at British universities for giving the necessary 
specialised scientific training to those seeking \to 
enter this field of engineering, and it points to 
the example set by Cornell University, U.S.A., 
in laying itself out to meet the demand which is 
bound to arise fora training of this description. 

BRYSSON: CUNNINGHAM. 


CHEMICAL SCIENCE AND THE STATE. 


| may still be doubted whether. the public gene- 
rally has any clear idea as to the occupation 
of the chemist and the purposes to which his work 
is directed. Usually he)is confused with the dis- 
penser of.medicine, the pharmacist, who displays 
in his window the familiar globes of coloured 
water. -By way of variety and as:soon as :his 
services were: urgently required for purposes con- 
nected with the war he was classed by officials 
in the War Office: with the labourers in the Arsenal 
at Woolwich, and he was paid at:the same rate. 
It has, however, ‘been ,gradually forced on the 
attention, of the official classes that.it is only the 
skilled scientific. chemist who is qualified to devise 
and manufacture explosives, dyes, and drugs of 
the modern type, and that he alone.can provide 
poison gases in warfare. and their antidotes. . 
The Institute of Chemistry, of which the. offices 
and laboratory are situated in Russell Square, 
W.C., was founded in:r877, and chartered in .1885. 
It is a body of professional. men,.all of whom have 
passed through a course of study. and training ex- 
tending over several years, with additional experi- 
ence gained in practice as analysts and consult- 


248 


NATURE 


[May 29, 1919 


ants. During the progress of the war the institute 
has been in constant communication with the War 
Office and other Government Departments, and 
has been largely instrumental in mobilising the 
chemists of the country both for technical service 
with the forces and for the production of all kinds 
of war material. 

The authorities having at last become aware 
that the services and advice of the scientific 


chemist are indispensable in the economy of the . 


State, it appears eminently desirable that some 
representative body should be recognised as the 
mouthpiece of the several specialised organisations 
which have been one after another called into 
existence. The Institute of Chemistry already 
mentioned is a professional body with aims in 
reference to chemistry corresponding with those 
of the College of Physicians in relation to medi- 
cine. But the Chemical, Society is much older, 
having been founded in 1841, and is, in fact, the 
parent of all the chemical associations now exist- 
ing. It is composed of about 3400 fellows, and 
its object is the cultivation of the science of 
chemistry and the publication of the results of 
research. The Society of Chemical Industry, 
founded about the year 1880, is also a very 
numerous and influential body, consisting of 
manufacturers and others engaged in the applica- 
tion of chemistry to practical purposes. Beside 
these two large societies there are the, more 
recently founded Society of Public Analysts, the 
Association of Chemical Manufacturers, the Fara- 
day Society, the Biochemical Society, the Ceramic 
Society, the Society of Dyers and Colourists, the 
Institute of Brewing, and some others less purely 
chemical in character. 

A short time ago the Institute of Chemistry 
addressed representations to the Government 
pointing out the necessity for introducing a 
definite system into the conditions of appointment 
of chemists directly engaged in the service of the 
State. There are already three first-class appoint- 
ments held by officials entitled respectively the 
“Government Chemist,’’ “War Department 
Chemist,’’ and ‘Admiralty Chemist,’’ but the 
subordinate offices are without a_ recognised 
system as to rank, qualifications, or emoluments. 

There is, however, another question of some 
practical importance. In the event of the Govern- 
ment requiring information, advice, or opinion 
on any chemical question, to which of the bodies 
mentioned should inquiry be addressed? Hitherto 
the Government has been much in the habit of 
seeking advice on all kinds of subjects from the 
Royal Society, and getting it for nothing. During 
the war the Institute of Chemistry has given valu- 
able information and assistance. But neither of 
these bodies can speak for British chemistry as 
a whole, and, since it is obviously undesirable for 
any divergence of opinion to show itself in con- 
nection with matters in which the public advan- 
tage or even safety is concerned, a new body 
has recently been called into existence consisting 
of duly appointed representatives of all the 
chemical societies and associations. It is hoped 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


that this Federal Council for Pure and Applied 


Chemistry (the establishment of which was re- — 


ferred to in Nature for February 27 last, vol. cii., 
p- 591) will be recognised by the Government as 
qualified to speak for the whole of the chemists of 
this country; at the same time, its existence will 
promote the general recognition of the profession 


of chemistry and of its right to a position corre-— 


fessions. Mi 


BRE 


sponding with that of the other learned pro- 


NOTES. 


Tue eighty-seventh annual meeting of the British 
Association will be held in Bournemouth from Tues- 
day, September 9, to Saturday, September 13, under 
the presidency of the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, who 
will deliver an address to the association (dealin 
with engineering and the war) at the inaugura 
general meeting in the Winter ‘Gardens on Septem- 
ber 9 at 8.30 p.m. The sectional work will begin 
on Tuesday morning, and the days available for sec- 
tional meetings will therefore be Tuesday, Wednes- 
day, Thursday, and Friday, September 9, 10, 11, 
and 12, and, if required, Saturday morning, Septem- 
ber 13. The following presidents of sections have 
been appointed by the council :—A, Mathematical and 


. Physical Science, Prof. Andrew Gray; B, Chemistry, 


Prof. P. Phillips Bedson; C, Geology, Dr. J. W. 
Evans; D, Zoology, Dr. F. A. Dixey; E, Geography, 
Prof. L. W. Lyde; F, Economic Science and Statis- 
tics, Sir Hugh. Bell, Bart.; G, Engineering, Prof. 
J. E. Petavel; H, Anthropology, Prof. Arthur Keith; 
I, Physiology, Prof. D. Noel Paton; K, Botany, Sir 
Daniel Morris; L, Educational Science, Sir Napier 
Shaw; and M, Agriculture, Prof. W. Somerville. 
Evening discourses will be delivered on Thursday, 
September 11, by Sir Arthur Evans on ‘‘ The Palace 
of Minos and the Prehistoric Civilisation of Crete”; 
and on Friday, September 12, by Mr. Sidney G. 
Brown on ‘‘The Gyroscopic Compass.” 


A MEETING of subscribers to the Ramsay Memorial 


Fund will be held on Thursday, June’5, at 5 p.m., at 
University College, London, for the purpose of con- 
sidering plans to be submitted by the executive com- 
mittee with respect to the progress of the fund and 
to the objects to which the fund should be devoted. 
The total amount already given or promised amounts 
to 42,7941. 10s. 9d. This sum includes the following 
contributions, either in full payment or on account of 
the collections: by the following overseas com- 
mittees :—Switzerland, 8171. 6s. 9d.; United States of 
America, 6261. 15s. 10d.; Japan, 500l. gs. 2d.; India, 
3971. 8s. 4d.; Italy, 3951. 16s. 8d.; Denmark, 2251. ; 
Norway, 186l. 6s. 7d.; Chile, 1281. 6s. 8d.; Holland, 
681. 1s. 7d.; Australia, 371. 16s.; New Zealand, 
21l. 3s. 6d. It also includes 51771. 18s. 6d. collected 
by the Glasgow committee for a Glasgow fellowship. 
Promises, either provisional or definite, for the founda- 
tion of one, or more than one, Ramsay Memorial Fel- 
lowship have been received from the Governments of 
Italy, Japan, Spain, Norway, China, and Greece, and 
other Governments have the matter under favourable 
consideration. 


UNDER the auspices of the French Government the 
Office Commercial Francais en Angleterre has 
organised in London an exhibition of optical instru- 
ments and perfumery. The Office Commercial is a 
recently created department of the French Ministry 


of Commerce, and its object is to assist manufac- - 


turers to develop export trade. The exhibition is 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


249 


being held at 153 Queen Victoria Street, and will 
be open until June 5. The optical exhibits include 
field- and opera-glasses, telescopes, kinematographs, 
surgical mirrors, laryngoscopes, spectacles, etc. So 
much advance has been made in this industry by British 
manufacturers during the war, and so little is known 
of it on the Continent, that we hope something will 
be done to hold in Paris and elsewhere an exhibition 
of optical and other manufactures in which we have 
achieved decided progress. Perhaps arrangements can 
be made to transfer to some Continental cities the 
main part of the British Scientific Products Exhibi- 
‘tion to be held at the Central: Hall, Westminster, 


during July. 


In view of the present industrial unrest and the 
difficult social problems with which the country will 
be faced during the next few years, the promotion of 
better relations between employers and employees 

nands scientific study. The National Alliance of 
Employers and Employed, through its organ Unity, 
ts adopting the enterprising step of offering a series 

: s presented by Sir Robert Hadfield, and 
amounting in all to 200l., for the best essay on either 
of the following subjects :—‘‘A Practical Scheme for 
the Joint Development of Industry by Capital and 
Labour,” ‘“‘The Most Effective Means for the Preven- 
tion of Unemployment,” and ‘‘The Most Effective 
Means for the Prevention of Industrial Disputes.” 
The committee of award will consist of the Right 
Hon. Fredk. Huth Jackson nolan of the National 

lliance), the Master of Balliol College, Oxford, and 
the Right Hon. Arthur Henderson. Essays must not 
exceed 3000 words in length, and must be addressed 
to the Editor, Unity, 64 Victoria Street, London, 
S.W.1, marked ‘‘ Essay Competition.” The competi- 
tion closes on August 30, and the rights of publication 
of essays submitted are to be vested in Unity. 

Tue difficulties experienced by many university 
graduates in obtaining employment suitable to their 
education and abilities received careful consideration 
ata i 4 meeti rs oo of the universi- 

3, the Imperial College of Technology, and the 
Pederdtien of British Industries, under the chairman- 
ship of Sir Richard Vassar-Smith. The proposal to 
set up an organisation which might act as a 
__ *clearing-house” between the universities and the 
_ industries of the country was received so favourably 
that it was decided to hold a further meeting to con- 
sider the practical details of the scheme. An efficient 
organisation of the nature suggested should ensure 
that all of university students would have the 
opportunity of passing into that type of productive 
employment in which they would be able to use their 
abilities to the fullest extent. It would also make 
for that closer co-operation between the university and 
industry which is so essential for national prosperity 
in the years to come. The marked tendency for the 
university graduate to proceed overseas would un- 
doubtedly be checked by the offer of suitable employ- 
ment in this country, and the setting up of eh an 
organisation will meet with the approval of all in- 
terested in national well-being. The carrying out of 
the scheme at an early date would exert a considerable 
influence on the maintenance of that steady flow of 
workers through the university to commerce and 
labour which is looked forward to on all sides. 


A PETITION in opposition to the Dogs Protection Bill, 
with more than eight hundred signatures, chiefly of 


residents in Leeds and other cities in Yorkshire, has . 


been collected by a few private individuals in ten 
days, and has been forwarded to the Home Secretary. 
It was pointed out that,-in the opinion of the peti- 
tioners, the Bill would do harm by interfering with 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


the progress of medical research. The list of signa- 
tures included the heads of many of the departments 
of science, technology, and medicine in the University 
of Leeds, as well as many important members of the 
administrative staff of the University. There were 
also names of many members of the infirmary staff, 
important civic persons, and representatives of the 
clerical, legal, dental, nursing, and other professions. 
The Bill was amended in the House of Commons 
during the report stage on May 23 by the insertion 
of a provision, moved on behalf of the Government, 
permitting experiments where the object in view 
would be frustrated unless it was performed on a 
dog. The amendment was carried by a majority of 
78, and the Bill now awaits a third reading. 


Tue Society for the Prevention of Hydrophobia 
(founded in 1886) is being reorganised for the purpose 
of influencing public opinion and urging the Govern- 
ment to adopt universal muzzling for eight months, 
accompanied by six months’ quarantine on all imported 
dogs, which past experience has shown to be the 
quickest, safest, and only means of completely 
eradicating rabies and hydrophobia. It is the stray, 
wandering, and uncared-for dogs, which infest every 
town and village, that are the most likely to be bitten 
by a rabid dog escaped from an infected area and to 
spread the disease farther afield. Universal muzzling 
would lead to the seizing and elimination of all stray 
dogs before a rabid dog arrived in the district. To 
wait until a rabid dog has arrived in a district and 
infected one or more of these strays is a fatal mis- 
take. A forty-mile radius is all very well for cattle 
disease and swine fever, but not for rabies. Amongst 
those who have lately joined the committee are Sir 
John McFadyean, principal of the Royal Veterinary Col- 
lege; Dr. C. J. Martin, director of the Lister Insti- 
tute; Mr. Stephen Paget, and Major Penberthy, presi- 
dent of the Roval College of Veterinary Surgeons 
(1897). Mr. J. Sidney Turner has been elected chair- 
man. Vice-presidents will include Surg.-Gen. Sir 
David Bruce, Sir J. Rose Bradford, the Earl of 
Chesterfield, Sir Watson Chevne, Bart., Earl Curzon 
of Kedleston, Maior David Davies, the Duchess of 
Newcastle, Lord Bledisloe, Mr. Leslie Scott, K.C., 
and the Hon. A. H. Holland-Hibbert. 


An outline of the progress in practical radio- 
telegraphy during the past four years was given last 
week by Mr. Godfrey Isaacs in an address before the 
members of the Aldwych Club. The range of mari- 
time communication, which before the war averaged 
200 miles by day and 500 miles at. night, had been 
quadrupled. . ‘‘Jamming,’’ apparently, has been 
eliminated, and Mr. Isaacs said ships. would in future 
be able to telephone and telegraph either to ships at 
sea or to the coast without any possibility of inter- 
ference. The wireless ‘direction-finder’’ would en- 
able the pilot of an aeroplane or airship to ascertain 
approximately where he was at.any. time. A further 
development. had produced a new transmitter, which 
would project into the air a wide, divergent beam, 
something like a searchlight without the light, 
which would extend over any area required, or, if it 
was desired, a concentrated beam over some small 
place, and these beams would convey to the men in 
the sky automatically the name of the place they 
were passing over. Similarly, these beams could be 
equipped to lightships or buoys in fixed and defined 
positions, so that even when passing over the sea 
an airman would know exactly where he was. With 
regard to land communications, very little was done 
before the war, particularly in well-populated coun- 
tries, such as those in Europe, in connection with 
wireless telegraphy, for the reason that if they had 


250 


NATURE 


[May 29, 1919 


had -a’number of -wireless ‘telegraphy stations in ‘close 
proximity, ‘interference with ‘each other ‘would 
have made an efficient service quite impossible. 
That was’a thing of the past. There was no ‘reason 
why ‘there should ‘not be wireless telegraph and ‘wire- 
less telephone services ‘between all the principal 
centres throvghout this country. London could talk 
to Manchester or Edinburgh or .Dublin without any 
possible danger of interfering with any other ‘station, 
and those messages could not be overheard by ‘any 
other station. In 'telegraphing .and telephoning, ‘the 
same thing exactly applied. Mr. Isaacs regarded that 
as an epoch-making invention. He ‘thought a very 
great service would)be done if wireless telegraph and 
wireless telephone services were constructed as 
auxiliaries to land-lines. Wireless to-day could do 
150 words per minute simplex and 300 words a minute 
duplex. It would require but avery small mechanical 
improvement to double'and quadruple that number of 
words transmitted by wireless. Mr. Isaacs ‘was 
guite satisfied that, so soon as wireless traffic needed 
the greater ‘speed of transmission, mechanical im- 
provement would be introduced, and they would get 
something in ‘the ‘neighbourhood of 600 words per 
minute. 


‘Mr. Vaueuan NasH:and Sir ‘T.-H. Middleton have 
been appointed Commissioners under the Development 
and Road Improvement Funds ‘Acts. 


Srr ALBert STANLEY has, on account of ill-health, - 


tendered his resignation as;President of the Board of 
Trade, and Sir Auckland Geddes has been. appointed 
as his. successor. 


THE appointment of the Ray Lankester investigator 
having ' been suspended during the war, the following 
have ‘now been appointed, beginning or expected to 
begin ‘work at the Plymouth Marine Biological 


Laboratory on the dates named :—Mr. L Craw- 
shay, Marth 1 (Porifera); Mr. H. M. Fox, June 21 
(marine insects); Mrs. Redman King,’ July 3 


(Echinus); and Prof. W. Garstang (Ascidians). 


Tue Ipswich Field Club has lately investigated two 
of ‘the tumuli on Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, and 
proved them to belong ‘to the Bronze age. Mr. J. 
Reid Moir, who superintended the work, gave an 
account of the results to a meeting held on the spot on 
May 17. He showed the remains of a very thin bronze 
bowl, which seemed to be partly covered with a 
material like linen in a good state of preservation. 
It contained incinerated human bones, part of a bone 
comb, a bead, and other fragments apparently of orna- 
ment. ‘Traces of hearths were distinct in the larger 
mound examined. 


Tue Board of Agriculture and the Road Board have 
appointed a joint sub-committee to arrange for ex- 
periments to be carried out to ascertain whether there 
is any foundation for the allegation that tar-treated 
roads are a source of danger to fisheries; if so, to 
what extent; and what measures can be taken to 
minimise or obviate the possible danger.. The sub- 
committee consists of :—Dr. Jee, Chemical Adviser to 
the Board of Agriculture; Dr. Hammond Smith, 
Scientific aoe to ‘the Salmon ‘and Trout ‘Associa- 
tion; Mr. W. J. A. Butterfield, Consulting Analytical 
Chemist to the 'Road ‘Board ; and Mr. W. J. Taylor, 
County Surveyor of’ Hampshire. 


In _a-recent ‘issue of the ‘Fishing Gazette (April ‘5) 
Mr. W. J. A. Butterfield discusses the question of the 
poisoning of fish by road-washings. As regards tarred 
roads, it is noted that ‘the constituents of coal-tar 
most directly injurious’ to fish are the'phenols. ‘These 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


may be present to the extent of 3)per cent. in, tar for : i 
road use, though generally the proportion is;much less. 


such 


Water dissolves out a little:of the phenols, and 


contaminated water draining into rivers may, no doubt, 


under ‘particular conditions, ‘be deleterious to | fish, t 


although experiments: have shown that, so:long as the a 


proportion of: phenol is: not more than 0.25 in 100, 
the water is perfectly ‘safe. 
possible where the: river ‘runs through a valley and is 


crossed by the road, so'that drainage from the inclines _ 


on either side flows:into ‘the:river. ‘The: periods when 


a'tarred road is likelv ‘to be most dangerous to fish _ 
life are (1) when the tarring is .quite fresh and — 


followed by heavy rainfall, which washes away ‘some 
of the tar before it has set; and (2) when the coating 


of.tar is broken up by wear-and-tear, so that rain‘can 


percolate freely through it. ‘A tarred surface ‘“scari- 


fied” preparatory to remaking may be very dangerous 3 


to fish, and care should be taken that the material 
removed is not left lying where rain-washings from it 
will enter fishing waters. Oil-droppings from motor 
traffic are, speaking broadly, unlikely to be directly 
mischievous, but indirectly they may be injurio us 
through destruction of insect life, on which sa ame 
depend for their food supply. 


Dr. ‘GEORGE FERDINAND BECKER, \who ~was- ‘on a. 


staff. of the United States Geological Survey. Since at 9 


died on. April 20 in Washington,.at the age of sev 

two. His name will always be associated with tne 
days when the survey, by the liberality and the wide 
distribution of its publications, began to. make itself 
known. throughout the scientific world. Becker’s:work 
was mostly devoted to the geology of important mineral 
deposits, and he showediavain and again how mining 
development ‘assisted in. the understanding of the: rela- 
tions of rock-masses in the crust. -His monograph on 
‘*The Geology of the Comstock Lode,’’ published in 
1882, directed attention, at a comparatively early date, 
to the importance of the study of thin rock-slices with 
the microscope, and its beautiful series of illustrations 
followed only three years after those issued by ‘Fouqué 
and Lévy in their famous ‘ Minéralogie micro- 
graphique.’’ The width of range in Becker’s work is 
further illustrated by his. bulletin on “ Schistosity and 


Slaty Cleavage” (1904), in which he urged that rock. 


cleavage is due to a weakening of cohesion, antecedent 
to rupture, on planes of maximum slide, supporting 
his thesis by experiments on) natural clays. 

By the death of Mr.. Richard H. Curtis. on “May. 21 
meteorology has lost one who took a keen interest 
in its various. branches for more than half.a_ : 
Mr. Curtis entered the Meteorological Department of 
the ‘Board of Trade under Admiral 'FitzRoy in 1861. 
For a long time he prepared for the Press bes results 
of the work. of observatories, and in 19907 he became 
superintendent of .the instruments and observatories 
division of .the Office. -For many years Mr. Curtis 
lived at Warlingham, Surrey. 
Meteorological Office in 1912 at the age of sixty-five, 


Considerable: ‘pollution is. + 


tae au 


‘He retired from the 


but continued .to supply «anemometric records to the — 


Office and rainfall records'to Symons’s Meteorological 
Magazine.until.a few months ago. 
the .Royal Meteorological Society, and served on the 
council for ‘several years. Mr. Curtis contributed 
many papers to the seciety’s Journal on various -sub- 
jects, and especially on:sunshine and ‘wind-force. -He 
introduced an improvement in the mounting for the 


lens and bowl of ‘the Campbell-Stokes sunshine re-_ 
corder, and carried out interesting experiments on the | 
distribution ‘of wind-pressure upon flat suffaces. 


‘He 
also aided’ in wotking up the atmospheric ‘effects of 
the Krakatoa ‘eruption of August, 1883, ‘the results. 
g Pai were Pan in the report by’ the’ ‘Royal 
ociety 


He was a fellow of 


"may be. 
ti 


_ May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


251 


Mr. ‘BE. Torpay contributes to the April issue of 
Man an interesting account of the Northern Babunda 
tribe, an offshoot of the Kimbundu of Angola. They 
area fine, tall, heavy-boned, short-legged, very dark 
skinned race, with pleasant features. With the ex- 
ception of infants they are all clothed, not in Man- 
chester goods, but in cloth home-made from the fibre 
of the raphia palm. All negroes are keen traders, 
and trade is the principal occupation of the men; but 
a great market is scarcely ever held which does not 
end in a fight between two hostile factions. The 

of the field belong to the woman who tilled it, 


to marry, and prenuptial infidelity is the normal rule. 
They are fond of music, and sing better than any 
ie ey [ 


‘tthe on the Congo. A large collection of their 
£ nstruments thas been made for the British 


ystematic part, the external morphology, classifica- 
tion, and geographical distribution of these beetles are 
_ Tue Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology has pub- 
lished in one sheet a layer-coloured orographical 
map of Australia‘on an approximate scale of 4} mil- 
ions. The map has been compiled by Dr. Griffith 
Taylor, who has collected all the available data for the 
ask. In the little known and the unexplored parts 
of the country the contours are only roughly approxi- 

ate; in fact, Dr. Taylor describes all the contours 
as form lines. A note appended to the map gives 
authority for the data used in each State. Some 


might well be made in the lettering and 
gg at the map, on the whole, is a useful pro- 


F’ 


nas 9 
duction and a great improvement, from the oro- 


point of view, on pre-existing maps. It 
may be taken for the time being as the authorita- 
tive version of the relief of Australia. 


‘Society of America (vol. viii., 1918, pp. 88-89). 
ri horizontal pendulum ‘was used, but the 
aper and ‘stylus were replaced by an optical 
system. The arm of the pendulum was continued by 

fe ° A second needle of the 


a “Meapneticed ‘steel needle. 
_ Same size was fixed to the “back of a light circular 


Mirror, at right angles to the mirror, and with its 
north pole close to the south pole of the arm magnet. 


The mirror was cemented to a vertical taut sill fibre 


held on a post standing on a concrete table, and both 
pendulum and mirror were damped by projections 
paves ort ity, oi During a horizontal. displacement 
of the ground the supports of the pendulum and 
nirror were moved, while the frictionless, magnets 
rotated the mitror round.a vertical axis. The seismo- 
gram reproduced (July 2, 1918), made on a Kodak film 
t ing at 32 mm. per minute, shows the first and 
reliminary phases with extraordinary clear- 


PSEA | 


‘EN -connection »with recent efforts to promote =the 
cultivation of ‘sugar in Bihar, Rai Bahadur :Joges 
Chandra ‘Ray publishes an ‘interesting atticle in the 
Journal of »the ‘Bihar and Orissa. Research Society 
(vol. iv., ;part iv.) on the sugar industrv “in ancient 
India. In \the Vedas there is no mention of ‘any 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


‘tion of the prepared surface. 


saccharine ‘substance other than honey. Cane was cul- 
tivated, but we do not know whether it .was used 
for chewing, or pressed, or whether its juice was 
dried for future:use. The original seat of the. cultiva- 
tion of the —Paunda, or thick cane, seems to have 
been northern Bengal. We do not know how the 
ancients clarified the cane-juice or refined their sugar. 
Probably the method was much the same as_ that 
which obtains now in. Bengal and elsewhere, and 
clarification was secured by skimming off the scum 
which -rises to ‘the surface. It is remarkable that 
no account of palm-sugar is found in ancient Sanskrit 
works, and the industry in Bengal seems to be. of 
comparatively, recent date. There is a_ prejudice 
against its use, as the tree /yields an intoxicating 
beverage. 

BULLETIN No. 3 of the ‘Scientific and Industrial 
Research Department consists of a study of the ‘per- 
formance of night glasses by Mr. 'L.'C. Martin, of 
the Imperial College of Science, London. The 
work arose out of the exacting demands the 
war made on the optician for a telescope suit- 
able for observing in .a feeble light, and the 
object was to determine the best proportions and 
conditions of .use of an) instrument with a. given, size 
of objective. The author’s conclusions may be sum- 
marised as follows :—The binocular form is most con- 
venient. For hand binoculars for,general purposes a 
magnification of 6 should not be exceeded. The exit 
pupil should be 0-7 or.o-8 cm. in diameter, and a large 
field of view is.desirable, as it increases the ease of . 
observation. For stand instruments .a magnification 
of 10 is:most suitable for general purposes. Where 
higher magnification is necessary it is of the utmost 
importance to, protect the observer’s eye and the field 
of view from all stray light. To diminish the number 
of. glass air surfaces, a cemented. prism. erecting system 
should be-used. 


A» PAPER contributed by S. L. Archbutt and D. 
Hanson at the recent ‘meeting of the Institute of 
Metals ‘describes in detail the methods “found most 
suitable for the preparation of specimens of aluminium 
alloys for microscopic examination. ‘Particular care 
must be given to the grinding and polishing opera- 
tions, since the successful development of the micro- 
structure depends to a very. large extent on the condi- 
Hand-grinding :on 
graded emery papers which have been previously ’ 
soaked in paraffin is found to give excellent results, 
while for the polishing operation a motor-driven disc 
covered with smooth-surfaced woollen cloth is em- 
ployed. Magnesia is used: as) the polishing powder, but 
for soft alloys the final stages are carried out on a wet 
pad practically free from magnesia. With regard to 
the etching both of aluminium and its alloys, the 
authors recommend aio per cent. solution either of 
caustic soda or of hydrofluoric acid in-water. Methods 
for the identification .of the various impurities oc- 
curring in aluminium and of the different micro- 
graphic constituents found in the commoner aluminium 
alloys -are also described. These have been investi- 
gated in. great detail with the object of finding re- 
agents which will distinguish between. these different 
constituents when they occur in the same alloy. 
Alloys.of aluminium with silicon, iron, copper, zinc, 
nickel, magnesium, and manganese are considered in 
this. connection. 


WE are very glad to see that M. L.«P.: Clerc, who 
is ‘so «well ‘known ‘in this country, ‘and ‘took up 
military duties at the very beginning of the war, ‘has 
resumed his activities in connection »with the French 
Photographic “Society. ‘In ‘a »recent ‘issue of the 
society’s ‘Bulletin M. Clerc publishes a paper (repro- 
duced in the British Journal of Photography for 


252 


NATURE 


2s 
ae 


a =e 


[May 29, 1919 


May 16) on the use of alcohol for the rapid drying 
of gelatine negatives and prints. He gives curves that 
show the drying action of alcohol under various condi- 
tions, but perhaps the most interesting result is the 
cause of the white deposit that so often appears when 
this method is used. It is due. to bicarbonate of lime 
deposited because of its insolubility in alcohol. By 
immersing the negative in very weak hydrochloric 
~ acid (ro ¢.c. of commercial acid to a litre of water) 
immediately before putting it into the alcohol, the 
deposition is avoided. This weak acid will remove a 
deposit that has been allowed to form, and if the 
patch is of small area it may be made to disappear 
by breathing on it for a short time, because of the 
moisture and carbon dioxide in the expired air. Of 
course, the use of soft water obviates this annoy- 
ance, but the use of pure alcohol instead of ‘‘de- 
natured”’ spirit does not, though this has often been 
prescribed as a remedy. 


More than sixty years ago Pasteur showed that 
glycerol was formed during the alcoholic fermentation 
of sugar. The quantity found was about 3-6 per cent. 
of the sugar fermented. Later, Laborde showed that 
the quantity of glycerine produced varied according 
to the kind of yeast used and its amount, more than 
double the foregoing proportion being obtained in 
some cases. Even so, this is a very small yield if 
fermentation is regarded as a source of glycerol. It 
is understood, however, that during the late war our 


opponents supplemented their production by fermenta- 


tion methods when fats, the ordinary source, ran 
short. In Helvetica Chimica Acta (vol, ii., No. 2) 
K. Schweizer indicates the method used. It is known 
that glyceric aldehyde and dihydroxyacetone can be 
converted into glycerol by means of reducing agents, 
and there is some evidence that one or both of these 
substances may be produced as intermediate com- 
pounds during fermentation. The working hypothesis, 
therefore, was that these compounds, in the nascent 
state, would be acted upon by a reducing agent and 
converted into glycerol to a greater extent than in 
ordinary fermentation. This was found to be the 
case. On adding sodium sulphite, and working with 
a neutral liquid, a yield of more than 21 per cent. of 
glycerol was obtained. 


MONOMETHYLAMINE being a synthetic reagent of con- 
siderable importance, a new method for its prepara- 
tion will probably be of interest to organic chemists. 
The reduction of chloropicrin yields different products 
according to the reducing agent employed. Raschig 
showed that when chloropicrin is reduced with 
stannous chloride and hydrochloric acid, cyanogen 
chloride is produced. If, however, iron-filings and 
acetic acid (Geisse) or tin and hydrochloric acid 
(Wallach) are used, monomethylamine is the major 
product. Prof. F. Frankland and Messrs. F. 
Challenger and N. A. Nicholls have studied the condi- 
tions of the reaction (Journal of the Chemical Society, 
February, p. 159) and recommend the following pro- 
cedure :—Iron-filings (500 grams) are gradually shaken 
into water (2500 c.c.) containing hydrochloric acid 
(60 c.c.), and contained in a large earthenware jar 
which is fitted with a stirrer and placed in a little 
cold water. The chloropicrin (250 grams) is then 
gradually added, with very efficient stirring. The tem- 
perature rises, and should be maintained at about 
50° C. The smell of chloropicrin disappears after 
three hours, and the mixture is then gradually added 
to a boiling solution of sodium hydroxide into which 
steam is blown. The methylamine is absorbed in 


hydrochloric acid, the solution evaporated, and the. 


residue dried to constant weight. In this way a yield 
of gs-5 per cent. of the amine hydrochloride contain- 
ing only 35 per cent. of ammonium chloride is ob- 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103 | 


: tained. When reduced with a hot alkaline solution of 


ferrous sulphate, chloropicrin gives a considerable — : 
amount of ammonia. The method described-for the 
preparation of methylamine should prove valuable now — 
that large quantities'of chloropierin are readily pro- 
curable. ith 


A new weekly journal devoted to industrial and 
engineering chemistry, and entitled the Chemical 
Age, is announced for publication on June 21 by 
Messrs. Benn Bros., Ltd., Bouverie Street, E.C.4. — 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


Tue Sovar Eciipse.—The total eclipse of the sun 
that will happen to-day is remarkable for the small 
amount of attention that is being given to obserya- 
tions of the corona and the sun’s surroundings that 
have formed the main object for which eclipse ex- 
peditions have been organised during the last half- 
century, but in place of these the opportunity is being 
used to make investigations in several modern 
branches of science. The Committee of the British 
Association for Radio-telegraphic Investigation has 
arranged a programme for sending and_ receiving 
signals to determine their strength during the eclipse. 
The Department of ‘Terrestrial Magnetism of the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington has_ ee 
observing parties at stations in America and West 
Africa, who, in co-operation with various observatories 
and individuals, will make special magnetic and allied 
observations inside and outside the shadow belt. As 
has already been announced, the British expeditions 
to Brazil and West Africa will photograph the field 
of stars around the sun for the purpose of detecting 
any displacement due either to gravitation according 
to the relativity theory published by Einstein in 1915, 
or to the effect of the sun’s gravitation on the mass 
that light is believed to have according to the electro- 
magnetic theory. ei ee 

June Metrors.—Though twilight is strong in the 
midsummer month, meteors are fairly numerous, and 
probably more so than in April and May. Fireballs 
are often seen, and particularly from a radiant point 
in Scorpio. There is a possible cometary radiant on 
June 10 from 273x0, and three others during — 
the last week of the month from 313x60, — 
13x6, and 213x53. The last appears to be probably — 
connected with the comet of Pons-Winnecke, which _ 
afforded an unusually rich shower on June 28, 1916. 
Though no return of this display can be con- 
fidently expected until 1921 or 1922, it should be 
looked for every year, as it may form an annual ex- 
hibition, though really abundant at intervals of about 
every six years. The great shower of Perseids begins 
early in July, and there is strong evidence that the 
same system furnishes an occasional meteor atthe end 
of June. Observers should therefore watch especially _ 
for such an object during the moonless nights at the — 
end of June this year. Suen 

Paris OpservaTory Reports.—The reports of the — 
French National Observatory have been made and 
presented to the council annually during the war, and 
those for the years 1916-18 have lately been received. 
The work has naturally been much curtailed owing 
to the absence of many of the staff on military service, 
and a projected modification of the programme with 
the principal meridian instrument has had to be held 
in abeyance. Also, it was considered prudent to take — 
precautions against damage to this and other instru- 
ments, so that the reports show little in the way of 
observation, the energies of such observers as were. 
available being devoted entirely to the requirements 
of the time service, the errors of the clocks being 


es el op et i Sr ee aan * ot > 
op Sis pcs YE a pee Ce ee - ate , fae, Sear ‘5 jesus cs a 
Te SNA Seg OF NEN RS SRBC RA I EN aca AP IT ca 9 RHEL BRT Murry pant eeuen: gin ec MS eos Minmeabicle diac baie 


aT BORE ee ee ne 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


253 


determined by the smaller instruments, and to some 
extent by the astrolabe a prisme, which has been con- 
fided to the care of Mme. Chandon. In the middle 
of the year 1918 a provisional observatory was installed 
at Lyons, to which the astrolabe and other instruments 
for determination of time were transferred. M. Henri 
Renan. has retired from the service of the observatory 
after forty-four years’ service, and M. Puiseux, who 
entered the observatory in 1879, resigned his office in 
the year 1917. 


'_ THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT. 


THE safety of Mr. H. G. Hawker and Comdr. 
4% Mackenzie-Grieve, after their daring attempt 
‘at a direct flight across the Atlantic, is at present 
the feature of special interest. The Times of May 26, 
referring to the news, says ‘‘it will cause as keen 
and as widespread a joy as the news of many a 
_ victory in the war.”” Without doubt the safety of the 
_ two airmen has lifted a cloud which threatened to 
overshadow other competitors. 

_ Much fog was encountered immediately after the 
start from Newfoundland, and, later, cloud and a 
squally northerly wind. The flight was made chiefly 
se of about 10,000 ft. A direct course 
Bees i British Isles was being made, and the aircraft 
had completed one-half of the journey eastward when, 
wding to Mr. Hawker, ‘‘the machine stopped 
owing to the water-filter in the feed-pipe from the radia- 
tor to the water-pump being blocked up with refuse.” 
‘It is said that there was no trouble in landing on the 
sea, and Mr. Hawker and Comdr. Grieve were picked 
up by the Danish tramp steamship Mary in lat. 
50° 20’ N. and long. 29° 30’ W., after being in the 
water about one and a half hours, at 8.30 a.m. 
G.M.T. on May ig. ¢ 

The Mary left ati Orleans on April 28, bound for 
Denmark. Fortunately, this vessel was close at hand 
when the aircraft was in difficulty. An examination 
of the wireless weather reports published by the 
_ Mete gical Office in the International Section of 
the Daily Weather Report indicates that Atlantic 
_ liners were ently nowhere near at the time. 

_ From weather maps prepared, it seems that fair 
north and north-west winds were blowing from New- 
-foundland to about mid-Atlantic, with cloudy weather, 
the conditions being chiefly anticyclonic. Further 
eastward there was a cyclonic disturbance which 
occasioned gales and heavy weather. This storm 
system hovered in about the same position to the 
westward of Ireland for a fortnight, which, meteoro- 
jogically, is very exceptional, its passage being barred 
by a region of high barometer which has persistently 
hung over Scandinavia. Such anomalies offer a 
decided difficulty to trans-Atlantic flying, although 
with more perfect engines and further improvement 
in the flying machines these difficulties will, without 
doubt, be overcome in time. 

We join with the entire British public and others 
in he congratulations on the happy ending of the 
venturesome and courageous voyage. 

The Daily Mail has generously decided to give a 

consolation prize of soool. for division between Mr. 
Hawker and his navigator. 
_ The United States Navy seaplane N.C.4, which 
accomplished a flight to the Azores from Newfound- 
land on May 16-17, left Ponta Delgada on May 27 
and arrived at Lisbon on the same evening. This 
stage of the journey was about eight hundred miles, 
and the third stage to Plymouth, by which the trans- 
Atlantic flight is to be concluded as we go to press, is 
about nine hundred miles. 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


CARNEGIE LIBRARIES AND EDUCA- 
TIONAL WELFARE. 


THE fifth annual report (1918) of the Carnegie 

United Kingdom Trust was submitted by the 
executive committee to the trustees on February 26, 
and has now been published (Edinburgh: T. and A. 
Constable). The work of the Trustees suggests that, 
as it is the fashion now to create new Ministries, 
there is a splendid opportunity for the Prime Minister 
to appoint a Minister of Philanthropy. Mr. Carnegie, 
with the most benevolent intentions, spent about 
two millions on libraries, and, while undoubtedly 
many towns owe him gratitude for his gifts of fine 
buildings, we fear the balance would show that he 
probably did more harm than good. Many of these 
libraries have proved to be mere white elephants, their 
upkeep in many cases practically exhausting the whole 
of the available income, resulting in miserably paid 
and ineffective staffs, and nothing left for the purchase 
of books. In some cases less than 11. has been spent 
on books during an entire year. Whether or not Mr. 
Carnegie realised this yor ah the end of his personal 
benefactions we cannot tell, but he very wisely handed 
over a large sum to carefully chosen trustees, who 
from the first have laid themselves out to amend past 
mistakes and make sure that fresh benefactions should 
be granted with some surety of lasting good results; 
they have, therefore, steadily refused to make building 
grants where the yield of the rate is inadequate for 
the maintenance of a proper library. 

The trustees have taken education and the welfare 
of the people in the widest sense for their province, 
and they have made the renewal of their annual grants 
dependent on results. The report is well worth read- 
ing. Taking as their model the excellent Yorkshire 
Village Library scheme, which for more than fifty 
years has done so much for the working classes, the 
trustees have established .and maintained rural cir- 
culating libraries throughout the country, including 
both Scotland and Ireland, some under the county 
education authorities, some in relation with town 
libraries, and others under the charge of the local 
clergy or schoolmasters. They have established and 
supported play centres for ‘‘ toddlers ’"—that is, children 
below five years—and, for older children, cricket, foot- 
ball, and other games, all complete with pavilions and 
everything necessary. In fact, their motto for all such 
enterprises appears to be ‘‘thoroughness.’”” Baths and 
wash-houses have not been forgotten, and one of their 
most recent experiments is the encouragement of 
music by offerine rewards for compositions, which are 
published when judged worthy by their experts. 
Recognising that music takes a very high place 
among the instruments for elevating and refining the 
mind, they have requested Sir Henry Hadow to 
‘investigate and describe the agencies which exist for 
promoting the practice and appreciation of the art of 
music among the people of the United Kingdom, 
and to report what steps might be taken towards their 
further encouragement in the future.’’ Under the 
direction of Dr. Terry, considerable progress has been 
made with the recovery of the works of the musicians 
of the Tudor period and the transcription of them 
into modern notation. 

The trustees have made a grant of 4oool. to the 
National Union of Women Workers for travelling 
welfare exhibitions in England and Scotland, the 
expenditure to be spread over two years; and a sum 
of 7sol. for the same purpose has recently been paid 
to the Women’s National Health Association for 
Ireland. Taught by their five vears’ experience, thev 
direct special attention to that blot on our public 
eee 


254 


NATURE 


library system, the limitation of the rate, which. pre- 
vents even the most powerful of our corporations 
spending whatever they think-fit for the maintenance 
and: development of their library. systems. If there 
is to. be: any: real. reconstruction in the educational 
system: of this country, this) obstacle to. progress: should 
receive the immediate attention of the Government. 


RECENT RESEARCHES ON CHOLERA. 
ipHE: subject. I have chosen to speak about to-day 
‘is. one regarding which probably but. little is 
known outside the medical profession except that a 
great reduction in the death-rate has been brought 
about in. recent years in perhaps the most justly 
dreaded disease of India, namely, cholera. 1 propose 
to. give you. a brief account of my prolonged researches 
extending over more than a decade, and dealing with 
several distinct problems by means of a variety, of 
‘methods. of research, physiological, physical, and 
chemical, as I think this work will best illustrate 
the value of. various collateral sciences in medical 
research. 

The treatment of cholera at the beginning of the 
twentieth century remained much as it was seventy 
years before, when Latta and Mackintosh in Edin- 
burgh in 1831 introduced the plan of injecting large 
quantities of normal saline solution into the veins to 
combat the collapse stage of cholera. This brilliant 
idea just failed to be a great discovery because no 
means were then found, of retaining the fluid in the 
circulation,. so that the apparently miraculous imme- 
diate effect of reviving the patient as one from the 
dead was usually followed by. fatal recurrence of the 
terrible drain of fluid from the system. At the time 
I. commenced my investigations the method was 
seldom used, as shown by the fact that a search 
through the records of the Calcutta European General 
Hospital. from 1895 to. 1904 showed no case in which 
large saline intravenous injections. were given, while 
the mortality among ninety-five cases in those nine 
years reached the appalling figure of 87-4 per cent. 
Indeed, it was generally recognised that once a 
European patient reached the collapse stage in cholera 
recovery scarcely ever took place. 


Recent Researches on the Treatment of Cholera. 


As the. first whole-time professor of pathology in 
Bengal, the home of cholera, who stuck to unlucra- 
tive research work for any length of time, this fell 
disease naturally attracted my attention, but it was 
not until after the completion of the first edition of my 
work on fevers in the tropics, the collection of material 
‘for which occupied me for twelve years, that I- was 
able to take up serious work on cholera in 1908. 
had previously made a number of blood-counts, and, 
with the help of my friend Major Megaw, had studied 
in 1906 Latta and Mackintosh’s plan of injecting 
large amounts of normal or isotonic salt solutions— 
that is, one containing the same proportion of salts 
as the normal blood, controlling the quantities in- 
jected by special blood, and blood-pressure examina- 
tions—in the hope that, with the aid of these modern 
methods, better results would be obtained. This hope 
was largely disappointed, as the mortality only fell 
from 59 per cent. during the previous eleven years 
to s1-g per cent. in 1906, and the method, which is a 
time-consuming one, was once’ more abandoned as of 
little service. 

On thinking the matter over while on furlough, it 
occurred to me that on the physiological principle 
that a high salt content tended to retain fluid in the 

1 From the presidential address delivered’ to the Tndian Scienc: Congress, 
Bombay, ro19, by Lt.-Col. Sir Lecnard Rogers, F.R.S, 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


blood, it would: be worth: while to try a.stronger salt — 
solution, and on return: from. leave. with renewed — 


energy at; the end of 1907 I determined: to put 
theory to; the, test. Up to that time the strength 


salines generally, advised. in cholera: was. 0:6 per — 
although recent physiological: text-books: have: raised — 
the figure. for normal saline to 0-85 per cent. As 1 


wished to give a. hypertonic solution—that. is, 

containing: more salt than the normal. blood—I double: 
the former strength and used a 1-2 per cent. of sodium 
chloride, or 120 grains to a pint, to which I after- 
wards added 4 grains of calcium chloride, because 
physiologists have found the latter salt to be beneficial 
to the heart. Capt. (now Lt.-Col.) Mackelvie 
very kindly carried out the hypertonic. infection ke 
the cases. under his care, while I made a series of 
observations on the blood, to be related presently. The 
results: may be: summarised in a sentence by saying 
that by using two’ teaspoonfuls of common salt toa 
pint of water instead of one, the: mortality from cholera 
was: nearly halved. Nothing could well be simpler, 
yet! nearly eighty years had elapsed: since salines were 
first injected intravenously in cholera before the phy 

logical principle: of using a hypertonic instead of: an 
isotonic: solution’ was established. It was at once 
clear to me that a great advance-had been made, which 
stimulated’ me to persevere with my investigations of 
the blood-changes: in: cholera, so as to place the whole 
subject on a firm: scientific basis. 4 Hi 


The. Blood-changes. in. Cholera, as a Basis. for the 
Hypertonic Treatment. ‘ght te sh 
In the first place, I estimated the amount of 
chlorides in the blood before: and after saline injections 
ina series: of cases, and found that in the most severe 
cases: they might even be below. the normal’ point in 
spite of the great concentration) of the blood, thus 
establishing a vicious circle and. leading to further 
rapid loss of any isotonic solution injected into the 
veins. I further established’ that the hypertonic saline 
did materially: raise the: salt content of the and 
to the greatest extent in recovering cases, ex- 
plained: both the failure of the former isotonic and’ 
success of the hypertonic solutions. bigekt Sain! 
Another important: point was to estimate the amount 
of. fluid! lost from: the blood: in cholera, so as to ascer- 
tain if the amount was in proportion to the severity 
of the case, and: to learn how much salt solution it is 
necessary to inject to: replace the loss.. For this put 
pose I centrifuged a few drops of defibrinated bk 
obtained by pricking the finger-tip in a graduated 
capillary: tube, and: measured, the volume of the solid 
corpuscles and, of the fluid serum. By, comparing: the 
figures obtained, with those of normal. blood, the per- 
centage of fluid lost from the blood’ could be estimated. 
For-example, im a severe case: only 18 per cent. out of 
the original 55 per cent. of serum: remained, ving 
a: loss of no less than 67 per cent: of the fluid portion 


ee ip #3. 


A ee a Pa aa 
soar NS re den oa aoe yg 


* 
=z 


Fen, ee 


of the blood, as: a result of the copious evacuations. A — 


series of such observations indicated that in mild cases 


of cholera, not showing any serious collapse an average — 


of 35 per cent. of the serum was lost; in collapse 
cases recovering after the hypertonic saline injections 
the loss averaged 52 per cent.; while in extremely 
severe cases, who were lost in spite of the new treat- 
ment, the figure averaged no less than 64 per cent., 
or almost two-thirds of the fluid of the blobd. I have 


seen cases of cholera in which the blood was so thick — 


that on opening a vein a drop of: black blood slow 
exuded having the consistency almost of tar—a pater 
tion which must rapidly terminate fatally if not 


quickly relieved. By repeating these estimations im-_ 
mediately after several pints of saline had been run © 


rapidly into a vein in collapsed: cholera cases, I was 
able to ascertain the quantities, required. to restore the 


May 29, 1919 | 


NATURE. 


255 


normal fluidity of the blood, and found them, as I had 
_ sui ita much greater in severe cases than 
had formerly been given when isotonicrsolutions were 
in use. The hzmocrite, however, is too much of a 
laboratory instrument to be generally available, so a 
le bedside method was needed. I therefore made 

use of Lloyd-Jones’s method of estimating the specific 
gravity of ‘the blood by means of a series of solutions 
_ of glycerine in water in ‘small labelled bottles into 
which small drops of blood are gently blown from 
a capillary tube, and that in which one just floats 
is noted, which gives the required estimation. When- 
ever the pulse tends again to fail, the test is repeated 


as a suide to further treatment, and :in several ex- 
' severe cholera’ patients more than thirty pints 
of have thus been injected in the course of 


oes apie edi ultimate success in saving the lives 
i i 

Pale A Fee : 

Permanganates and Other Drugs in the Treatment of 
portion 54 Cholera. 


_ The success of the hypertonic saline injections in 
ling the collapse stage of cholera largely to be 
overcome opened the way to a trial of drug treatment 
such as had never before been-possible; for it is clear 
hat, unless the circulation ‘canbe restored and main- 
aed, drugs given by the mouth will not even be 
rbed, and can have no chance of exerting their 
yeneficial action. Great care is required to make such 
tests trustworthy ‘on account of the numerous sources 
of fallacy in estimating the effects of a given treat- 
ment. The best plan is to use a new ‘drug in every 
other case in addition to the routine treatment, the 
remaining ‘half of'the cases then serving as a control. 
To take an example of this method of investigation, 
the late Sir Lauder Brunton :some -years ago advo- 
eated on physiological grounds the use of atropine in 
cholera. but was only able to try it in two mild cases 
with inconclusive results. I therefore gave the drug 
Vpor y in addition -to the routine ‘treatment 
in every other case of cholera:in my wards for a whole 
vear with the result that the mortality was much 
lower in the atropine series, while a careful com- 
parison of the ‘two sets of cases as regards their 
severity showed them to be strictly comparable. I 
; have, therefore, added atropine to my system of treat- 
ment with, I am sure, beneficial results. In a similar 
‘manner ‘emetine was found ‘to be useless in cholera. 
- Another point I wish ‘to emphasise is the import- 
ance of carefully studying one’s ‘failures rather than 
being élated with any success, as the further progress 
I ‘have ‘still to relate is mainly due ‘to my ‘adopting 
that practice. ‘For the last ten vears I have tabulated 
with the aid of shorthand—of the value of which in 
work I cannot speak too highly—all the more 
nportant points of mv cholera ‘cases, now amounting 
toa little more ‘than two thousand, and have closély 
studied the records of all fatal cases to ascertain the 
’ reasons for the failures with the view of finding means 
of lessening them. The following examples will illus- 
_trate some of the results thus obtained. 

After an ‘experience of a year and a half of the 
hypertonic treatment T realised that something more 
was required if the mortality was to be reduced still 
further. The failures anpeared to me to ‘be due 
largely ‘to a ‘recurrence of the collavse on account of 
absorption of the ‘toxins produced by the cholera 
bacillus in the intestinal canal with the restoration of 
the cireulation after the saline injections. Now the 
toxins are ‘contained in the bodies of the innumerable 
bacilli, and iset ‘free when they break up, sas they 
do in enormous numbers, for it has been shown that 
no fewer than:oo per cent. of comma bacilli die in 
eulture-tubes within ‘forty-eight hours. The -use of 
intestinal antiseptics may verv possibly ‘add ito the 


NO. 2587, VOL. 102] 


toxin .absorption by killing the bacilli, which is, I 
believe, one of the reasons for their failure, as already 
stated. I therefore sought for some method of 
destroying the toxins themselves while still unabsorbed 
in the bowel; and, bearing in mind that they are 
largely albumoses.and other unstable albuminous pro- 
ducts of the metabolism of the organisms, and that 
such substances are readily destroyed or rendered inert 
by oxidisation, I experimented with various oxidising 
agents, and particularly with permanganates, which 
are well ‘known to destroy rapidly in vitro the 
albumoses -of -snake venoms—a point at which I had 
previously. worked. I was thus able to demonstrate 
that several times a lethal.dose of dead comma bacilli 
containing the toxins could be neutralised by a small 
quantity of permanganates. A trial of large doses of 
permanganate .of potash in pill form by the mouth. 
as much.as one hundred grains sometimes being given 
in the course,of several days, in addition to the hyper- 
tonic -treatment, reduced the mortality of cholera 
during.a year’s use from 32-6 to 23:3 per cent., and it 
has now been used for more ‘than nine years in my 
wards with increasingly favourable results. Perman- 
ganate pills have also been used in cholera epidemics 
in both the Bombay Presidency and the Central Pro- 
vinces, in villages under conditions in which the saline 
treatment was not practicable, and favourable results 
have been reported, although, of course, it eannot by 
itself save the most severe cases with extreme collapse. 


Alkalis in the Prevention of Fatal Renal 
Complications. 
There still remained one very important line of 
investigation, which has recently led to a further sub- 


stantial reduction of the death-rate of cholera by 


enabling the common and most deadly suppression of 
the renal function largely to be averted. know of 
nothing more disheartening than, after successfully 
maintaining the .circulation by hypertonic salines 
through .a life-and-death. struggle for several days and 
nights, to be unable to get the kidneys to resume 
their functions, with ultimate loss of the patient. . As 
the losses from collapse were steadily reduced by the 
various measures I have rélated, the death-rate from 
kidney failure continued much the same, .and now 
became .the most important remaining cause of loss 
of life, and.it was apparent that some factor remained 
which was not clearly understood. 
Light was first thrown on this problem by a 

American physician, Dr. Sellards, working .in the 
Philippines, who suspected a .diminution in the 
alkalinity of the blood, or acidosis as it is generally 
termed, because he found that large doses of alkalis 
by the mouth failed to make the urine alkaline as it 
would do in health. He therefore added sodium bicar- 
bonate to the saline solution used in cholera for intra- 
venous injections, and obtained a marked reduction 
in the death-rate from renal failure. In 1911 Maior 
Megaw, when acting for me in Calcutta, read Sel- 
lards’s work, and tried alkaline solutions intravenously 
in cases of cholera with suppression of urine, but with 
disappointing results, the measure being apparently 
too late once this complication had become established. 
Early in 1912 I therefore commenced an investigation 
of *the changes in the alkalinity of the blood ‘in 
cholera, which ‘Sellards had not then done, and finding 
an extreme degree of reduced alkalinitv in all cases 
with :fatal ‘kidney ‘trouble. with the help of Cant. 
Shorten, and later of Rai Satish ‘Ch. ‘Banerjee 
Bahadur. -of -the Physiological Department, I ‘made a 
long’ series of such: estimations in choleta cases.’ with 
the result of demonstrating that a verv matked degree 
of diminution of the allalinitv of the blood occurred 
in, all cholera-eases, while once it reached the extreme 
degree of N/1eo from a-normal-of about N/25 fata’ 


256 NATURE 


[May 29, 1919 


suppression of urine took place in spite of very copious 
alkaline injections. It thus became clear that in all 
severe cholera cases sodium bicarbonate should be 
added to the hynertonic saline solution as a routine 
measure to combat the acidosis from the first, and 
prevent it reaching a dangerous degree. ‘The results 
of this addition to the treatment were soon apparent, 
and after three years’ use of the alkaline solutions 
the death-rate from renal complication among nearly 
six hundred cases had fallen to 2-98 per cent. from a 
figure of 11-1 per cent. during the previous three years, 
or a reduction of 74 per cent. in the losses from this 
deadly complication, and the last remaining cause of 
death in cholera was thus largely conquered. 


The Diminution in the Mortality of Cholera. 


The results may be very briefly summarised in the 
following table, showing the mortality under the 
different forms of treatment, or rather the continued 
elaboration of my system of treatment with increas- 
ing knowledge derived from combined clinical and 
pathological investigations extending over twelve 
years, and culminating in a reduction of the mortality 
between 1895 and 1905, before I began work, of 
59 per cent. to one of 19-1 per cent. between 1915 
and 1917, or one-third of the former rate, while in 
1917. among 208 cases, it was but 14-9 per cent., or 
one-fourth of the earlier figure, although all cases 
admitted moribund and dying before a saline injection 
could he given, thus coming late in a hopeless state 
from ‘suppression of urine, and very young and very 
old persons without the stamina to allow the treat- 
ment to have a fair chance, are included. I there- 
fore think it mav fairly be claimed that cholera has 


now been robbed of most of its terrors by simple’ 


scientific investigation with the aid of physical methods 
in the use of the hzemocrite and specific gravity test, 
chemical research in the use of permanganates to 
destroy the toxins in the bowel, and alkalis to combat 
the deadly acidosis and physiological principles lead- 
ing to the use of atropine and the all-essential hyper- 
tonic saline injections. More may yet be done, but 
sufficient has already accrued to prove the inestimable 
life-saving and economic value of medical research 
work. and to encourage both administrative authorities 
and philanthropists to look on liberal expenditure on 
medical research as the best possible use of public and 
private money. : 


Table of Cholera Mortality under Different Methods 
of Treatment. 


Wines oer Deathe Mortality, Recoveries 
per cent, per cent. 
Normal Saline subcutaneous!y and per rectum. 
1895 to 1905 ... 1243 788 59:0 41-0 
Normal Salines intravenously: 
1906 112 57 51-9 49:1 
Normal Saline subcutanco sly and per rectum. 
SOT cops ins) Se 94 59°5 40°5 
Hypertonic Salines intravenously. 
1908 to 7-I1909... 294 96 32-6 67-4 
Hypertonic Salines p/1s Permangzanates. 
8-1909 to 1914... 85 222 25:9 741 
Hypertonic Salinec, Permanganates, and Alkalis. : 
1915 to 1917 638 122 19-1 80-9 


The Future of Medical Research in India, 


The great lesson to be derived ‘from the researches 
on cholera which I have related is the importance 
of combined clinical and pathological investigations. 
So strongly do I hold the necessity of medical re- 
search workers being in the closest possible relation- 


ship with large hosvitals to enable them to work on 


practical lines that I regard Pasteur’s great discovery 
of his preventive treatment of hydrophobia as having 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


been a curse rather than a blessing to India, because 


it has led to three important research laboratories 
being placed on remote hilltops for the sake of the 
relatively insignificant mortality from hydrophobia, to 
the grave detriment of work on all the more important — 
‘ Now that the treatment of hydro- 
phobia and other bacteriological methods can be 


tropical diseases. 


carried out in the plains with the help of a Rano 


tor, as is being done at the present time in Rangoon, ~ 


no excuse for further repetitions of this grave mistake 
remain. oie 

The serious disadvantage which so many of the 
members of the bacteriological—or, as it should be 
called, medical research—department now labour 
under by their divorce from large hospitals in the 
plains will: be partly removed when the schools of 
tropical medicine in Calcutta and Bombay are opened, 
when team-work so essential to the solution of the 
larger medical problems will be possible. In addi- 
tion, all the larger hospitals should have whole- 
time pathologists, to ,enable the abundant clinical 
material they contain to be made available for re- 
search purposes, and also to allow the clinical staff 
and the patients to have the immense advantages in 
the diagnosis and vaccine and other lines of treatment 
which a bacteriological laboratory affords through 
recent advances in our knowledge of medicine. For 
example, fevers and dysentery are the two great 
causes of disease and death in India, but it is only 
with the help of microscopical examinations that they 
can be rapidly diagnosed and efficiently treated, and 
without this aid. even the most experienced physicians 
too often cannot do full justice to their patients. In 
future, I understand pathologists of our medical col- 
leges will be supplied from the bacteriological or 
research department, and will make the subject their 
life-study, and not be eligible for clinical posts. In 
order to get the medical officers with the highest 
abilities and scientific training required for success 
in research to devote their lives to it, and to abandon 
the much more lucrative clinical side of medicine, it 
will be absolutely necessary to give them salaries in 
proportion to the long and expensive scientific train- 
ing of from six to eight years which they receive 
after finishing their general school education. 

Now that the war has led to careful inquiries into 
scientific education in Great Britain, and a greatly in- 
creased demand for men of science at home, the 
difficulty in recruiting those required for industrial 
and educative progress in India will be much greater 


than hitherto, while it will be still further enhanced | 


by the uncertainty of the prospects of young men 
coming to India for their life’s work in Government 
service due to the proposed ten-vearly kaleidoscopic 
changes in the constitution of this country. I have 
felt it to be my duty to point out the rocks ahead in 
this direction, and to indicate the absolute necessity for 
much more generous treatment in the immediate 
future of men of science of all branches of knowledge 
required for service in India. =~ SATA 


The Need for Liberal Endowments of Medical 
Research in India, ts 


Lastly, I wish to direct attention to the great life- 
saving and economic importance of such investigations 
as those which T have related on cholera, and many 
others. which might be mentioned; as when this is 
fully realised by the public, endowments of medical 


research will surely be forthcoming in India on a _ 
far larger scale than hitherto. Bengal and Bihar have 


generously given me seven lakhs for the Calcutta 
School of Tropical Medicine, half of which has been 
expended on the Carmichael’ Hospital for ‘Tropical 
Diseases, and the remainder will be used for medical 
research and the partial upkeep of the hospital under 


Pama Slit NNT eS oil SWEET sa hi 


J 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


257 


a governing body ‘of medical experts. In addition, 
the Tea, Jute, and Mining Associations are con- 
tributing 60,000 rupees a year for the support of 
three additional workers to investigate on practical 
lines those diseases which affect the value of. the 


labour forces. Bombay has always been noted for the 


berality of her citizens, so I confidently appeal to 
this great city to do at least as much for my friend 
Col. Liston’s school here, which he has laboured so 
long and patiently to found in connection with the 
Parel Laboratory. 
_ Now ‘that the world-wide devastation and the 
destruction of irreplaceable human life have at length 
e d, — like 2 see ~~ of money diverted 
o the noble object of saving life by means of a great 
extension of medical research, and I can aes of 
no more fitting thank-offering for the delivery of the 
rid the greatest menace that has ever 
modern civilisation. 


CF aay 


hh hts 
Na 6 ie? 0 ne ore oes we — 


Sx, ate } i Q 
_ UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 


$ INTELLIGENCE. 


: \Birmincuam.—The Council of the University has 
- approved of the representation of the non-professorial 


nbers of the teaching staff on the faculties, the 
sentatives to be elected by the non-professorial 
members. Hitherto this privilege has been confined 
to the fe culty of medicine, but it is now to be extended 
to the other faculties. It is proposed that there shall 
be three representatives on the faculty of science and 
two on the faculty of arts. 
_ CamBripGe.—The question as to whether the Uni- 
Versity is prepared to accept financial assistance from 
the Government under the conditions laid down in 
Mr. Fisher’s letter, referred to last week (p. 229), 
will see} _submitted to the Senate on May 31, 
when the eeeng grace will be offered :—That 
1) the Vice-Chancell 


or be authorised to inform Mr. 
er that the University would welcome a compre- 

e inquiry into its financial resources instituted 
the Government, and give every assistance in its 
power; and (2) pending such inquiry the Vice-Chan- 
a be requested to draw the attention of the 

mment to the pressing need for an emergency 


Srant, — 


ve he Goldsmiths’ Company has agreed to give a sum, 


not exceeding 5500l., to the University for the pur- 
pose of extending and equipping the department of 
metallurgy. The Goldsmiths’ readership in metallurgy 
ided by the company in 1908, and Mr. C, T 
Heycock was appointed reader. The metallurgical de- 
partment was at first housed in two rooms in the 
chemical laboratory, but the number of students 
rapidly increased, and when the department of agri- 


_ culture left the chemical laboratory in 1910, Sir William 


Pope assigned the rooms thus vacated to metallurgy. 
The | miths’ Company most kindly contributed 
the sum of 8ool. for the alteration and equipment of 
these rooms. Furnaces, muffles, and high-temperature 
recording apparatus were installed, as well as the neces- 
sary assay and other balances. In addition, the ap- 
paratus used by Messrs. Heycock and Neville in their 
work on alloys was moved from their private labora- 
tory into the new rooms, which thus became provided 
with a complete photomicrographic equipment. The 
number of students working at metallurgy has now 
increased beyond the capacity of the present laboratory, 
and the generous gift of the Goldsmiths’ Company 

1 provide a new analytical laboratory, with benches 


supplied with compressed air and high- and low-voltage 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


direct current, a balance room, and also a room for 
general galvanometer and photographic work, with 
gas furnaces round the walls. Accommodation for 
sixteen students working at assaying and general 
mineral analysis and for ten research students will thus 
become available. 

Mr. R. I. Lynch, who has been curator of the 
University Botanic Garden since 1879, has resigned his 
office on medical grounds. Before coming to Cam- 
bridge Mr. Lynch had held the post of senior foreman 
at Kew. - Under his care the Botanic Garden has played 
a most important part in the University teaching, and 
the Universitv showed its appreciation of his scientific 
work by conferring upon him in 1906 the honorary 
degree of M.A. His devotion to the welfare of the 
garden, and his readiness to assist all who made de- 
mands upon his unrivalled knowledge, have gained for 
him the respect and affection of many friends, and his 
departure from Cambridge will be greatly regretted. 


Oxrorp.—Notice is given of the forthcoming elec- 
tion- to a tutorial fellowship at Exeter College for the 
teaching of chemistry. Applications must be sent to 
the Rector of the college by June 10. The fellowship 
is of the annual value of 2o00l., plas certain allow- 
ances. 

Government grants to University institutions in 
Oxford have hitherto been limited in amount, and 
confined to one or two departments which were doing 
work of special importance to the Government. The 
question of larger subsidies has now. been ‘raised, 
partly on the initiative of the Government itself. Re- 
luctance has always been felt by many in Oxford to 
seek ‘pecuniary aid in this manner, from the appre- 
hension that it might lead to the sacrifice of academic 
independence. It is certain that no grant would be 
given without a comprehensive inquiry into present 
resources and the use being made of them, and it 
remains to be seen- whether the prospect of much- 
needed financial assistance will. outweigh the dislike 
of interference with the autonomy so much prized by 
a large number of members of the University. 

The Halley lecture was delivered by Prof. Horace 
Lamb at the University Museum, on May 20, before 
a large and appreciative audience. In dealing with 
the subject of the tides, Prof. Lamb directed atten- 
tion to the discrepancy between the theoretical out- 
come of calculation and the actual phenomena experi- 
enced, pointing out that the equilibrium theory is a 
theory of tidal forces, not of their results. The 
method of computation originated by Kelvin and 
George Darwin, known as the method of harmonic 
analysis. rested on a combination of theory and 
observation. It was suggested some fifty years ago 
that the tides might give some idea of the rigiditv 
of the globe as a whole. Kelvin pointed out that if 
the interior of the earth were fluid, tides would occur 
internally. Pendulum experiments had shown, bv 
deflection of the plumb-line, that the earth does vield 
somewhat to tidal influence. Its rigidity is about 
equal to that of a globe of steel. 


Dr. Gispert Kapp is about to resign the professor- 
ship of electrical engineering in the University of 
Birmingham. 


Mr. W. THomson, hitherto head of the physics 
department of Battersea Polytechnic, has been. ap- 
pointed principal of the Croydon Polytechnics. 


Dr. H. Prince, lecturer on histology in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, has been appointed to succeed 


255 


NATURE 


[May 29; 1919 


the late Sir Henry Thompson in the chair of physio- 
logy in Trinity College, Dublin. 


ApPLicatTions will be received until June 28 by the 
British. Medical Association, 429 Strand, for an. Ernest 
Hart memorial scholarship, value 200]. per. annum, for 
the study of some subject in the department of State 
medicine,,and for three annual research scholarships, 
each of the value of 150l., for research.im some sub- 
ject. relating to. the causation, prevention, and treat- 
ment of disease. 


Capr. Eustace H. Ciuver: has been appointed: to 
the new chair of physiology at the South, African 
School: of: Mines: and Technology at: Johannesburg. 
Capt.. Cluver went as a Rhodes scholar to Hertford 
College; Oxford, in: 1914, and: took a Fitst Class in 
the Final Honour School of Physiology in, 1916. 
After:a varied medical experience he went: out. to the 
front with the South African. Medical Corps, where he 
Was engaged until the time of the armistice. 


Tue following munificent benefactions towards the 
cost of developing the work of the Imperial College 
of Science at South Kensington are announced :— 
Mr. Otto Beit, a:member of the governing body, has 
placed at the disposal of the governors the sum of 
10,000l;, to be used for building and equipment pur- 
poses for such departments of the college as may be 
found most urgently to require assistance for develop- 
ment; and an old student of, the Royal College of 


Science has contributed a sum, of 8oool. for the equip-. 


ment of an intermediate-scale laboratory in organic 
chemistry, a new building. for which is now in course 
of erection. 


Tue eighth annual meeting of the Old Students’ 
Association of the Royal College of Science, London, 
was held on May 24, Prof. H: E. Armstrong presiding. 
A resolution was adopted’ appointing a special com- 
mittee to consider and report on’ the reorganisation 
of'the association to an adjourned meeting to be held 
in Oetober. Sir Richard Gregory was elected president 
for 1919. A discussion took place on the question of 
raising the status of the Imperial College to that of a 
university, in the course of which Mr. T. Li. Humber- 
stone, secretary of the association, expressed~ strong 
opposition to the proposal, which, he considered} would 
entail endless: friction, as well as disorganisation and 
duplication of effort. The annual dinner was held in 
the evening at the Café Monico. 


AN. invitation has. been, sent by. the Chief, of the 
Imperial General Staff to the universities and other 
institutions of higher education to nominate repre- 
sentatives to a conference on June 11 and 12 with 
representatives of. the Dominions, to discuss educa- 
tional problems; that, have presented themselves to the 
Imperial. Education Committee of the War Office as 
a result of experience gained in. the working of. the 
educational schemes within the British Army and the 
Forces. of the Dominions, The conference will be 
held, in Australia House. The Chief, of the Imperial 
General Staff will preside at the opening session, 
when an address will be given by Mr. Fisher, Presi- 
dent of the Board of Education. Lord Milner, Sir 
Henry Hadow, and. Sir Daniel. Hall will preside at 
subsequent sessions, when reciprocity between. the 
universities of the Empire in the organisation. of. stady 
and research to meet the technical, commercial, and 
agricultural needs of the Empire will be discussed. 
Sir Henry Hadow has relinquished the post of  Assis- 
tant Director of’ Staff Duties (Education); and’ Mr. 
P. A. Barnett, formerly Chief Inspector of Training 
Colleges, has been appointed Civil Adviser to the 
Educational Department of the Staff Duties Direc- 
torate, War Office. 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. a] 


- Lonpon, 
Royal, Society, May 15.—Sir J. J. Thomson, 
dent, in the chair.—Prof. W. H, Young: (1) The ar 
surfaces. Many attempts by. well-known. writers. 


been; made to-frame a theory, of. the area of surfaces. 


These efforts have been attended with so little success 
that even the: most recent text-books define, the area 
of! a. curved) surface by, means of the. formula, known 
to hold in the case of a surface of revolution. — 
even in: the:matter of, the. definition itself has, anythin 
which can be regarded as final been achieved, sti 

less has it: been: found» feasible to proceed. from. the 
definitions which Have been. given to, the. formul 

required: In the present communication the. author 
attacks the question from; an. entirely new point of, 
view. The definition given: is based on what, is; itself 
a new concept, namely, that’ of the area; of a closed 
skew curve. It is characterised further by the use to 
which is put the idea that the surface is, like a curve, 
an ordered manifold, the order being double instead 
of single. The surface is accordingly supposed defined 
by: equations of the form 


x=x(u, 2) y=y(u, 2) t= (u,v) 
and divided' up by the curves OY AataE ° 
u=const. v=const. vse 


fr 


On the fact that the sum of the, areas of the 
boundariés of the portions of surface thus obtained 
has a unique limit, the definition of, the area of a 
surface is based. The curve-boundaries have, in fact, 
an area whenever they possess a length. Moreover, 
the unique limit obtained for their sum is shown 
under very general conditions to have: precisely the 
value given by the well-known formula. (2) Cf 

of the independent variables in a iid cir ab 
Prof. W. A. Bone and R. J. Sarjant: Researches on 
the chemistry of coal, Part i. : The action of pyridine 
upon the coal substance. The paper records the 
results of an experimental investigation of the so- 
called solvent action of pyridine and homologues upon 
the coal substance, with the double object of clearing 
up certain discrepancies in the work of previous 
investigators and of determining the real nature of 
the action in question. It is shown that the presence: 


of oxygen has an important retarding action upon ~ 


the extraction process (the extent of which varies 
considerably with the nature of the coal), and that 
in order to obtain consistent results in any such proces. 
it is necessary not only to employ an anhydrous 
solvent, but also to exclude oxygen. The application 
of the method to two tvpical’ isomeric bituminous 
coals is fully described, It is shown that when: such 


extraction is carried out at ordinary pressures, with — 


exclusion of oxygen, a practical. limit is finally at- 
tained.. In the case of the two coals in question, this 
limit. considerably exceeded the amount of ‘ volatiles” 


— . 


Spt yh ag aaa PCI mit reeset 
nel - 


To 


Aor RT rpm casiony engine 


a a lareemahid 


yielded by them on carbonisation at 950°: At higher — 


pressures this first limit was considerably passed, and 
when conducted in sealed tubes between 130° and 150° 


as much as two-thirds of the coal substance was ren- | 


dered soluble.—Prof. E. F. Burton: A‘ new method 
of weighing colloidal. particles. When’ fine colloidal 
particles are dragged up and down for equal periods 
in a liquid by the application of a vertical electrical 
field a net settling of the particles is noted. It is 


thought that, though for small forces such as: gravity | 
alone the Brownian movement prevents the attainment — 


of any limiting velocity, vet when the particles are 
dragged by a much larger force the comparatively 
insignificant gravitational force is added to the elec- 


tricai for downward motion and subtracted’ for upward — 


motion, thus becoming effective in. producing a net 


May 29, 1919] 


NATURE 


259 


settling of the particles. Application of Stokes’s law 
to this. net settling gives. a value for the size of the 
particles very closely agreeing with that obtained’ by 
the method (e.g. c 
I-7X10—* cm:), even though values to hand are taken 


general use in this country for the rate of ascent 
is, rising velocity V=qVL/“W+L, where L=the 
free lift and W the dead-weight. of the balloon, and 
q is a constant the value of which is to be determined 


-under different conditions. It had previously been 
suggested that the value of q varied with different 
degrees of loading of the balloon. Attention was 
directed to this question, and quantitive results were 
obtained. Measurements were also made with a 
tandle-lantern of the pattern used for night ascents 
‘Tung below the balloon. It was found that this pro- 
duced no effect upon g. In timing the rate of ascent 
in closed buildings a fine thread has generally been 
attached to the neck, and has been drawn up from 
the floor as the ascent proceeded. In the present case 
riments which were made with and without such 
a thread showed that some correction is. necessary 
where a thread is used. The general results con- 
. the value q=84, which is used at the present 
time, for balloons: of the size generally adopted for 
pilot-balloon work. This value. gives velocities in 
metres per minute when lift and dead-weight are 
e sed in grams.—J. Edmund Clark and H. B. 
rt on the observations for the pheno- 


logical year, 
~The excessive cold of December, 1917, was followed 
“by three mild months, February in particular. Hence 
by April 1 blackthorn was in most parts blooming, 
“whereas after the very cold early months of 1917 
the mean date was thirty-five days later than in. 1918. 
Rarely has the farm and garden promise at this date 
been so satisfactory. Then came the mid-April bitter 
weather, disastrous to the opening fruit-tree buds, 
and a continuation of summer drought and coolness 
continued the prejudicial conditions. A genial August 
pew favoured the earlier harvesting districts, but 
excessive wet in September caused damage and 
loss elsewhere. The whole autumn was cool, but com- 
parative dryness in October and November helped 
finally in the harvesting of nearly average field crops. 
Potatoes gave a record for acreage and yield per acre, 
but after storage there was serious loss from disease. 
The migrant: reeords: support the interesting weather 
relationships shown by the other tables. The April 
cold delayed the appearance of the sixteen. earlier 
birds two or three days more than the other ten. 
_. The isophenal lines on the map indicate the districts 
where the plants of. Table III. blossomed simul- 
taneously. Their course shows the marked influence 
of elevation: On the same map are also: shown the 
isotherms for the first half of the year, and a com- 
parison of these with the isophenes is a matter of 
considerable interest. 


NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 


‘the chair.—A. Lacroix and 


December, 1917, to November, 1918.° 


Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, May 5.-M. Léon Guignard in 
A. de Gramont: The 
presence of boron in some natural. basic sili¢o- 
aluminates.* A spectroscopic examination of’ saphirine, 
kornerupine,. and grandidierite showed that boron had 
been overlooked in the analyses. In the order named 
there were present 0-75 per cent., 3:59 per cent., and 
2-81 per cent. of boric anhydride. The boron may 

considered as replacing aluminium isomorphically in 
these minerals: The results of the spectroscopic 
examination of other minerals for boron are given;— 
H, Deslandres: Remarks on the constitution of’ the 
atom and the properties of band spectra. A diseus- 
sion of the formule expressing the general) structure 
of band spectra, with reference to the various. hypo- 
theses on the composition of the atom.—C. Depéret : 
An attempt at, the. general’ chronological. co-ordination 
of’ the Quaternary epoch.—Ed, Imbeaux: The 
navigable waterways of Alsace and Lorraine. An 
account of. the actual position of water-carriage in 
these provinces and the modifications which they will 
want in the immediate future. to. meet the industrial 
requirements, including the transport. of coal from 
the Saar basin, oil from Pechelbronn, iron from the 
Lorraine mines, potash from Mulhouse, soda’ salts, 
cements, and other industrial products:—M. De- 
fourneaux : Some properties of’ eléctro-spherical poly- 
nomials.—G. Julia: Uniform functions with: an. iso- 
lated essential singular point.—G. Guillaumin: Cer- 
tain particular solutions of the problem of sandy flow 
where the massif considered comprises: two, regions 
governed by different: laws.—Ed: Urbain and C. Seal: 
The decomposition of dielectric liquids surrounding, an 
arc. It was necessary to use metallic electrodes in 
these experiments, as the separated carbon: them re- 
mained in suspension in: the liquid. If; the liquid is 
maintained at 15°, the decomposition products, are 
different, from those obtained when the liquid. is 
allowed to boil. Some particulars of experiments with 
tin. tetrachloride, titanium tetrachloride, carbon tetra- 
chloride, some hydrocarbons, and Ketones are given.— 
A. C. Vournasos: The normal nitrides of nickel and 
cobalt. If nickel cyanide is heated with nickel oxide 
to a temperature not exceeding 1000° C., the only 
products of the reaction are carbon monoxide, nitrogen, 
and metallic nickel. If, however, these two sub- 
stances are rapidly heated to. more than. 2000° C., the 
products are carbon monoxide and _ nickel’ nitride, 
Ni,N,. The corresponding: cobalt nitride is. formed 
in a similar reaction.—A; Kling and R. Schmutz: The 
estimation, of traces of carbonyl chloride in air. The 
air is passed through aqueous aniline,, and the di- 
phenylurea formed by the phosgene determined either 
by weighing or by conversion into ammonia. For 
quantities varying from o-22 to 044 milligram of 
COCI,, per litre the error averaged’ 5 per cent. of the 
amount present.—M. Picon: The action of the mono- 
sodium derivative of acetylene upon some primary 
alkyl iodides with branched chains.—E. Fleury: The 
signification and réle of lapiesation in the disaggrega- 
tion of granitic rocks in Portugal.—G,. Guilbert: The 
prediction of barometric variations.—P. Thiéry: New 
observations on the system of geological accidents 
called the Faille des Cevennes.—L. Léger and E. 
Hesse: A new parasitic Coccidium of the trout. This 
new species, for which the name Goussia truttae: is 
proposed, has been observed in wild trout from the 
neighbourhood of Grenoble. A full description is 
given.—S. Stefanescu'; The co-ordination of the morpho- 
logical characters. and of the movements of the molars 
of elephants: and’ mastodons.—-R. Fosse; The: simul- 
taneous oxidation of blood and glucose. Urea is pro- 
duced by this oxidation.—G. Bertrand and Mme. M. 


260 NATURE © [May 29, 1919 


Rosenblatt: The comparative toxic action of some | pieGeumbidi been ME Rg oo) ae 
RITIS CIETY, at 3.30.— artlett an : 

volatile substances upon various insects. The compara- Smith : Listening to Sounds of "Minimal Intensity.—E. Bullough : 

tive effects of the vapours of ether, chloroform, carbon Relations of AEsthetics to Psychology. 

bisulphide, carbon tetrachloride, monochloroacetone, MONDAY, Jone 2. 


: ¢ Vicrorta INSTITUTE, at. 4.30. —E. Walter Maunder: The M 

benzyl bromide, chloropicrin, and prussic acid ted. Calendar as a Means of Dating approximately certain Ancient Wri 

the larve of Bombix neustria have been  studie Soctrty oF ENGINEERS, at 5.30.—A. Stewart Buckle: Re-settle 

Chloropicrin pr oved to be the most toxic. Officers in Civil Life.—T. J. ecpnivee 8 The Unknown Versailles. 

( ; ARISTOTELIAN Society, at 8.—Very Rev. Dean W. R. Inge : 
: and Human Immortality. 

Society oF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, at 8, diated Meetingi( yo 


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xxiv+434. (London: Macmillan and Goi}: Ltd.y. 2%. the Petalodont Shark, Climaxodus.—F. Debenham: A New Theory o 
net. * Peak these by Ice: the Raised Marine Muds of South Victoria Con 
ntarctica 


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= . 77: 5 OYAL INST ITUTION, at 3.—Sir Valentine: iro. e ans, 
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Gibb Memorial ’’ Series. Vol. xxiii., No. 2. Pp. xix+ | Cuemicat Society, at 8.--W. H. Perkin: Cryptopine. Part 1L—P. 


Blackman: An Isotonic (Isosmotic) Apparatus for com ring Molecula q 

322. (Leyden : > &. J. Brill; London : Luzac and Co.) Weights. Part I.—V. pris The crv: Substance hin in the pla 8 
8s. tion of Phenols.—N. V. Sidgwick : The Influence of Ortentation on the _ 
; Gio. Pigs Boiling-points of Isomeric Benzene Derivatives.—J. Senior: The Atomic 
L’Origine des Formes de la Terre et des anetes. Weight of Iodine, and the Discovery of a New Halogen. stds Hepworth: 
By E.. Belot. Pp. xii+213+iii plates. (Paris : The Absorption Spectra of the Nitric Esters of Glycerol. aS : * 
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NO. 2587, VOL: 103| 3 230 AP 


NATURE 


261 


~ THURSDAY, JUNE 5, i910, 


; ' INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY. 
(1) The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency, 
By Prof. F. S. Lee. Pp. viiit+119. (New 
_ York and London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 
' 1918.) Price 5s. net. 
(2) The New Physiology, and Other Addresses. 
jst eae Haldane. Pp. viii+156. 
_ (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 
Price 8s. 6d. net. 
LURING the last few years the importance 
_ 4” of the scientific study of industrial effi- 
‘ciency and fatigue has gradually become more 
and more recognised, and Prof. Lee’s book on 
the subject comes at a very opportune moment. 
Prof. Lee speaks with authority, not only by 
reason of. his physiological investigations on 
fatigue, but also because of the inquiries which he 
and his colleagues have recently been making 
into the efficiency and fatigue of certain of the 
munition workers of the United States. The 
book does not aim at a complete presentment of 
the subject, but summarises the main conclusions 
which should be drawn in the light of recent re- 
‘search. These conclusions are very clearly stated 


in non-technical language, and it is to be hoped. 


that the book will find its way into the hands of 
many captains of industry in this country as well 
‘as in America. A careful study could not fail to 
impress them with the practical importance of the 
subject, for it is one which concerns the employer 
no less than the employed. 

_ Prof. Lee claims that the efficiency of the 
worker must be studied on lines dictated by 
physiological principles, and that a science of 
industrial physiology must be developed in which 
the laboratory for investigation is chiefly the fac- 
tory and the workshop. Here, by _ suitable 
observation and experiment, it will be possible to 
ascertain, for instance, the length of the working 
day which offers the best conditions for maximum 
production in various industries. The evidence 
so far available points to the eight-hour day as 
being the most suitable in many types of labour, 
but this period does not necessarily apply to other 
industries in which the conditions of work have 
not been investigated. Other inquiries are being 
made into the suitability of workers for different 
types of work, and the physical strength of vari- 
_ ous groups of munition workers has been deter- 
mined by exact tests. It may surprise some of 
those who suggest the equality of men and 
women in industry to learn that the average 
industrial woman has less than half the strength 
_ of the average industrial man. Other chapters in 
the book deal with rest periods, overtime, acci- 
dents, night work, and the welfare and feeding of 
the worker. Again, the question of “scientific 
management.’ is debated, and its excellences and 
defects are pointed out. It will be, evident, there- 
fore, that the book touches on all the main ques- 
tions relating to industrial efficiency. 

NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


(2) In “The New Physiology’? Dr. J.-S. 
Haldane has collected six addresses which have 
been delivered by him during the last few years 
before the British Association and other learned 
societies. They deal, for the most part, with his 
views on mechanistic and vitalistic hypotheses of 
physiological processes and of the constitution of 
living matter. He maintains that physical and 
chemical explanations cannot be accepted, even 
as a working hypothesis, and he regards them 
as “probably the most colossal failure in the 
whole history of modern science.’’ He is like- 
wise unable to accept the existence of a specific 
vital force, but he propounds other views the 
tenor of which may be gathered from a few 
quotations. “The structure and activity of an 
organism are no mere physical structure and 
activity, but manifestations of life.’”? Again: 
“The idea of life is just the idea of life. One 
cannot define it in terms of anything simpler, 
- . . but each phenomenon of life, whether mani- 
fested in.‘ structure,’ or in ‘environment,’ or in 
‘activity,’ is a function of its relation to all the 
other phenomena. . . . Life is a whole which 
determines its parts.’’ id 

Dr. Haldane rightly points out that a living 
organism forms itself and keeps itself in working 
order and activity. It always tends to maintain 
a “normal ’’ condition, though subjected to con- 
siderable differences of environment, such as the 
composition of the food it feeds on and the air 
it breathes. But wherein do these views, and 
those just quoted, constitute a “New Physio- 
logy ’’? It seems improbable that they have 
sufficient novelty of outlook and value as a work- 
ing hypothesis to induce physiologists to re- 
nounce what Dr. Haldane admits to be still the 
orthodox mechanistic creed. : 

In an address on the relation of physiology to 
medicine Dr. Haldane urges the importance of 
our regarding physiology, anatomy, pathology, 
and pharmacology as the future basis of practical 
medicine. He points out that if medicine is not 
grounded on these sciences it is bound to become 
more and more an anachronism. The preliminary 
sciences must guide the medical man at every 
step, and their investigation must not merely be 
relegated to special laboratories, but be prose- 
cuted at the bedside. 


SOLAR THERMODYNAMICS. 


A Treatise on the Sun’s Radiation and other Solar 
Phenomena in Continuation of the Meteoro- 
logical Treatise on Atmospheric Circulation and 
Radiation, 1915. By Prof. Frank H. Bigelow. 
Pp. ix+385. (New York: John Wiley and 
Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 
1918.) Price 23s. net. 


ROF. BIGELOW’S treatise is a work to 

approach with circumspection. On p. 245 

we read: “The formulas of chap. i. should be 

kept continually in mind, especially in respect of 

the fact that no term can change without drawing 
P 


262 


NATURE 


[JUNE 5, 1919 


with it the entire long train of physical terms that 
are united with it.’’ As there are already ninety- 
one formule when the end of chap. i. is reached; 
and they are, to say the least, of controversial 
application, those who are not looking for trouble 
may be disposed to pass by on the other side. 
One recalls the “great text in Galatians, Once 
you trip on it entails, Twenty-nine distinct damna- 
tions, One sure if another fails.’’ But such a 
pusillanimous attitude is not permitted to a re- 
viewer. He has to make up his mind whether 
the compressed mass of 117 tables and 380 
formule which the book contains do in fact add 
light or darkness to the problems of the sun. 
The book is a discussion, a contribution to 
theory; the observations upon which it is based 
are chiefly those of Mr. Abbot, with the pyrhelio- 
meter, but Prof. Bigelow contends that Mr. 
Abbot’s results are erroneously reduced, so that 
whereas Mr. Abbot concludes a rise of intensity 
of solar radiation from 1'50 calories per square 
centimetre at sea-level to 1°94 at the confines of 
the earth’s atmosphere, Prof. Bigelow, using the 
same observations, says that the latter figure 
should be raised to 3°98 calories. On p. 376 he 
remarks: ‘‘There is probably no apparatus more 
difficult to interpret correctly than is the pyrhelio- 
meter, because it demands a full knowledge of 
radiation in gases, in glass, in mercury, in 
metals, during variable transformations, in which 
the kinetic; potential, expansion, and free-heat 
energies are all undergoing mutual readjust- 
ments.’’ One may well say so, if doctors disagree 
to that extent. On p. 210 is a résumé of the 
results of twelve different lines of computation, 
every one of which gives values between 3°92 and 
4°08. This would naturally be very impressive, 
and one would wish to confirm it by recalculating 
a few of the numbers. But they are not of the 
kind that admits of this. One must accept them 
from the author, and without questioning at all 
their correct derivation from his formule, it must 
be said these formule are of a kind to give one 
most serious pause. They are, indeed, put forward 
as revolutionary. On p. 1 we read: “Inthe Boyle 
Gay Lussac Law, P=pRT, all the terms, includ- 
ing the gas efficiency R, are variable.’’ But if R 
is not constant, all accepted gas theory, and a 
great deal of the structure of general physics, 
tumble down in ruins. On p. 17 is given a list 
of quantities which must also be variable; they 
include among them the number of molecules per 
unit mass of any gas. On p. 129 we read: “The 
entire thermodynamics of radiation must be based 
upon a series of non-adiabatic variable coefficients, 
instead of a set of adiabatic constants, as has 
been assumed in previous discussions.’’ It cannot 
be expected that we should make such a change 
without the most imperative reasons and the most 
direct and exhaustive proofs of its necessity. But 
these are wanting. The reasons given in two or 
three sentences, on p. 16, are certainly not con- 
vincing or inevitable. The accepted gas theory 
is not inadequate to explain, for example, ‘iso- 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


thermal strata in the earth’s atmosphere. : 
Prof. Bigelow’s new doctrine occupies his field of - 
view so exclusively that the whole of his book, 
upon which immense labour must have been spent, 
stands or falls with it. A. ie 


OILS, FATS, AND WAXES. 
Technical Handbook of Oils, Fats, and Waxes. 
By P. J. Fryer and Frank E, Weston. Vol. ii. 
“Practical and Analytical.’’ (The Cambridge 
Technical Series.) Pp. xvi+314. (Cambridge: 
At the University Press, 1918.) Price 15s. net. 
RE events of the last four years have directed 
attention to the economic importance of the 
edible oils and fats, and also to that of fats in 
general, as being the source from which glycerin is 
obtained. The national value of the industry 
which deals with these products is now pretty 
widely recognised. Fundamentally it is a chemical 
industry, and a knowledge of the chemistry of the 
oils, fats, and waxes will tend to become more 
and more desirable for those who control it on 
the technical side. se ae 
Messrs. Fryer and Weston may fairly claim to 
have assisted in the spread of such knowledge. 
In an earlier volume they have described the 
general chemistry of the oils, fats, and waxes, 
and the general principles of the methods of 


analysis used in the examination of these pro- 


ducts. The present work is concerned with the 
practical application of those principles. It 
appears to be largely intended for technical 
chemists, but students are also within its purview. 
Of this we are reminded every now and then by 
the italicised note: “Students should cleanse a 
apparatus in hot soft soap solution... .” One- 
seems to remember those students ! 

Both classes of users will find the volume very 
helpful. All the usual methods of analysis are 
described, with recent improvements and develop- 
ments, and there are plenty of practical hints 
and notes. 

The earlier parts of the book “begin at the 
beginning ’’ with descriptions of apparatus and 
methods of manipulation, whilst, the important 
matter of proper sampling receives due attention. 
In explaining the ‘“‘standard’’ analytical deter- 
minations, the general plan adopted is to start 
with a definition, give a short outline of the 
method, offer remarks upon it, and describe the 
apparatus and materials required, before going on 
to the actual experiments. The directions are 
categorical, and are couched in a mood which 
may be characterised as the abbreviated impera- 
tive: “Dissolve dry fatty acids . . . decant off 
alcohol . distil off ether.”” A number of 
photographs of apparatus are included in the text. 

Among the best and most important of the 
sections is the one which deals with the inter- | 


pretation of the results obtained in the analyses. — 


It is one thing to be able to carry out experi- 
ments on oils, fats, and waxes; it is quite another 
to know what the results really indicate. The 
authors discuss this question in some detail. They 


But 


ny 


* 


— 


_) Jone 5, 1919] 


Ae vegetable oils, 


| _ technical chemist’s library. 


NATURE 


263 


ES point out how the same product may vary through 
differences of climate, feeding, methods of re- 


fining, and so on; and they then show by ex- 
amples what deductions may legitimately be 
drawn from the experimental data. 
__The substances dealt with include hydrocarbon 
oils and waxes, rosin, turpentine, soap, glycerin, 
and candle material, as well as the animal and 
fats, and waxes. The book 
appears to be well “up to date,’’ and can be 
recommended as a very useful addition to the 
Rn totic 


a OUR BOOKSHELF. 
ys of the Open Air. By William Graveson. 


_ Pp. 115. (London: Headley Bros., Ltd., n.d.) 


e Price 3s. 6d. net. 


-- Newbolt. 


To the town-dweller who has a longing for the 


countryside, more especially in the dull, damp 
éarly months of the year, when spring seems so 
long in coming, the chapters of this little book 
will serve as a tonic. Mr. Graveson is a man 
who loves his garden and his bird-visitors, as well 
as the meadows, woods, and chalk-downs beyond ; 
he has eyes that can see, and above all he has the 
faculty of expressing what he sees and feels in 
simple, charming language. 

In this delightful little volume he has jotted 


down some of his experiences during the months 


from February to September: of last year. He 
shows how, when exactions of business and vari- 
ous duties curtail hours of recreation, and diffi- 
culties of travel prevent holidays from being taken 
far afield, there are opportunities for seeking new 
pleasures in familiar surroundings. The rambles 

ibed in his book have been in the compass of 


_a half-holiday walk and not more than five miles of 
a country town within easy distance of London. 
The arrangement is chronological. 
; oahe. Haunt of the Kingfisher,’ describes a 


Chap. i., 
bright morning early in the year when the hoar- 
frost lies thick on the common. ‘‘The Promise of 
Spring ’’ (chap. ii.) recalls the coming of the 
winter aconite, the crocus, and other harbingers 
of spring. “The Incoming of Spring ** is an epic 
of a sunny Palm Sunday—daffodils and_scillas 
are out in the garden, a silky-coated Pasque- 
flower is preparing for its Easter display, and a 
bright red anemone for the warm April days; and 


¢ never have the almonds looked more beautiful. 
And so on through the book to “ Foxgloves and 
Fairies ’’ and “The Lure of the Heather,’’ which 


are the headings of the two last chapters. 
_ The illustrations, photographic reproductions— 


a stream choked with water-violet, a bed of winter 


aconites, a cowslip meadow, and a few others— 
add to the charm of this series of Nature pictures. 


Submarine and Anti-Submarine. By Sir Henry 
Pp. viii+ 312. (London: Longmans, 
Green, and Co., 1918.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 


Sm Henry Newsort has succeeded in presenting 


a very fair view of the work of our submarines 
and of the measures taken to meet the U-boat 
menace. Despite the fact that a great deal of 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


further information has been published since the 
date of the armistice, the book will be found to 
be useful on account of the connected present- 
ment. Opening with the evolution of the sub- 
marine and a description of the submarine of 
to-day, the author passes to the methods of the 
submarine in attacking warships, and the means 
taken by warships in. meeting attack and in 
aggressive action. The work of our submarines 
in the Baltic and in the Dardanelles occupies a 
large section of the volume, and the work of our 
trawlers, destroyers, P-boats, and Q-boats is well 
described. The book closes with an account of 
the Zeebrugge and Ostend attacks. 

One interesting aspect of the submarine cam- 
paign is a knowledge of the feelings of the hunted 
during the chase. This is dealt with in chap. xvi., 
by quoting a long extract from the “War Diary 
of U 202,’’ by Lt.-Commdr. Freiherr Spiegel von 
und zu Peckelsheim. Sir Henry Newbolt comments 
on the extract by saying that it is not unnatural 
that von Peckelsheim should enlarge upon his 
terror at the moment and his self-congratulation 
afterwards. But his diary contrasts badly with 
reports from our own submarine commanders in 
worse circumstances. ‘‘We may take pleasure 
in noting that the steadiness of nerve and the 
scientific view are in our favour.”’ 


Aids in Practical Geology. By Prof. Grenville 
A. J. Cole. Seventh edition, revised. Pp. xvi+ 
431. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 
1918.) Price 1os. 6d. net. 


THERE are few living authors who take so wide 
a view of the phenomena and problems of geo- 
logy as Prof. Cole, and none who is more 
capable of making the subject of interest to the 
student. He stands out, too, among his contem- 
poraries in his appreciation of the work of the 
pioneers of the science, and in particular of the 
French petrologists of the first half of the nine- 
teenth century, especially of Cordier and Delesse. 
He gives an interesting record of the latter’s pro- 
cedure in determining the volumetric mineral com- 
position of a rock by the measurement of areas 
on a polished slab, and explains how it may be 
applied to sections under the microscope. Prof. 
Cole does not, however, refer to the linear method 
in which the same result is. obtained by the 
measurement of the mineral intercepts on lines 
drawn over the surface. This method, which has 
largely superseded the area method in microscopic 
work, was described by Delesse in the same paper, 
though the credit for it is usually given to 
Rosiwal, who published an account of it just fifty 
years later in 1898. 

In the limited space at the author’s disposal it 
was impossible to include everything he might 
have wished, but perhaps in a new edition he 
will endeavour to find room for the shadow 
(Schréder van der Kolk) method of determining 
under the microscope the refractive index of 
grains or fragments relatively to the medium in 
which they are immersed. It is at once very 
simple and easily applied. Je W. Evans. 


264 


NATURE 


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 ts 
taken of anonymous communications.] 


Intravenous Injections in Gholera. 


In the address given by Sir Leonard Rogers to 
the Indian Science Congress at Bombay (NATURE, 
May 29) reference is made to the treatment of cholera 
by injections of saline solutions, with the object of 
replacing the fluid lost from the blood, which loss 
may. amount to 67 per cent. of the plasma volume. 
The distinguished worker found that isotonic sodium 
chloride solution (0-85 per cent.) was practically use- 
less, but that hypertonic solutions (1-2 per cent.) were 
of much greater value. Since the walls of the blood- 
vessels are freely permeable to salts, there is no per- 
manent difference of osmotic pressure between their 
contents and the tissue spaces outside them. Hence 
there is no permanent force to prevent the escape of 
fluid from the blood-vessels. So long as the salt- 
content of the blood, as raised by the introduction of 
hypertonic solutions, exceeded that of the tissue fluids 
in his cases, there would be absorption of water and 
the blood-volume would be maintained; but before 


long the salt concentration of the tissues would rise’ 


to that of the blood, and there would no longer be 
the difference of osmotic pressure necessary to hold 
the fluid in the circulation against the filtration due 
to the arterial pressure. This would explain the 
repeated injections -found necessary by Sir Leonard 
Rogers. In some experiments that I have made, 2 per 
cent. sodium chloride was found to leave the circula- 
tion and cause oedema, although not so rapidly as 
isotonic solutions did. 

Although the walls of the blood-vessels are 
‘ permeable to salts, they are impermeable to colloids, 
so that if we could introduce a solution of a colloid 
which possesses an osmotic pressure, it would not 
leave the circulation, and its property of attracting 
water and preventing loss by filtration would be more or 
less permanent. We have such a colloid in gum-acacia. 
I have been able to show that a 6 or 7 per cent. solu- 
tion of this substance in o-g per cent. sodium chloride 
maintains the blood-volume under various conditions 
in which it was defective. Such solutions were used 
extensively in France for the treatment of haemorrhage 
and wound-shock. 

I would therefore venture to recommend the trial 
of the. method in cholera. I understand that some 
steps have been taken at Aden in this direction. Gum- 
saline has been used by Dr. Burkitt in Nairobi for 
black-water fever, and found to raise the blood- 
pressure permanently and to restore the renal func- 
tion. Sir Leonard Rogers refers to the last as a very 
serious factor in cholera, and the state in this disease 
appears to be such as promises better reaction to 
intravenous fluids than does black-water fever. 

The calcium bicarbonate contained in gum _ serves 
also to neutralise any acid produced in the tissues 
owing to defective blood-supply, and if the physio- 
logical action of calcium is required, no further addi- 
tion is necessary. 

Of course, the treatment by gum-saline is not to be 
regarded as a cure in the ordinary meaning of the 
word. It keeps up the normal circulation and allows 
other ‘means, such as are mentioned by Sir Leonard 
Rogers, to be used effectively. W. M. Bayttss. 

University College, London. 


NO. 2588, vor.. 103] 


A Crocodile on Rotuma. 


Capt. W. W. Witson, formerly harbouranestie of 


Levuka, Fiji, has sent me a photograph of a crocodile 
taken by Mr. G. Missen. 


by the natives. 
the Yasawas, the most westerly islands of the Fiji 
group, and 600 miles east of the New Hebrides and 
Santa Cruz groups; the nearest Solomon islands are 
upwards of 300 miles further west. ay 

The photograph represents a full-grown adult croco- 
dile. Dr. H. Gadow has identified it as Crocodilus 
porosus, Schneider, a species which has the habit of 
wandering out to sea. It is found from the Bay of 
Bengal to the Solomon Islands. The British Museum 
Catalogue of Reptiles mentions Fiji as within its 
area of distribution, but gives no precise record of 
any occurrence there. It certainly did not come from 
Fiji or any lands to the east, as crocodiles do not now 
exist on them, though native legends of live crocodiles 
landing were rife in Fiji when I was there in 1896-97. 
It must indeed have crossed from the west, and 


covered at least 600 miles of open, landless sea. This 


occurrence is sufficiently remarkable to be placed on 
permanent record. J. STanLtey GARDINER. 
University of Cambridge. ara 


Galendar Reform and the Date of Easter. 


As an influential effort is apparently being made 
in Paris to bring the question of the improvement of 
the Gregorian calendar before the Peace Conference, I 
should like to direct the attention of the scientific, 
commercial, and ecclesiastical authorities who may be 


interested to the exceptionally favourable opportunity 
afforded for such rectification by the calendar of the 


year 1925. ie 
In recent years many proposals for the improvement 
of the calendar, or rather for the adoption of another, 


have been placed before the public, but not much con- 


sideration has been given to the question of how such 
an improved calendar is to be coupled to the existing 
calendar without breach of continuity. 
The Gregorian almanac for the year 1925 offers an 
unusually favourable opportunity for effecting this. 


If May 31 in that and all satgdens ° years were de-. 


clared to be excluded from the weekly series, and if 
the same rule were applied to the odd day in all leap- 
years thereafter, it is obvious that the calendar of 
1925 with the above modification would become the 
perpetual calendar of the future. ’ 

In this calendar March 1 is a Sunday, and, without 


in any way changing the enumeration of the years 


for purposes of dating, that date could very con- 
veniently be recognised as the commencement both of 
the business and financial, and also of the ecclesias- 
tical, year. Easter Sunday could not be fixed for a 
more suitable day than April 12, which is the date of 
its occurrence in the year mentioned, and Pentecost 
would naturally and appropriately fall on May 31, 
the day already suggested for exclusion from the 
weekly series. 
foundation of the 


Christian Church,~ its special 


sequestration in this way makes a strong appeal to | 


the ecclesiastical authorities. a 
Under the above calendar it would be quite unneces- 
sary to remove the 366th day from its position at the 


end of February, and the only other change required — 
to equip the almanac with equal quarters and half- | 


years would be to restore the original Julian syllabus 
of months by removing the odd day so unfortunately 


[JUNE 5,1919 


This animal landed alive 
on Rotuma in July, 1913, being afterwards speared 
Rotuma lies 260 miles due north of 


Pentecost being the anniversary of the ; 


A Ny ff mma at cen a tat eal 


added to August by Augustus, and restoring it to 


February. August, 1919, might appropriately be the ~ 


last to bear the stigma of imperial disfigurement. 


NATURE 


265 


I venture to say that an equally favourable oppor- 
tunity for initiating the reform wil! not occur until the 
same almanac is repeated in 1936, when, however, it 
is complicated by a leap-day. ALEXR. PHILIP. 

‘The Mary Acre, Brechin, N.B., May 8. ; 


Glossina and the Extinction of Tertiary Mammals. 


Dr. G. D. H. Carpenter (Nature, March 20, p. 46) 
‘asks why we should suppose that the occurrence of 
tsetse-flies (Glossina) in the Miocene of Colorado 
might have had anything to do with the extinction 
_ of some of the large Mammalia. He points out that 
‘such flies exist in Africa to-day, carrying trypano- 
s, and the native Mammalia nevertheless survive 
and flourish. It is known, however, that in Miocene 
’ times there were extensive migrations of animals, 
_ from mammals to insects, and the New and Old 
Worlds each received important contributions from 
the other. In such periods of migration it is per- 
fectly conceivable that Glossina might appear in a 
new region, carrying a trypanosome which would be 
uighly pathogenic for certain elements of the resident 
fauna. Even in Africa we do not know what animals 
may be absent to-day owing to the former prevalence 
of disease-producing oo 


Pr eat . D. A. COcKEREIL. 
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 
April 24. 


INDICATIONS OF OIL IN DERBYSHIRE. 
Gee ay a somewhat lengthy interval, the atten- 
4% tion of the public has again been directed 
to the Government drilling operations for oil in 
this country. On May 26 the Times described the 
progress which had been made in the work, and 

ted that several of the bores had now reached 


) ft. in the well. The form of the announce- 
nts was somewhat misleading, and they need 
to be stripped of their trappings to arrive at a 
true perspective. A show of oil has been found 
at Hardstoft—nothing more. Such shows of oil 
have been found before in the British strata, and 
have invariably proved to be of little or no value. 
It remains to be proved that the present indica- 
tions at Hardstoft are of a different calibre, and 
_ it would have been well to postpone, or at least 
_ moderate, the announcement of the discovery 
until the resumed drilling operations had indi- 
_ cated the quantity of oil which was forthcoming. 

_. The position of the general drilling operations 
_in Britain may be summarised as follows. Wells 
_are being drilled in three areas, Chesterfield, 
North Staffordshire, and Midlothian. The opera- 
_ tions in the last two areas are merely in their pre- 
_ liminary stages, but in the Chesterfield region the 
work is further advanced, and two of the seven 
_wells—namely, Brimington and Hardstoft No. 1 
_— have almost attained their’ proposed depths. 
_ Shows of gas have been encountered in several 
_ of the bores, but the porous horizons of the Mill- 
_ stone Grits, where pierced, have in all cases failed 
_ to produce the oil which was anticipated. To this 


NO. 2588, VOL.. 103] 


extent, then, the results have been disappointing. 
However, it has never been intended to limit 
exploitation to the Millstone Grits. The under- 
lying Carboniferous Limestone has been con- 
sidered by some to be a better horizon for testing, 
and the wells are being continued through the 
Yoredale Shales in order to pierce this formation. 
Both the Hardstoft No. 1 and Brimington bores 
have almost reached the. Carboniferous Lime- 
stone, and the oil which is announced in the 
former probably comes from the beds near the 
junction. 

It must be emphasised that there is nothing in 
the present situation to warrant the unduly opti- 
mistic attitude of a section of the Press. The 
statement that this is the first discovery of oil in 
substantial quantity in England is incorrect, and 
greatly exaggerates the present indications. The 
announcement that the oil has risen tooo ft. in 
the well may bear two interpretations. It may 


.be that the whole liquid column is composed of 


oil, or it may be merely an upper layer of oil 
floating on a column of water, as in the case of 
the Kelham bore. The shales and banded lime- 
stones immediately above the main limestone in 
Derbyshire often contain small quantities of 
petroleum, though the porosity of these strata is 
too small to yield large quantities of the material. 
It is possible that every well which is sunk into 
these beds will yield some indications of petrol- 
eum, but the small porosity and other factors of 
preservation limit the hope of a commercial pro- 
duction of petroleum. 

Judgment must be suspended until the results 
of the resumed drilling operations are known. In 
the meantime it is fortunate that the Government 
has prevented promiscuous drilling, and thus 
minimised the evils of fevered financial specula- 
tion. The Canadian oil boom of 1914, based on 
an oil show similar in type to the present indica- 
tions at Hardstoft, and which ended in nothing, 
is a typical example of these deplorable scrambles. 

V. C. ILLING. 


THE SOLAR ECLIPSE, 


oP Basha received by the Astronomer 

Royal report that at the station at Sobral, 
in Brazil, occupied by Dr. Crommelin and Mr, 
Davidson for photographing the field of stars 
round the sun on the occasion of the total eclipse 
of the sun last week (May 29), the sky was clear 
for at least part of totality, and that the pro- 
gramme was satisfactorily carried out. The photo- 
graphs have been developed, and all the stars 
expected are shown on the plates taken with the 
astrographic lens, as well as on those taken with 
a second telescope lent by Father Cortie. The 
expedition will remain at Sobral until the neces- 
sary comparison photographs are taken in situ. 
The message from Prof. Eddington at Prince’s 
Island, off the coast of West Africa, which reads 
“Through cloud, hopeful,’’ may be taken to imply 
that some success will also be derived from the 
work of this expedition. 


266 NATURE [JUNE 5, 1919 


It will be remembered that Prof. Eddington and 
Mr. Cottingham were provided with the 13-1n. 
object-glass of the astrographic telescope of the 
Oxford University Observatory, whilst — the 
observers in Brazil had ¢he similar object-glass 
from Greenwich, and that the programme at both 
stations was to take photographs of the stars 
that surrounded the sun, of which there are at 
least twelve within 100/ of’ the sun’s centre of 
photographic magnitude ranging from 4°5 to 70, 
for the purpose of testing Einstein’s relativity 
theory of gravitation, and also the hypothesis that 
gravitation, in the generally accepted sense, acts 
on light. Photographs that have been taken 
during the eclipse will be compared with others 
that have been, or will be, taken of the same stars 
in the night sky to detect any displacement that 
may be considered to be due to the presence of 
the sun in the field. 

There is at present no information as to the 
type of the corona, and apparently few observing 
parties have been organised to make observations 
to record this. From a note in the daily Press 
last week, said to emanate from the Yerkes 
Observatory, it seems not unlikely that a large 
prominence may have been on the limb of the 
sun at the time of the eclipse. 

It had been announced that the Cordoba Ob- 
servatory would dispatch an expedition to Brazil, 
and that possibly Prof. Abbot, of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, would proceed to La Paz, 
Bolivia, where the eclipse happened at sunrise, 
with coronal cameras and with instruments for 
measuring the sky radiations by day and night, 
but it is too early to have heard of any results of 
such observations. Also it has been announced 
that Prof. D. P. Todd would take photographs 
of the eclipse from an aeroplane at.a height of 
10,000 ft. from the neighbourhood of Monte 
Video, where the eclipse would only be partial. 

As to experiments other than astronomical, the 
actual programme arranged by the British Asso- 
ciation Committee for Radio-telegraphic Investiga- 
tion, the object of which was given in NATURE of 
May 8, was that the sending-stations at Ascension 
and the Azores with others in America should 
send letters of the alphabet at intervals from 
rh. 30m. (G.C.T.) until 14h., and that any 
observers who would take part in the experiment 
should record these and their strength by a 
number according to a scale familiar to wireless 
telegraphists. A scheme for making special mag- 
netic and allied observations during the eclipse 
was organised by the Department of Terrestrial 
Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution under the 
direction of Prof. Bauer, with stations at (1) La 
Paz, Bolivia, (2) Huancayo (north of belt of 
totality), (3) near Sobral, Brazil, (4) Prince’s 
Island, and other stations outside the belt of 
totality if possible. The reports of the observa- 
tions of this kind that have been made will be 
given as soon as possible, but much cannot 
be said until published results arrive from 
America. 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


‘transmitting-circuits, where it is transformed by — 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY. 


ARCONI’S Wireless Telegraph Co., Li 
. gave a very interesting demonstration — 


the latest developments of wireless telephony at 


its works at Chelmsford on May 28. pe 


there was nothing very new from the scientific 


point of view, yet the developments in engineer- - 
ing design were remarkable, especially in. the re- — 
ceiving apparatus. Many of the devices proved — 
of the utmost value to the Army during the 


war. We were impressed with the portable — 
wireless telegraph station for use with pack or — 


wheeled transport. Six men are required to work — 
the set, and the whole station can be erected in — 


ten minutes. The masts are of steel, 30 ft. in 


height, and a single horizontal aerial is used, the — 
earth connection being made with strips of metal — 
gauze placed on the ground. The generating set — 


consists of a two-cylinder, 2$-h.p. petrol engine, — 


which drives a high-frequency }$-kw. alternator. — 
The “instrument load ’’ consists of transmitting-_ 
valves, high-frequency _ transmitting-circuits, 


microphone, etc., all contained in a teak travel- — 


ling-case. 


To work the apparatus, the petrol engine is — 


started. This drives the high-frequency alter- 
nator. The current generated is carried to ‘the 


a series of transformers. The final transforma-_ 


tion raises the potential to 10,000 volts; the | 


current is then rectified by a Fleming valve and \ 


wo 
x 


converted into a continuous-wave current by a 
system of condensers and choke coils. ; 


oa Td Se 
current energises the aerial circuit, where a large — 


fraction of the power is radiated off into space. — 
For the transmission of speech the Soantaie of § 
the oscillations generated in the aerial is varied — 
by a microphone into which the operator speaks. — 
The microphone acts on a transformer connected — 
in the grid circuit of the transmitting-valve. 
The receiver consists of a simple tuning 
arrangement which is connected to the aerial. — 
The oscillatory currents produced by the received 
signals are amplified by a series of oscillatory 
valves. The last of the valves rectifies the cur- 
rents and feeds the telephones through a suitable 
transformer. Conversation between the two 
stations is then carried on in exactly the same 
way as in ordinary telephony. ‘ 
For normal flat country the guaranteed range 
for telephone transmission is 60 miles, but com- 
munication can sometimes be made over 120 
miles. For continuous wave (C.W.) transmis- 
sion the guaranteed range is 200 miles. A 
demonstration of the working of the apparatus 
was given, and conversation was carried on as” 
easily as over an ordinary telephone line. ar 
Amongst other devices shown were the wireless _ 
telephone apparatus used in aeroplanes with the ~ 
pendent aerial and the windmill generator. Very 
large high-power spark generators for long- 
distance transmission were shown in action. A 
demonstration was also given of telephonic com- 


7 


: 
7 


June 5, 1919] 


' munication with distant stations from a motor- 


of enemy aircraft. 


q y sea and air. In 


a+ 


| 


‘ ae ras 
out 


NATURE 267 


bus in motion. The aerial fixed on the bus 
was only a rectangular coil about 3 ft. 
Square, containing a few turns of wire. The 
bus drove some miles towards Colchester, 
and then its position was accurately located by 
the Marconi direction-finding device, which was 
so useful in other days for locating the position 
Now it promises to be 
connection with navigation 
the English Channel, 
or imstance, a ship furnished with direc- 
tion-finding gear can check its position at 
frequent intervals by taking bearings on the 


useful in 


imer shore wireless stations without disturb- 
ng them in their work. The relative position of 
er ships also can be ascertained, and the 
ngers of navigation in fog greatly lessened. 


Marconi Co. is erecting a huge aerial in 


hd Wea 
' 


- Buenos Aires, and it seems probable that in two 


or three years’ time telephonic speech will be 
possible between this country and the Argen- 
tine. Unlike ordinary telephonic waves trans- 
_ mitted over wires which ‘travel with speeds 


_ depending on their wave-lengths, aerial waves all 


_ seem to travel with the same speed, and so it is 
highly probable that, even over this distance, 


_ there will be no “speech distortion.”’ 


' THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT. 
ae HE American seaplane N.C.4 has completed 
- its flight to England, via the Azores and 
Port 


; 1, and arrived at Plymouth at 1.26 p.m. 
.M.T. last Saturday. The honour of the first 
antic crossing by air thus falls to the Americans, 
though the yet greater honour of the first direct 


flight from continent to continent remains to be 
won. The feat accomplished by the N.C.4 clearly 
_ illustrates the advantage of the seaplane for long 


over the ocean, owing to its ability to 
t on the water in any calm locality and carry 
minor repairs, if necessary. Even in mid- 
Atlantic such an aircraft would have a fair chance 
to rectify some slight defect and proceed on its 
course, whereas an aeroplane is certain to be 
useless for further flight if forced to descend on 
the water. 
The three longest stages of the flight of the 
N.C.4 were as under :— 


Miles 

Newfoundland to the Azores 1381 

_ Azores to Portugal bet 904 
North of Spain to Plymouth 500 


The machine also made a flight of 190 miles in 
the Azores, and proceeded from Lisbon to the 
North of Spain in two short stages before making 
the final flight to England. The last 500 miles 
were accomplished in 5 hours, a fact that speaks 
well for the condition of the machine after its 
preceding long journeys. The seaplane was 
obliged to fly very low on account of fog, and 
the greater part of the last stage was covered at 
an altitude of less than 100 ft. The satisfactory 
termination of this trans-Atlantic flight reflects the 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


greatest credit upon Lt.-Commdr. Read and his 
crew, who will ever be remembered as the first 
persons to cross the Atlantic by air. 

In view of the length of the first stage of this 
historic flight, viz. 1381 miles, it seems reason- 
able to expect that a machine of this type should 
soon be able to attempt the direct passage—a 
distance only 420 miles greater than that already 
accomplished. An aerial voyage from England 
to Australia also seems well within the reach of 
such a seaplane, convenient harbours or lakes 
en route being selected as halting-places. A sea- 
plane has the disadvantage, for such a flight, that 
a forced landing on terra firma is as fatal as is 
a descent at sea to an aeroplane, and it is con- 
ceivable that the future will produce a machine 
capable of alighting either on water or land. 
Such a machine would have vast possibilities, but 
the design presents many difficulties. 

Meanwhile, another great triumph has been 
added to the record of flight, and it seems likely 
that the present year will witness even greater 
achievements in the aeronautical world. 


NOTES. 

Tue honours announced on the occasion of the 
King’s birthday on June 3 number several thousand, 
but are confined almost entirely to the fighting forces. 
A further list will be issued in a few days. We notice 
in the list published on Tuesday the following distinc- 
tions conferred upon men known in the scientific 
world :—K.C.S.IJ.: Dr. Michael E. Sadler, Vice- 
Chancellor of the University of Leeds and chairman 
of the Calcutta University Commission. C.I.E.: Lt.- 
Col. J. Stephenson, principal and professor of biology, 
Government College, Lahore, and Mr. R Hole, 
Imperial Forest Botanist, Dehra Dun. Knights 
Bachelor: Mr. Charles Bright and Dr. J. H. Mac- 
Farland, Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. 


WitH the approval of H.R.H. the Duke of Con- 
naught, president of the Royal Society of Arts, the 
council has awarded the society’s Albert medal for 
Ig19 to Sir Oliver Lodge “in recognition of his work 
as the pioneer of wireiess telegraphy.’’ The medal 
was instituted in 1864 to reward ‘‘ distinguished service 
in promoting arts, manufactures, and commerce.”’ 
The presentation will be made by the Duke of Con- 
naught at Clarence House on June 6. 


THE annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, 
Greenwich, will be held on Saturday, June 14. 


Lorp BLEDISLOE has been elected chairman of the 
governors of the Royal Agricultural College, Ciren- 
cester, in succession to Lord Moreton, who has 
resigned. at 


Dr. JOsEPH BURRELL, who, after serving for five 
years as assistant professor of geology at Yale Uni- 
versity, was appointed to a full professorship in 1908, 
died recently in his fiftieth year. 


Mr. Harotp Kine, of the Wellcome Chemical 
Research Laboratories, has been appointed by the 
Medical Research Committee to the post of organic 
chemist in the department of biochemistry and phar- 
macology. 


A CONFERENCE on ‘The Benefit to the Workman 
of Scientific Management” will be held under the 


268 


NATURE 


| JUNE 5, 1919 


auspices of the Industrial Reconstruction Council on 
June 10, at 5.30 p.m., in the hall of the Institute of 
Journalists, 2. and 4 Tudor Street, E.C.4. The chair 
will be taken by Dr. H. Chellew, and Major Pells, 
R.E., will introduce the subject, after which the dis- 
cussion will be open. No tickets are necessary. 


THE seventy-first general meeting of the Institution 
of Mining Engineers will be held in the rooms of the 
Geological Society, Burlington House, on Thursday, 
June 19, under the presidency of Mr. 'G. B. Walker. 
Two institution medals will be presented for the year 
1918-19 to Dr. Auguste Rateau (French) and M. 
‘Victor Watteyne (Belgian) respectively. 


A BIOLOGIST having a knowledge of life in streams 
is about to be appointed by the Joint Committee of 
the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Road 
Board to assist in experiments in- connection with the 
tarring of roads. “Applications for the post, marked 
‘ Biologist,’’ must reach the Secretary of the Road 
Board, 35 Cromwell. Road, S.W.7, by, at latest, the 
first post of Monday, June 16. 


APPLICATIONS are invited by’ the Imperial» Mineral 
. Resources Bureau (14 Great Smith Street, $.W:r) for 
the position of Chief of. the Intelligence and. Publica- 
tions Section of the Bureau to compile and produce 
for publication statistical information in ~ regard to 
the resources, production, and cost of production of 
metals and minerals from all parts of the world. The 
forms of application, with testimonials, are returnable 
by, at latest, June 109. 


THE death is announced, in his eightieth year, of 
Dr. Alexis A. Julien, of South Harwich, Mass. From 
1860 to 1864 Dr. Julien was the resident chemist on 
the guano island of Sombrero, and made scientific col- 
lections there for the Smithsonian Institution. From 
1865 to 1909 he was on the staff of the School of 
Mines, Columbia University. He had also been con- 
nected with: the Geological Surveys of the States of 
Michigan and North Carolina. 


THE annual meeting of the British Science Guild 
will be held on June 17, at 4 p.m., at the Goldsmiths’ 
Hall, by kind permission of. the Master and Court. 
The ‘speakers will be the Right Hon; Lord Sydenham 
(president of the guild), Major-Gen. the Right Hon. 
a. Bs Seely,. Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of 
Air, Sir Joseph _Thomson, president of the Royal 
Society, and Sir Robert Hadfield, Bart. Cards of 
invitation to the meeting may be had on application 
to the Secretary, British Science Guild, 199 Piccadilly, 
aW.1. 


A portion of the Ministry of Munitions has become 
a branch of the Board of Trade. The portion that 
is transferred to the Board of Trade will deal with 
-questions of assistance to, and organisation of, the 
‘optical ‘scientifio instrument, glass, and potash indus- 
‘tries, including administration of the Glass Control 
(Consolidated), Clinical Thermometer, and Potassium 
Compound Orders. All communications relating to 
such questions in future, therefore, should be ad- 
dressed to the Assistant Secretary, Board of Trade, 
‘Industries “and: Manufactures Department, Scientific 
Instruments, Glassware, and Potash Production 
Branch, 117 Piccadilly, W.1r. 

At the annual general meeting of the Linnea 


“Society, held on May 24, the following were elected 
officers and council for the ensuing year :—President: 


Dr. A. Smith Woodward. Treasurer: H. W. Monck- 
ton. Secretaries: Dr. B. Daydon Jackson, E. S. 
Goodrich, and Dr. A, B. Rendle. Council: E.G. 
‘Baker, Dr. W. ‘Bateson, *Prof: Margaret ‘Benson; ’ 


NO. 2588, VOL., 103 | 


*E. T. Browne, 
J.B. Farmer, E. S. Goodrich, Dr. B. Daydon Jack, son, — 
LO oe Lacaita;, 
R. I.. Pocock, Dr, Ac.B. Rendle, Des De tis 
Miss A. Lorrain Smith, A. W. Sutton, *Dr. arc? 
Wager, Lt.-Col.’ J. H. Tull Walsh, and *Dr: AL Sm 


Woodward (new members are shown by an oe if 


Prof. I. Bayley Balfour was presented with 
Linnean medal in gold. “is ee 


A CONFERENCE devoted to. the consideration ‘be: 
problems of reconstruction in relation to public health 
has been arranged by the Royal ‘Institute of Public” 
Health, 
Saturday, June 28, inclusive. The inaugural mei 
the conference will he held in the Egyptian of 
the Mansion House, under the presidency of the Blgks 
Hon. the Lord Mayor of London,.and the other m ects 
ings will be held in the Council Chamber of the Guild. 
hall of London. The subjects to be considered will — 
come under the following heads :—(1) The Work of 
the Ministry of Health; (2) The Prevention and Arrest 
of Venereal Disease; (3) ‘Housing in Relation to 
National Health; (4).Maternity and Child Welfare; 
and (5) The Tuberculosis. Problem. 1indet assideus’ 
Conditions. 


N £ 
ae) 
aero 


In view of the imminent resumption of internaualal 
co-operation in the study of questions. connected with | 
the art of illumination and the sciences related 
thereto, a meeting of the National Illumination Com-— 
mittee of Great Britain was held on May 27, when. 
vacancies in the executive of the committee, due to 
the decease of Mr. W. Duddell and Prof. Silvanus P. 
Thompson, were filled. The executive, with the 
institutions represented, is now as follows :—C 
man, Mr. A. P.. Trotter Set ieee Engine 
Society) ; vice-chairmen, Mr. John Bond (Institutic 
of Gas Engineers) and Mr. Kenelm Edgcumbe ‘Gna 
tution of Electrical Engineers); hon. secretary, Mr. 
Haydn T. Harrison (Institution of Electrical 
gineers); hon. treasurer, Mr. W. J. 

(Institution of Gas Engineers); and represen ot 
on the executive committee of the International 

mission on. Illumination, Dr. Harold G. .Colman © 
(Institution of Gas Engineers) and Mr. Leon ‘Gaster.. 
(Illuminating Engineering Society). 
of research work, etc., was considered, and a pro. « 


R. H. Burne, S. Edwards, Prof. ‘J 
4G. W. E. Loder, H. W. Soe tn 


to be held from Wednesday, June 2 ed <. ip | 
igk 


j. A eae ie 


os 


' 


of 


iY 
te 


4 
The resumption ° b | 


A 
ag 


gramme for further discussion at a meeting at an 3 


early date was settled. 


Tue Air Ministry has begun the publication, in the 
Geographical Journal for May (vol. liii., No. 5), of | 
some notes on proposed air routes. The first one is — 
the route from Egypt to South Africa. 


Nile or the railway indicates the course. South of 
Kosti is a forest region, and the Nile banks are wooded 
or swampy, while the sudd region makes the White 
Nile a practically impossible route. The route proposed | 
is by Sennar up the Blue Nile to Roseires, thence south 
to Gambela and the western shore of Lake Rudolf; 
or from Roseires by Nasser on the Sobat to Gondokoro. 
But on either route landing-places are not numerous — 
and communications are bad. It is suggested that a — 
seaplane might be the best type of machine for this 
section. A seaplane is also favoured for the route — 
from Gondokoro to Lake Victoria by Murchison Falls. — 


Across Lake Victoria the proposed route is to Mwanza 
by seaplane, thence to Kigoma and Abercorn on Lake 


Tanganyika. The route continues by Broken Hill to — 
Bulawayo, thence following the railway to Mafeking, — 
Kimberley, and Cape Town. 
suggested for parts of the course. 


Alternative routes are 
It is proposed to. 
provide landing-placés; so far as possible; everys200 


From Cairo 
-to Kosti there seems to be little difficulty: either the — 


Jose 5, 1919] 


NATURE 


269 


‘miles. The Air-Ministry states that-it will be glad to | 


receive criticisms and-remarks. 


“Dr. Cuartes GorineG, late Medical Officer to Man- 
chester Prison, whose recent death after a short illness 
deprived the Prison Medical Service of one of its 
ablest members, had a brilliant career as a student 
_ at University College, London, and from his early 
_ years showed a strong bent towards scientific re- 

Search. This tendency led him to the study of medi- 
_ Cine, and his special interest in psychology and 
general anthropology found an ample field of work 
when he was appointed to the staff of Broadmoor 
Criminal Lunatic Asylum, and later to the Prison 
Medical Service. During several years Dr. Goring con- 
‘We ted a vast number of observations to an inquiry 

hich had been undertaken at several prisons con- 
cerning certain doctrines as to the relation of crime 


to pk 1 and mental peculiarities, and he readily 
under’ the great labour entrusted to him of 


onan m the whole of the observations “pennies 
writing the rt. This report was published by 
ee eesirriendt under the title “‘The English Con- 
vict: A Statistical Study,” and has attracted wide 
atte |, both here and in other countries, among 
those int in the study of crime and criminals. 
It is impossible in this necessarily short notice to 
enter into further criticism of the method of research 
followed by Dr. Goring and of the conclusions arrived 
at by him than that made in Nature for March 26, 
1914 (vol. xciii., p. 86), soon after the publication of 
this work. It must suffice to say that the nature 
and arrangement of the material and the inferences 
drawn therefrom follow closely on the lines of the bio- 
metrical school, and that the validity of the conclusions 

spends on the full acceptance of the applicability of 
the method to the material. Dr. Mercier’s recent book 
on “*Crime and Criminals’’ shows that much can 
be said on this subject from a point of view which 
differs widely in many respects from that set 
forth in “The Statistical Study of the English Con- 
vict ’; but, looked at from any point of view, this work 
will remain as a monument to Dr. Goring’s untiring 
industry, his single-minded enthusiasm for scientific 
researc , and his unquestionably great ability. a 


_ Unper the title. of ‘The Dendroglyphs, or Carved 
Trees of New South Wales,” Mr. R. Etheridge has 
published a memoir, issued by the Department of 
Mines (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of New 
South Wales, Ethnological Series, No. 2). The 
_ records of these trees begin with a note by Surveyor- 
_ General J. Oxley in 1817, and since that time many 
specimens have been discovered. They seem to fall 
into two pore shone which adjoin native graves, 
and may considered memorials of the dead or of 
_ some important tribal event; and those carved with 
_- symbols, apparently in connection with the Bora, 
_ “man-making” or puberty rites. They do not appear 
_ to be associated with tree-worship or with any regular 
cult of the dead. Some of the designs may be of a 
_totemic nature, and they have been compared with 
_ those engraved on the inside of skin-cloaks worn by 
_the aborigines. As to the date of these memorials, all 
that seems clear is that the glyphs were made after 
the natives became possessed of metal tools. Ver 
little is known of the class of records associated wit 
the rites, but some of the designs seem to be 
_totemistic. An attempt is made, without much. suc- 
_ cess, to compare the designs used by Dravidian tribes 
in southern India, with whom the Australians are 


supposed to be racially connected. The memoir is. 


interesting and well illustrated, and raises many 
questions in connection with the beliefs’ and cere- 
_ monies of the natives of Australia. 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


Dr. A. GALLARDO continues his extensive memoir 
on the ants of the Argentine with a monograph on 
the, Ponerine (Ann, Mus, Nac. Hist, Nat. Buenos 
Aires, vol. xxx., 1918). To the thirty species com- 
prised in this section he devotes more than a hundred 
pages of careful description with clear structural 
figures, 


THE greater portion of part 5, vol. xv., of the 
Records of the Indian Museum is occupied by the 
second instalment of Mr. E. Brunetti’s ‘‘ Revision of 
the Oriental Tipulidz.’’ Nearly six hundred species of 
these insects (the crane-fli¢s or ‘‘ daddy-long-legs’) are 
now known from India and south-eastern Asia, so 
that the field of study is extensive. Mr. Brunetti’s 
treatment is somewhat rigidly systematic. 


Mr. J. M. Swaine issues, as: Bulletin 14 of the 
Entomological Branch of the Canadian Department 
of Agriculture, what may be regarded as a mono- 
graph of the Canadian bark-beetles (Scolytid), deal- 
ing with structure, classification, habits, and methods 
of control. A feature of this memoir is the beauty 
of the illustrations, though some of the plates .are 
overcrowded with figures. 


WE have received the first part. (January, 1919) of 
a ‘‘ Treubia,” a new publication issued from the famous 
Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg, Java. It contains 
five entomological papers by Dr. W. Roepke, of which 
one on two new Javan species of Oligotoma is of 
bionomic as well as of systematic importance, the 
curious Embiidz—allies of the Termites—to which | 
these insects belong, being of exceptional interest. In — 
his other papers, on various beetles and wasps, the 
author gives much welcome anatomical detail. 


SomE interesting contributions to agricultural | 
zoology have lately been made by workers in India. - 
The report of the Imperial Entomologist (Mr. T. B. ; 
Fletcher) for 1917-18 contains descriptions, with ex- | 
cellent figures, of the larval stages of several beetles 
and moths of economic importance. Dr. E. J. Butler | 
writes (Mem. Dept. Agric. India, Bot. Series, vol. ‘x., 
No. 1, 1919) on the rice worm (Tylenchus angustus), 
and points out that this destructive eelworm can 
migrate over apparently dry surfaces if the atmosphere 
be saturated so as to cause the formation of a droplet 
or film of moisture around the worm’s body. This | 
fact accounts for the general immunity of the ‘ boro”? 
or spring rice crop to the disease caused by the worm, 
as the air is at its driest from February to May. 
A’ valuable paper on the Aphididz of Lahore by the 
late Mr. Bachambar Das appears as No. 4 of vol. vi. 
of the Memoirs of the Indian Museum. Forty species 
are described, with critical systematic and bionnatic 
notes, illustrated with sixteen plates. 
shows high entomological ability, and the early death 
of the author, resulting from his devotion to students - 
attacked by cholera, has cut short a career of great 
promise. 


_ Recent geological work in France and her colonies 
is usefully reviewed by M. J. Révil in the Revue 
générale des Sciences (January 15 and 30, 1919). 


In Naturen for November, 1918, Hr. N. H. 
Kolderup records the excursions of the first Scan- 
dinavian Geological Congress in Denmark, and fur- 
nishes a good map, after V. Nordmann, of the con- 
cealed geology of the north of Jylland (Jutland). The 
strata range from Senonian to Miocene. : 


THE great size of the boulders in the rubble-drift 
of Brighton leads Mr. E. A. Martin to conclude 
(Hastings and E. Sussex Naturalist, vol. iii., p. 64) 
that some form of moving ice occupied the local 


The work — 


270 


NATURE 


[June 5, 1919 


valleys at the time of deposition of this drift. The 
paper provides further evidence of the influence of 
the Glacial epoch on the older superficial deposits 
of southern England. 


Me. A. L. Hatt furnishes a complete review of the 
minerals used as asbestos and of the requirements of 
the trade in a memoir on ‘‘ Asbestos in the Union of 
South Africa’? (Mem. 12, Geol. Surv. S. Africa, 1918, 
price 5s.). Crocidolite naturally receives full treat- 
ment, and the author’s new species amosite, with a 
long, flexible, and strong fibre, is recommended as 
being less fusible than crocidolite, which contains 
more soda. Amosite, indeed, seems to rival chrysotile 
in its commercial qualities. 


Pror. W. \M. Davis contributes. a further compre- 
hensive paper on ‘The Geological Aspects of the 
Coral-reef Problem” to Science Progress (vol. li., 
p- 420, 1919). Mr. W. G. Foye, in a memoir on 
‘Geological Observations in Fiji’ (Proc. Amer. Acad. 
Arts and Sciences, vol. liv., No. 1, 1918), states that 
he finds no evidence of the wave-cut Pleistocene plat- 
form which is postulated by Prof. R. D. Daly in his 
theory of the post-Glacial origin of the reefs, and he 
remarks that ‘‘if the Glacial-control theory is still 
adhered to, the atolls must be pre-Pleistocene in age.”’ 
The Fiji area shows that elevation has here taken 
place in differing degrees, leading to various states 
of erosion. At present ‘‘all of the islands are being 
rapidly reduced to sea-level by atmospheric solution..”’ 
Subsidence has already followed on the last uplift, 
and some of the most eroded islands have, in con- 
sequence, deep lagoons. 


A ‘‘TsuNAMI ’’ is the name given in Japan to any ab- 
normally high water that causes damage to property. 
Most ‘‘ tsunamis ’’ are due to submarine earthquakes or 
volcanic eruptions. The sea-level then suddenly rises 
or falls, after which a train of waves succeeds, which 
may last a few hours or days. Other ‘‘ tsunamis ”’ are 
caused by heavy winds along the coast or by 
typhoons. These different forms of ‘‘ tsunamis ”’ are 
considered by Mr. S, T. Nakamura in a paper read 
before the Tokyo Mathematico-Physical Society (Pro- 
ceedings, vol. ix., 1918, pp. 548-55), in which special 
reference is made to the ‘‘tsunami’’ caused by an 
earthquake off the eastern coast of North Japan on 
September 8, 1918. Mr. Nakamura explains the wide 
variation in the height. of the waves by supposing 
that movements in adjacent quadrants are opposite in 
direction, so that the height of the waves would be 
zero or very small on the boundaries of the quadrants, 
and greatest along their central lines. The -evidence 
of the recent ‘‘ tsunami,’’ so far as it goes, favours 
this explanation. 


Tue Danish Meteorological Institute has published 
its report for 1918 on the state of the ice in the Arctic 
Seas. The year was a very favourable one for navi- 
gation to Spitsbergen. From April until October the 
west coast was practically free from ice, except for a 
little around the South Cape in May and June, and 
a good deal of pack in Bell Sound and Horn Sound in 
September. The east coast, so far as reports go, seems 
to have been fairly open late in the summer, and the 
north coast from June onwards was navigable. | In the 
Greenland Sea, on the other hand, the ice reached far 
eastward, and seems to have been unusually heavy. 
Conditions in the Barents Sea and around Iceland seem 
to have been fairly normal. There was little informa- 
tion from the Kara Sea, except the report of Capt. 
Amundsen, who found it filled with ice in the middle 
of August. The entrance to the White Sea was not 
navigable before May, but the sea remained open until 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


late in the autumn. The report, which is printed, as 
usual, in Danish and English, is well illustrated with — 
maps. 14 


Buttetin No. 105 of the University of Illinois con- 
tains an account of hydraulic experiments with valves, 
orifices, hose, nozzles, and orifice buckets. Ordinary — 
gate, globe, and angle valves were purchased in the — 
open market and tested as received; the valves were — 
1 in.and 2 in. in diameter, and were tested with settings — 
ranging from one-fourth open to full open. It was — 
found that the loss of head caused by small valves — 
varies as the square of the velocity in the pipe for all 
the valve openings. When wide open, a globe valve | 
causes more than twice as much loss of head as an — 
angle valve of the same size; while a gate valve causes — 
much less loss of head than either a globe or an angle — 
valve, the velocity in the pipe being the same in the — 
three cases. With equal velocities in the pipe, the — 
loss of head for an angle valve is somewhat less when — 


about three-fourths open than when wide opea The " 
form or shape of the passageways through a globe ~ 
or angle valve has a large influence on the loss of ~ 
head for the small valve openings; the portion of the — 
passageways in which the form seems of greatest 
importance is in the exit from the valve rather than — 
in the passageways leading to the valve dise. Graphs 
of the results and tables of the coefficients obtained 
are included in the paper. cas ie) eae 


In an address given to the chemical section of the { 
American Association for the Advancement of Science — 
in December last, Prof. W. A. Noyes emphasises the — 
fact that the theory of valency is one of the most 
important theories in chemistry. Scarcely any other 
except the atomic theory, with which it is inseparably — 
connected, has been so fruitful in results which have — 
led to practical applications, and also to the develop- 
ment of chemical knowledge. But in spite of these — 
results, which no one can dispute, the theory just now 
is more or less in disrepute, especially among physical — 
chemists and teachers of inorganic mistry. In - 
many elementary text-books structural formulz are 
used so sparingly that they make no impression on 
the student, and in some they are not even mentioned. — 
This attitude is due, in part, to a reaction from the 
over-emphasis given to the subject at a time when — 
nearly all chemists were working on the structure of — 
organic compounds. In part also it is due to con-— 
fused ideas on the philosophy of science; to some 
persons science is only an orderly description of | 
phenomena which we can see and handle, weigh and 
measure, and connect by mathematical processes. But 
the positive achievements of the valency theory are 
so great that no one can doubt that there is in the 
relations of atoms some reality which corresponds 
with the theory. At the same time our knowledge 
is vague and indefinite at many points, so that we 
cannot yet consider the theory satisfactory. The most 
important recent advance has been the interpretation 
of valency in connection with the electron theory, 
and the beginning which has been made towards the 
study of positive and negative atoms in organic com- 
pounds. As a basis for the better understanding o 
valency there is need for a more definite knowledge 
of the structure of atoms. Whatever other con- 
clusions may be reached, it seems certain that this 
structure will be found to be dynamic rather than 
static; it is hard to conceive of a quiescent electron. | 


ns F 


ere 


By 


: 


As is well known, the industry of ferro-cerium Ainith 
was practically in the hands of Germany when war 
broke out. Since then one French manufacturer has 
succeeded in establishing the industry in France on a 
scale sufficient to supply the requirements of that 


ibretbe 


$ of Brazi 


_/ June 5; 1919] 


NATURE 


271 


January-February issue of the 


%, oe tier In_ the 
iB nm de la Société d’Encouragement pour 1’Indus- 


trie Nationale some interesting details are given on the 
ture of these stones or “‘ flints,"’ which are now 
So well known to smokers in this country. Ferro- 


cerium is an alloy consisting, for the purpose under 


‘discussion, of 30 parts of iron to 70 parts of cerium. 


‘The raw material is derived from the monazite sands 
azil, These sands are enriched until the pure 
is obtained. They are then treated 
en to extract the oxylate of thorium, phos- 
ric acid, and oxylates of cerium, lanthane, and 

lium. cerium oxylates are afterwards con- 


_ 2-8 mm. in diameter and 30 cm. long. These tubes are 

allowed to cool in the air and then “ stripped,” i.e. they 
€ an opening down the side and the thin sheet- 
og simply wound off the ferro-cerium, which is 
in the form of a thin rod. One kilogram of ferro- 


"cerium contains 5500 “‘flints” of 5 mm. length, which 
a each capable of giving some nine hundred flashes. 


_ The French manufacturer who took up this industry 
~ has also prepared other products of some importance, 
_ e.g. thorium nitrate, which is being used in a special 
ype of incandescent lamps, and cerium, which is 
ing used for the manufacture of cerium steels. 
lis new application on the part of the French will 

ase them from the German tribute after the 


Léon Appert, in the January-February issue of 
e Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour 
fndustrie Nationale, contributes a long and interest- 

Da on the welding of glasses. He traces the 
f these attempts from the earliest ages, and 
e technical methods most I?kely to lead to 


he modifications which may result must be carefully 
ne in mind in practice, such as changes in the 
y of the products used, modifications in com- 
lich may occur spontaneously, the tem- 
erature hich fusion is carried out, and the dura- 
tion for which this temperature is applied. (3) As 
egards conditions of athermancy and diathermancy, 
ie most simple methods should be used for controlling 
these conditions, a glass of known composition being 
‘used as a standard and for purposes of comparison. 
regards neutrality, direct experiments with the 
e should: be made. This kind of test, which 
is very simple to carry out, gives at the same time 
information on the greater or less fusibility of the 
iss, and on the consequences arising out of the 
use of a variable temperature, which may sometimes 
be too high or applied too long. (5) As regards the 
welding of enamels with metals, the question of 
adhesion being of the first importance, care should 

_ be taken over the qualities of the mordant, which 
must have the same dilatation coefficient at the out- 
set, and at the same time be capable of attacking the 
underlying metal with the view of multiplying the 
points of adhesion. (6) The enamel should be em- 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


oP ESE Ey Se $ 


ployed only in as thin layers as possible and by suc- 
cessive applications. If these conditions are observed, 
the success of the operation of welding may be 
regarded as ensured. 


In the Journal of Agricultural Research for 
December 2 last, Messrs. True and Geise give an 
account of a series of pot experiments carried out to 
determine the value of greensand (glauconite) deposits 
as a source of the potassium required by growing 
plants. Potassium is a normal constituent of glau- 
conite; the question was whether in this silicate it 
is present in a sufficiently soluble form to be utilisable 
by the plant. In the result it was found that green- 
sands and greensand marls from Virginia and New 
Jersey were able to supply sufficient potassium to 
meet the demands of wheat and red clover during 
the first two months of growth, i.e. at the time when 
the absorption of potassium is greatest. The plants, 
in fact, made a greater weight of ‘‘tops’’ than was 
found in similar cultures where the potassium re- 
quirements were supplied by means of the chloride, 
sulphate, and phosphate. The authors conclude that 
the deposits mentioned can apparently furnish avail- 
able potassium to meet the needs of many farm crops, 
and perhaps of most. 


A NEW form of ship’s rudder, invented by Mr. 
J. G. A. Kitchen, of Lancaster, forms the subject of 
an article in Engineering for May 16. The invention 
permits the boat to be steered, reversed, controlled in 
speed, and manceuvred in any way from a single 
tiller, with the engines running continuously at full 
speed in the forward direction. Complete and direct - 
control is obtained by the steersman over all move- 
ments during manoeuvring, and all engine-reversing 
gear may be eliminated. Two curved deflectors form- 
ing parts of a circular cylinder partly enclose the 
propeller. The deflectors are pivoted at the top and 
bottom on common centres, and are capable of being 
swung together in the same direction, or equally in 
opposite directions. A graduated opening or no open- 
ing is thus provided for the stream of water leaving 
the propeller; in the case of no opening, the entire 
stream of water is deflected forwards, and the boat 
moves astern. There is a neutral position of the de. 
flectors in which the boat remains at rest with engines 
working at full.speed. The operating gear is exceed- 
ingly simple, so that even a novice acquires complete 
command over the boat’s movements after a few 
minutes’ practice. Many of the Admiralty pinnaces, 
etc., driven by oil-engines have been fitted during the 
war, although publication of particulars has been 
hitherto prevented. The following gives some idea of 
the importance of the device, and relates to trials of 
a 25 ft. launch belonging to the Air Ministry. Ahead 
speed, 9:80 knots; astern speed, 3-5 knots (sufficient 
for all requirements). Full speed ahead to dead stop: 
boat pulled up in 16 ft. (one man aboard). Time of 
turning through a complete circle, without pro- 
gression in any direction: to starboard, 33 secs.; to 
port, 26 secs. The results for several other boats are 
given, and are equally good. 


THE statement in a letter in last week’s NATURE 
that Messrs. Newton and Wright, Ltd., produced 
interrupterless machines before ‘‘any American firm” 
had done so should have read “anv other American 
firm.” The word “other” was inadvertently omitted 
from the sentence. Mr. Snook’s own factory was the 
first to place a practical machine on the market, and 
Messrs. Newton and Wright, Ltd., were the first on 
this side of the Atlantic. 


272 


NATURE 


[JUNE 5, 1919, 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


AN EARTH-EFFECT ON THE SuN.—A shift of the lines 
in the solar spectrum towards the red with reference 
to the are-lines which varies with distance from the 
centre of the disc observed at the solar observatory at 
Kodaikanal has been attributed to an earth-effect, and 
an attempt is being made to unravel the problem by 
observing the spectrum of Venus at different phases. 
The method of the scheme is to find if a similar shift 
is apparent in the spectrum of Venus when illuminated 
by the light of the solar hemisphere which is turned 
go° or more from the earth, in which case the pheno- 
menon of the shift of the lines, not being peculiar to 
the part of the sun towards us, could not be ascribed 
to a terrestrial cause. 

Dr. Gilbert Walker has suggested that the law of 
increase of shift of the solar lines from the centre 
of the disc to the limb as observed at Kodaikanal 
might be explained on the hypothesis of a constant 
“relativity ’’ shift towards red, combined with a shift 
towards violet, due to a radial outflow of the gases 
of the reversing layer. 

In his report of the observatory for the year 1918 
Mr. Evershed gives the recent progress of the in- 
vestigation by saying that the Venus plates taken about 
the western elongation of the planet when the angle 
Venus—sun—earth was about 45° yield slightly smaller 
values of the shifts, and there is a progressive diminu- 
tion of wave-length as the angle at the sun increases. 


When this angle exceeds go0° the displacements sun— - 


arc all have the minus sign—that is, the solar lines 
reflected by Venus are shifted to violet instead of to 
red with reference to the iron arc. Mr. Evershed 
adds that the result of the Venus work .seems to dis- 
pose finally of the possibility that the solar line- 
shifts are due to the gravitational effect resulting from 
Einstein’s generalised relativity hypothesis, and 
thinks the facts undoubtedly show earth-effect, whether 
the shift is interpreted as motion or otherwise. But 
he thinks it is very desirable that confirmation of 
these results should be obtained independently by 
other observers. 

‘THE LuNAR ATMOSPHERIC TipE.—The object of a 
paper read by Dr. S. Chapman before the Royal 
Meteorological Society in February last, and published 
in the April issue of the Quarterly Journal of that 
Society, was to discuss certain recent determinations 
of the lunar diurnal variation of barometric pressure 
for Batavia and Hong Kong. Opportunity was taken 
to refer to previous work and to review the present 
state of knowledge of the subject. The lunar daily 
barometric variation at Batavia has a semi-amplitude 
of 0-065 mm. of mercury, which may be compared 
with the semi-amplitude of 0-oog90 mm. found by Dr. 
Chapman last year from sixty-four years’ observa- 
tions at Greenwich. This lunar variation is purely 
semi-diurnal, no appreciable diurnal component being 
observable. It is independent of lunar phase, and 
the data are inconclusive as regards the influence of 
lunar distance; for, though the amplitude is probably 
larger at. perigee than.at apogee, the exact ratio is 
not. yet determined. The slight variation of ampli- 
tude depending on the moon’s declination which tidal 
theory predicts is not detectable, but a marked 
seasonal variation affecting both amplitude and phase 
is rather surprising. The discussion of these results 
for various stations shows that the amplitude 
diminishes from the equator approximately as the 
fourth power of the cosine of the latitude. These 
departures from theory in the value of this quantity, 
which, it will be realised, is very small and difficult 
of detection, lead to the conclusion that the lunar 
atmospheric tide is not a simple tidal phenomenon, 
but is complicated by other causes. 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


THE DATE-PALM SUGAR INDUSTRY OF 


INDIA. . 


Cae of India’s annual output of some 3,000,000 
tons of crude sugar it is estimated that about — 
Io per cent. is derived from palms and about 4 per 
cent. from the date-palm, cultivated for this purpose 


in Bengal. Palm-sugar is obtained by making an 


incision in the soft upper part of the stem, whereby 
certain pathological changes appear to be indeioeate 


which result in an outflow of liquid containing 
sucrose. This liquid is collected and concentrated in 


earthenware pots until it is of such a consistence as. 


to solidify on cooling, when it constitutes “gur” or 
‘‘ jaggery,”’ a crude, dark brown sugar for which there 
is a considerable demand in India. “Gur” is some- 
times treated in native-owned refineries for the pro- 


duction of a more or less white sugar by placing it in 


baskets with pots underneath, into which the molasses 
drains, the removal of the molasses being facilitated 
by placing on the surface of the “ gur” a layer, 4 in. 
or 5 in. deep, of water-weed (Vallisneria spiralis) to 
supply moisture. ; on 
This process of producing palm-sugar has been 


investigated recently by Mr. H. E. Annett, agricul- 
tural chemist to the Government of Bengal,” chiefly — 


with the object of placing the industry in a better 
position to compete with sugar and molasses imported 
from Java. — hiya 
In the second memoir Mr. Annett gives the résults 
of the investigations he has made with the view 
of finding means of avoiding loss of sucrose, 
yt tas the quality of the crude sugar, modernising 
e refining process, and economising in fuel. There 
may be a considerable loss of sucrose by inversion 


while the juice remains in the collecting pots. This 
is reduced to some extent by the native process of 


smoking the insides of the collecting pots before use, 
but it can be further reduced by coating the insides 


of the pots with lime-wash. By this use of lime the 
yield of “gur” can probably be increased by about 


20 per cent. doh gags. 
The liquid as it exudes from the trees is normally 


water-white, but rapidly darkens on boiling, due. 
mainly to the action of alkaline constituents of the | 
juice on the reducing sugars. This darkening can — 


be avoided by neutralising the juice with an acid 
before boiling down. Suitable acid liquids are lime- 


juice, alum solution, or aqueous extract of tamarind | 


fruits. 


A considerable item in the cost of producing palm- f 
sugar is fuel, which in some of the areas is scarce 


and dear. Trials of an imported American maple- 


sugar plant as a means of economising fuel gave dis- — 


appointing results, but it has been found possible to 
make various suggestions regarding concentration 
pans, the construction of the native furnace, and 
possible waste combustible materials, the adoption of 
which would lead to a reduction in the fuel costs. 
‘Gur’? made from juice collected in limed pots, 


and carefully concentrated after neutralisation with 


acid, was of good colour, and gave the satisfactory 


yield of 59 per cent. of refined sugar on treatment in- 


a centrifugal machine, whereas from “ gur’ made by 
the native process only 31 per cent. could be obtained. 
A thorough trial of centrifugal machines for refining 


the crude sugar in place of the tedious native process _ 


is, recommended. 

In his. first memoir Mr. : 
suggestion that it might be feasible to set up small 
central factories for the production of refined palm- 


sugar in suitable areas, supplies of juice being bought — 


1 Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India. Chemical Series 
vol. ii., No 6, and vol. v., No. 3. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, and Ce. 


a 
“q 
ae 


Annett made the, usefal 


= SA ena Akagi mt 42 Mane Z 


Jone 5, 1919] 


NATURE 


273 


from the owners of palm-gardens; but in his second 
’ memoir he has regretfully to confess that ‘such a 
scheme would be unworkable in practice unless the 
owner of the plant also had his own trees. Personal 
ence showed us that one is entirely at the 

_ mercy of the cultivator, and no amount of argument 
will persuade him to sell his juice at a reasonable 


SUSSEX NATURAL HISTORY. 

: oe nes and St. Leonards Natural History 
* Society may be congratulated on the weli- 
sustained number of its members (373), on the small- 

_ mess of its annual subscription (3s. 6d.), and on the 

ee ng character of its journal. It is, in the 


aon for’ its novelty. In after-years the duty of 
reference to such a source may cause students serious 
_ inconvenience. The faunistic lists in the present 
jour so industriously compiled—of Coleoptera by 
r. W. H. Bennett, of Aphididae by Mr. F. V. 
Theobald, of Oligochzta by the Rev. H. Friend, and 
of the local fauna and flora in general by the late 
memorable Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, Mr. E. A. Butler, 
r. W. Ruskin Butterfield, Mr. Thomas Parkin, and 
rt —will serve to illustrate this point of view. 
They are, for the most part, of purely local interest, 
ee ‘recorded in the archives now under 
_ review. But in a few instances the entries seem less 
riately placed. Thus Mr. Theobald (vol. ii., 

©. I, p- 15) renames two species of Aphis. Mr. 
Friend (ol. li., No. 3, p. 119) gives details of an 
7. chzete as a new species, though he mysteriously 
says that he had “described” it more than a year 
lier. Among Hymenoptera Mr. Bloomfield (vol. ii., 
No. 3, pl. 9, p. et} “gh excellent figures of Neurotes 
iridescens, male and female. assigning them. on the 
ollowing page to “* Neurotis iridescens (Enoch),’”’ name 

9f senus and author’s name misprinted. Nearly a 
vf aaa {vol. ii., No. 4, p. 178) that author, the 
ita e Mr. Fred Enock, fully describes the genus and 
_ the species, both still considered as new, of this 


7 ting addition to the family of Mymaridz or 


fairy flies. 
part, however, from the impolicy of publishi 
ties of classification in local records, Mr. Enock’s 
-aecount of the family is well worth reading, as is 
Mr. Friend’s notice of the Oligocheta. In view of 
the common demand for significant names in biology, 
he amusingly notes that in these Annelids, named for 
few seta, “sometimes the total number of setz is 
two thousand, though the worm may not exceed half 
an inch in length.” ; 
In other branches of knowledge things are not 
_. always what they are called. In a lecture to which 
_ Mr. Anthony Belt, the editor, directs attention, Mr. 
J. E. Price, a soldier, explains that ‘‘ smokeless 
_ powder” is not a powder at all. This author, 
king in 1912, suggests that the scientific perfec- 
on of arms, by rendering the prospect of war too 
awful to contemplate, “‘may materially contribute to 
the preservation of that peace of nations which is so 
_ much desired by every thoughtful man_ to-day.” 
_ Meanwhile, some of these “thoughtful men” were 
engineering a conflict which is reckoned to have cost 
more than four millions of lives of men, not to speak 
of heart-aching to millions of women that no one can 
number. 
As might be expected with Mr. Thomas Parkin, 
1 Hastings and East Sussex Naturalist, vol. ii., Nos. 1-6; vol. ‘iii., 
No. 1 (December 31, 1912-18). 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] | 


4 oeias st Many naturalists, disastrous when local 
undertake to publish scientific information | 


sometimes. as president and always as enthusiastic 
supporter of the society, the journal may be said to 
be on the wing with bird-life, and his well-illustrated 
articles on historic houses—the Grey Friars, Winchel- 
sea, and its rookery (vol. ii., No. 2), Ashburnham 
Place (vol. ii., No. 4), and Brickwall and Brede Place 
(vol. ii., No. 6)—must be of continuing interest. In 
the last he shows how legends may arise. On a vast 
oak beam there was a great iron hook, of which he 
said to a companion, ‘‘ Look where the old lord used 
to hang his vassals.” Lo and behold, ‘“‘two or three 
years afterwards I went there again, and the cus- 
todian; having forgotten me, repeated my own words 
as authentic history.” Naturally,,in speaking of 
heronries, Mr. Parkin is all in favour of the noble 
birds, but those who wish to keep goldfish in orna- 
mental waters have been heard to denounce herons as 
| abandoned pirates. ‘There are two sides to many 

problems, as Mr. Ticehurst shows in regard to the 
| introduction of the little owl (vol. ii., No. 2). 
Remarkably full of interest are the papers on 
Eoanthropus dawsoni by the late much lamented 
Charles Dawson age ii., Nos. 2 and 4). But here 
again we must take into account what Mr. Anthony 
Belt has to say in his article on prehistoric Hastings 
(vol. iii., No. 1, p. 6). Limits of space exclude from 
notice many other notable essays, such, for example, 
as that by Prof. Seward on Wealden floras. 


NEW IDEALS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS, 


A Uitte more than a year has now elapsed since 

the publication of the report of the Government 
Committee which, with Sir J. J. Thomson as chair- 
man, inquired into the position occupied by natural 
science in the educational system of Great Britain. 
In the meantime, the recommendations made in this 
report have been carefully considered by science 
teachers and others, and at a conference held on 
May 30, under the auspices of the London County 
Council, with Sir Cyril Cobb as chairman, the general 
aims of science teaching were freely discussed. 

The main fact which seemed to be made clear by the 
discussion was that the science teacher of the present 
day must have two well-defined aims: the one to 
prepare children for the business of life, and the other 
to prepare them equally well for the more difficult 
business of living. On ethical grounds alone there 
can be no doubt as to which of these is the higher, 
for ‘the life is more than meat and the body than 
raiment.”’ To this we can add that without the meat 
and raiment and the things of which these are but 
symbols, life in its broadest, as well as in its more 
restricted, sense is impossible. Hence these two 
aims, which appear to some incompatible, or even 
antagonistic, are in reality convergent, and meet on 
the common ground of national welfare. 

Sir J. J. Thomson, in the opening speech, gave the 
key-note of the seemingly more ideal theme. Science 
teaching which is to add to the interests of life and 
contribute to the joie de vivre by dispelling the bore- 
dom of unoccupied leisure must be of the popular 
kind—that is, stimulating rather than feeding. It 
must cover a very wide field, and be given in the 
form of lectures, accompanied, when possible, by 
practical work of a suitable kind. 

Such a course as this, essentially the same for boys 
and girls up to the age of sixteen, must include biology 
as well as chemistry, physics, and astronomy, for no 
general course can be considered complete which does 
not include the consideration of man in relation to his 
environment. Moreover, if we are to change a C3 
population to an Ar nation, we must seek the “ elixir 


274 


NATURE 


[JUNE 5, 1919 


of life’? in a new way, and to that end everyone should 
know something of what Sir Ronald Ross calls the 
“romance of disease’ in order that he may value per- 
sonal fitness and develop what another speaker called 
a ‘‘health conscience.”’ 

To turn now to the other aspect of science teaching, 
namely, preparation for the business of life, the atten- 
tion of the meeting was rightly directed by Sir Richard 
Gregory to the scarcity of university-trained ‘scientific 
workers required for industrial and other purposes. 
In the proportion of university students to population 
England stands far behind other nations, having only’ 
5 per 10,000 as against 10 per 10,000 in America and 
17 in Scotland. Though the power to remedy this 
rests mainly with the Government and those who 
administer the affairs of education, yet the teacher 
can do a great deal by endeavouring to turn the 
talent of the nation into the most: suitable channels. 
We can no longer afford to have square pegs trying 
to fill round holes, and to prevent this the teacher 
must consider his work unfinished until every effort 
has been made to place boys and girls in that walk 
of life which seems most’ suited to their talents, 
attainments, and temperaments. 

If carried to these culminating points, the work of 
the teacher will do more than anything else to bring 
about the full appreciation of the value of educa- 
tion, and with that there will come recognition of 
the importance of his office and the due reward for 
his services. G. H. J. Aptam. 


THE SELOUS COLLECTION. 


THE Selous collection of big-game trophies, which 

has been presented to the Natural History 
Museum by Mrs. Selous, is, without doubt, the finest 
ever brought together as the product of one man’s 
gun. . It consists of some five hundred specimens shot 
by the late Capt. F. C. Selous, D.S.O., during a 
period of nearly forty years, some of the trophies dating 
from his earliest days as a hunter. The greater part 
of the collection is African, but there are many speci- 
mens from Canada, Newfoundland, the southern 
Carpathians, and Asia Minor. 

Although the collection contains only a few actual 

“records,” the average standard of the heads is very 
high, the series of Kudu ‘being especially fine. The 
horns of the grandest specimen of this animal in the 
Selous Museum measure :—Length, (curve) 60% in., 
(straight) 45% in.; circumference, 11} in.; tip to tip, 
33 in. It was shot in 1890, and Capt. Selous’ s diary 
contains an entry referring to this specimen :—‘t My 
joy may, therefore, be imagined when I saw that the 
most superb specimen of a koodoo bull that my eyes 
had ever looked upon lay dead before me.’’ Another 
equally grand specimen is the skull with horns of the 
white rhinoceros from Mashonaland, a: practically 
extinct species. This animal was shot. in 1880, and 
Capt. Selous records that ‘‘the anterior horn is the 
longest for a bull” that he ever saw. There are 
sixteen specimens of lion, chiefly heads. A mounted 
specimen measures 9 ft, tr in. in a straight line 
from nose to tail. The series of heads of wapiti, 
from Wyoming, U.S. AY ., includes several remarkable 
examples. 

Mrs. Selous has also presented to the Natural His- 
tory Museum the superb collection of European ‘birds’ 
eggs, every clutch in which was collected by Capt. 
Selous, and is labelled most carefully, with exact date 
and locality. 

The specimens will in’ due course be removed 
from Worplesdon to South’ Kensington, and kept 
together as the ‘‘Selous collection” for a period of 
years. 

NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


FORTHCOMING BOOKS OF SCIENCE, — 


: MANUAL. of Meteorology,” Sir Napier _ 
: Shaw (part iv., ‘The Relation of the 
Wind to the Distribution of Barometric Pres. a 


“Problems _ of 
Dynamics,” J. H. Jeans; 
the Principles of Natural Knowledge,” Dr, A. | 
Whitehead ; 
metry,”’ Prof. F. M. Jaeger; ‘‘Advanced Lecture 
Notes on Light,” J. R. Eccles (a sequel to the author’s 
earlier work); the fourth and final volume of ‘ ossil 
Plants,” Prof. A. C. Seward; “Days in My Gat 


Cosmogony 


E. Ballard; “Study of the Weather, nis OR CHanman 
(Nature Study Series); ‘Cattle and the Production — 
of Beef,” K J. Mackenzie; ‘Yorkshire, North 


Riding,” Capt. W. J. Weston ; 
Dr. F. Mort (each in the Cambridge County | Geo- 
graphies) ; 
Heath ; 

Adamson ; 
ticity,” Prof. 


« Short History of Education,” Prof. 


Love, and ‘‘Infinitesimal Calculus,’’ 


Prof. Lamb (Cambridge University Press); “The 
s of 
“A Laboratory Manual — 
“A Source — 
Do 


Living Cycads,”’ C.: J. Chamberlain ; 
Fertilization,” FR Lillie ; 
of Elementary Zoology,” Ts H. Hyman: 

Book of Biological Nature Study, 1 OR, 


“ Proble 


wning ; 
“The Function of Death in Human Baperience 


G. B. Foster; ‘Fourth Year Mathematics for 
Secondary Schools,” E. R. Breslich (Chicago: Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge Uni- 
versity Press): * Locomotive Valves and Valve Gears,”’ 
I. H. Yoder and G. B. Wharen; ‘‘ Physical Laboratory 


Experiments for Engineering Students, ”” S. Sheldon — 
‘ Hot Bulb Oil Engines and Suit- 
“ The ye eet Ot: a 


and E. Hausmann ; 
able Vessels,” Ww. Pollock ; 
Chemicals by Electrolysis, ’ 


A. J. Hale (Electro- 


Chemistry Series); and new editions of “Glass Manu- 
““The Manufacture of | 
“ Wood Pitip,?? oe iy by a 


facture,’? Dr. W. Rosenhain; 
SO R. W. Sindall; 
E. J. Bevan, and R. W. Sindall; “ Photography,’’ 
Alfred Watkins (Westminster Series) : dey pier et 
the Care and Operation of Naval Machinery,” Com: 
mander H. C. Dinger (Constable and Co., Ltd.); 
“Souvenirs Entomologiques : 
et les Mceurs. des_ Insectes,”’ . H.. Fabre, 
édition définitive illustrée, to vols. (Paris : Dela; rave) : 
* Birds in Town and Village, i t's Pes © 
(J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.); ‘* An Yateadeestiten to 
Child Psychology,’’ Prof. C. 
Measurement of Intelligence,”’ 


(G. G. Harrap and Co., Ltd.); ‘‘ Annals of the Philo- 


and Stellar — 
“An Enquiry lig i » 


‘‘Lectures on the Principles of Sym- : 


‘‘ Dumbartonshire," 
‘Euclid in Greek (Book i.),” Sir T. See 
LW. 


and new and revised editions of “Blas. 


Danial 


ie 


Etudes sur_ inaaetie é 


udson | 


W. Waddle; “The — 
Prof. L. M. Terman 


sophical Club of the Royal Society, Written from its — 


Minute Books,” Prof. T. G. Bonney; ‘Science and 
Fruit-Growing : Being an Account of the Results 


Obtained at the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm — 


since its Foundation in 1894,” the Duke of Bedford 
and S. Pickering; “A Text-book of Bey aOey i 


HOP ie 


(vol. iii., Mammalia), by the late Dr. R. Assheton, 
completed by Dr. F. H. A. Marshall ‘and Lee 
Saunders; “Lectures on Sex and Heredity,” Prof. | 
EOC. Bower, Prof. Graham Kerr, and Dr. W. E. 
Agar; ‘‘Essays on the Surgery of the Temporal | 
Bone.” Sir rol A. Ballance, with the assistance 
of Dr. D. Green; and new editions of ‘*Men- 
delism,” Prof. R. C.. Punnett, and ‘‘On oy 


and Means for the Prolongation of Life,” 


late Sir H. H. Weber, edited by Dr. 


millan and Co., 
Radio- telegraphy and Telephony,” Prof. J. A 
ing; ‘The Oscillation Valve: The Elementary 


Principles of its Application to Wireless res BR 


R. D. Bangay; ‘*Telephony without Wires, 
Coursey (The Wireless Press, Ltd. ). 


F. Parkes 
Weber, with a preface by Sir Clifford Allbutt (Mac- 
Ltd.); ‘‘The Thermionic bess in- 


Flem- E 


4 


ou 


_ June 5, 1919] 


NATURE 


275 


_ THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. 


F (PREVIOUS to the war the Royal Society held 
_ ™ two conversaziones annually—one to which 
| Pbecgntng only were invited, and the other at which 
ladies as well as gentlemen were present. These 
social meetings were resumed on May 28, when a 
distinguished gathering of men of science and others 
met at Burlington House for the usual first conversa- 
 gione, after an interval of four years. Many exhibits 
of apparatus and objects of scientific interest were 
on view, and the subjoined descriptions of them are 
— abri from the official catalogue. Exhibits re- 
lating to like departments of scientific activity have 
been brought together, and only such descriptions 
hhave been included as can be comprehended without 
seeing the actual aajects. 
Prof. H. F. Newall: Dr. G. E. Hale’s photographs 
of the Zeeman effect in the spectra of sun-spots. An 
image of the sun’s disc is thrown by means of the 
[50-ft. tower telescope at Mount Wilson on the slit- 
plate of the 75-ft. spectrograph. Close to the slit a 
Nicol prism is placed. Above the Nicol prism are 
mounted strips of mica 2 mm. wide, with their axes 
inclined +45° and —45° to the length of the strips, 
alternating in adjacent strips. This device is called 
id quarter-wave plate. When a sun-spot 
e centre of the sun’s disc falls on the slit 
through the polariscopic apparatus, certain lines in 
the spectrum are widened, and others resolved into 
_two or three components. From a comparison of 
the solar effects and of the magnitude of the Zeeman 


_ effect in experiments in the laboratory on the corre- 

dyer lines, the strength of the magnetic field in 
the sun- is deduced. Average spots exhibit fields 
_¥anging from 2000 to 2700 gausses. The field varies 
appre ately in proportion to the size of the umbra. 
Sir Napier Shaw: Illustrations of the structure of 


the atmosphere on selected occasions. (1) Records 
of wind, on tube-anemometers, corrected for the 
fference of exposure in different orientations. 


Mans of stream-function of the air for different 
on the occasion of the destruction of a fleet 
Zeppelins, October 19-20, 1917, and another similar 
distribution on October 13, 1918. (3) Theoretical 
naps of the stream-function of the free air and dis- 
ibution of pressure in the case of a cyclone consist- 


ing of a simple vortex with maximum velocity 
43 metres per second, enclosing a core of fluid- 
ting-like-a-solid, in a uniform atmospheric cur- 
: of 16 metres per second; with maps for 18h., 
tember 10, 1903, for comparison. .- 
_ Mr.G H. Gabb: Portrait of Dr. John Jeffries, 
in_ pastel, ‘by John Russel, R.A. Dr. Jeffries was, 
vith Blanchard, the first to cross the Channel in a 
balloon, on January 7, 1785. The account of this 
ep iaking “aerial voyage’? was read before the 
_- Royal Society in January, 1786. This portrait was 
exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1786, and was lost 
_ for more than a hundred years until it was discovered 
a short time ago, Payee unknown, among a miscel- 
laneous collection of pictures. Dr. Jeffries was the 
first to make an ascent solely for scientific purposes, 
and the first to ch oa meteorological observations 
from a balloon. In his ascent from London on 
November 30, 1784, he included in his scientific equip- 
ment a barometer, a thermometer, a hygrometer, an 
electrometer, a marine compass, a telescope, and six 
small phials filled with water given him by Caven- 
dish in order to collect samples of air at different 
altitudes. Ea Ee gti yy 
' Prof. MacGregor-Morris: Portable apparatus for 
measuring air-currents. A  Wheatstone bridge 
is made of four wires all exactly alike of a 
material the resistivity of which varies with tem- 
NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


perature. This bridge is heated by the passage of 
an electric current. Adjacent arms are so arranged 
as to be unequally cooled when placed in an air- 
current. The apparatus can be carried on a bicycle, 
and has been used for determining the velocity of the 
wind about a cliff-edge, and also around the gallery 
of a lighthouse. 

Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough: 
Standard and research aeronautical instruments. 
(1) R.A.E, Mark II. Comovass.—An instrument de- 
signed by the late Capt. Keith Lucas to avoid, so 
far as possible, the errors which occur when flying 
in a northerly course. (2) R.A.E. Accelerometer.— 
This instrument records the variations of apparent 
gravity on an aeroplane by photographing the move- 
ments of a fine glass fibre bent into a* bow. (3) 
R.A.E. Kymograph.—The instrument is to record 
movements of the aeroplane in roll, pitch, or yaw. 
(4) R.A.E.  Pressure-plotting Apparatus.—The ap- 
paratus records the pressure or suction over an aero- 
plane’s wings by means of small pipes which open 
flush with the surface and lead to a multiple recording 
pressure-gauge. (5) R.A.E. Climbmeter.—An instru- 
ment which indicates the rate at which an aeroplane 
is rising or falling. 

The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd.: 
Dr. G. A. Shakespear’s katharometer for measuring 
the purity of gases. Two small spirals of platinum 
wire form two arms of a Wheatstone bridge, and 
their resistances, depending on their temperatures, 
depend on the viscosities of the surrounding gases. 
A galvanometer connected across the bridge indicates 
its out-of-balance, and is calibrated to give a direct 
reading of the purity of the gas, or otherwise, as 
required. Many practical applications are possible : 
(a) A hydrogen purity meter for use with aircraft is 
exhibited ; (b) permeameters for testing airship fabrics 
and exploring seams or searching for leaks are ex- 
hibited; and (c) a humidity recorder showing the 
vapour pressure in the air of the exhibition room was 
shown working. . 

Mr. F. W. Aston: Rapidly moving striated dis- 
charge in neon and helium. The light in the capillary 
of a spectrum discharge tube containing neon or 
helium is apparently continuous, but when analysed 
by a rotating mirror is found to consist of a proces- 
sion of alternate bright and dark bands or striations 
travelling in the direction of the current, i.e. from 
anode to cathode. These appear in the mirror as 
ribbons of light, their waviness indicating variations 
in speed and being more marked in neon than in 
helium: The mean velocity can be calculated from 
the slope, and is found to be approximately that of 
pressure-wave propagation, i.e. sound, in the gas in 
the discharge tube. 

Mr. C. T. R. Wilson: (1) Stereoscopic photographs 
of the tracks of ionising particles through air. By 
causing water to condense upon the ions set free, the 
invisible trail of ions left by each flying particle 
along its course is converted into a sharply defined 
line of cloud. Stereoscopic photographs of the tracks 
thus rendered visible are taken before convection 
currents have had time to distort them. (2) Photo- 
graphic record of the changes in the electric potential 
gradient during a thunderstorm. The record showed 
the sudden changes produced in the electric field by 
the .passage of lightning discharges. 

Prof. E. H. Barton and Miss H. M. Browning: 
Vibrations, forced and coupled. The phenomena of 
forced vibrations and resonance were experimentally 
illustrated by a number of pendulums of graduated 
lengths, with light bobs hanging from a horizontal 
cord and set vibrating by a pendulum. with heavy 
bobs hanging from the same cord. All the salient 
points of the mathematical theory of: forced vibrations 


276 


NATURE 


[JUNE 5, 1919 


(mechanical, musical, or electrical) were thus rendered 
simultaneously visible, 


optical apparatus for measuring and inspecting screw 
gauges (Metrology Department). A vertical projec- 
tion machine shown produces an enlarged image of 
the profile of the thread on a diametral plane to a 
magnification of 50. This image can be compared 
with the standard form for the thread which is drawn 
out to the same magnification. Errors of o-ooo1" in 
the thread-form can be so detected. 

Mr. A. Mallock: Apparatus used in the measure- 
ment of the growth of trees. An ‘‘invar” tape was 
passed round the tree and over the ‘‘rockers’’ on the 
apparatus, the arms of which control the angle be- 
tween a plane glass surface and the face of a right- 
angled glass prism. The growth of the tree con- 
tinually alters this angle, the variation of which was 
measured by observing the change of position of the 
interference bands formed, at grazing incidence, be- 
tween the plane and prism. ‘The details of the pro- 
cedure are given in Proc. R.S., vol. xc. B, 1918, p. 186 
‘et seq. 

Prof. Ernest Wilson: Instruments for measuring 
minute susceptibilities, including a portable instru- 
ment for survey work. The action of the instrument 
depends upon the mechanical force exerted by a mag- 
netic field on a magnetic material placed in it, the 
force per unit volume being proportional to the 
gradient of the square of the field. It is ultimately 
measured by a galvanometric method involving the 
action of a spot of light, except in the case of the 
portable instrument, when a pointer is more con- 
venient. 

' The National Physical Laboratory: (1) Apparatus 
for the determination of the absolute viscosities of 
liquids at high pressures. (Designed by Mr. J. H. 
Hyde; method: suggested by Dr. T. E. Stanton.) 
The apparatus consists essentially of a system of two 
horizontal (the upper one of capillary dimensions) and 
two vertical tubes forming a closed circuit of liquid 
under pressure, the lower half of the circuit contain- 
ing mercury and the upper half the liquid under test. 
The system rests on a horizontal knife-edge, and is 
supported in a horizontal position by a spiral spring. 
On the mercury being displaced by a given amount, 
flow will take place round the circuit owing to the 
difference. of head, and if the spring is so adjusted 
that its rate of extension is equal to the rate of change 
of head of the mercury, it is evident that flow of the 
liquid under test will take place through the capillary 
under a constant-pressure difference, and at a velocity 
which can be calculated from the rate of extension of 
the spring. (2) Three-electrode vacuum tube with 
circuits arranged to produce oscillations of telephone 
frequency. (Mr. F. E. Smith.) The apparatus con- 
sists of a three-electrode vacuum tube with appro- 
priate inductances and capacities in the plate- and 
grid-circuits. The values of these are such as to 
maintain oscillations of audible frequency. By vary- 
ing either inductance or capacity the frequency of the 
oscillations is varied. A coil coupled to the plate 
inductance with a telephone in circuit serves to make 
the note audible. By suitably choosing the induct- 
ances and capacities, frequencies from about twenty 
per second to several millions per second are readily 
obtained. (3%) Plottins chronograph, thermal curves, 
and model relating to ternary allovs. (Dr. W. Rosen- 
hain.) The chronograph was designed for the direct 
plotting of time-temperature observations in the form 
of ‘‘inverse rate’? curves as required for the ‘heating 
and cooling ,curves of metals and alloys. The con- 
stitution of a binarv allov svstem can be completely 
represented by a plane diagram, but for a ternary 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103 | 


system a three-dimensional model is required. The 
n ; model shown indicated the constitution of a part of 
The National Physical Laboratory: Mechanical and | the system zinc-copper-aluminium, including alloys — 


rich in zinc, and containing up to Io per cent. of 
copper and 15 per cent. of zinc. ay, > 


Sir Robert Hadfield: Stereoscopic radiographs of — 
These electrodes are used in — 


large carbon electrodes. d ii 
electric steel-smelting furnaces, the largest type bein 
no less than 22 in. in diameter. For effective an 
economical working of the furnaces it is essential that 
the electrodes do not break and fall into the bath. 
The finer the structure of the electrode and the fewer 
the inclusions, the less does the possibility of e 
arise. The stereoscope showed four different types of 
electrodes which are largely used. eh 
Major G. W. C. Kaye and Dr. R. Knox: The 
detection of defects in aeroplane timber by the X-rays. 


The best workmanship and the highest quality 


material are essential in aircraft construction. The 
X-rays readily reveal bad workmanship and hidden 
defects in the interior of laminated or box spars and 
struts which cannot be seen by ordinary visual 
examination. As wood is very transparent to X-rays 
the fluorescent-screen method of examination suffices 
for routine inspection. Wed Re! 

The Munitions Inventions Department: War re- 
search on nitrogen fixation. For the past three years 
the research laboratory of the Munitions Inventions 


Department, constituted under the auspices of the — 


Nitrogen Products Committee of the Ministry of 
Munitions, has been conducting experimental in- 
vestigations on various methods for the fixation of 
nitrogen. 
have been concerned with the synthesis of ammonia, 


the oxidation of ammonia and the preparation of 
nitrates, and the preparation and purification of 
hydrogen. Experiments illustrative of the work. of 


three of the sections are shown. 43 

Mr. A. Chaston Chapman: ‘‘ Mineral yeast,’ used 
in Germany during the war for human food. The 
organism exhibited is very similar to, if not identical 
with, the so-called ‘‘ mineral yeast”? which was manu- 
factured in Germany in considerable quantities during 
the war and used to supplement the bread ration. 
The organism is not a true yeast—that is to say, it 
does not belong to the genus Saccharomyces. It 
grows freely upon nutrient solutions at a temperature 


of 38°-40° C., forming a thick, greasy, crinkled film. = 


It does not produce alcohol, and the time needed for 


a full crop is about thirty-six to forty-eight hours. 


The separated organism contains 50-55 per cent. of 


protein and about 5 per cent. of fat, expressed on 


the moisture-free material. It is entirely free from 
bitterness and has a pleasant flavour, suggestive of 
that of cream cheese. As a source of carbon, glucose 
or molasses answer well, and the organism is capable 
of supplying the whole of its nitrogen needs from 


ammonium salts—that is to say, it does not require | 
In addition to the above, — 


any organic nitrogen. 


The most important divisions of the work — 


phosphates must be present, and small quantities of — 


potassium and magnesium salts. 

Mr. J. E. Barnard: 
chetes bv dark-ground illumination. It is recognised 
that for the identification of Spirochztes, particularly 
Sbironema tallidum, the method of microscopical 
observation known as dark-ground illumination is the 
most satisfactory. 


optical principles must be complied with. Such 


organisms are alwavs within the limits of micro-— 


scopic resolution in the direction of their length, but 
are often beyond the limits in breadth. It follows 


that any granular’ contents are ultra-microscopic, and 


that these are seen only under certain conditions. 
Dr. R. T. Leipér: Demonstration illustrating the 


To employ it successfully certain — 


Methods of observing Spiro- — 


ws sure, and varying salinity. 
“Prof. E,W. 


3 
‘ 


ve! 


normal, Echinoderm larve. 
of Echinus miliaris, with a hydroccele (i.e. rudiment 
of a water-vascular system) on each side. 


modification is 


hippocoon 


/ June 5, 1919] 


NATURE 


277 


_ experimental transmission of. Bilharzia infections of 


man. In Egypt nearly 50 per cent. of the population 
suffer from bilharziasis.. Owing to the risk to which 
the troops were exposed, the War Office, in conjunc- 
tion with the Medical Research Committee, authorised, 
im 1915, a special inquiry into the mode of spread 
and prevention of the disease. The exhibit illustrated 
‘some results. It was shown that the vesical and 
dysenteric lesions of bilharziasis are caused by two 

ent species of worms: that these worms require 
fresh-water snails as intermediate host. Bilharzia 
haematobia, which infects the bladder-wall, under- 
“metamorphosis in Bullinus dybowski, and Bil- 
mansoni, which infects the intestine, develops 
anorbis boissyi. The infective stage enters 
the skin. 


. E. J. Allen (for the Marine Biological Associa- 


tion): Living marine animals, illustrating the fauna 
of Plymouth Sound. The specimens were arranged 


ath, 


> ie illustrate the changing character of the fauna with 


‘physical conditions, such as depth of water, 

ant of water, nature of the soil, tidal expo- 
MacBride: Artificially produced ab- 

(1) Specimens of larve 
‘ This 
odit n is produced by subjecting the larve when 
three days old to the influence of water of increased 


salinity, and then when a fortnight old re-transferring 


them to ordinary sea-water and feeding them up. 


po: rages of larve of E. miliaris devoid of a 


lroceele, but with spines on both sides. These 
larvee are produced by starving them between the 
s of three and six days and afterwards feeding 


4 Savy S. Goodrich and Mr. A. F. Coventry: Frog 


and tadpoles obtained by artificial parthenogenesis. 
ppara used and results obtained by the method 


by Prof. E. Bataillon in 1910, who discovered 


"that  unfertilised eggs of a frog will develop if re. 


from the oviduct and pricked with a very fine 
. Some 8o per cent. of the eggs so pricked 


undergo cleavage, a much smaller number pass 


through later stages of embryo formation, and a very 
small percentage develop into tadpoles and_ succeed 
tamorphosing into frogs. 

a. ate Regan: Models of fishes illustrating 
e modifications in related genera. (1) Epibulus 
lz) differs from Cheilinus in the extremely 
tile mouth; associated with this are remark- 
modifications of the skeleton; the long movable 


quadrate is unique among fishes. (2) Xiphasia (Blen- 
niidz) has the specialised characters of Petroscirtes 


(canines very large, gill-opening a small foramen), but 


differs in its eel-shaped form, with the tail long and 
ing and the vertebrz increased in number from 
40 to about 125. 


Prof. E. B,. Poulton: 


Families of the African 


Papilio dardanus (merope) with the female parents. 
_ All the families, from the following parts of Africa, 


€ non-mimetic males and the female forms 
rig below :—(a) Two from West Africa, bred 
v Capt. W. A. Lamborn from mimetic black-and- 
white hippocoon female parents. Female offspring all 


includ 
bv Cc 


hippocoon in one, half hippocoon and half the ances- 
tral non-mimetic dionysos in the other—the mimetic 

males constant, the non-mimetic variable. It is 
probable that hippocoon is a Mendelian recessive, and 
that the male parent was a heterozygote combining 
hibpocoon and dionysos. (b) One from the Sesse 
Islands, N.W. Victoria Nyanza, bred by Capt. 
G. D. H. Carpenter from a planemoides female, 
mimicking large Acreinz, of the genus Planema. 


NO. 2588, voL. 103] 


The offspring include planemoides and, in larger 
numbers, hippocoon. Another from the Kagera River 
in ex-German East Africa just south of Uganda, 
bred by the same naturalist from a rare female form 
combining planemoides and trophonissa. .The two 
female offspring belong respectively to these latter 
forms. (c) Three from the neighbourhood of Durban, 
Natal, bred by Mr. G. F. Leigh, from the three 
mimetic females of S.E. Africa—hippocoon, trophonius, 
and cenea, In all three families the commonest local 
form cenea was present in larger numbers than any 
other form. 

Dr. J. S. Haldane: Army form of apparatus for 
continuous oxygen administration. In cases of 
poisoning by irritant gas, and in various other condi- 
tions, one of the main dangérs is due to the fact that 
the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs becomes 
inadequate to oxygenate the blood. It is, therefore, 
necessary to add oxygen to the inspired air until a 
sufficient degree of recovery takes place. With the 
help of a reducing valve and graduated tap, a con- 
stant stream of oxygen of the required amount is 
delivered into the small bag attached to the face- 
piece. This bag is emptied at each inspiration, none 
of the oxygen being wasted. The administration can 
thus be continued, if necessary, for several days, 
as the consumption of oxygen is reduced to a 
minimum. 

Mr. Joseph Barcroft: The treatment of chronic 
cases of gas-poisoning by means of continuous in- 
halation of oxygen. A hospital consisting of three 
small wards, each made of glass, was established in ~ 
the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory. A model of 
this was shown. In the glass rooms patients were 
placed each for five days; they were allowed out for 
exercise, etc., for about seven hours of each day. 

Sir Almroth E. Wright, Mr. L. Colebrook, and 
Mr. A. Fleming. Methods employed in the study of 
wound infections. (1) Investigation of the part played 
by the white blood corpuscles. The experiments 
showed that white blood corpuscles collected from the 
blood in vitro. or freshly arrived in the wound, are 
capable of killing great numbers of microbes—and 
that they fail to do so if injured by drying, or if an 
excess of fluid enables the microbes to keep out of 
their reach. (2) Investigation of the part played by 
the blood fluids. The experiments showed that (i) the 
unaltered blood serum provides a very unfavourable 
medium for the growth of most of the types of bac- 
teria met with in wounds, but that a few.of these— 
notably the streptococci and staphylococci—can grow 
in it quite unchecked. (Sero-phytic bacteria.) (ti) If 
the blood serum is corrupted, as it is in a wound, 
by abolishing its anti-proteolytic property, all the 
other types of bacteria are enabled to grow freely. 
(Sero-saprophytic bacteria.) . (iii) If the alkalinity of 
the blood serum is blunted off, as in the condition of 
acidosis which is associated with “shock,” the gas- 
gangrene bacilli are enabled to grow freely. 

Dr.- G. Sims Woodhead and Dr. Varrier Jones: 
Quasi-continuous temperature recording apparatus 
for clinical use, and specimens of records obtained. 
The outfit consists of a resistance thermometer with 
compensating leads, a galvanometer with “bridge” 
and resistances, by means of which a wide range of 
temperature changes may be observed, and a Cam- 
bridge thread recorder, which gives a quasi-continuous 
(at half-minute intervals) and permanent record of 
the temperature of the human or animal body. This 
apparatus has been of use in determining the diurnal 
variations of temperature of normal subjects and in 
studving febrile conditions in disease, i.e. tuberculosis. 
Continuous temperature records for seventy-two hours 
are readily obtained. ei 4 


278 


NATURE. 


[JUNE 5, 1919 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CaMBRIDGE.—The Grace authorising the Vice-Chan- 


cellor to inform ‘Mr, Fisher that the University would 
welcome a comprehensive inquiry | into its financial 


resources and approving an application to the Govern- | 


ment for an emergency grant pending such inquiry 
passed the Senate without opposition. 

The generous offer of the British oil companies to 
present a sum of 210,000l. to the University for the 
endowment of the school of chemistry has now been 


formally made to the Vice-Chancellor by Mr. R. Waley 


Cohen on behalf of the donors. In conveying this offer 
Mr. Cohen indicates the wishes of the donors as to 
the general manner in which their gift should be 
applied. They understand that not more than half of 
the sum will.be devoted to the extension of the present 
chemical laboratory, and that the remainder will be 
utilised for supplementing the funds at present avail- 
able for the upkeep of the laboratory and for the pay- 
ment of its teaching and research staff. It is their 
desire that as large a portion of the fund as possible 
should be reserved for endowment purposes, and as 
small a portion devoted to the building as the Univer- 
sity may consider to be consistent with efficient equip- 
ment. Since they feel a very deep interest in the 
success of the scheme, they would be glad to have an 
opportunity of expressing their views in regard to it 
when it has been drafted in detail by the University 
authorities. Whilst their main object is that the Uni- 
versity may be enabled to render great service to all 
scientific’ work, they trust that the connection which 
will thus be established between the school of chemistry 
at Cambridge and the oil industry may lead, to the 
study in Cambridge of the chemical problems con- 
nected with mineral oil. 

Mr. F. T. Brooks, of Emmanuel College, has been 
appointed a University lecturer in botany for five years 
from Midsummer, 1919. 

Dr. Peter Giles, Master of Emmanuel College, has 
been elected Vice-Chancellor of the University for the 
ensuing academical year beginning October 1. 


LiverPpooLt.—Col. J. G. Adami, F.R.S., professor of 
pathology, McGill University, Montreal, has been 
elected Vice-Chancellor of the University in succes- 
sion to Sir Albert Dale, who retires at the end of 
September. Col. Adami was born in 1862. Educated 
at Owens College and Christ’s College, and later 
fellow of Jesus College (Cambridge), he is a patho- 
logist of the highest distinction. Since 1892 he has 
held the chair of pathology and bacteriology in the 
McGill University, Montreal. He is well known in 
Britain and oversea for his great experience in uni- 
versity affairs. His presence will be another link 
between Transatlantic and British universities. Col. 
Adami has served in the Canadian Army Medical 
Corps as Assistant Director of Medical Services, and 
is medical historical recorder for the Canadian Ex- 
peditionary Force. 


Lonpon.—Prof. G. Elliot Smith has been appointed 
to the University chair of anatomy tenable at Uni- 
versity College. Prof. Elliot Smith graduated at 
Sydney, taking the M.D. with First Class Honours 
and University medal, and at Cambridge, where he 
was a fellow of St. John’s College. He was formerly 
professor of anatomy in the Egyptian Government 
School of Medicine at Cairo, and since 1909 he has 
been professor of anatomy in the University of Man- 
chester. 

Major A. J. Allmand has been appointed to the 
University chair of chemistry tenable at. King’s Col- 
lege. In r910 he was awarded an 1851 Exhibition 
scholarship, and has since worked with Prof. Haber 


NO. 2588, VoL. 103] 


at Karlsruhe and Prof. Luther at Dresden. 
October, 1913, to Christmas, 1914, 


Liverpool, and, after holding a commission in. 


Army, was appointed Chemical Adviser at rig q 


Headquarters. 

Mr. A. E. Richardson has been appointed to the 
University chair of architecture tenable at University. 
College. 

The report and recommendations of the general, 
committee on degrees in commerce have been approved 
by the Senate; the syllabuses and draft regu ations 
for the Intermediate Examinations and the outline 
syllabus for the Final Examination have also been ap- 
proved. .A commerce degrees committee, which in- 
cludes business men representing various commercial 
interests, has been appointed, the duty of which will 
be to report on matters connected with degrees in 
commerce from time to time and to review ‘the: scheme 
annually. 

The Senate has resolved that it is desirable to 
institute a degree of Ph.D. for internal students in 
the faculties of theology, arts, science, and economics 
for students who pursue a course of not less than two 
years of full-time research work (or its equivalent in 
evening work). No alteration is proposed to be made 
in the existing regulations for the M.A. and M.Sc. 
degrees for internal students as a consequence of ‘the 
institution of the Ph.D. ‘degree. A, SL 

It has been resolved by the Senate to ingtitttele: 
chair of aeronautics tenable at East London College. 

The following doctorates have been conferred :— 
D.Sc. (Physics) : Mr. E. A. Owen, an internal student, 


of University College, for a thesis entitled “‘ Pheno- 


mena Attending the Pash e hig a thro 
Matter.”” D.Sc. (Economics) : G. Scholchelt, 
an external student, for a ‘hhae ‘ciieel ‘‘ A. History 
of British Policy in the Pacific,” and other papers. 
D.Sc. (Chemistry): Mr. G. N: White. an 


From 
he was assistant — 
lecturer and demonstrator in physical chemistry at a 


ey 


student. of University College, for a thesis ‘entitled: 


‘The Action of Chloroform on Certain A Mie! 
captans in Presence of Caustic Soda.” 

Mr. Pember Reeves has resisned the spat! of 
director of the London School’ of Economics. A Sa 


Oxrorp.—The statute making Greek optional was 


passed in its amended form by Congregation on 
June 3. The ultimate decision now rests with Con- 
vocation, which body will give its vote on June 17. 

Difficulties have arisen about the appointment of a 
Romanes lecturer, and it has been found advisable to 
suspend the lecture for the present year. 

A decree has passed Convocation authorising the 
erection of a new class-room and PRESETS Ree 
at the physiological laboratory. 


p41 { 
¥ : roee 


Dr. W. M. Vartey, at present ovindtaall ‘of the 
Swansea Technical College, has been appointed prin- 


cipal of the Brighton Municipal Technical tsi in’ 


succession to Dr. W. B. Burnie. 


Tue Goldsmiths’ Company has offered the sum of 
15,0001. to London Hospital for the endowment of a 
chair of bacteriology. to be known as the Goldsmiths’ 
Company’s chair of bacteriology. 


Ar a conference of the Universities of the United 
Kingdom, held in London on May 23, it was 
unanimously 


resolved :—‘‘ That this conference of | 


British universities desires the representatives who 


are about to proceed to visit the universities of — 


France to convey to them its cordial greetings and 
congratulations, and its desire for the growth and 


consolidation of their fraternal relations, in the interest _ 


both of humane learning and science and of inter- 
national comity and progress.’ 


Sete ee 


ania iil 


a 


same in all schools. 


educational bodies. 


JUNE 5, 1919] 


NATURE 


279 


Lorp DuruHamM~ was 
Durham University on 
honorary a, i were 


installed Chancellor of 
May 31. The following 
; conferred :—D.C.L.: Lord 
Crewe, the Right Hon. J. R. Clynes, Sir George 
‘Newman, the Rev. Prof. G. Milligan, Prof. Arthur 
Thomson, and Prof. J. R. Morrison. D.Litt.: Lady 
Frances Balfour, Sir Martin Conway, and Prof. 
W. P. Ker. D.Sc.: Sir E. Rutherford, Sir G. T. 
Beilby, Prof. A. A. Herdman, and Prof. J. J. Welsh. 


THe Manchester City Council has approved a new 


method for the selection of elementary-school pupils 
who are to continue their education in secondary 
schools. Hitherto the only candidates for admission 
to secondary schools have been the children of parents 
who have made an application for the privilege. In 


_ future all elementary-school children between eleven 


ad thir years of age will be examined by their 
head teachers with the definite purpose of selecting 
those best qualified to benefit by secondary education. 
The examination will be partly written and partly 
al. The written portion will consist of general 

in arithmetic and English, and will be the 
The parents of all selected 
1 will be approached with the object of gaining 
their co-operation in sending forward the children’s 
mames as candidates for admission to secondary 
schools. A further examination will follow, upon the 
result of which scholarships will be awarded. There 
will be some 60,000 pupils to take the preliminary 
examination, and all who get 50 per cent. of the 
maximum marks will be judged fit for extended 


r number of employers who are interested in 
e education of their employees has been increasing 
ually for a number of years, and has received a 
nside: impetus from the development of wel- 
: PS during the war and from the Education 
of 1918. Conferences were held in June, io18, 


SS fs 


sentative meeting held in London on May 28-30 an 


o 


ry, 1919, and at a larger and more repre- 


Association for the Advancement of Education in 


Industry and Commerce was established. The first 


esident is Lord Leverhulme, with Sir Woodman 
Burbidge as vice-president, Mr. J. Knox (of Lever 
Brothers) as chairman of the executive committee, 
and Mr. R. W. Ferguson (of Cadbury Brothers) as 
secretary. The association includes in its member- 
ship many of the ‘argest and most enterprising firms 
in the country. The objects are to encourage the 
provision of education in industrial and commercial 

idertakings, and to aid in the general advancement 
of education by conferences, the printing and circula- 
tion of information, and co-operation with other 
Many of the firms have already 
anticipated to some extent the Act of 1918 by the 
establishment of schools on their own premises, while 
others have already utilised, or propose to utilise, the 
facilities which local education authorities are willing 


to provide. The papers read at the conference and the 


subsequent discussion indicated that the training of 
young people in works, factories, offices, and business 
houses already instituted or desired was in no sense 
to be narrowed down to the special requirements of 
vocation. As one of the speakers put it: ‘‘A better 
workman was a secondary aim, but a logical con- 
clusion”; and another remarked that “the problems 
of to-day were not so much those of industry as those 
of leisure.’ The clever boy or girl was to be en- 
couraged; the less fortunate ones had equal rights 
and greater needs. On the second day the members 
of the conference were entertained at a garden-party 
by Lord Leverhulme at The Hill, Hampstead Heath, 
and were afterwards addressed by Mr. H. A. L. 
Fisher and Sir Robert Blair. 


NO. 2588, VOL. 103] 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 

Royal Society, May 22.—Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Prof. W. J. Sollas: The structure 
of Lysorophus as exposed by serial sections. As the 
precise position of Lysorophus, regarded by Broom 
as the most interesting vertebrate fossil discovered for 
many years past, still remained open to discussion, 
some nodules containing its remains were placed in 
the author’s hands for investigation by serial sections. 
This work is now complete, and all the facts of the 
anatomy of the skull and vertebrae and the main 
features of the shoulder-girdle and fore-limbs are ex-. 
posed with a precision and wealth of detail only other- 
wise to be looked for in a recent skeleton. It is now 
placed beyond question that Lysorophus belongs to an 
ancestral group of amphibians closely related to the 
Urodela. Among the striking primitive characters it 
retains may be mentioned the presence of a_ basi- 
occipital and a supra-occipital bone, with a foramen 
in the former for the twelfth nerve, and possibly con- 
nected with this the presence of a large paired proatlas. 
—QO. Rosenheim; A preliminary study of the energy 
expenditure and food requirements of women workers. 
Direct determinations (by the Douglas-Haldane 
method) of the energy expenditure of women were 
made during periods of rest, recreation, and work, 
the last referring to work on the lathe. By means 
of the data obtained an approximate estimate of the 
daily food requirements, expressed in Calories, was 
arrived at on the basis of certain considerations set 
forth in the communication. The results agree with 
those of previous workers obtained by indirect statis- 
tical methods.—M. Greenwood, C. Hodson, and A. E. 
Tebb: Report on the metabolism of female munition- 
workers. Observations were made upon forty-three 
women engaged upon twelve different processes in the 
manufacture of projectiles, the, rate of metabolism 
being determined by the method of. indirect calori- 
metry. Making the allowance for metabolic needs 
during non-working hours recommended by the Royal 
Society Food (War) Committee, the workers were 
found to fall into four classes, for each of which the 
daily ‘net requirements per average woman were 
2530 Calories, 2810 Calories, 3200 Calories, and 
3425 Calories. The results were concordant with the 
inferences drawn from a study of food consumption 
in a large explosives supply factory during the war. 
The figures obtained in this experimental work were 
somewhat larger than those reached by Becker and 
Haméalainen. 


Royal Anthropological Institute, May 20.—Sir Everard 
im Thurn, president, in the chair.—Capt. A. 
Hocart: Early Fijians. Layers of culture have 
generally been distinguished and dated in a rather 
arbitrary manner. It is too often taken for granted 
that the rudest culture is the earliest. Fiji is an 
instance in point; it is usually assumed that its 
rudest tribes are its earliest inhabitants. The evidence 
is rather against that. Titles that once existed in 
eastern Fiji are now to be found in the more easterly 
groups of Samoa and Tonga. Samoan legends are 
full of references to Fijian immigrants. Fijian tribal 
traditions agree, being almost unanimous in placing 
their own original home in the northern hills of the 
main island in the west. Evidently there has been a 
general displacement from west to east. Linguistic 
remains show that Polynesian was once spoken in the 
east. Society was feudal and the chiefs divine. There 
was a dual chieftainship similar to the Japanese, and 
certainly a dual organisation, and so on. If we look 
outside Fiji we shall find the proper name of those 
islands, namely, Viti, occurring in Polynesian tradi- 


280 


NATURE 


[June 5, 1919 


tions and place-names. We must, therefore, 
nise the existence of a people, the Vitians, who ‘over- 
spread the whole of Polynesia. They were driven 
eastwards by a barbaric invasion, which repeated 
some features of the invasion of Europe by the Ger- 
manic hordes: Hints of a similar cataclysm are to 
be found in Melanesia, and even so far west as 
Indonesia. 
Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, May 12.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair—G. Humbert: The measure of the 
classes of quadratic forms, ternary and positive, of 
given determinant.—L. Lecornu: The vortices of a 
fluid vein.—P. Sabatier, A. Mailhe, and G. Gaudion ; 
The action of finely divided metals upon pinene 
vapour. Four metals were used in these experiments, 
copper, nickel, cobalt, and iron, and the results of 
the two first are given in. detail, With copper as 
catalyst, aromatic hydrocarbons predominate; with 
reduced nickel at 600° C. the decompvosition is very 
‘energetic, but as soon as the activity of the metal is 
reduced by deposited carbon the products are similar 
to those obtained with copper.—-E. Ariés: Direct 
determination of the temperature exponent in the 
equation of state of fluids. A formula deduced in 
an earlier communication has been applied to the 
experimental data (Sydney Young) for seven sub- 
stances, with satisfactory agreement.—M. Hilaire de 
Chardonnet was elected a member of the division of 
the applications of science to industry.—E, Belot : 
Spiral orbits with balanced gravitation.—C. Chéneveau 
and R. Audubert: The velocity of light in turbid 
media.—A. Boutaric: The apvlication of the Gibbs- 
Helmholtz equation A—U=T(@A/0T) to monovariant 
systems. It has been assumed by Nernst and others 
that for monovariant systems the above equation 
becomes A—U= T(dA/aT), in which dA/dT is the 
differential coefficient of A (a function of T only) with 
respect to T. It is shown that, in general, this ex- 
tension is not legitimate.—A. Colson: Eutectics and 
dilute solutions.—A,. Béhal: ‘The isolation and charac- 
terisation of alcohols as allophanates. The alcohol 
is converted into the allophanate by cyanic acid, pro- 
duced in the gaseous state by depolymerisation of 
cyanuric acid, and the reaction product washed with 
ether to remove unchanged alcohol and urethane. All 
the allophanates are crystalline, very slightly soluble 
in ether, and serve well for the separation and 
identification of alcohols.—G. Reboul and L. Dunoyer : 
The influence of the seasons and the aerological 
systems on the correlative variations of atmospheric 
pressure and of the intensity of the wind.—]. Braun- 
Blanquet: The discovery of Laurus canariensis “in 
the tufas'of Montpellier.—P. Bertrand: Relations of 
the plant zones A,A, and B,B, with the marine levels 
of the Coal Measures of the North of France.—L. 
Joleaud: The réle of the maritime channels of North 
Florida and South Caribee in the migrations of Ter- 
tiary and Quaternary mammals.—J. Amar: Pul- 
monarv ventilation and hamatosis.—J. Pellegrin : 
The ichthyological fauna of the eastern Sahara.—E. 
Sollaud: The first phases of embryonic development 
in Leander squilla.—_L. Roule: The pigmentation of 
voung salmon (Salmo salar) and ‘its relations with 
the first stay in fresh water and the first migration 
to the sea. 


sasneibs OF SOCIETIES. 


s THURSDAY, June 5 
“pabe INSTITUTION, at 3.—Sir Valentine Chirol: The Balkans. 
Royat Society, at 4.30.—Dr. P. Phillips: The Relation between the 
{ Refractivity., and Density ‘of Carbon Dioxide.x—P. N. ‘Ghosh: The 
* Colours of the Striz in Mica, and the Radiation from Laminar Diffracting 
i | sRonndaries.—Dr, ‘EF. Armstrong and Dr. T. Px Hilditch: A*Study of” 
the Catalytic Actions at Solid Surfaces. 


NO. 2588, VOL.. 103] 


recog-— 


Royat Society oF Arts, at 4.30.—Lord Montagu of Beauli 7 
as Affecting India, . a 

Linnean Society, at 5.—H. N. Dixon: Mosse from Deception I 
New Guinea.—Miss Alwin M. Evans: The Structure and Occurrence. of 
Maxillulz in the Orders of Insects.—Ernest E. Unwin: Notes upon the 
Reproduction of Asel/us aguaticus.—The General Secretary : A Medal 
Portrait of Carl von Linné, hitherto unknown ; The Osgtoat Seal of 
Society, in.use from 1789 till gg 

Cuemicat Society, at. 8.—W. H. Perkin: _ Cryptopine. Part IL.—P. 
Blackman: An Isotonic (Isosmotic) Apparatus for comparing Molecular 
Weights. Part IL—V. Cofman: The ‘‘ Active Substance” in vise Todina- 
tion of Phenols.—N. V. Sidgwick: The Influence of Orientation on ‘th 
Boiling-points of Isomeric Benzene Derivatives.—J. Senior; The Atom 
Weight of Iodine, and the Discovery of a New Ha ogen. —H, Boreas: 
The Absorption Spectra of the Nitric Esters of Glycerol. 4 


FRIDAY, June 6. 
Roya INsTITUTION, at 5.30.—Sir E. Rutherford : Atomic Projectiles ‘and 
their Collisions with Light Atoms. 


SATURDAY, Junr 
Roya InsTITUTION, at 3.—J. M. Price: The Iealliab Front. 


THURSDAY, June 12. 
Optica Socirty, at 7.30.—S. D. Chalmers : The Resogutelal of Desai 


FRIDAY, June 13. 

RoyaL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5 

PuysICAL’SociETY, at 5.—B. Van der Pol ,jun. : A Comparison of the Wave- 
form of the ‘Telephone Current produced by a Thermal Detector and a 
Rectifier in the Heterodyne Reception.—E. Wilson and E, F. Boscan 
The Magnetic Properties of Varieties of Magnetite. 

Ma.aco.ocicat Society, at 6.—G. C. Crick: Ammonites navicula 
(Mantell).—ik. Bullen Newton: A Sandstone Cast of Bed pone 
(pene from the Miocene of Western Australia.—A. S. K d and 

. B. Woodward: The Generic Names for the Two British, Ellobidae 
(oling Auriculidae] myosotis, Draparnaud (=denticulata, Montag 
bidentata, Montagu —G. Despott: The Mollusca of Ma 
bour, Malta.—Tom Iredale: Notes on Polyplacophora. Part II, 


Qe 


| CONTENTS. : 
Industrial Efficiency... °) 21) 3... 2 ae 
Solar Thermodynamics, By R.A.S....... . 261 
Oils, Fats, and Waxes. bef Co. Su: 5. 902 Ee es 262 
Our Bookshelf. 30 '.). s.°. 0 6s ioe 
Letters to the Editor:— 
Intravenous fe ges in Cholera, oo Penn W. M. | 
Bayliss, F 264 
A Crocodile on Rotama.—Prof, j. Stanley Gardiner, sil 
F.R.S. 264 
Calendar Reform and the Date of . ‘Enster.—Alexr. 
Pip 033 . 264 
Glossina and the Extifiction of Tartiacy Miin antes f 
Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell . . 265 
Indications of Oilin Derbyshire. By V. c. Illing « 265 
The Solar Eclipse. 2-005. 1°. 
Wireless Telephony °.°: . «5. .°. ae tye eee 
The Atlantic Flight. 1... <4 so 8 ae ee 
Notes .. ; SP ROMPE SW (5 
Our Wattonomical Column: —. Ds 
An Resth-elicct on ae +h! ole hi eare 
The Lunar Atmospheric Tide. . ee Ng edntel es yee 
The Date-palm Sugar Industry of Indias + (ie eee Te 
Sussex Natural History. . . ; Ae Re ST 273 
New Ideals of Science Teachers, a GG. Hoje 
Adlam ito. ssc os Fo) 3d SAS GC eens 2 1273 
The Selous Cotieation: Rede Ost aye 
Forthcoming Books of Science RE EP er de kk Ss | 
The Royal Society Conversazione ...... . . 275 
University and Educational Intelligence <a a . 
Societies and Academies. .,.... ‘ - + 279 \ie 
Diary of Societies}... 5 1... dy? 
Editorial and Publishing Offices : 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltb., M 
‘ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2,, 5 


Advertisements and. business -letters to. be dédvemea to the 
«1. Publishers. 


tt , Editorial Communications to the Editor. } 


Telegraphic Address,:.PHusIs, LONDON... .. 0.05 ja.5 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


: NATURE 


281 


THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 10919. 


CATALYTIC CHEMISTRY. 
41) Catalysis in Industrial Chemistry. By Prof. 
G. G. Henderson. (Monographs on Industrial 
Chemistry.) Pp. x+202. (London: Long- 
mans, Green, and Co., 1919.) Price gs. net. 
_ <2) Catalytic Hydrogenation and Reduction. By 
_ Dr. E. B. Maxted. (Text-books of Chemical 
_ Research and Engineering.) Pp. 
(London: J. and A. 
4s. 6d. net. 
ss on analysis are legion. The ionic 
_ theory has helped the chemist to appreciate 
the anion and cation in electrolysis, but the term 
‘catalysis has only recently been deemed worthy of 
one on the title-page of a chemical text- 


viii + 104. 
Churchill, 1919.) Price 


____In the “‘ Dictionary of Applied Chemistry,” 1916 
‘edition, issued by the same firm of publishers as 
‘that of Prof. Henderson’s ‘Catalysis in Industrial 
lemistry,’’ there is no separate article on cata- 
lysis, the reader being referred to ‘Chemical 
Affinity’ for the definition, whilst Dr. Maxted’s 
“Catalytic Hydrogenation and Reduction’’ as a 
special branch of the wider subject received only 
indirect mention. 
_ Both books are for the industrial reader, and 
sshow the rapid development of applied science 
without attempting to trace the growth of the 
fundamental idea from the early conceptions of 
Davy and Faraday, although Prof. Henderson has 
unearthed an early patent of Phillips in 1831 for 
the production of sulphuric anhydride from sulphur 
‘dioxide and oxygen through the catalytic action 
of platinum, which may be regarded as the pre- 
‘cursor of the modern contact process as developed 
A pene and by Squire and Messel in London. 


a. he Dobereiner lamp of 1822 was an early indus- 


‘trial application of a metallic catalyst to hydrogen 
oxidation, and the stability of hydrogen peroxide in 
_ presence of acids, as shown by Thenard in 1818, is 
still a commercial illustration of negative catalysis 
which should be added to Prof. Henderson’s 
review. 

_ Ifa catalyst is simply an unalterable substance 
which modifies the velocity of the reaction, all 
‘solvents must be looked at catalytically, as pointed 
‘out by Ostwald, and Prof. Henderson gives us his 
first catalyst water both in heterogeneous solution, 
«as in the inversion of cane-sugar, and in a homo- 
geneous gaseous system, as shown by Dixon in 
‘sparking dry carbon monoxide and oxygen. The 
work of Sabatier and his pupils on the hydrogena- 
‘tion and reduction of organic compounds has 
‘activated within the last decade an_ industrial 
development of those catalytic processes which 
involve the use of free hydrogen, so that at the 
‘present time they are yielding results of consider- 
able commercial value which are not confined to 
‘the soap industries. Although these are suffi- 
<iently summarised in two of Prof. Henderson’s 
<hapters, they are much more interestingly 

NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


elaborated in Dr. Maxted’s little book of 104 
pages. 

Wielands’ interesting work with oxygen-free 
palladium in order to differentiate between cata- 
lytic oxidation and dehydrogenation, as, for 
example, in the conversion of hydroquinone into 
quinone, is not referred to by Prof. Henderson, al- 
though its bearing on the function of water as a 
catalyst in carbon monoxide oxidation is im- 
portant, and, as pointed out by Dr. Maxted, 
these results throw quite a new light on the 
necessity for, and réle of, water in oxidation 
reactions generally. ? 

The extended use of these hydrogenation pro- 
cesses has necessitated a consideration of the 
methods for manufacturing a suitable hydrogen 
free from poisons to benefit the equally important 
catalytic synthetic ammonia and _ nitric acid 
processes essential for the future explosive and 
fertiliser industries. It is remarkable that here, 
again, the interaction of water-gas and steam in 
presence of the right catalyst points the way to 
economic hydrogen production for these big cata- 
lytic industrial operations, so that, in the words of 
Berzelius, “it is proved that several simple and 
compound bodies, soluble and insoluble, have the 
property of exercising on other bodies an action 
very different from chemical affinity. I will call 
this force the catalytic force, and catalysis the de- 
composition of bodies by this force in the same 
way that one calls by the name analysis the 
decomposition of bodies by chemical affinity.”’ 

The two books are welcome additions to the 
literature of the subject. S. RIDEAL. 


CALIFORNIAN GAME BIRDS. 


The Game Birds of California. Contribution from 
the University of California Museum of Verte- 
brate Zoology. By Joseph Grinnell, H. C. 
Bryant, and T. I. Storer. (Semicentennial 
Publications of the University of California.) 
Pp. x+642+16 coloured plates. (Berkeley: 
University of California Press, 1918.) Price 
6 dollars net. ; 


© Bide game birds of all parts of North America 
are of special interest to residents on the 
other side of the Atlantic, since they, unlike so many 
of the Passerine forms of the country, are closely 
akin to those of Europe. Moreover, from our 
earliest years we have been attracted by a large 
number of the names. The Pilgrim Fathers used 
many picturesque expressions, and their descend- 
ants continue to do so. The “Heath Hen of 
Martha’s Vineyard ’’ makes us want to know who 
Martha was and all about her vineyard, while 
the “Prairie Chicken of the Foothills of the 
Rockies ’’ might be the title of the villain of a 
melodrama. Thus we take up a book on Cali- 
fornian game birds with a predisposition in its 
favour. 

In the present case the. predisposition is 
thoroughly justified, but the work covers far 
more than what are most commonly known as 


Q 


282 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 : 


game birds, for it runs from ducks and geese to 
sandpipers, plovers, grouse, and doyes, while it 
includes all that are sold as game in the local 
markets. It aims at furnishing full information, 
from collected records, often much scattered in 
print, from local sources, and from personal ob- 
servation, to the game-hunter, the naturalist, the 
legislator, and those concerned in bird preserva- 
tion; and with this object in view is compiled by 
three- of the best ornithologists in the State, who 
have had the further advantage of the use of the 
unpublished papers of Mr. L. Belding on the birds 
of the region. 

In a general review it is unnecessary to enter 
upon details of the special part of the work, re- 
lating to the particular species; but we may ex- 
press our appreciation of the thorough way in 
which this is carried out, a way reminding us 
of Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway’s “Birds of North 
America.’’ A glossary and keys to the main 
groups and species are followed by full descrip- 
tions, not only of adults, but also of the young, 
while useful marks for identification in the field 
are added, to precede, the excellent accounts of 
habits, distribution, and so forth. 

Obviously the main object of the writers is 
economic; they devote their attention most closely 
to that point of view, and emphasise strongly the 
need for the protection of birds which form part of 
the food supply; they examine and list the local 
game laws, and study their effect on the preserva- 
tion of species. Moreover, the work is issued as a 
publication of the University of California, with 
the important aid of its zoological collections, 
and also with the hearty co-operation of the Fish 
and Game Commission of the State. 

The economic factors are thoroughly discussed 
under separate headings. A study of the list of 
laws, coupled with Federal regulations, will show 
the great importance attached to the subject of 
this book in the United States, where, more than 
in any other country, bird protection has become 
necessary, and, as a matter of fact, has been 
ungrudgingly granted. 

A goodly number of line drawings are dis- 
tributed throughout the letterpress to explain im- 
portant points of structure, while sixteen coloured 
plates decorate the pages, though the coloration 
is perhaps scarcely up to the standard of the text. 
Nine are the work of the well-known artist, 
L. A. Fuentes. 


WAR SURGERY. 


Surgery at a Casualty Clearing Station. By C. 
Wallace and John Fraser. Pp. xi+320. 
(London: A. and C. Black, Ltd., 1918.) Price 


tos. 6d. net. 


MAIOR-GEN. CUTHBERT WALLACE and 

Major John Fraser have written a very 
interesting book. Gen. Wallace was consulting 
surgeon to the rst Army, B.E.F., and remained 


in France during practically the whole war. His 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103 | 


experience entitles him to discuss the various 
phases of casualty clearing station work, since 


he has seen the C.C.S. compelled, by the force” 


majeure of war, to undertake and adapt itself to 
surgery, for which it was, never originally i 
tended, and for which it only gradually acquire 
the equipment and personnel. The idea. that 
surgical operations could be performed near the 
firing line was not accepted at the beginning of | 
the war. It was anticipated that casualties would 
be dressed and fed at the C.C.S., and sent to 
base hospitals for operative treatment. |The 
appearance of gas gangrene on a _ widespread 
scale in wounds of all sorts, even the most trivial, 
made it imperative that the surgeon should be 
brought nearer to the fighting zone. 
Delay of even a few hours meant loss of limbs 
and loss of lives. If, however, every wounded man 
could have his wound excised (not merely dressed, 
but the damaged tissues cut clean out) within 
a few hours of receiving his wound, gas gangrene 
was practically abolished. This question and its 
solution were not merely problems of academic 
interest to the surgeon; they were of vital moment 
to the authorities responsible for the Army as a 
fighting machine. A shortened period of inva- 
lidism is fully as important in maintaining the — 
numerical strength of an armyasisthe keeping up — 
of a supply of fresh reinforcements. The resear< : 
of Gen. Wallace and Major Fraser into ia 
causes and methods of dealing with.gas ga 
threw most valuable light on the whole subj 
Chaps. iii. and iv., on “General Wounds and their 
Treatment ’’ and on “Antiseptics,’’ are “ane 
larly interesting in this connection. Althoug 
many antiseptics and their modes of application 
are described, the summary of all experience i: 
probably contained in the last sentence of the 
following passage: “One may completely excise 
the wound, wash the wound surface with a fluid — 
antiseptic, and immediately suture the wound, 
hoping to get healing by primary intention; it is. 
possible that the washing with the antiseptic may 
even be omitted.’’ Before the war ended probably 
no surgeon felt the least doubt that the ceremonial 
washing with an antiseptic could be omitted, and 
that the thing which mattered was the complete- 
ness of the excision. pesaah wane 
The chapter on “Injuries of Bones ”’ goes fully 
into. the different types of splints in vogue, but the 
illustrations are singularly inadequate. 
Abdominal wounds are excellently dealt with; 
the combined experience of the authors enables 
them to speak with judgment and authority. In- — 
juries of the chest, of the head, and of the spine — 
are carefully considered and discussed. = = 
In the treatment of hemorrhage it is interesting 
to notice the change in teaching as regards the 
application of the tourniquet. Gen. Wallace does — 
not go so far as to say that the man who leaves. 
a tourniquet on a limb is guilty of criminal neglect, 
but he points out the extreme dangers which | 
attend anything more than a purely temporary use ~ 
of this means of arresting hemorrhage. ee 


' | JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


283 


The closing chapter, on ‘Tetanus,’ describes 
- one of the greatest triumphs of preventive medi- 
eine. In the early days of the war tetanus con- 
stituted one of the greatest terrors that the 
wounded man had to face and the surgeon to 
witness. The routine use of anti-tetanic serum 
as a prophylactic injection in every case of a 
- or abrasion caused this dreadful complica- 
tion to disappear almost entirely. 

With the cessation of hostilities there will be 
less occasion to practise surgery as described in 
this book, but every medical officer to whose lot 
it may fall in the future to take part in any mili- 
tary campaign will be well advised to include 
ee and Fraser’s handy little volume in his 
t. reap : ; 


ee OUR BOOKSHELF. 
A Star Ailas and Telescopic Handbook (Epoch 
ac Students and Amateurs. By Arthur P. 
Norton. New and enlarged edition. Pp. 25 +16 
o. Toes (London and Edinburgh: Gall and 
Inglis, 1919.) Price 3s. 6d. 


Tr is not surprising that a second edition of this 
work Se hoot called for, remembering the grow- 
ing interest in astronomy and the necessity that 
every follower of the science feels for a good star 
atlas. The first edition appeared in 1910, and we 
have no reason to depart from the opinion of 
its ‘Merits then expressed in these pages. F ifty 
years ago R. A. Proctor gave in the Monthly 
Notices (vol. xxviii., p. 188) the conditions with 
which a work of this kind should comply: (1) A 
. € number of maps; (2) not too large for 
convenient use; (3) uniform in size and shape; 
(4) on the scale of an 18-in. globe at least; 
5) with little distortion; and (6) with little varia- 
of scale : 


Sd 


be Si or area. 

_ Mr, Norton’s atlas contains eight double maps 
_ >that is to say, each forms a double-page open- 
ing of a book 11 in. by g in. Two of them cover 
rr pin 40° radius round each pole, whilst each 
of the remaining six covers a lune from 60° N. to 
60° S. declination, about 5 hours of right ascension 
in width, the distance from pole to pole in the 
maps being about 23 in., from which it will 
be seen how well the first three of the above 
_ conditions are satisfied. Stars to the sixth magni- 
_ tude, nebula, and clusters are shown to the 
number of more than 7000, and a feature that will 
appeal to many students of the heavens is the 
reference to catalogues of various kinds and other 
useful information given by the lettering. 

It has not been found necessary to make any 
alteration in the maps, which are as they were 
in the first edition, but the prefatory notes have 
been ‘considerably amended and enlarged. The 
addition of a paragraph on the classification of 
star spectra is to be noted, and another of a list 
of nove, which includes that of last year. A 
small table of the effects of atmospheric absorp- 
tion is now given, and the sketch map of. the 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


moon has been furnished with an index, both of 
which add to the usefulness of this moderately 
priced work. , 


Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Guides to 
Smallholders. No. 1: Pig-keeping, pp. 32. 
No. 5: Farm Crops, pp. 32. No. 6: Soils 
and Manures, pp. 30. No. 7: Fruit-growing 
on Small Holdings in England and Wales, 
pp. 30. No. 9: Potato-growing on Small 
Holdings, pp. 32. (Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries, 3 St. James’s Square, S.W.1, 1919.) 
Price 2d, each. 


It is always difficult to cater for smallholders 
because of their great variation; in their ranks 
are found many types of men, some fairly well 
educated, who, for one reason or other, have 
taken up farming late in life, while others are 
shrewd, capable labourers who have risen in. the 
ranks, and, but for their lack of education, would 
long ago have been successful farmers on their 
own account. The booklets before us are de- 
signed particularly for the first type of men, but 
they will also prove helpful to the second. 

The information is sound, and put in the 
colloquial form now so much in favour in extra- 
official publications. The soil is described in one 
place in Tull’s picturesque phrase as “the pasture 
of plants ’’; it is elsewhere likened to “the plant’s 
kitchen,’’ and the organisms producing the useful 
nitrates are called the “domestics that serve the 
crops.’* “‘‘When the land becomes waterlogged 
things go wrong in the plant’s kitchen. The un- 
healthy yellow colour of corn crops so often .asso- 
ciated with cold weather in spring is not really 
so much due to cold as to epidemics among the 
“domestics ’ and a stoppage of the plant’s supply 
of food.”’ Such descriptions at least show the 
cultivator that the soil is more complex than it 
seems, and must be treated with respect. The 
practical advice is quite good: the smallholder 
is told how much seed to sow, in many cases— 
especially fruit and potatoes—he is told what 
varieties to select from, and useful hints are given 
on the general management of the crop. 

The publications are in the form of booklets of 
large postcard size, and they are well got up; 
they represent a serious attempt, which we hope 
will be successful, to help the smallhelder on 
many of the technical points that are likely to 
trouble him. 


Inorganic Chemistry. By Prof. James Walker. 
Pp. viii+327. Eleventh edition. (London: 
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1919.) Price 55. net. 


Pror. WALKER has recast his popular elementary 
text-book of inorganic chemistry. The general 
and systematic portions are in this edition less 
strictly separated. All the common elements now 
receive brief systematic treatment, and the theo- 
retical sections have been enlarged. In its new 
form the book should be even more widely adopted 
than hitherto. 


284 


NATURE 


[June 12; 1919 


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. | 


Wireless Telephony. 

It may be .of interest to state that the Marconi 
Co.’s demonstration at Chelmsford of wireless tele- 
phony on May 28, alluded to in Nature for June 5, 
- was clearly heard on wireless apparatus in this house. 
Every word could be clearly recognised, the speaking 
being most distinct and very loud. What was heard 
included the reading of several newspaper paragraphs, 
the playing of gramophone records, and some remarks 
by Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, in which he said that no one 
would be able to overhear the conversation, as _ it 
required very special apparatus to pick it up! 

Since then other speech has frequently been heard 
and understood. This apparently emanates from 
some military wireless station, where the operator is 
addicted to long poetical quotations, which he declaims 
with much gusto. 

It is quite fascinating to listen to these voices from 
the zether. A. A. CAMPBELL SWINTON. 

40 Chester Square, London, S.W.1, June 6. 


The Age of the Stars. ; 

THE arguments detailed by Mr. Poole (Nature, 
April 3) relative to the astronomical tests of the sug- 
gestion that radiation passes only between bodies are 
essentially those I had in mind in remarking on the 
difficulties with ‘‘the ultimate trend of planetary tem- 
peratures.’’ The ways of getting around these diffi- 
culties to me seem, too artificial to make the “ solid- 
angle’’ hypothesis a reasonable one astronomically, 
even though it may be the “rather preferable” type 
of selective radiation from the point of view of a 
corpuscular theory. The difficulties, however, might 
be removed, or at least much lessened, if only a 
diminution of radiation in the empty angle is pos- 
tulated, for the diminution would probably be a 
function of temperature. 

But the point I hoped chiefly to emphasise by the 
data and arguments in my former letter is that we 
now have various direct astronomical observations 
indicating that the sidereal time-scale is enormously 
longer than is generally acknowledged. If these 
results from studies of Cepheid variables and globular 
clusters, with the strong support of geological con- 
siderations, are accepted, I desired also to emphasise 
that the problem of accounting for the origin of stellar 
energy and for concomitant phenomena of radiation is 
of the highest importance, whether the solution involve 
denying that radiation at high temperatures is pro- 
pagated uniformly regardless of material surroundings, 
or whether it lie in the discovery (or acceptable 
description) of other properly operative sources of 
energy—such, for instance, as might be provided by 
the ‘‘ general physics”’ suggested by Mr. Jeans, which 
is to allow direct mass-energy transformations through 
setting aside the accepted principles of conservation. 

Harrow SHAPLeyY. 

Mount Wilson Observatory, Pasadena, 

California, May. 


Globular Lightning. 

As well-authenticated cases of globular lightning are 
comparatively rare, the accompanying note by Mr. 
Gilmore may be of interest to vour readers. Mr. 
Gilmore is a research student working in this labora- 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


tory. He is at present engaged on a research dealing: 


| with the electric charge on rain, and when he saw the - 


first luminous ball described in the note he had stepped. 
outside his rooms to decide whether it was likely to. 
rain soon. He then went to the laboratory and was. 
busy with his observations during the thunderstorm. 
When the rain ceased he was standing at the door of 
the laboratory looking at the clearing sky, and then 
saw the second ball. In the circumstances, we must 
regard his observations as in every way trustworthy. — 

I should mention that I have met two other persons. 
who claimed to have seen luminous balls during the- 
same storm. Their descriptions were, however, rather 
vague. In neither of these two cases did the time 
agree with the times of Mr. Gilmore’s observations. ° 
Taken in conjunction with Mr. Gilmore’s observations, 
these further rather vague descriptions afford evidence 
that this thunderstorm was rich in phenomena of the 
globular lightning type. McCLELLAND. 

Physics Department, University College, 

Dublin, May 28. 


On the night of May 14 a thunderstorm toolc 
place over Dublin. A shower of rain fell after 
9 p.m., but between about 9.25 and < 
there was practically no rain, only a few d 
falling. At about 9.50 I went outside, and when — 
I had gone about two steps from the door I suddenly ~— 
saw a luminous ball apparently lying in the middle 
of the street. It remained stationary for a very brief 
interval—perhaps a second—and then vanished, a loud 
peal of thunder occurring at the same time. The ball 
appeared to be about 18 in. in diameter, and was of a 
blue colour, with two protuberances of,a yellow colour 
projecting from the upper quadrants. It left no trace 
on the roadway. The street is about eight yards. 
wide from. footpath to footpath, with houses on both 
sides, the total distance across the street between the 
houses being about twenty yards. There are no tram- 
lines on the street. When I observed the ball its 
distance from me was about ten yards. The thunder 
was heard just at the disappearance of the ball, but 
the sound seemed to come from overhead rather than 
from the place where the ball was. This was the first” 
peal of thunder that I heard, and there was no more 
thunder or lightning until after 10.15. From 10.40" 
onwards the thunderstorm was rather violent and the 
rain heavy. The rain ceased about 12 midnight, but 
sheet lightning continued to play over the sky. I was- 
looking towards the north at about 12.15, where the. 
sky was fairly clear, with small white clouds scat- 
tered over it, when I saw a yellow-coloured ball which 
appeared to travel a short distance and then disappear. 
This ball was high. up in the sky, and appeared’ 


ops. 


smaller than the first ball described above. 


G. GILMORE. 


WAR AND WASTE. 


AR, however conducted, is, from its very — 
nature, a wasteful business, and, if carried. 
on more teutonicum, is flagrantly so. Nothing 
affronted the righteous instincts of civilised 
humanity more profoundly than the shameless and. 
unbridled lust of destructiveness in which the 
Germans indulged so long as Belgium and 
Northern France remained within their grasp; 
and nothing has excited universal contempt so- 
much as the way in which they are shuffling now | 
they are compelled to make good, so far as is. 
possible, the damage they so causelessly and 
wantonly inflicted. 


_ JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


285 


But, considering what war is essentially and 
how it must be fought, whatever be the men- 
tality of the combatants, there is a certain element 


_ of comedy in setting up an organisation during 


the actual course of a war in order to ascertain, 
not how the waste of war may be minimised, but 
how the waste of peace-time operations may be 
reduced or possibly altogether obviated. It is 
doubtful if any other nation than ourselves would 


have thought of such a consideration at such a | 


juncture. But the Munitions Inventions Depart- 
ment, on the principle presumably of compound- 
ing for sins they were inclined to, created in 1918 


a small Committee, under the chairmanship of the © 


principal of the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, 


to make inquiries concerning chemical waste pro- | 


‘ducts throughout the country, and to carry out 
investigations with a view to their utilisation. 
That waste should be obviated is a sound general 
Proposition applicable at all seasons, but why the 


particular instances of it which engaged the Com- | 


mittee’s attention should be specially urgent in 
1918 is not very obvious, as they were wholly 
‘without bearing on the conduct of the war, and 
were of small importance from the point of view 
of economy, even in peace-time. 

The Committee, however, has now reported,! 
and we may best learn from its own statements 
what it has accomplished, and what useful results 
are likely to follow from its labours. In the first 
place, the Committee communicated with the 
Association of British Chemical Manufacturers, 
inviting assistance in collecting information 
concerning chemical waste products, and later 
it sent out a circular letter to chemical 
manufacturers asking if they made any waste 
products not at present utilised, and, if so, what 
was their nature and quantity. Of those who 


replied, rather less than half stated that they 


had no waste products; 220 manufacturers said 
they had waste products, and indicated their 
character. The Committee gives a list of those 
brought to its mnotice—some sixty-eight in 
number. With one or two exceptions, they arise 
in old-established industries, and are in no wise 
connected with the war. 

‘In its circular letter the Committee stated that 
one of its objects was to save overseas tonnage. 
It is difficult to see how the consideration of the 
special instances brought to the knowledge of the 
_ Committee would even appreciably influence the 

tonnage question. Perhaps the subject of waste 
_ materials for paper-making is the best example 
that could be quoted, considering the admitted 
shortage of such materials during the later 
_ periods of the war. The Committee accordingly 
directed its attention to two unutilised products, 
viz. spent mimosa bark——a residue from the tan- 
ning industry—and the waste wood due to the 
felling of timber trees in this country. With the 
assistance of Prof. Huebner, of the Manchester 
Technical College, the Committee is able to report 


'1 Munitions Inventions Depart Report on the Investigations 
earried out by the Chemical Waste Products Committee. 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


waste mimosa bark, as, indeed, might have been 

anticipated, and this fact was communicated to 
| the tanners using the bark, as well as to the 
_ paper manufacturers, but it does not appear that 
| any practical result has followed. Nor did any- 
_ thing practical follow from the investigation into 
| the possible use of scrap timber. 

It was scarcely necessary to make an experi- 
mental investigation in order to arrive at the 
_ decision to which the Committee came. Inquiry 
_ from the trade showed that the cost of the neces- 
sary plant, combined with fuel conditions and un- 
certainty as to the duration of the war, rendered 
| it inexpedient to recommend any extension of the 
existing means in this country of using wood pulp 
_in the manufacture of paper—a conclusion which 
_might have been foreseen without the formality 
_of a special Committee. At the same time, the 
Committee states it is in a position to supply 
information as to shredding plant, and. will com- 
/ municate to those who may be interested the 
| results-of Prof. Huebner’s investigations into the 
_ best conditions both for boiling soft waste wood 
from pine, birch, and oak, and for treatment with 
caustic soda. 

The Committee further reported on the re- 
covery of the chemicals used in discarded gas 
helmets; on the utilisation of the maize residues 
in the manufacture of butyl alcohol, which were 
found to be unsuitable for cattle food, but could 
be used as a fertiliser; on the possible use of 
sphagnum moss as a cattle food—an inquiry 
eventually handed over to the Food Production 
Department; and on the utilisation of waste 
chrome-tanned leather, dealt with by Mr. Lamb, 
of the Leather Sellers’ Technical Institute, who 
devised a process for converting it into glue. 

The de-arsenication of oil of vitriol made from 
pyrites results in the accumulation of consider- 
able quantities of arsenic sulphide in a form 
troublesome to deal with. The Committee caused 
experiments to be made as to the best method of 
| treating this product with a view to the recovery 
| of arsenic from it, and with outside assistance 

worked out a process which it supplied to those 
chemical manufacturers who asked for informa- 
tion concerning it. It is not stated whether the 
process has found application in chemical in- 
dustry. 

In the treatment of bauxite for the manufac- 
ture of aluminium a large amount of ferric oxide 
is left, for which only a limited use has been 
found. Its application to the purification of coal- 
gas naturally suggests itself, and a number of 
patents for this purpose have been granted, but 
with no very satisfactory result. 

_ The Committee has taken up the problem, but 
is not yet in a position to report concerning it. 

The use of burnt pyrites in the manufacture 
of oil of vitriol also suggested itself to the Com- 
mittee as a possible gas-purification material, but, 
as might be anticipated, few samples were found 
to present the proper physical condition for em- 


| that it is possible to make brown paper from 


286 


NATURE 


[JuNE 12, 1919 


ployment in the purifiers. Certain of the samples 
resulting from the operations of the Gas Light 
and Coke Co. were, however, found to give ex- 
cellent results, and Dr. Evans, of the South 
Metropolitan Gas Co., is at present engaged in 
their further investigation. 

Ferric hydrate precipitated by lime from the 
acid liquors used in the pickling of iron in the 
tin-plate and galvanising industries is also 
capable of being used in gas-purification. The 
utilisation of the waste pickle has been the subject 
of many patents, and various processes are in 
use, especially in the Midlands. 

Attempts were made to recover selenium from 
the flue-dust from pyrites burners, and_ the 
residues from the Glover towers and_ vitriol 
chambers, but with no practical result. The 
amount in the flue-dust was found to be: negli- 
gible, whilst that in the Glover tower and 
chambers varied between 0°3 and 0°7 per cent. In 
some exceptional cases it was as high as 4 per 
cent. 

Other subjects which received the attention of 
the Committee were so-called bichromate of soda 
residues—that is, the residues left after the oxida- 
tion of organic substances by sodium bichromate 
and sulphuric acid; the residues from the manu- 
facture of acetic anhydride; the tarry residues 
obtained in the rectification of benzol; residues 
containing calcium sulphate; residues from the 
manufacture of brucine; peat-tar residues, etc. 
But no specific information is given con- 
cerning the results which have been obtained, or 
as fo the extent to which industry has benefited 
by the Committee’s attempts to utilise these 
waste products. 

It will be obvious from this summary that the 
Committee has been able to deal with only a few 
of the large number of such products brought to 
its notice, and of these few it remains to be 
proved that any results of permanent value have 
been obtained. Other inquiries are in progress, 
and it is suggested by the Committee that. it 
should be developed into a permanent organisa- 
tion similar in character to that of the National 
Physical Laboratory, with an Advisory Committee 
in association with a director and chemical staff 
with its own laboratories. 

Of course, it is conceivable that the work of 
such an organisation might be largely extended, 
and that an institution might be created to sub- 
serve the higher interests of chemical technology. 
But the report of the Committee affords no evi- 
dence that results at all commensurate with the 
expense of such an institution are likely to accrue. 
Indeed, it may be questioned whether the kind 
of subjects with which it has concerned itself 
should fall to the cost of the taxpayer. It is 


primarily the duty of the manufacturer to deal 


with the by-products of his industry. He will 
utilise them if he sees that it is to his advantage 
to do so, and it is surely not the business of the 
State to teach him how to do it. In some cases 
there is no reasonable hope that these products 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


| are capable of being utilised, but in that event 


| Murray, t919.) Price 1s. net. 


the expense of getting rid of them is no proper ~ 


concern of the taxpayer. 


Practically all the subjects to which the atten- 


tion of the Committee was directed, in response 
to its circular letters for information, are long- 
standing problems which have taxed the energies 
of chemists and chemical engineers for 
years past, and where men of proved tech 
skill have failed it is scarcely to be expected that 
a Committee constituted like that which has now 
reported will succeed. Committees are, in fact 
cumbrous organisations to deal with questions of 
this character, unless, indeed, they are of the 
single-member type, which a bureaucratic Com- 
mittee seldom or never is. - 


Pages 


{te 


> EDUCATION: SECONDARY AND 


UNIVERSITY.! 
iad E 
VV educational enthusiasts to temper their 
enthusiasm with charity. Let the advocates of 


classics, of history, of natural science, try, while. — 
exalting the value of their own subjects, to avoid ~ 


reflections which hurt the feelings and pr voke 
the opposition of the advocates of other subjects.’’ 


Such is the exhortation with which Sir Frederic 


Kenyon concludes his interesting pamphlet, which 
embodies a report of conferences between repre- 
sentatives of literary, historical, and scientific 
aspects of education. Such aspiralinns aaa 
receive sympathy and approval from all liberal- 


minded people, while they recognise that. final 
agreement on all points under discussion has not 


even yet been reached. oti eareas| 

A few only: of these questions can be referred to 
here. Most people would be disposed to agree 
with the view that ‘‘ universities have the right to 
require that every student who enters them shall 
be intellectually qualified to profit by the education 
which they offer,’’ and it is to be hoped that this 
condition will be made practically operative. It is 
true that all young minds do not develop at the 
same rate, and many a boy or girl supposed to be 
dull at school has shown at maturity unexpected 
activity and powers. But with the present suffi- 


cient choice of subjects and methods the age of a 
eighteen or thereabouts should afford time for the 


display of sufficient of those qualities which justify 


end where we began; with an appeal to- 


the admission of the student from the school stage | 


There 


to the university stage of his education, 


has been too much of this in the past, with corre- 
sponding waste of educational resources and effort, 
and it has yet to be fully recognised that all young — 


people are not inclined to intellectual pursuits, and 


for those who are not so disposed there is plenty of 
other useful work to do. “Common sense ap- 


pears to indicate that a student should show some- 
aptitude for a subject before he embarks on a 


university course of education in it.” 


1 ‘* Education ; Secondary and University.” A Report of Conferences. 
between the Council for Humanistic Studies and the Conjoint Board of 
Scientific Societies. By Sir Frederic G. Kenyon. Pp. 47. (Loerie 


rs John. : 


<a 


} 


June 12; 1919] 


NATURE 


287 


“ Historically,’’ it is said, ‘‘ there is no doubt 
that the institution of examinations did much to 
raise the standard of education in this country in 
the last century. It is equally certain that, while 
they are good servants, they are bad masters.’ 

is no doubt that schoolmasters chafe because 
all schools do not teach the same subjects along 
the same lines, and when a general examination is 
set some inequalities are imposed. This in many 
cases, however, implies lack of care or skill on the 
part of the examiners rather than inapplicability of 
the examination test. 

Lhe object of the erin: however, was to 
advocate principles, without formulating details, 
and ae th, from both sides will help towards 

Thus the suggestion that candidates 
e scholarships should offer an historical 
; for seine literary subject as subsidiary to their main 

one is met by a resolution in favour of allowing a 

edge of science to count in history scholar- 


ps. ‘This is quite as it should be, for the ignor- 
ance of literature and philosophy displayed by men 
of science in the past could only be matched or 
the ignorance of the literate, not only 

of the ical world and the details of life around 
them, but also of all the great conclusions of 
science concerning man’s origin, nature, and 
destiny. — 
Another subject dealt with by Sir Frederic 
Kenyon is the question of the relation of school to 
univ and the shortening of school life. Not- 
withstanding some difference of opinion between 
Sie: Ja: Je Thomson’s committee and the conference, 
there is reason for thinking that many of the great 
schools possess both staff and apparatus which 
qualify them to carry out effectively the work 
ores dickens: in the first year of a university course. 
*-says the conference, ‘‘ on coming 
j Mapanisersity should come under the influence of 

| s great teachers of the subject (instead of being 
. as is sometimes the case, in the hands 
inior lecturers or demonstrators), and should 
ired with the views and the spirit of those 
seats _ What, then, it may be asked, is the 
use of a junior staff if it is not to be employed, 
and what was the advantage to the mass of under- 

graduates of the majority of the great men of the 
tis, whose teachings they were unable to follow? 

Clerk Maxwell, Stokes, Kelvin, and others who 
might be named were not, and could not be, 
_. appreciated by more than the. select few, and by 
them chiefly for the sake of general illumination 
rather than for specific instruction. Historical 
and literary subjects afford a better field, but origi- 
nality is sometimes bewildering to the beginner, 
and the professor eminent in research is the best 
leader in most subjects only when the student is 
able to follow at the same pace. 

The report affords interesting reading, and it 
contains an appendix which gives a summary of 
the main facts regarding the distribution and value 


of scholarships to the universities, with suggestions. 


which will doubtless lead to further consider- 
‘ation. — 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


SIR BOVERTON REDWOOD, BART. 

Soe and the petroleum industry have 

suffered a severe loss in the sudden death 
of Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., which occurred 
at his residence, The Cloisters, Avenue Road, 
Regent’s Park, on June 4. Despite his profound 
knowledge of the subject he had made his own, 
Sir Boverton Redwood will perhaps be best re- 
membered by those of us who had the privilege 
of being associated with him in any of his numer- 
ous interests for the charm of his individual per- 
sonality. The unique position he occupied in the 
petroleum world was doubtless in large measure 
due to this personal attraction, which, as chairman 
of committee, or as witness, or in mere friendly 
discussion, exerted an influence the value of 
which in giving expression to his views it would 
be difficult to over-estimate. His death leaves a 
blank which it is safe to say will never be com- 
pletely filled. 

Born in April, 1846, Sir Boverton was in his 
seventy-fourth year when he died—an age which 
would have fairly justified his retirement from 
active work. This, however, was the last thing 
he desired, and it is more than probable that the 
strain of four years of war, during which he gave 
of his best to the Admiralty and to the Petroleum 
Executive, seriously reduced his power of resist- 
ance to the illness to which he succumbed. 

It was in the year 1869 that, as a young ana- 

tical chemist, he was appointed secretary of the 

etroleum Association and thereupon determined 
to specialise in this subject. That he was soon 
recognised as a leading authority is evidenced by 
his appearance in 1872 as a witness before a 
Select Committee of the House of Lords; and a 
few years later, when it was decided to replace 
the somewhat untrustworthy open “flash-point ” 
testing apparatus by the Abel instrument, it was 
Boverton Redwood who, by a series of more than 
a thousand separate tests, demonstrated that the 
equivalent of the existing legal standard of roo® F., 
open test, was, by the new close test, 73° F., and 
this figure was adopted in the amending Act of 
1879. In 1883 he accompanied Sir Vivian 
Majendie in an extended tour on the continent 
of Europe to study the methods employed by 
foreign Governments in dealing with the storage 
of petroleum oil and spirit, and a few years later 
he paid a similar visit to the United States. 
There was, indeed, scarcely an oil-bearing dis- 
trict in the world that he had not visited. 

For many years Sir Boverton was _ technical 
adviser to the Corporation of the City of London 
and to the Port of London Authority, and hono- 
rary adviser to the Home Office, the Admiralty, 
the India Office, and the Colonial Office, and in 
1912 he was appointed a member of the Royal 
Commission on Oil-fuel presided over by Lord 
Fisher. He had already served as a member of 
the Committee appointed by the Home Secretary 
in 1908, with Sir Henry Cunynghame as chair- 
man, to report on the existing legislation regard- 
ing petroleum spirit. 


288 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 


In 1896 Sir Boverton made a most valuable con- 
tribution to the industry he had so much at heart 
by the publication of his great work, “A Treatise 
on Petroleum.’’ This has already passed through 
three editions, and a fourth was in course of 
preparation at the time of ‘his death. He was 
also primarily responsible for the foundation of 
the Institute of Petroleum Technologists, of which 
he was the first president. In 1873 he married 
the eldest daughter of the late Mr. Frederick 
Letchford, who survives him. His. only son, 
Bernard Boverton, died in 1911, leaving -a son, 
Thomas Boverton, born in 1906, who now suc- 
ceeds to the baronetcy. AM Sy 


NOTES. - 

Amonc the additional honours conferred on the 
occasion of the King’s birthday we notice the fol- 
lowing :—-G.C.B.: Sir H. Llewellyn Smith, Secretary, 
Board of Trade. K.C.B.: Mr. Stanley M. Leathes, 
First.Civil Service Commissioner. C.B.: Mr. R. J. G. 
Mayor, Principal Assistant Secretary (Universities), 
Board of Education, and Prof. S. J. Chapman, Senior 
Assistant Secretary, General Economic Department, 
Board of Trade. Knight: Col. G. P. Lenox-Conyng- 
ham, Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey, 
Dehra Dun, India. 


Tue following medical men are among those whose 
names are included in a list of further’ honours 
and appointments made on the occasion of the King’s 
birthday :—K.C.B.: Col. W. Taylor and Lt.-Gen. Sir 
W. Babtie. K.C.M.G.: The Hon. Sir John McCalle 
(Agent-General in London for the State of Tasmania), 
Col. W. T. Lister, Major-Gen. H. N. Thompson, 
Brig.-Gen. J. Moore, and Major-Gen. Sir W. P. 
Herringham. K.C.V.O.: Mr. J. O. Skevington. 

.B.E.: Col. H. A. Ballance, Col. R. H. Firth, 
Col. C..G. Watson, Major-Gen. G. B. Stanistreet, 
Col. H. Davy, Lt.-Col. and Bt. Col. G. Sims Wood- 
head, Lt.-Col. Sir S.. F. Murphy, Lt.-Col. D’Arcy 
Power, Lt.-Col. J. L. Wood, Lt.-Col. H. Mcl. W. 
Gray, Lt.-Col. Sir A. W. Mayo-Robson, Col. C. J. 
Symonds, Maj. and Bt. Lt.-Col. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., 
Major-Gen. Sir Robert Jones, Lt.-Col. A. D. Reid, 
Col. H. G. Barling, and Col. J. Swain. 


AIRCRAFT crews are speeding up for the eastward’ 
flight across the Atlantic, and, weather permitting, 
fresh attempts will be made very shortly. The Times 
of June 10, in a cablegram from St. Johns (N.F.) 
dated June 9, says:—‘‘The Vickers-Vimy machine 
ascended for its trial flight at 8.17 a.m. (Greenwich 
mean time). It descended after a spin of about forty 
minutes. . . . The airmen report that everything was 
working satisfactorily. ... The ‘machine will now 
await suitable weather for the Atlantic flight.’’ The 
crew of the Handley-Page machine had earlier ex- 
pressed the hope to be ready for the flight by June 15. 
There is the advantage now of the full moon. At the 
time of going to press the weather conditions over 
the eastern Atlantic were not very favourable. There 
were cyclonic disturbances in the Atlantic at no great 
distance from the Irish coast. If the aeroplanes which 
are being prepared had been ready on June 3, they 
would probably have experienced very favourable 
weather for the flight. At St. Johns a very light north- 
east wind was blowing and the weather was clear. 
During the night of June 3-4 no wireless weather 
message from the open Atlantic reported more than 
a fresh wind, and the direction was uniformly from 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103 | 


the westward. There was a good deal of cloud with 
some rain and mist on the British coasts, which 
seemed the only unfavourable factor, 
History of Surface Air-Currents,” published by the 
Meteorological Office, giving the trajectories for mid-— 
June, 1883, from some Atlantic synchronous charts, 
shows the surface wind from Newfoundland to travel 
up the Davis Strait and down to the eastward of 
Greenland, striking fairly southwards to the equator, 
so that all June weather is not favourable to the 
trans-Atlantic flight. .Current weather conditions alone 
can be of use for safe guidance. 


Tue thirtieth annual conference of the Museums 
Association will be held in the University Museum, 
Oxford, on July 8-10, under the presidency of Sir 
Henry Howorth. The chief subjects for discussion 
are the question of transferring the control of 
museums to the education authority and the desir- 
ability of a diploma for museum curators and the 
necessary course of Ce Among papers with a 
scientific bearing will be ‘‘ Suggestions for Preparin 
and Mounting Museum Specimens,” by L. ~. W. 
Renouf; ‘‘The Pitt-Rivers Museum,” by H. Balfour; 
and ‘Timber Collections for Museums,” by H. Stone. 
Prof, Sollas will demonstrate the arrangement of the, 
geological collections and his section-cutting machine, . 


Prof. Poulton will elucidate the collections in his_ : 


care, and contributions are promised by Prof. J. L. 
Myres and Dr. H. M. Vernon, among others. Visits 
will be paid to other museums and places of historic 
interest in Oxford. Each museum subscribing one 
guinea may send three delegates, and individuals can 
join on payment of half a guinea. The secretary 
(whose resignation we regret.to see announced) is Mr... 
W. Grant Murray, Art Galleries, Swansea, and the local 
secretary, to whom inquiries about accommodation 
should be addressed as soon as possible, is Miss W. 
Blackman, of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. 


THE joint session of the Aristotelian Society, the 
British Psychological: Society, and the Mind Associa- 
tion, to take place at Bedford College on July 11-14, 
promises some communications of present ‘scientific 
interest. Dr. Rivers will expound a new theory of 
the repression of instinct in normal conscious life, to 
which he has been led in the study of war neuroses 
in the military hospitals. He is to open a symposium 
on “Instinct and the Unconscious,’’ in which Dr. 
C. G. Jung, the leader of the Zurich school of psycho- 
pathology, will take part. The important neuro-. 
logical discoveries of Dr. Head will also be discussed 
in their bearing on the metaphysical problem of the 
nature of the ultimate data of science. This sym- 
posium will be presided over by Sir J. Larmor. It 
will be opened by Prof. Whitehead, who, with Sir 
Oliver Lodge and Prof. J. W. Nicholson, will repre- 
sent different views on the questions raised by the 
recent relativity and quantum theories. In’ pure 
philosophy Mr. Bertrand Russell will expound a new 
view of what propositions are and how they mean, 
the result of a recent critical examination of the 
new behavourist psychology. Lord Haldane is to pre- 
side over a symposium on the relation of the finite 
to the infinite mind, which the Dean of Carlisle will 
open, and in which the Bishop of Down will take 
part. The theory of knowledge will be discussed in a 
symposium on ‘Knowledge by Acquaintance,” at 
which Prof. Sorley will preside. The arrangements 
announced in the programme do not exhaust the 
interest of the session, as there are to be informal 
meetings for the reception of short communications” 
and discussions on present controversies. en. | 


“The Lifes, 


tions of its 


_ JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


289 


THE ladies’ soirée of the Royal Society will be. held 
at Burlington House on Wednesday, June 25, at 8.30. 


Tue general board of the National Physical Labora- 
‘tory will meet at Bushy House, Teddington, on 
Tuesday, June 24. 


“Dr. J. J. Suwpson has been appointed keeper of 
meley in the National Museum of Wales, and Dr. 
E N. Thomas keeper of botany. 


__ Tue Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society will be 
delivered on June 19 by the Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., 
on “‘Phosphorescence and Fluorescence in Metallic 


Vapours. ” 


‘We regret to announce the death on June 1o, at 
ixty-nine years of age, of the Ven. William Cunning- 
ham, D.D., Archdeacon of Ely, and fellow of Trinity 
College, Cambridge. Dr. Cunningham was the author 
of a number of important works on the economic 
“aspects of the history of commerce, and from 1891 to 
ae wie professor of economics at King’s College, 


___ It is announced in Science that the Edison medal 
for meritorious achievement in electrical science or 
ectrical engineering has been awarded to Mr. Ben- 

a ae eer of the Westinghouse Electric and 
Manufacturing Co., and was presented to him at the 

recent annual meeting of the American Institute of 

Electrical Engineers. 


We learn from the Times that an International 
Hydrographic Conference will meet in London on 
June 24. conference will be representative of 
all maritime nations, except the Central Powers, 
Turkey, and Russia, and it is hoped that the hydro- 
aphic experts will settle many differences in respect 
to charting, hydrographic publications, and hydro- 
graphy generally. — | 


_ Tue following kave been nominated as officers and 
council of the Wild Bird Investigation Society for 
the cc 1919-20 :—President: Mr. J. H. Gurney. 
_ Vice-Presidents: Dr. F. G. Penrose, Prof. D’Arcy W. 

hompson, and Mr. E. Wheler-Galton. Council: Mr. 


telegraphy,’’ has given much gratification to-men of 
developments of wireless telegraphy 
have been so remarkable that the early demonstra- 
racticability by Sir Oliver Lodge are 
likely to be forgotten except by the people who wit- 
nessed them. e are glad, therefore, that the Royal 
Society of Arts has by its award given public recogni- 
tion of his pioneer work, and has distinguished itself 
_ by being the first to confer an honour so fully merited. 


On account of the very large number of applica- 
tions that have been received by the organising com- 


mittee of the forthcoming British Scientific Products 


Exhibition. to be held ‘under the auspices of the 
British Science Guild, all the space available at the 
Central Hall, Westminster, has now been allotted, 
and no further applications can be considered. | The 
_ exhibition will be open to the public from: July. 3. to 
August 5. Its scope will be more extensive than was 
possible at last year’s display, when war conditions 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


made it necessary to-withhold from public view much 
of the. scientific and technical, work carried on in 
Great Britain. Striking testimony will be furnished 
of the enterprise of British manufacturers, and the 
uses they have made of science and invention in new 
industries and in the development of old. 


A copy of the annual report for 1918 of the council 
of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New 
Zealand, has been received. From it we learn that 
early in the year the Government voted the sum of 
50ol. to the New Zealand Institute for research work. 
Five applications for allotments were made through 
the Institute of Canterbury, and the following grants 
were made to members :—2ool. to Dr. W. P. Evans, 
for investigation of New Zealand brown coals; sol. to 
Dr. Chas. Chilton, for investigation of New Zealand 
flax (phormium); and 30l. to Mr. L. J. Wild, for a 
soil survey of the Canterbury Plains district. The 
principal action of the institute in the direction of the 
co-ordination of science and industry during the past 
year led to the establishment by the board of governors 
of Canterbury College of a technological section 
in the public library. The need for modern technical 
literature has been felt very much during the past 
four years by those engaged in the many: attempts to 
establish industries of a chemical, or more or less 
scientific, nature. This section, though yet small, will, 
if adequately supported, eventually prove of great in- 
dustrial value. The institute’s representative on the 
board of trustees of the Riccarton Bush reports that 
the Bush has been open to the public during the year 
at the usual times, and has been visited .by large 
numbers. The Bush continues to be of great use to 
the botanical students in the neighbourhood of Christ- — 
church and to members of the institute. 


THE preparation of lac, one of the oldest Indian 
industries, has recently been investigated by the Im- 
perial Government. Though other countries, notably 
Japan and German East Africa, have attempted the 
cultivation of lac, their efforts have so far proved 
fruitless, and India retains the monopoly of this im- 
portant industry, which supplies exports amounting 
to 4 crores of rupees, or about 260,0001. The 
collection of the product is still largely confined to 
the wilder forest tribes, and their methods are care- 
less, imperfect, and wasteful. The same may be said 
of the present methods of making shellac. There 
is a real danger that it may be replaced by a syn- 
thetic product, and the example of indigo shows the 
possibility that the industry may ultimatelv disappear.. 
Not long ago the forest chemist at Dehra Dun 
worked out a method of extracting the pure lac-resin 
with a wood spirit. This and other suggestions 
for improvement of the manufacture are now being’ 
considered by the Government of India, and there seems 
reason to anticipate that, in the immediate future, 
India ‘will be able to meet the ever-increasing demand 
for shellac. 


A COMPREHENSIVE paper on the Orthoptera of Nova 
Scotia has been recently published by Mr. H. Piers 
(Proc, and Trans. Nova Scot. Inst. Sci., vol. xiv., 
part 3, 1918). In addition to careful diagnoses of the 
twenty-eight species enumerated, the author gives 
valuable distributional, bionomic, and economic notes. | 
It is rather surprising that, with the exception of the 
imported cockroaches, no member of the Nova Scotian 
orthopteran fauna is found in Great Britain. 


Mr. W. Dwicur Pierce has published (Proc. U.S. 
Nat. Mus., vol. liv., No. 2242) a second supplement 
to his monograph on the Strepsiptera. He brings 
forward additional arguments for his contention that 


290 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 


these curious parasites should be regarded as a dis- 
tinct order of insects, describes their effects on various 
hosts, gives important morphological details (especially 
of the fascinating triungulin larve), and furnishes the 


student with extensive systematic revisions, including . 


a diagnostic table of all known female Stylopide and 
a new summary of the geographical range of the 
166 species of the order at present recognised. Of the 
sub-regions of A. R.. Wallace, the South .African, 
Siberian, Chilian, and New Zealand are still without 
records of these insects. 


WE have received the seventy-ninth annual report, 
for the year 1918, of the Crichton Royal Institution, 
Dumfries—a mental hospital. With regard to ad- 
missions it is noted that there was a distinct increase 
in the proportion of cases attributed to such factors 
as emotional stress, overwork, and bodily ill-health, and 
a progressive decrease in the proportion of alcoholic 
cases. Influenza also accounted for some admissions. 
Various experiments on potato-growing, cattle-breed- 
ing and feeding, and sugar-beet growing were con- 
ducted at the farm. The institution possesses a com- 
pletely equipped meteorological station, and a summary 
of the observations and records for 1918 is included 
in the report. 


An interesting paper on X-ray demonstration of the 
vascular system by injections is contributed by Mr. 
H. C. Orrin to the March issue of the Archives of 
Radiology and Electrotherapy (No. 224). It is claimed 
that such radiographs would be of the greatest value 
in the study of anatomy, showing the relative posi- 
tions of various structures in a manner’ impossible 
by dissection alone. By using different injection fluids, 
veins and arteries may be shown by a gradation of 
tone. Mr. Orrin also hopes to be able to demonstrate 
nerves and lymphatics by this method. The plates 
which accompany the paper support the claims made, 
the minute ramifications of vessels in the hand, heart, 
viscera, etc., being beautifully demonstrated. 


In a paper on “The Cassiterite Deposits of Tavoy” 
(Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xlix., p. 23, 1918), Mr. 


J. Coggin Brown points out that wolfram becomes 


separated from tin ore when washed out of a decaying 
lode on account of its rapid comminution and ultimate 
solution. As the author somewhat quaintly remarks, 
it ‘disappears long before its journey is ended.” 
Much of the granite in the Tavoy district has been 


denuded to a level below that of the original lodes, 


the cassiterite being now represented only in the mar- 
ginal contacts and the placer deposits. Another 
interesting mineral occurrence recently described in 
India is that of aquamarine in rich abundance in 
pegmatites in Kashmir (C. S. Middlemiss, ibid., 
p- 161). 


No. 6 of vol. iii. of the American Mineralogist (price 
50 certs) is devoted to the memory of René-Just Haiiy, 
and includes a valuable series of portraits, otherwise 
difficult to obtain. The articles deal with various 
aspects of the life and work of “the father of crystallo- 
graphy,’ and Prof. E.T. Wherry shows how Fedorov’s 
‘“‘crystallo-chemistry” and his own extension of 
Fedorov’s layer-theory into the field of optical proper- 
ties are developments of Hatiy’s principle of rationality. 
Appropriately enough, Prof. A. Lacroix has recently 
given us a careful biography and appreciation of Haiiy’s 
contemporary, Déodat Dolomieu (tiie Scientifique, 
No. 2, 1919), in which interesting details are given 
of Dolomieu’s imprisonment in Palermo after Bona- 
parte’s Egyptian expedition, and of the efforts of 
scientific men for his release. Finally, he was included 
by name in the terms of a treaty of peace. 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


Dr. H. A. Tempany, 


in Mauritius. Since 1807 the whole of the lands 


along the sea-coast to a minimum depth of 81 metres. 


from high-water mark have been Government pro- 
perty, and the habit of planting them with trees, 
mainly Casuarina equisetifolia, to ensure a sup 
of fuel for the sugar industry, and also as prt 
belts for inland cultivation, gradually became 
general. Since 1895 the leasing of these lands has 
been carefully regulated, and conditions for Cun. 
fe OF 


and replanting strictly specified. About two-thit 
the area, representing 4440 acres, are now planted 
with Casuarina, and the remainder is under coconuts: 
or mixed species of trees. The Casuarina woods have 
also been utilised for pasturage ; a grass (Stenotaphrum 
glabrum) will thrive luxuriantly in the shade of th 

trees, growing right up to the base of the t Ss. 
Dr. Tempany states that, apart from their economic 
importance, these Casuarina plantations have great 
value from an esthetic point of view, making the 
littoral of Mauritius the most charming that he has: 
ever seen in any tropical country. bese’ 


Tue annual report of the Weather Bureau at Manila. 
for 1916, with hourly meteorological obseryations 
has only quite recently reached. this country. TI 
Philippines are said to have been extraordinarily free 
from typhoons, although the weather map of the Far 
East shows that the number of hoons. was not 
much different from the average. "Wireless weather 
messages. are received from the vessels of the Asiatic 
Fleet at sea, and they are said to be of the great 
value in forecasting the weather. The closest — 
operation exists between the Weather Bureau pete 8 
aviation officers. During the year the seismograph 
at Manila registered 395 disturbances; of these only 
75 originated within 100 kilometres of the observz 


. director of agriculture, 
Mauritius, communicates to the Agricultural News 
(February 22, 1919) an account of the Casuarina woods 


i, . 


tory. At Batuan there were 1022 disturbances, which 


n. 


is the highest number of records from any statio 
The year 1916 was magnetically disturbed beyond : 
normal. Astronomical work was well maintain 

Hourly readings of most meteorological elements ar 
‘‘read directly between the hours 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., 
while for the hours from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. they are 
taken from self-registering apparatus.’’ The metric 
system is followed throughout, as im former years, 
no. cognisance being taken of the new units of 


measurement. There is an absence of rainfall and — 


sunshine observations in the annual volume. 


DurinG the last three years a good deal of attention 
has been directed to the question of protecting the eyes 
of furnacemen from the injurious effects of the: 
light from the furnaces. The United States Bureau 
of Standards has found it necessary to issue a third’ 
edition of its Technological Paper No. 93, first issued 
in November, 1917, on the properties of the various 
glasses now available. 


showing the transmitting properties of a large number 


The paper contains curves: 


. strong 


of glasses, and the following general conclusions are 
drawn :—For protection from ultra-violet light, black, 
amber, green, greenish-yellow, and red glasses are | 


efficient. Against the infra-red rays, deep black, 
yellowish-green, sage-green, bluish-green, and gold-. 
plated glasses are best. ah 


IN a paper presented at the meeting of the physics. 


and chemistry section of the Franklin Institute of — 


¢ 


Philadelphia in January last, and reproduced in the — 


March and April issues of the Journal of the institute, 
Mr. Luckiesh gives the results of the work which has 


been done at the research laboratory of the General 
Electric Co. on the reduction of the visibility of aero-— 


June 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


291 


planes. Visibility from above when an aeroplane is 
_ seen against the ground is best reduced by using on 
the top of the wings a very dark shade of green for 
the high lights, and a bluish-black for the shadows. 
The surfaces when finished should reflect between 
per cent. and 5 per cent. of the incident light. 
Visibili lity from below in the daytime is best reduced 
by the use of franslucent fabrics and dopes. By a 
‘suitable blue tint an aeroplane can be rendered almost 
invisible against a clear sky. Véasibility at night is 


best reduced by painting the aeroplane a matt black. 


THe Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co. has 
two lists of thermometers suitable for indus- 
trial use. List No. 114 deals with glass thermometers 
for steam plant, the chemical trade, jam- and sugar- 
ng, bakeries, breweries, cold stores, and the metal 
tries. The instruments are well protected, and 
nge from —40° te 540° C. List No. 195 deals with 
_ distance thermometers required when the tempera- 
tures at a number of distant points are to be observed 
or recorded at some central office. They are of the 
resistance type, and for observation purposes are con- 
nected by plug switches to a current indicator in 
/ with a small storage cell. The current is 
dered independent of the change of electromotive 
wee of the cell by the aid of a test-switch: For 
ng the temperatures continuously a_ thread- 
r is used. With both an indicator and a 
der installed any thermometer may be con- 
nected to the recorder and give a continuous record, 
while the other thermometers, can, as desired, be con- 
nected to the indicator. In both lists full details as 
to construction and use of the instruments are given. 
Aw article in Engineering for. May 30 makes refer- 
ence to-the Still combined internal-combustion and 
steam engine which formed the subject of a paper 
read before the Royal Society of Arts on May 26 by 
Capt. F. E. D. Acland. This engine is an internal- 

. stion engine, the cylinder of which is jacketed 
with hot water at constant temperature. Heat ab- 
stracted from the combustion cylinder is employed in 
converting the jacket-water into steam. The jacket is 
connected to the water-space of a steam boiler, and 


stroke, and the up stroke is a steam stroke. Remark- 
able economies are claimed. Thus a_ Still-Diesel 


‘engine with compounded steam side had a consump- 
tion of o-302 Ib. of Admiralty shale oil per brake- 
horse-power over one hour’s run. Full test figures 
were not given in Capt. Acland’s paper, which is 
somewhat unfortunate in view of the important 
features of the new engine. It is to be hoped that a 

ete record of engine dimensions and tests will 
be published in the immediate future. 

Tue special catalogues of Messrs. H. Sotheran and 
 Co., 140 Strand, W.C.2, are always of interest and 

value, and the latest one (No. 772), entitled “ Biblio- 
theca Viatica,” is no exception. It gives particulars 
of upwards of nine hundred second-hand works deal- 
ing with, among other subjects, maps and_ atlases, 
road, railway, and hydraulic engineering. There is 
also a section. necessarily not very lengthy, on books 
relating to ballooning and aeronautics. The catalogue 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


contains many items likely to appeal to readers of 
NaTuRE, and should be seen by them. 


Messrs. Longmans and Co, have nearly ready for 
publication Dr. J. F. Spencer’s ‘‘The Metals of the 
Rare Earths”? and a new edition of J. F. Colver’s 
“Dental Surgery and Pathology.” They have ‘also 
in the press Dr. R. A. Houstoun’s ‘‘ The Elements of 
Physies”” and E. W. Blocksidge’s ‘‘Ships’ Boats: 


Their Qualities, Construction, Equipment, and 
Launching Appliances.” Messrs. G. G. Harrap and 
Co., Ltd., are issuing ‘‘General Science,” by 


L. Elhuff, and Messrs. Bailliére, Tindall, and Cox 
promise a ‘‘ Popular Chemical Dictionary,” by C. T. 
Kingzett. 


Messrs. W. Herrer and Sons, Lrp., Cambridge, 
offer in their latest catalogue (No. 179) some four 
hundred books in new condition at substantial reduc- 
tions on pre-war prices. The list is a general one, 
but there is a section devoted to books on natural 
history and other branches of science. In it we notice 
Prof. J. C. Adams’s ‘Scientific Papers,’ 2 vols. ; 
J. G. Hagen’s “Atlas Stellarum Variabilium,” six 
series; R. Braithwaite’s ‘The British Moss-Flora,” 
3 vols.; W. C. Hewitson’s “Exotic Butterflies,” 
5 vols.; H. Seebohm’s “The Turdide, or Family of 
Thrushes,” edited and completed by R. Bowdler 
Sharpe, 2 vols.; Wilson and Evans’s ‘ Aves 
Hawaiienses,” in parts; and sets of “* Biologia Cen- 
trali<Americana.”’ The catalogue is sent free upon 
application. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


An INTERESTING METEOR.—A small fireball was seer 
on May 19, 11.39 G.M.T., by Mr. Denning at Bristol 
and by Mr. Mattey at Woolwich; it moved very slowly 
from a radiant point hitherto unknownin May at about 
68°+63°. The Rev. M. Davidson has computed the 
real path, and finds that the height of the object was 
from 53 to 32 miles, the length of the observed luminous 
course 46 miles, and the velocity about 10 miles per 
second. The theoretical velocity is 14 miles per 
second, but atmospheric resistance must have greatly 
impeded the flight of the meteor. Mr. Mattey saw 
several other meteors during the latter half of May 
from the same radiant in Camelopardalus. 


Tue Sun-spor Maxrmum.—In reporting on the sun- 
spots observed in the year 1918 Mr. Evershed, director 
of the Solar Physics Observatory, Kodaikanal, re- 
marks that the maximum spot activity of the 
present cycle took place during the second half 
of 19r7 for both hemispheres. This judgment 
may be accepted as_ correct, for though some 
hesitation has been felt in accepting this early date 
lest a secondary maximum should occur after a tem- 
porary decline, as has happened in previous cycles, 
these circumstances do not seem likely to occur. The 
date of the previous maximum has been placed in the 
early part of the year 1906, though the sun-spot 
activity of that year was inferior to that of 1905 and 
of 1907. Adopting these estimates as correct, the 
length of the period just ended is slightly above the 
average. te 

Tue Mount Witson Osservatory.—The stellar 
observations in the programme of the institution of 
which Prof. Hale is director, hitherto called the Mount 
Wilson Solar Observatory, California, or sometimes 
the Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, have lately been increasing in import- 
ance. In view of this fact, and of the practical com- 
pletion of the 10o-in. reflector, which will add greatly 
to the range and number of night observations, it is 
proposed that the word ‘Solar’ shall be dropped, and 


292 


NATURE 


\ 


[JUNE 12, 1919 


that in future the designation ‘‘Mount Wilson Ob- 
servatory "’ will be employed, as it is in Prof. Hale’s 
report for 1918. 


Sun-spots AS ELxEcrric Vortices.—Adopting the 
hypothesis that sun-spots are vortices in which elec- 
trified particles produced by ionisation in the solar 
atmosphere are whirled at high velocity and thereby 
give rise to magnetic fields, Prof. Hale has built up 
a research in which he determines the polarity of the 
field or direction of rotation of the vortex by observa- 
tion of the Zeeman effect in the spectrum of the spot. 
In the early stages of this research, before the mini- 
mum of 1912, it was found that in the case of groups 
which consist mainly of two large spots these com- 
ponents were cf opposite polarity, and that, in general, 
the polarities of the leading spots, and consequently 
of the following spots, were of opposite sign in 
the northern and southern hemispheres of the sun. 
After the minimum the surprising fact emerged that 
the polarities were reversed in both hemispheres— 
that is to say, the preceding spots of northern bi-polar 
groups which before the minimum were of the same 
polarity as the north magnetic pole of the earth were 
of the opposite polarity after the minimum. This 
state of things endured, and the interesting question 
arose whether a similar reversal would occur at or 
near the sun-spot maximum, but in Prof. Hale’s report 
for 1918 it is stated that no general change of polarity 
has been observed since the maximum, which occurred 
in the latter half of 1917. 


SCIENCE AND WAR. 


ct be Thursday, June 5, in the Senate House of the 

University of Cambridge, before a distinguished 
audience, Lord Moulton delivered the Rede lecture on 
science and war. After pointing out generally how 
the advances in scientific knowledge had revolutionised 
the methods of warfare since the last great European 
conflict in 1870-71, the lecturer dealt specifically with 
some of the more conspicuous examples of what had 
been achieved during the present war through the 
application of science to military problems. Beginning 
with explosives, he recalled the discovery some seventy 
years ago of guncotton and nitroglycerine, and showed 
how it led to the production of the smokeless powders 
that have revolutionised tactics both by land and sea. 
At first it was found impossible to use guncotton and 
nitroglycerine for anything but blasting or like 
destructive purposes until the discovery was made 
that, by the aid of certain volatile solvents, the two 
substances could be incorporated so as to produce a 
material resembling gelatine, which could be formed 
into pieces of any shape or size. While these gela- 
tinised powders burn with extreme rapidity, they 
are poor conductors of heat.. Thus when the charge 
is fired all the pieces begin to burn on the surface, 
and the combustion spreads itself through each piece 
of the material more rapidly than the high tempera- 
ture can pass inwards by conduction of heat. Hence 
the pieces always burn from the outside, and by 
making the amount of the surface large or small com- 
pared with the bulk the rate of burning of the powder 
can be controlled. : 

Besides providing a perfect propellant, science had 
also given the high explosives needed for shells. These 
are distinguished by the high rate of rise of the pres- 
sure which they produce on explosion. The rate at 
which the pressure comes on in a 6-in. gun is about 
10,000 tons per square inch per second, so that it 
rises to the full pressure of 15 to 20 tons in some- 
thing under the five-hundredth part of a second. In 
a good high explosive the rate of rise per second was 
several millions of tons per square inch, and the period 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


was a fraction of a thousandth part of a second. : Hence 


the shattering effect of these high explosives. High — 
explosives show the remarkable peculiarity that there — 


are two distinct ways in which they can explode. 
One gives rise to a comparatively mild explosion 
which opens out the shell, but does little more: the 
other is a fierce detonation is 2 
to pieces. The cause of this is not understood. but 
it is undoubtedly connected with the intensity of the 
initial disturbance Which sets the explosive off. By 
the commencement of the present war we had learnt 
how to detonate with fair, but not absolute, certainty 
the high explosives then used in the Service. But 
the prospect of the supply of toluene failing to equal 
the enormous demands of our shells necessitated a 
change of high explosive, and the one that was taken 
required special study before detonation could be en- 
sured. It was achieved through the unremitting 
labours of those scientific workers who, little known 
to the public, have had to face and solve the in- 
numerable problems that have presented themselves 
during the war. Through their labours we arrived 
at a degree of excellence which reduced the propor- 
tion of shells which failed to detonate from all causes 
to so small a figure that it was, the lecturer believed, 
little mtore than one-fifth of that of our adversaries. 


by which the shell is rent 


Lord Moulton then referred to the changes in artil 
lery which the new explosives had brought about, men- _ 


tioning our howitzers, which, at ranges such as eight 
to fifteen miles, could be relied on to fire shot after shot 
with a variation of a few yards only, and also making 
some interesting statements with regard to the long- 
range gun which the Germans used to bombard Paris. 
Amongst other things, he pointed out that the dis- 
tance passed over by the projectile was so great that 
if the Germans had taken the trouble to aim at any 
particular building they must have allowed nearly 
half a mile for the fact that during the flight the 
rotation of the earth would to that extent carry the 
Eeva further towards the east than it would carry 
the gun. 
The most hateful chapter of the work of science in 
the war was the introduction of chemical warfare. 
The first gas attack was on April 22, 1915, and it was 
not until the following September that we were able 
in any way to retaliate. But our immediate reply 
was one that did honour to science. Due to the 
splendid work of the late Col. Harrison, a system of 
defence by gas-masks was established, in which we 
were for the greater part of the war far ahead of our 
adversaries, who succeeded in coming up to us only 
by learning and copying our methods. EAs 
Finally, the lecturer paid an eloquent tribute to the 
assistance rendered by science in the war in dealing 
with disease and wounds, with particular reference to 
the success which had attended the use of anti-tetanus 
serum, to the reduction of the rate of mortality in 
spotted fever to one-tenth of its former value, and to: 
the complete elucidation of the mode of transmission 
of bilharziasis, a disease with which we were faced 


through the presence of large contingents of our troops | 


in Lower Egypt. 
one overmastering lesson was to be derived from the 
contemplation of all that science had done in the war. 
She had made mankind too formidable a being to be” 
permitted to have recourse to it. The uncontrolled 
indulgence on the part either of a nation or of an 
individual in the exercise of the power that science 


Lord Moulton’s conclusion was that — 


had placed within reach was too directly fatal to — 


civilisation itself. It was easy to criticise the League 
of Nations and to point out the difficulties, and even - 
impossibilities, with which it was faced, but we should 
never forget that some combined action of that typ 
was an imperative necessity. » ; 


JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE | kas 


~ INDIAN SURVEY REPORT. 

THE records of the Survey of India, vol. xi. 
7 (supplementary to the General Report, 1916-17), 
including the Annual Report of Parties and Offices, 
1916-17, Contain little that can be considered as 
matter of wide scientific interest or of great im- 
portance from either the geodetic or the geographical 
point of view. It is the usual summary of excellent 
work completed by the officers of the Survey of India 
2h akan amply illustrated by special charts and 
tables of the results of scientific observations, which 
occupy a very large space in the report. 
_ The ent was necessarily short-handed 
owing to the absence on active service of many of its 
officers, and one or two of those special branches of 
research which have been systematically undertaken 
by the scientific experts of the Trigonometrical 
Survey have been temporarily suspended. Thus there 
are no fresh records of pendulum, or of latitude, 
observations such as have lately added so much valu- 
able evidence to investigations dealing with the force 
of gravity; but there is a useful summary of the 
conditions under which some of the early pendulum 
observations were taken (notably those of Col. Basevi 
at Moré), which will serve as a guide to future in- 
vestigators. ‘The conclusion expressed by Col. Lenox 
Conyngham is to the effect that “the Moré observa- 
tions are too uncertain for any argument to be based 
on them”—a conclusion which was more or less 
anticipated by Prof. Borrass, of the Prussian Geodetic 
‘Institute, and Mr. R. D. Oldham. It is a question 
of instrumental stability, not of personal accuracy in 
observation. 

No new base line was measured during the year 
under review. There are, on the other hand, very 
complete tables of the results of the Magnetic Survey 
under Mr. Bond, a subject which has lately derived 
increasing public interest from the investigations of 
Mr. E. A. Reeves, of the Royal Geographical Society’s 
staff, who has published the results of a new method 
of reduction of the dip angle to a common line of 
reference provided by the axis of the ‘earth’s rotation, 
and proved that curves of equal dip are approxi- 
mately coincident with parallels of latitude. Mr. 
Reeves’s views on this subject, fully illustrated, will 
be found in the March issue of the Journal of the 


society ., 

‘st- triangulation appears to have been con- 
fined to the Madura Series, and some useful hints 
may be derived from the report as to methods of 
dealing with those flat, jungle-covered regions of 
which there is such a superabundance in the un- 
triangulated spaces of the earth. This is really a 
far more important matter for investigation and dis- 
cussion than it may appear to be at first sight. The 
topographical section of the report confines itself to 
the details of the most practical side of surveying. 
There is nothing of an exploratory nature about them. 
- The work of transfrontier reconnaissance is in abey- 
- ance, and nothing is said about Mesopotamia. 
An illustrated section of the report, which deals 
_ with the representation of ‘‘relief’’ in maps by means 
of a series of coloured plates, would perhaps meet 
_ with a certain amount of criticism if it were brought 
a little more into public view by inclusion in some 
well-known periodical. One great fault of the Indian 
Survey reports is that the popular side of them is not 
sufficiently within reach of the public. Map repro- 
duction generally, and the best way of representing 
relief, are, in these days of a greatly increased interest 
in geography, subjects on which there. are many 
opinions and wide divergences of view. The methods 
adopted by the Indian Survey are admittedly not 
entirely satisfactory, and the difficulties in the way 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


of making them satisfactory are fairly well explained 
in this report. It would certainly be useful if such 
an important map-producing department as that of 
the Survey of India could inaugurate a discussion 
(especially on the subject of a colour scheme) in which 
the public which uses its maps could express a free 
opinion. Savkhe BM: 


SUB-ANTARCTIC WHALES AND 
W HALING.* 


ERE history of whaling in northern waters, and 

of the hunting of sperm whales in warmer seas, 
has often been written, and some of the principal facts 
relating to these subjects are matters of common 
knowledge. There is reason to believe that the exist- 
ence of a whaling industry, which was inaugurated 
just outside the South Polar circle after the com- 
mencement of the present century, is by no means 
generally known. Although Capt. Cook, Sir James 
Ross, and others had many years before reported the 
presence of whales in those latitudes, no practical 
advantage was taken of the information unti} 
fourteen years ago; and since that date the industry 
has eclipsed in importance all that had been done 
previously, even when the Greenland whale ‘fishery ”’ 
was at its height. 

In 1892 Capt. C. A. Larsen left Norway for. the 
Far South, which he reached in the October of that 
year, No whaling was done, and an expedition to 
the same regions, fitted out by Capt. Svend Foyn in 
the next year, was also unproductive of whales, 
mainly for the reason that it had been intended to 
hunt right whales and sperm whales. The Nor- 
wegian captains brought home, however, a very vivid 
impression of the enormous number of whales fre- 
quenting sub-Antarctic waters; and the fact that they 
at first made no further ventures was due to the 
profitable nature of the whaling in the neighbourhood 
of the Norwegian coasts. Dr. W.S. Bruce had simul- 
taneously (1892) accompanied four vessels of the 
Dundee whaling fleet to the Antarctic, and had been 
similarly impressed with the abundance of whales in 
these waters. A meeting was shortly afterwards held 
in the rooms of the Royal Scottish Geographical 
Society at Edinburgh to advocate the use of the 
modern Norwegian methods of whaling in the South; 
but the proposal was not carried, and no practical 
steps were taken. 

Capt. Larsen afterwards became the commander 
of the Antarctic, the exploring vessel of Dr. 
Nordenskjéld’s Swedish South Polar Expedition, 
1901-3. The Antarctic was wrecked; and Capt. 
Larsen, on his return journey, found himself at 
Buenos Aires, where in 1904 he founded the Compania 
Argentina de Pesca, the first whaling company which 
undertook operations in the Far South. This com- 
pany commenced work at South Georgia in 1905, 
while the South Shetland Islands were visited with 
the same object in 1906, and the South Orkney 
Islands in 1911. The operations have proved so suc- 
cessful that there are now numerous companies whal- 
ing at South Georgia and the South Shetlands, a 
large proportion being Norwegian. While the most 
successful whalers in the Greenland industry from the 
seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries were the 
British and the Dutch, the Norwegians have almost 
a monopoly of the art at the present time, and nearly 
all the skilled workers are of that nationality. 

The older whalers hunted with hand-harpoons from 
small boats, provided with sails and oars, which were 

1 From a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Fridav, May 16, 


by Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.R.S. (Published by permission of the Trustees of 
the British Museum.) 


294 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 


launched from the parent ship on sighting a whale, 
The objects of their chase were principally the Green- 
land whale, the Atlantic right whale, and the sperm 
. whale; and they were unable to attack and capture 
the larger and swifter rorquals. 

About 1865 the Norwegian whaling captain Svend 
Foyn invented the modern whaling-gun, which was 
fitted with an explosive tip and a_ barbed har- 
poon carrying a strong rope. The explosion was 
regulated so as to occur immediately after the har- 
poon hit the whale, which is sometimes killed at once, 
and in any case is severely injured by a successful 
shot. The gun is carried in the bow of a steam- 
whaler, which chases the animal until a favourable 
opportunity for shooting occurs. These methods have 
revolutionised whaling, and there is now no whale 
which is too large to be captured. 

In the prosperous days of the Greenland whale 
“fishery,” 1437 whales were caught by seventy-six 
ships in 1814—an average of not quite twenty whales 
to each vessel—and this is mentioned by Scoresby 
(1820) as a specially good year. At the present day 
the number of whales caught by a single vessel during 
the whaling season of six months may rise to more 
than three hundred; and the total number .caught 
off South Georgia and the South Shetlands together 
has exceeded 10,000 in one year. Bearing in mind 
the universal history of whaling in the past—a period 
of prosperity succeeded by a rapid decline and a final 
abandonment of the industry—the question arises 
whether there is not a serious danger that sub- 
Antarctic whaling will have a similar experience. 

_ The question of the disappearance of ‘the whales is 
not merely a sentimental one, though zoologists would 
naturally view their extermination with deep concern 
on scientific grounds. The plea for their preservation 
may be strengthened, however, by emphasising the 
fact that they are of the highest economic importance. 
The baleen or whalebone of the right whales is a 
material of much practical utility for many purposes ; 
but its importance is almost negligible compared with 
that of the oil which is derived from the blubber and 
other parts of whales. Whale-oil can be readily trans- 
formed into soap and glycerine, while it is possible to 
are from it a fat which is perfectly inodorous and 
is utilised in the manufacture of margarine. During 
the war it has been of vital importance. Enormous 
quantities of glycerine derived from it have been used 
for the manufacture of explosives, and it has been 
scarcely less important in its relation to. the food supply. 
If whale-oil had not been obtainable, the glycerine 
which was essential for our national security must 
have been derived from other animal fats or. from 
vegetable oils, and the shortage of fat required as 
food would have been very serious. After the oil has 
been extracted on the whaling grounds, the remainder 
of the carcass may be dried and ground down into 
“‘suano,”’ which is valuable as a fertiliser for crops, 
and is also utilised for the preparation of cattle-foods. 
It is not always possible to carry out ‘this part of the 
process, and an enormous waste of valuable material 
may result from this omission. Since it is well known 
that the flesh of Cetacea is fit for human food, it is 
by no means impossible that a part of the enormous 
quantity of meat which might be obtained from them 
may be so utilised in the future. 

Although a few right whales and sperm whales are 
captured by the sub-Antarctic whalers, who occasionally 
kill some of the smaller Cetacea as well, the industry 
in these waters is almost entirely confined to three 
species of the larger whales. Of these the humpback 
rarely exceeds 55 ft. in length, the fin whale is not 
much more than 85 ft., while the blue whale, probably 
the largest animal that has ever existed, is sometimes 
more than too ft. long. In the first few years of 


NO, 2589, VOL. 103 | 


favourite object of the whalers’ pursuit. 


sub-Antarctic whaling the humpback constituted nearly ; : 


the whole catch, even more than 96 per cent. in 
1910-11, when 5299 individuals of this species were 
captured off South, Georgia in the six months of the 
principal whaling season. In 1912-13 the number of 
humpbacks caught in the same locality, in the corre- 


sponding six months, fell to 2251 (about 53 per cent. 
of the total catch), and in 1913-14 it was reduced to — 


474 {about 18 per cent.). This diminution, which has 
persisted to the present time, has been due largely 


to a reduction of the number of humpbacks frequent- — 


ing South Georgia; but it has been partly caused by © 
an increase in the size of the whaling vessels and of — 
the strength of the tackle employed, enabling the © 


whalers to hunt the larger kinds, which naturally — 
yield more oil and other products than the compara- — 
tively small humpback. The whaling industry thus — 
depends at present almost entirely on the fin whale | 
It is noteworthy that the fin — 


and the blue whale. 
whale, of intermediate size, first rose to prominence 
on the decline of the humpback; but the gigantic blue 


i 


whale has now surpassed it, and has become the © 


There is at | 


present no certain evidence of the reduction in — 


numbers of fin whales and blue whales. = 

In explaining the reduced number of humpbacks 
frequenting the whaling grounds, the whalers rely on 
the hypothesis that individuals of this species are of 
a timi 
a locality by pursuit. There is probably some truth 
in this view, but it is at least possible that the reduc-— 
tion is due to a diminution in number of the total 
stock of humpbacks. Whales are migratory animals, 
and their movements are almost certainly influenced 
by two causes: (1) the distribution of their food 
supply; (2) the position of their breeding grounds. 
The plankton organisms on which the whalebone 
whales subsist are present in vast quantities in polar 
waters during the summer, and the whales are ac- 
cordingly found there at this period. “Towards the end 
of the summer or the beginning of autumn most of 


them forsake high latitudes. The southern humpback © 
coasts of the great southern continents, to the neigh- — 


executes extensive migrations northwards, 


bourhood of the equator, and even beyond it. It is 
in these warmer waters that it is known to breed, 
and it afterwards proceeds southwards in the ensuing 
spring. One of the most alarming facts about this 
species is that it has been extensively ‘hunted along 


the coasts of Africa, South America, and elsewhere. — 


Although it is not possible to assert positively that 
the South Georgia humpbacks are thus affected, there 
are strong reasons for believing that this is the case; 


and it would thus follow that this species is per- 
secuted in sub-Antarctic waters during the summer, | 
and further north during other parts of the year. — 


Remembering that the old whalers reduced the (Green- 
land whale almost to the point of extermination by 
the use of what may now be regarded as primitive 
methods, and that a similar fate has befallen the once- 
flourishing whaling industries of other localities, it 
thus appears that there are the most urgent reasons 
for seeking to afford some immediate measure of pro- 
tection to this and other species of whales. | 
In devising methods for the protection of animals, 
the principle of saving them from being hunted during 
their breeding season has been found specially effec- 
tive. It is very difficult to get complete information 
on this subject with regard to whales, but one of the — 
ways in which a conclusion may be reached is the 


examination of foetal records, a method which has © 


already been adopted with some success by ¢ ; 

and others. By the study of a relatively large mass 
of statistics which has been supplied to the British 
Museum (Natural History) by the whaling companies 


nature, and are readily frightened away from — 


June 12, 1919] 


ing off South Georgia, I have found it possible | 


the whaling season comes practically to an end, and 


in each 


October, 
- reach the 


NATURE 


295 


ges 
: 


arrive at certain definite results which amplify or 
ect those of previous observers. These are 

clear in the case of the fin whale, which 
i the largest number of records. It is 
in a given month there is a particular 
tus which has the greatest frequency; that 
nth a greater length is most common; 
several succeeding months, after which 


: 


8. 
@ 


for 


oe: 
: 


in eac of the three species principally hunted at South 
Georgia, pairing takes place with greatest frequency at 
a certain of the year, and that a normal curve 


ng ean be drawn. This result gives, in the 


of p 
z A a satisfactory explanation of the statistical 


rd ‘he season when pairing is at its height 
s in each case outside the period when whaling is 
ely carried on in the Far South; and the im- 
fant conclusion is reached that if the whales are 
e protected during their breeding season, it must 
ably be done in regions of the world farther north 
South Georgia. The validity of the southern 
res, which have, no doubt, been roughly recorded 
by the whalers, has been confirmed by obtaining corre- 
spondin g results from the examination of the statis- 
tice foetal records of northern. whales. 
__It can scarcely be doubted that protective measures 
of | kind are urgently necessary now, or will at 
least become so in the near future; although it is by 
Be means certain what form they should take. The 
ritish Government is, in some respects, in a specially 
favourable position with regard to this matter, since 
all the important whaling grounds of the sub-Antarctic 
gion belong to the Dependencies of the Falkland 
s and lie in its jurisdiction. It is satisfactory 


aS 


te 


to ‘be able to conelude with the statement that the 


ent is fully alive to the necessity of taking 


td 4 


before it is too late, and that an Inter-Depart- 
al Committee is at present engaged, under the 
pices of the Colonial Office, in framing a scheme 
n expedition which is to investigate the whaling 
lem on the spot, with the view of obtaining in- 
formation on which legislation may be based. 


“por 
Be Sie BS 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
aE ASRIEE INTELLIGENCE. 


_CAMBRIDGE.—The governing body 
College offers two exhibitions, each of the value of 
sol. and tenable for two years, to research students 
mmmencing residence at the college in October, 1919. 
The exhibitions will be awarded at the beginning of 
and applications should be sent so as to 
Master of Emmanuel (the Master’s Lodge, 
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England) not later 


of Emmanuel 


_ than September 24. 


_ Lonpon.—A war memorial scheme for University 


College, University College Hospital and Medical 


School has now been settled, and an appeal for a 


gum of 30,000l. is being issued to all old students of 


the colleges whose addresses are known. The com- 
plete scheme as settled by a representative and in- 
fluential committee, under the patronage of the Earl 
of Rosebery, Chancellor of the University of London, 
includes the following features:—A war memorial 
album, containing the records of the academic and 
Service careers of the 268 men who have fallen; 


- memorial tablets recording their names; scholarships 


for the sons and daughters of the fallen; a great hall 
for the use of the college and medical school; and 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


\ 


the endowment of University College Hall, Ealing. 
The hon. treasurer is Capt. Wedgwood Benn, who is 
a fellow of the college; donations sent to him at 
University College will be gratefully acknowledged. 


Oxrorp.—On June to the question. of an applica- 
tion for a Government. grant came before Convocation, 
and by 126 votes to 88 it was decided to authorise the 
Vice-Chancellor to apply for a Government grant or 
grants, and to accept the same on behalf of the Uni- 
versity on condition that the University should co- 
operate with the Government in an inquiry to be 
made into its whole resources and the use which is 
being made of them. 

It appears to be generally allowed throughout the 
University that a large accession of funds is necessary 
for the efficient working of the scientific departments 
under present-day conditions; nor does, there seem 
to be any widespread objection to such an inquiry 
as is proposed. In several quarters, however, dis- 
trust is felt as to the possible effect of control by 
the Board of Education, which appears to be an un- 
avoidable consequence of the acceptance of a grant 
of public money. The independence hitherto enjoyed 
by the University in educational and administrative 
matters is believed by a minority to be at stake. The 
view, however, has prevailed that these apprehensions 
are groundless, or at least are not sufficient to out- 
weigh the positive advantages to be gained by ap- 
proaching the Government, and the division just taken 
in Convocation shows that the University is prepared 
to face the risk. 


Mr. S. O. Rawtine has been appointed lecturer in 
chemistry at Robert Gordon’s Technical , College, 
Aberdeen. 


Tue resignation of Prof. W. M. Gardner of the 
principalship of the Municipal Technical College, 
Bradford, is announced. 


It is announced that the Most Rev. John Henry 
Bernard, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin, has been ap- 
pointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, by the 
Crown in succession to the late Sir J. P. Mahaffy. 


We have received from Mr. H. Valentine Davis, 
‘‘Noddfa,” Wistaston, Crewe, a programme of a 
course of field-work in Snowdonia for the outdoor 
study of geography, botany, and geology, which he 
has arranged to conduct between July 30 and August 13 
at Llanberis. Mr. Davis is prepared to receive ap- 
plications from teachers and others who desire to 
attend the course. 

THE executive committee of the Ramsay Memorial 
Fund reported to a meeting of subscribers on June 5 
that a sum of 43,0001. is in hand and 70,000l. in view, 
so that the 100,000l, aimed at is within realisation. It 
was resolved that :—(1) A sum of 25,000l. be definitely 
allotted to the Senate of the University of London 
towards the provision of a laboratory of chemical 
engineering at University College, London, on the 
site proposed in close proximity to the existing en- 
gineering buildings. (2) The executive committee be 
empowered to employ the balance of the fund already 
subscribed, and all future donations to be received, to 
the foundation of Ramsay memorial fellowships to 
the number of three or to such smaller number as 
they may deem expedient until the fund is sufficient 
for founding fellowships. (3) If and when the amount 
of the fund exceeds the sum required for giving effect 
to resolutions (1) and (2), the division of such further 
sum between the augmentation. of the sum allotted 
for the chemical engineering laboratory and the aug- 
mentation of the number of available fellowships be 
referred to the executive committee for decision. 


296 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 | 


THE University of Liverpool has recently established 
a Tidal Institute for the purpose of research into 
tidal questions, and to constitute a bureau of. informa- 
tion on matters connected with tides. The work con- 
templated at present is mainly mathematical and com- 
putative, though doubtless this will lead in time 
to special schemes of observation, perhaps in co- 
operation with other bodies. The necessary funds 
have been provided by Sir Alfred Booth and Mr. 
Charles Booth, chairmen respectively of the Cunard 
and Booth steamship companies, while Dr. J. Proud- 
man will be the honorary director of the institute. 
It is very satisfactory that this country should again 
have a centre of tidal learning and research at one 
of its universities, to continue, under a new form, 
some of the services rendered to the science by Sir 
George Darwin. It is not possible to judge as yet 
whether or not this makes unnecessary the inclusion 
of tidal matters in the larger scheme for a geodetic 
institute now being discussed, but in any case, 
through the wider range of activity on the part of the 
latter and the intensive theoretical studies of the 
Liverpool institute, each body may be expected to be 
advantageous to the success of the other. 


Tue almost universally conceded necessity for attract- 
ing well-qualified teachers into the profession by offer- 
ing really adequate salaries and improved prospects 
does not appear to be appreciated by some education 
authorities. Recent advertisements in the Newcastle 
Evening Chronicle by a local education authority show 
that 170l. to 200l. per annum is thought to be an ade- 
quate and attractive salary for a well-qualified science 
master who is required for advanced course work, 
and that a ‘‘slinger ’’ for loading machinery parts and 
engines can command a wage of 5/1. per week: (26ol. 
per annum). The comparison does not accentuate the 
value of a good education, nor will it create enthusiasm 
in the minds of possible entrants to the profession. 
We may add that in many rural districts, especially in 
Wales, it is the exception to find secondary-school 
teachers, even with experience, enjoying a salary of more 
than 16ol. per annum. The lamentable inadequacy of 
salaries has reacted upon the supply of teachers, which 
does not now approach the normal demand, and this 
renders all the more difficult the problems of staffing 
the new continuation schools provided for in the recent 
Education Bill, and of diminishing the size of classes 
in the secondary schools to the advantage of the pupils. 
We cannot urge too strongly that the provision of a 
really efficient system of national education depends, 
to a great extent, upon the payment of adequate salaries 
to the teaching staff, and that the question as to 
whether rates or taxes are to provide the additional 
cost should not influence the educational facilities 
offered to the youth of the country. 


At a meeting of the Yorkshire Natural Science 
Association at Sheffield on Saturday, May 24, Prof. 
Ripper, Vice-Chancellor of the University, speaking 
on “*Science and Reconstruction,” said that the task 
of those who wished to promote the extended use 
of science and scientific method in industry was to 
urge the importance of using them in all those indus- 
tries which as yet were untouched by the spirit of 
modern scientific progress. Science could help in two 
ways: first, by the gift of new knowledge, built up 
by the scientific worker with no regard to its indus- 
trial value; and, secondly, by the application of 
scientific method and principles to problems of 
industry. No manufacture could afford to dispense 
with the services of the well-trained man of science, who 
was required wisely to direct the activities of the two 
partners, capital and labour. Prof. Ripper welcomed 
the formation of the Privy Council Committee for 
the purpose of establishing research associations in 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


connection with national industries. The light trades 
and the glass industry of Sheffield were taking steps — 
towards reorganisation and enlisting the help of 
the scientific expert. For the most part, the work 
of training these men of science would devolve upon 
the universities, and to that end their resources would _ 
have to be augmented. The staff and equipment were 
at present fully occupied in the teaching of the under-— 
graduate, and better provision must be made for the — 
advanced student. Governments were the servants — 
of public opinion, and until public opinion was fully 
awake to its duty to the universities and recognised 
the need for an adequate supply of trained persons, 
the progress of industry would be severely handi- — 
capped. 


=e 


Ta 


~ cea 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


LONDON. Basia 
Physical Society, May 9.—Prof. C. H. Lees, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—A. E. Bawtree: A new co: 
transparency process for illustrating scientific lectures. 
The image is produced in a thin colloid film upon 
bare glass. Considerable experimenting led to the — 
selection of a range of dyes and mordants by which 
practically any shade of the most brilliant colouring 
could be obtained. By suitable insulating films, 
images*in any number of colours can be superimposed 
and accurately registered with one another. Thus 
diagrammatic slides can be prepared in various 
colours. The passage of a beam of white light 
through a prism can be shown spreading out into 
bands of colour, instead of merely initialled lines. 
Coloured mosaics can be placed in a diffusing lantern 
to show the preparation of additive colours, e.g, red 
and green producing yellow more convincingly and 
brilliantly than with the Maxwell dise—F. J. W. 
Whipple : Absolute scales of pressure and temperature. , 
The paper urges the general use of the new scales of 
pressure and temperature which have been adopted 
by meteorologists. In the pressure-scale the funda- 
mental unit is the bar, the pressure due to a million 
dynes per square centimetre. The practical unit is 
the millibar. The temperature-scale is that. known as 
the. pseudo-absolute scale, obtained by adding 273 to 
the Centigrade scale. The author, however, considers 
that it would be advantageous to use the “integral 
freezing point” scale, in which the interval between 
absolute zero and the freezing point of water is 
divided into 273° exactly.—Dr. A. O. Rankine: The 
transmission of speech’ by light. Light from a 
point source is collected by a lens of about a metre 
focus, and an image formed on ‘a small concave 
mirror, which is attached to the diaphragm of a 
gramophone recorder. The light diverges and passes 
through a second similar lens, which projects it to 
the distant station. Two similar grids are mounted, 
one in front of each lens. An image of the first grid 
is superposed on the second by reflection in the con- 
cave mirror. When the latter oscillates under the 
vibrations of speech, the dark spaces of the image 
move over the openings of the second grid, thus pro- — 
ducing fluctuations of the intensity of the beam. The — 
light is received bv a collecting lens and focussed 
on a selenium cell in circuit with a battery and tele- 
phone receiver. 


Geological Society, May 21.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 
president, in the chair.—C. I. Gardiner: The Silurian 
rocks of May Hill. With an appendix by Dr. F. R.. 
Cowner Reed. The district of May Hill comprises a - 
small area of ashy grits, which Dr. Callaway in. 1900 
considered to be of pre-Cambrian age. The evidence 
now available does not seem to warrant any definite — 
opinion as regards the age of these beds. Dr. Reed 


JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


297 


describes a new species of Lichas from the Wenlock 
‘Limestone and a new variety of Calymene papillata,— 


Dr. A. Gilligan: The petrography of the Millstone : 


Grit series of Yorkshire. Since the pioneer work of 
Sorby on. this subject, published in 1859, the clastic 
deposits of the Carboniferous system have been un- 
accountably neglected by petrologists. The author has 
followed the usual methods of investigation, and 
policed: 8 large number of pebbles and specimens 
rom widely separated areas, which have been examined 
microscopically. Numerous separations of the heavy 
minerals have also been made from all types of rock, 
varying from coarse conglomerates to shales, which 
occur in the series. In Yorkshire the Millstone Grit 
forms the surface of 840 square miles; while, if that 
which lies beneath the newer rocks and that repre- 
sented by outliers on the Pennine Fells were taken 
into account, it must have extended over at least 
2000 square miles. If tooo ft. be taken as its average 
thickness, the Yorkshire Millstone Grit would repre- 
sent a volume of 400 cubic miles, the equivalent of a 
range of mountains 800 miles long, 1 mile high, and 
imile wide atthebase. The author shows that the most 
probable source of the material lay in a land-mass 
of De ys ipioeee extent, of which Scandinavia and the 
North of Scotland represent the remaining fragments. 
In these areas alone can the mineralogical demands 
of the Millstone Grit be satisfied, and the author in- 
stitutes a comparison between the Torridon Sand- 
stone and the Millstone Grit, which shows that their 
similarity of constitution is altogether too great to 
be merely fortuitous. He infers that, despite their 
disparity in age, they had a common source in that 
northern continent. : 
Society of Glass Technology, May 21.—Dr. M. W. 
_ Travers in the chair.—Dr. W. Rosenhain : Some pheno- 
mena of pot attack. Research was begun on the 
improvement of methods for the production of optical 

ass. The first step was to find a material to arrest 
the attack of molten glass, and to endeavour, if 
possible, to discover a container entirely insoluble in 
glass at high temperatures. A study of glass attack 
upon clay was begun, and the process by which glass 
attacks clay investigated. These processes, owing to 
‘the novel methods used, could be carefully controlled 
under standardised conditions. Small pots made of 
‘china clay cast by a special method were used in the 
research. The furnace was an electrical one, so 
constructed that temperature and atmosphere could 
be kept constant. The pot attack of several glasses 
known to be very violent in their action upon clay 
was studied. The amount of pot attack was measured 
exactly under various time and temperature condi- 


tions. The result showed that the attack was mainly | 


on the bottom of the pot, and that holes were drilled 
in a rough, circular form. In many cases it was 
_ shown that the amount of attack was proportional to 
_ .the depth of the clay beneath the glass surface. The 
explanation of the results was somewhat difficult to 
find, but a study of the solution of solids in liquids 
less viscous than glass led to the conclusion that the 
phenomenon was due to currents set up in the liquid 
by density changes. One of the portions of the 
research had been the microscopic examination of the 
glass and pot after attack. This portion of the work 
is still in progress. It had been proved conclusively 
that holes could be drilled in a pot without having 
_ actual defects in the pot to start with. Another very 
interesting feature recently developed was the applica- 
‘tion of X-rays to the examination of small pots. _ 

Zoological Society, May 27.—Dr. A. Smith Wood- 
ward, vice-president, in the chair.—J. T. Cunningham ; 
Result of a Mendelian experiment on fowls, including 
‘the. production of a pile breed,—Miss Kathleen F. 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103 | 


' over against a real world of unspiritual fact. 


Lander: Some points in the anatomy. of the Takin 
(Budorcas taxicolor whitei).—E. Phelps Allis; Certain 
features of the otic region of the chondrocranium of 
\Lepidosteus, and comparison with other fishes and 
higher Vertebrata. 


Aristotelian Society, June 2.—Lord Haldane in the 
chair—Dean Imge: Platonism and human im- 
mortality. The Platonic doctrine of immortality rests 
on the independence of the spiritual world. The 
spiritual world is not a world of unrealised ideals 
Tt: 18; 
on the contrary, the real world, of which we have a 
true, though very incomplete, knowledge, over against 
a world of common experience which, as a complete 
whole, is not real, since it is compacted out of mis- 
cellaneous data, not all on the same level, by the help 
of the imagination. There is no world corresponding 
with the world of our common experience. Nature 
makes abstractions for us, deciding what range of 
vibrations we are to see and hear, what things we 
are to notice and remember. It is the substantiation 
and continuance of this makeshift construction that 
we are sometimes childish enough to desire.. What 
is real in it is the thought of God transmuted into 
vital law. The operation of these forces we study 
mainly in transverse sections, since we have forgotten 
most of the past and are ignorant of the future. But 
since the soul is a citizen of the eternal world, we can, 
if we will, ‘‘be eternal in the midst of time,’’ though 
our higher life is for most of us fitful, indistinct, and 
confused. It follows that salvation, for the Platonist, 
must be deliverance from a world of shadows and 
half-truths, per tenebras in lucem. 


CAMBRIDGE. 

Philosophical Society, May 19.—Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, 
president, in the chair—F. W. Aston: The use of 
neon lamps in technical stroboscopic work. The 
standard method of calibrating and testing revolution 
indicators for aero-engines is by means of a strobo- 
scopic: disc or cylinder illuminated by flashes of a 
neon lamp. The latter is lit by a small induction coil 
interrupted exactly fifty times per second by a standard 
electrically driven tuning-fork. Neon tubes of the 
ordinary spectrum type give a flash of considerable 
duration, some thousandths of a second, and there- 
fore are unsuitable. This flash when analysed by 
a rotating mirror is found to consist of a single prac- 
tically instantaneous flash followed by a flame or arc. 
By means of a special form of lamp the whole of the 
energy of the discharge can be thrown into the first 
flash, the duration of which has so far defied measure- 
ment, and is certainly less than one ten-millionth 
of a second, making it ideal for stroboscopic work. 
By illuminating an engine running at full speed by 
means of such a lamp arranged to give 99 flashes per 
100 revolutions of the crank-shaft, the engine will 
appear to rotate at one-hundredth its real speed, so 
that the most minute observations on its moving parts 
can be made. This method has also been extended 
to the examination of air-screws for strains when 
running at high speeds.—F. W. Aston : The distribution 
of intensity along positive-ray parabolas of atoms and 
molecules of hydrogen, and its possible explanation. 
This paver deals with the bright arcs or “beads” on 
the positive-rav parabolas of hydrogen which corre- 
spond with half the normal energv, and therefore can- 
not be due to multiple charges. Experiments seem to 
indicate that the discharge can be separated into two 
tvpes. In the first or ‘‘atomic”’ type, which can be 
obtained practically pure under certain conditions, 
it seems possible that the whole discharge is carried 
up to the cathode bv ions of atomic mass. The pro- 
posed explanation of the bright arc on the molecular 


298 


NATURE 


[JUNE 12, 1919 


parabola seen in this type of discharge is that it is 
due to atomic rays colliding with and capturing 
slowly moving neutral atoms in the canal-ray tube, 
_ and so forming molecular rays of half-normal energy. 
The second or “‘ molecular" type, which has only been 
obtained associated with the atomic, is characterised 
by a very bright patch on the molecular parabola 
corresponding with normal energy, and two fainter equal 
symmetrical positive and negative satellite patches on 
the atomic parabola apparently caused by some of 


the charged molecular rays being dissociated by col- , 


lision with a neutralising electron into atoms of oppo- 
site charge each with half the normal energy.— 
C. T, R. Wilson: A micro-voltameter. Experiments 
were described with a mercury voltameter in which 
one electrode consists of a sphere of mercury de- 
posited on the end of a fine platinum wire and 
measured by means of a microscope. Quantities of 


electricity varying from a few hundred electrostatic | 


units to about one coulomb may be measured by it. 


The almost instantaneous change of size of the drop | 


when a capacity of one-tenth of a microfarad, charged 
to one volt, is discharged through the instrument is 
easily observed. 
from a coil connected to the terminals of the volta- 
meter produces an easily measured effect. Experi- 
ments were also mentioned which suggest the possi- 


bility of its application in measurements of much | 


smaller electrical quantities.—R. Whiddington : The self- 
oscillations of a thermionic valve. 
possible to produce oscillations of almost any frequency 
from a three-electrode vacuum valve without employ- 
ing the usual capacity induction circuits. Thus a 


valve with two suitable batteries, one’ in the anode | 


circuit, the other in the grid circuit, will produce quite 
powerful oscillations, the frequency of which will 


be determined by the value of the grid potential. The 
phenomenon can be explained by supposing that the — 


oscillations are due to surges of mercury ions closing 


given by the approximate formula 
ge Ok ag 
, adi 4 


where e/m is the usual charge to mass ratio, d is the 
radial distance filament to grid, and V is the positive- 
grid voltage. Experiments conducted so far indicate 


id 


that the monatomic Hg ion with one live charge is 


mainly responsible. 
DUBLIN. 

Royal Dublin Society, May 27.—Prof. Carpenter in 
the chair.—Prof. W. E. Adeney and H. G. Becker: 
The determination of the rate of solution of atmo- 
spheric nitrogen and oxygen by water. Part ii. This 
paper gives: further results obtained, using the method 
of experimenting described previously (Scientific Pro- 


ceedings R.D.S., vol. xv., p. 385, 1918), #.e. passing © 


a large cylindrical bubble of air up through a narrow 
-column of de-aerated water repeatedly until saturation 
is reached, and measuring the loss in pressure after 
each ascent. An improved form of apparatus is 
described and used to determine the rates of solution 
of oxygen and nitrogen as pure gases between 2:5° C. 
and 35° C., and determinations of solubility within 
these limits are also given. It is shown that the 


rate of solution varies in accordance with the 
equation 

aw A 

— =SAp—f_w 


the values of f being given for the above limits of 
temperature between which S is nearly constant... The 
final results are given in the form 


w =(100 — w,)| 1 ey", 
NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


A magnet inserted in or removed 


It has been found | 
| peutically by investigating the action of an 


in on the filament from the grid with a frequency | Metzler : 


which gives the amount of gas dissolved (in 
centages of saturation) after any time i, the i 
gas-content being equal to wy. 


EDINBURGH. $e : 
Royal Society, May 5.—Dr. John Horne, president, — 
in the chair.—Prof. C. R. Marshall : (1) Some co ) 
influencing the reaction-velocity of sodium nitrate 
blood. Serum and alkalis have a marked teen 
and acids an accelerating, influence on the action ¢ 
sodium nitrite on blood. The investigation was made 
with a spectro-photometer, the part of the spectrur 
observed being A 571-577. The rapidity of the reaction 
was affected by the concentration of the blood and of 
the sodium nitrite. In the case of serum, ferment — 
action played no part. It was found that with minimal — 
concentrations of ‘sodium nitrite an induction period, — 
frequently varying with the specimen of blood used, — 
occurred, which was increased by the addition of 
serum or sodium hydroxide. The duration of the re- — 
active period was less influenced. The amount of — 
sodium hydroxide necessary to delay the reaction © 
varied with the concentration of sodium nitrite. The 
reaction occurred in, although it was Se ote 
by, moderately strong alkaline solutions, which seems 
to show that the action is not due to the formation of 
nitrous acid. The mode of action of sodium nitrite is 
promised in a future communication. (2) The mode 
of action of metal sols. This was an attempt to 
determine the way in which metal sols acted thera-— 


electrolyte. 

free silver colloidal solution on bacteria. The action 
could not be explained by Brownian movement, sur- 
face phenomena, electric charge, catalytic power, or — 
the concentration of ions in the dispersal medium. It 
appeared to be associated with the amicrons which, 
it is suggested, are taken up by the bacilli and prob- — 
ably converted into a soluble product.—Prof. W. H. | 

Factors of circulants.—Capt. T. Bedford 
Franklin: The cooling of the soil at night. This is 
a preliminary account of the observations made during 
the past winter in an endeavour to forecast the oc- 
currence and severity of frosts. A relation was first — 
established between the rate of radiation of the soil — 
at night and the relative humidity of the air. The 
observations then showed ithe connection between the 
loss of heat in the surface of the soil by radiation and 
the gain of heat in the surface by conduction from 
the lower and warmer underground layers, together 
with the latent heat liberated when the surface freezes. 
It is hoped that in the near future it may be possible, © 
early in the afternoon, to forecast the probability and_ 
severity of a frost on the coming night by means of 
readings of ithe relative humiditv and of the under- 
ground temperatures and conductivity of the soil with 
a set of electrical resistance thermometers.—J. — 
Marshall: An analysis of an electron-trans 
hvvothesis of chemical valency and combination. In_ 
this paper an analysis is made of the electron-trans- 
ference hypothesis of chemical combination put for-— 
ward by Kelvin in 1902 and by Sir J. J. Thomson in 
1904. The methods employed and the assum] iS 
made are similar to those formulated by H. A. Lorentz 
in his discussion of the molecular refractive index of | 
mixtures and compounds (vide ‘“‘ Theory of Electrons a), 
Part i. of the paper contains a discussion of the value 
of the atomic refractive index in the case of atoms — 
from which electrons have been transferred, ignoring — 
the contribution to this value arising from fields of, 


le ee eae 


electrical force due to the vicinity of other atoms or 


groups of atoms. In part ii. the author endeavours to 
obtain a formula for the molecular refractive index 
which will allow for the contribution due to the elec-_ 
trical action between the atoms of the molecule. It > 


* 


_ of its efficiency. 


' tion of sulphuric acid avoided.—P. Lesage: 


JUNE 12, 1919] 


NATURE 


299 


is found that the assumption which best agrees with 
experimental evidence is that the external action of 
the atom which is electro-positive is eqvivalent to a 
doublet and a positive charge both situated within the 
atom.—Prof. W. Peddie: The thermo-dynamics of 
unstable states. It was pointed out that, although 
the usual thermo-dynamical definition of absolute 
temperature applies in all practical cases, the second 
definition, recently indicated by Sir Joseph Larmor as 
formally satisfying Carnot’s conditions, has an in- 
teresting theoretical application in the case of unstable 
states of the working substance. 
: Paris. 
__ Academy of Sciences, May 19.—M. Léon Guignard in 
the chair—G. Humbert: The measure of classes of 
ee oueeetic forms of given determinant. 
—A. Gautier ; influence of fluorides on vegetation. 
Preliminary trials in garden-pots. Of twelve species 
ivated under similar conditions, with and without 
addition of fluorides, seven showed increased growth 
in presence of fluorides, three were indifferent, and 
three gave lower yields——C. Guichard: A mode of 
generation of isothermal surfaces with plane lines of 
curvature in a system.—M. Tilho: A scientific expedi- 


tion of the Institute of France in Central Africa 


esti, Borku, Ennedi)—M. Edouard Goursat was 
ed a member of the section of geometry in succes- 
to M. Emile Picard, elected permanent secretary.— 
+ Integral or meromorphic functions.—E. 

1: The developments of Jacobi.—H. 

tf: The determination of temperatures reached 
in explosive reactions. Both the methods in use pre- 
) that the composition of the gases at the 
moment of explosion is known. The temperature 
determined varies according as the methane is assumed 
to exist at the moment of explosion or to be formed 
during the cooling. ‘Experiments with a modified 
bomb are described, and these prove that the greater 
part, if not the whole, of the methane is formed during 
the fet es 4 period.—M. H. Robert: A new laboratory 
form of fractionating column and the measurement 


é The lower part of the column, a 
of which is given, is vacuum-jacketed, whilst 
ilar upper column is cooled externally by a con- 


trolled air-current; the thermometer is surrounded by 


iv -jacket. Examples of the remarkable effici- 


vency of the column are given. Pure hexahydrotoluene 


‘was isolated from Borneo petrol; pentane, hexane, 
and heptane from American. petrol; acetic anhydride 
from its mixture with acetic acid.—G. Claude: An 
important consequence of the commercial synthesis of 
ammonia. Ammonium chloride has been proved by 
Georges Ville to be capable of replacing ammonium 
sulphate as a manure, and carries a higher percentage 
of ammonia. If in the ammonia-soda process the 
sodium bicarbonate and ammonium chloride are col- 
Jected separately, the latter is available as manure, 
the chlorine of the salt is utilised, and the pa a 
stabilisation of characters in plants grown in presence 


of salt—H, Coupin: The place where water is 
absorbed by the root. From experiments detailed the 
conclusion is drawn that the root absorbs water ex- 
clusively through its tip, and not through the root- 
hairs.—M. Dallori: The Coal Measures on the coast 
of the province of Oran.—J. Lévine: Two hundred 
and twenty years of (meteorological) observations in 
Paris.—G. Lusk: The comparative calorimetry of the 
ingestion of meat, lactic acid, and alanine in the 
animal.—A. L. Herrera: The pseudo-organisms of 
calcium fluosilicates.—E. Bourquelot and M. Bridel: 


_ The biochemical synthesis of cellobiose with the aid 


of émulsin.—E. Kohn-Abrest: Apparatus for the rapid 
analysis of confined air and unhealthy atmospheres. 


NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


Care Town. 


Royal Society of South Africa, April 16.—Dr. J. D. F. 
Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—J. R. Sutton: Some 
controversial notes on the diamond. The author dis- 
cusses the spontaneous breaking of diamonds and re- 
affirms his previous conclusions on the subject. It is 
claimed that there is no fundamental difference of 
process between the spontaneous breaking of a pure 
colourless crystal containing an inclusion of foreign 
mineral and that of opaque or clouded diamond. The 
probable derivation of distorted diamonds (pseudo- 
cleavage) from groups and clusters is also considered. 
The hardness of the diamond is generally over- 
estimated. 


CaLCUTTA. 


Asiatic Society of Bengal, May 7.—-N. Annandale and 
H. G. Carter: Notes on the vegetation of Seistan. 
The paper is based primarily on a collection of plants 
made, mainly in desert country and in the Hamun-i- 
Helmand or lake basin of Seistan, in November and 
December, 1918. A list of these plants is given and 
an attempt made to estimate the more conspicuous 
characters of the vegetation of several different types 
of environment, viz. the stony desert, the alluvial 
plain, the banks of streams of saline water, and the 
Hamun. Among the more interesting points brought 
out are the correlation between conspicuous colours 
and poisonous qualities in the plants of the desert, 
the different effects of soluble salts on the growth of 
different grasses, and the production of stiff, bayonet- 
like leaves in the same group in halophytic conditions. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Mathematical Papers for Admission into the Royal 
Military Academy and the Royal Military College and 
Papers in Elementary Engineering for Naval Cadet- 


ships for the years 1909-18. Edited by R. M. Milne. 


(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 7s. 

The Principles of Electric-Wave Telegraphy and 
Telephony. By Prof. J. A. Fleming. Fourth edition, 
revised. Pp. xvi+7o7+plates vii. (London: Long- 
mans, Green, and Co., 1919.) 42s. net. ; 

Mammalian Physiology: A Course of Practical 
Exercises. By Prof. C. S. Sherrington. Pp. xi+ 
156+plates ix. (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 
191g.) 12s. 6d, net. 

Soils and Manures in New Zealand. By L. J. Wild. 
Pp. 134. (Auckland and London: Whitcombe and 
Tombs, Ltd., 1919.) 2s. 6d. j 

The America of To-day: Being Lectures Delivered 
at the Local Lectures Summer Meeting of the Uni- 
versity. of Cambridge, 1918. Edited by Dr. G. 
Lapsley. Pp. xxv+254. (Cambridge: At the Uni- 
versity Press, 191g.) 12s. net. ; 

The Evolution of the Dragon. By Prof. G. Elliot 
Smith. Pp. xx+234. (Manchester: At the Univer- 
sity Press; Londen: Longmans, Green, and Co., 
1919.) 10s. 6d. net. ; 

Edited by 


The Chemists’ Year-Book, 1918-19. 


F. W. Atack, assisted by L. Whinyates. Vol. i., 
pp. vi+422; vol. ii., pp. iv+423-1146. (London and 
Manchester:. Sherratt and Hughes, 1919.) 15s. net 


two vols. 

Studies in the Construction of Dams: Earthen and 
Masonry. Arranged on the Principle of Question and 
Answer for Engineering Students and Others. By 
Prof. E. R. Matthews. Pp. v+43. (London: Charles 
Griffin and Co., Ltd., torg.) 4s. 6d. net. 

National and International Right and Wrong: 
Two Essays. By Henry Sidgwick. With a preface 
by the Right Hon. Viscount Bryce. (Reprinted from 


NATURe 


Uae sdk 


300 
the author’s “ Practical Ethics.”) Pp. 77. (London: 
G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1919.) 1s. 6d. net. 
La Sélection Humaine. By Prof. C.  Richet 
Pp. iii+ 


(Bibliothéque ‘Scientifique Internationale.) 
262. (Paris: Librairie Pelix Alcan, 1919.) 6.60 frances. 

Atlante di Geografia Fisica, Politica ed Economica. 
‘By Prof. A. Mori. Fasc. 1, maps 18. (Torino, ete. : 
Ditta G. B. Paravia E. ‘ope n.d.) 

Birdland’s Little People: Twelve ent Studies for 
Children. By Capt. O. G. Pike. Pp..123. (London: 
The Religious Tract Society, 1919.) 4s. 6d. net. 

Barbed-Wire Disease: A Psychological Study of 
‘the Prisoner of War. By Dr. A. L. Vischer. Trans- 
lated from the German. Pp. 84. (London: John 
Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, Ltd., 

Practical Physiological Chemistry. By S. 
‘With an introduction by Prof. F. G. Hopkins. 


. Cole. 
Fifth 


edition. Pp. xvit+4o1. (Cambridge: W. Heffer and 
Sons, Ltd. ; London :-Simpkin, Marshall, Ltd., 1919.) 
15s. net. 

' Problems of National iedacntion: By Twelve 


‘Scottish Educationists. Edited by John Clarke. 
Pp. xxvi+368. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
IgIg.) 12s. net. 

British Ferns and How to Identify Them. By 
J. H. Crabtree. Pp. 64. (London: The Epworth 
Press: J. Alfred Sharpe, n.d.) 1s. 6d. net. 


Commercial Forestry in Britain: Its Decline and 


Revival. By E. P. Stebbing. Pp. vit+186. (London: 
John Murray, 1919.) 6s. net. 

A Gentle Cynic: Being a Translation of the Book 
of Koheleth. commonly known as - Ecclesiastes, 
stripped of Later Additions; also its Origin, Growth, 
and Interpretation. By Prof. M. Jastrow, jun. 


Pp. 255. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott 
Co.. 1919.) 9s. net. 

Air Navigation :-Notesand Examples. By Instructor- 
Capt. S. F. Card. Pp. vit+140. (London: Edward 
Arnold, 1919.) tos. 6d, nét. 

The Voyage of a Vice-Chancellor. Pp. ix+139. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1919.) 6s. net. 

Influenza: A’ Discussion Opened by Sir Arthur 
Newsholme. Pp. toz. (London: Longmans, Green, 
and Co., n.d.) 3s. 6d. net. 

Leeds University. Fourteenth . Report, Be 
Pp. 111. (Leeds: Jowett and Sowry, Ltd., 

The Annual of the British. School at ioe 


No. xxii. 
plates xi. 
25S. net. 


Sessions 1916-17, 1917-18. Pp. vii+272+ 
(London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., n.d.) 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, June 12. 

MATHEMATICAL Society, at 5.—Prof. G. A. Miller: Groups epee 
Three and only Three Operators which are Square.—L. J. Mordell: 
Some Series whose wth Term Involves the Number of Classes of Binary 
Quadratics of Determinant —w.—Dr. W. P. Milne and Dr. D.G. Taylor: 
ny ee of Apolar "Dalahgles in Elliptic Function Theory.— 

é H. Rao :. The General Theory of Ruled Surfaces. 
eee Society, at 7.30.—S. D. Chalmers : The Recognition of Detail. 


FRIDAY, June 13. 

PHYSICAL SocIETy, at 5.—B. Van der Pol, jun. : A Comparison of the Wave- 
form of the. Telephone Current produced by a Thermal Detector and a 
Rectifier in'the Heterodyne Reception.—E. Wilson and E. _F, Herroun : 
The Magnetic Properties of Varieties of Magnetite. 

RoyaL. ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.—Rev. .J. G. Hasen: The Light 
: Curves of Long-period Variables.—Miss E. Bellamy: A Curious Instance 
* of Opposite Proper Motions,—H. S. Jones: Results obtained from Seven 
Years’ Observations made with the Cookson Floating Zenith Telescope at 
the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.—J. H. Reynolds : The’ Distribution 
of Hydrogen and Nebulium in the rion Nebula. —Rev. A. L. Cortie: 
The Spectrum of Nova Aguile, 1918, August 23 to October 23.—Pvobable 
Paper: W.-Moss: The Eruptiye Prominence of 1919, May 29—com- 
municated by the Director of the Solar Lap toh Olserv atory, Cambridge. 

MatLacorocicaL Society, at 6.—G. C. Crick 
(Mantell).—R. Bullen Nevin: A Sandstone Cast of Aturia aturi 
(Basterot) from the Miocene of Western age gs —A. S. Kennard and 

. Woodward: The Generic Names for the Two British Eliobiidae 

folim A uriculidae| miyospets, Draparnaud (=denticulata, Montagu) and 

identat, espott : The Mollusca of gmeiie Har- 
art IT 


a Malta.—Tom Iredale: Notes on Polyplacophora. 
NO. 2589, VOL. 103] 


191g.) 3S. 6d. net.. 


MONDAY, UNE 16, 

VicTorta INSTITUTE, at 4.30 30.—The ight Hon. the Earl of sind, 
President : Annual Address, 

Rovan GEOGRAPHICAL SociEry, at 8.30. — a 


‘TUESDAY, Juxe 17 pay 


t 4 : 
BRITISH Aspen “Sar eae ot Discussions (Royal Astronomic¢al 


Society), at 5.—Dr. C. T. R. Wilson and J. 


Spencer ; 


eans: Atmospheric 

Electricity. ae. Peis 

RoyaL Sraristicat Society, at 5.15.—Mrs. Walter J. Barton: bare 
Course of Women’s Wages. 

ZooLocicat SociEry, at 5.30.—E. Heron-Allen and A. Earlarid : Exhibit 
of Lantern-slides Illustrating the Cultivation of Verneuilina polys: fF 
Reuss., in Hypertonic.Sea-water and Gem-sand.—C. Morley : Eq 
and other Species and Genera of African Ichneumonide.—Dr. C. W. 
Andrews: A Description of New Species of Zeuglodons and Leath 
Turtle from the Eocene of Southern Nigeria.—G. A. Boulenger : (x) A List 
of the Snakes of West Africa from Mauritania to the French Congo. (2) A 
List of the Snakes of North Africa. 

MUNERALOGICAL SociEry, at 5.30.—A. Brammall : jpadalndee ie et 
Its Genesis, Morphology, and Inclusions. —R. 

Composition of Oolitic Ironstones.—L. Eighth List af at 
Mineral Names. 

RoyaL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, at 8.15.—J. Reid Moir: iin 
Implements from the ‘‘ Middle” Glacial Gini at Ipswich. ; : 
WEDNESDAY, Jone 18. 

RoyaL METEOROLOGICAL SociETy, at 5.—Col. Sir Charles Close: ibe 
on the Rainfall at Southampton and London during a period of 57 
ag (1862-1918), with Special Reference to the Monthly Means. 5 ae 

J. Logie: Note on Tornadoes.—Capt. D. Brunt: A Period 
Analysis of the Greenwich Temperature Records. —Lieut. G. Green: The 
Propagation of Sound in the Atmosphere. 

THURSDAY, Jone x i 

INSTITUTION OF MINING ENGINEERS, at 11.— t.-Col. D. Dale Logan: 
(a) The shag > elms and Dangers of Mine- ey Work on the Western 
Front, and Mining Operations carried out * Men wearing Rescue- 
apparatus; (6) Accidents due to Structural Defects of Agnathies or 
Injury to Apparatus, and the Future of the Proto Ap gee Ww. 
Blyth and L. T. O’Shea: The Examination of aye 
to Coal-washing.—Prof. I. W. Hardwick: ih to the ith 
on his Paper on the Training of Students in Coal-mining, with 
Reference to the Scheme of the Engineering Training Organisation.- 
Maurice: The Education of Colliery Managers for Pb iprnmorcmicme) 
Social Responsibilities. 

Roya Society, at 4.30.—Bakerian Lecture. Hon. R. J. Stratt : Phos- 


phorescence and Fluorescence in Metallic Vapours. 

INSTITUTION oF MininG AND METALLURGY, at 5.30.—W. H. Goodchild: : 
The Genesis of Igneous Ore Deposits. ; 

CHEMICAL Socikry, at 8. 


CONTENTS. =. _—s- PAGE-— 
Catalytic Chemistry. By Dr. S. re MMi oye) 
Californian'Game Birds’ »°.) 2.4) 0 2.) 2) i Be 
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Wireless Telephony. —A. A. Campbell Swinton, = 
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The. Age of the. Stars. Dr. pee Shapley . ', 284) 
Globular Lightning. —Prof. dex A. McClelland, x 
F, 8 8.;'G. Gilmore’4-,. 522 aa Pern... a 
War and Waste . . ps leer iat aie ae 
Education: Secondary and University. 7 joe ot 
Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart. ae ne Hie hn HS 


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Our Astronomical Column : — ; 
An Interesting Meteor. . 2 0. 2 we eG 
The Sun-spot Maximum... . 6. ee ee 
The Mount Wilson hata ne welt ee ee 
Sun-spots as Electric Vortices ....... «©. 
Science and War. .. hie yal pla oh Soe 
Indian Survey hates By T. H.W . ree 
Sub-Antarctic Whales and Whaling. 
Harmer, F.R.S. ‘ate Seateiaeh 
University and Educational Intelligence . oa ee 235 
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—- 


NATURE 


301 


THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1919. 


TEXT-BOOKS OF BOTANY. 
(1) Eléments de Botanique. Par Prof. Ph. Van 
_Tieghem. Tome i., “Botanique Générale.’’ 
Cinquiéme édition, revue et corrigée par Prof. 
_J. Costantin. . Pp. xv+619. Tome ii., 
“Botanique Spéciale.’’ Cinquiéme édition, re- 
maniée et augmentée par Prof. J. Costantin. 
_ Pp. xx+743. (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1918.) 
_ Price 14 francs. 
(2) Botany: A Text-book for Senior Students. 
By D. Thoday. Second edition. Pp. xx +524. 
_ (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1919.} 


_» Price 7s. 6d. net. 
(3) Lowson’s 


Text-book of Botany (Indian 
Edition). Revised and adapted by Birbal Sahni 
and M. Willis. With a preface by Dr. J. C. 
_ Willis. New and revised edition. Pp. xii+6ro. 
(London: W. B. Clive, University Tutorial 
Press, Ltd., 1919.) Price 8s. 6d. 

(1) apie latest edition of Prof. Ph. Van 
_ *£  Tieghem’s text-book, edited by Prof. J. 

Costantin, is arranged on the same plan as pre- 

vious editions. A serious omission from the point 

of view of the bibliographer is the absence of any 
prefatory note or introduction. The first volume 
is described on the title-page as “revue et cor- 
rigée,’’ and the second as “remaniée et aug- 


_ mentée,’’ but there is no indication as to the extent 


or nature of the changes or additions by virtue 


_ of which the present edition may be regarded as 
an advance on earlier ones. 


A careful comparison 
of the table of contents and the text is therefore 
rendered necessary. There is very little change 
in the first volume—that dealing with general 


botany. The first five chapters deal respectively 
with the body of the plant as a whole, the root, 
stem, leaf, and flower—in each case treated under 


two sections: (1) form and _ structure, and 
(2) function. This treatment will probably not 
commend itself to teachers in this country at the 


present time, if only from the difficulty it involves 


in presenting an account of the physiology of the 
plant as a living whole. In the next four chapters 
an account is given of the life-history of the four 


_ great subdivisions of the plant kingdom—Seed- 
_ plants, Vascular Cryptogams, Mosses, and Thallo- 
phytes. The difference between the origin or pro- 
ducts of germination of the spore in the fern and 


in the moss, as contrasted with each other and 


with the seed-plant, is emphasised by the use of 


special terms—the spore and sporangium of the 
fern are termed “diode ’’ and “diodange,’’ those 


in the moss “tomies ”’ and “tomiange,’’ the whole 
_ §porogonium of the moss being a “tomiogone.’’ 
__. Vol. ii., “Special Botany,’’ deals with classifica- 


tion. Two subkingdoms are recognised—Arhizo- 
phytes, or plants without roots, including the two 
great divisions Thallophyta and Bryophyta; and 


Rhizophytes, or plants with roots, including the 
_ great divisions Vascular Cryptogams and Phanero- 


gams. The subdivision and systematic treatment 


_ of the first three divisions are on familiar lines, but 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


those of the Phanerogams are widely different 
from other systems which have been generally used, 
such as that of Bentham and Hooker, which grew 
out of the French system of Jussieu and De 
Candolle, or that of Engler, which was a develop- 
ment of Eichler’s system. The system employed 
in the present volume is based on that elaborated 
by Van Tieghem in his paper entitled “The Eggs 
of Plants considered as a Basis of Classification ”’ 
(Annales d. Sci. Natur.; sér. 8, xiv.). The 
Astigmatées (Gymnosperms) fall into two classes 
—WNatrices with motile male cells, and Vectrices 
with male cells non-motile. The Stigmatées 
(Angiosperms) include three classes—Monocotyle- 
dons, Liorhizal Dicotyledons, and Dicotyledons. 
The second is an extremely artificial group, con- 
taining the grasses and water-lilies (except Nelum- 
bium). For the subdivision of the other two great 
groups of Angiosperms the details of the struc- 
ture and development of the ovule are regarded as 
supplying the most important characters. Special 
stress is laid on the persistence or absorption of 
the wall at the upper part of the embryo-sac; if 
this remains intact up to the time of fertilisation, 
the ovule is described as “ perpariété ’’; if, on the 
other hand, the wall has been absorbed before the 
arrival of the pollen-tube, the ovule is “trans- 
pariété.’’ Space does not allow of a detailed 
criticism of the system, which provides many 
puzzles for the British botanist who approaches it 
with preconceived ideas of affinities baséd on a 
knowledge of either of the systems to which refer- 
ence has already been made. a 

(2) The second edition of Mr. Thoday’s ad- 
mirable elementary text-book differs from the 
original edition of 1915 in the addition of a small. 
supplementary section on Cryptogams arranged 
to cover the syllabus for the Cambridge Higher 
School Certificate and similar examinations. The 
fifty additional pages contain descriptions of the 
structure and life-history of selected alge, fungi, 
mosses and liverworts, and ferns. The examples 
chosen are all common genera, and illustrate, so 
far as possible in the small space allotted, the 
variety in methods of reproduction among the 
alge and fungi, while the relation between. the 
sexual and spore-bearing generations of the two 
higher groups is treated in. sufficient detail to 
emphasise the principle of alternation of genera- 
tions, and to render possible a comparison between 
the life-history of the higher Cryptogams and the © 
Seed-plants. — 

As in the former edition, the body of the text 
is divided into five sections. In the first section 
the functions of plant-organs and the work of 
nutrition are treated experimentally; the second 
deals with the form and structure of the vegeta- 
tive organs of seed-bearing plants, and the third 
with the flower, seed, and seedling. Section iv., 
on “ The Classification of Plants,’’ comprises, first, 
a study of the floral types in the family Ranuncu- 
laceze, to illustrate the concept of species, genus, 
and family, and the principles of floral evolution; 
and, secondly, a description of other floral types 
as illustrated by a judicious selection of fifteen 


R 


302 


NATURE 


[JUNE 19, 1919 


families of dicotyledons and monocotyledons. The 
fifth section, ‘‘ Plants in Relation to their Environ- 
ment,’’ contains chapters on “fitness’’ or adapta- 
tion to environment, a very useful one on trees, 
one each on climbing plants and water-plants, and 
_ a brief introduction to the study of plant associa- 
tions. 

(3) The new edition of “Lowson’s Text-book 
of Botany,’’ adapted for the use of Indian 
students, represents a, widely different type of 
text-book. It contains a great deal of  in- 
formation clearly expressed in numbered and 
headed paragraphs, which are illustrated by plain, 
carefully indexed diagrammatic sketches such as 
a lecturer would use for a class of elementary 
students. It suggests the lecture notes made by 
an accurate and conscientious student, and if re- 
garded as such may serve a useful purpose pro- 
vided the student can clothe the skeleton with the 
living and working tissue. But it is not a book to 
put into the unaided hands of a beginner, or to 
excite a love of botany in the heart of the amateur. 
Like the original, which is well known among a 
certain class of students, it is obviously written 
for examination purposes. In the new edition 
Mr. Sahni has introduced additional matter into 
the chapters on the natural orders dealing specific- 
ally with the Indian flora, and also a number of 
vernacular plant-names, which are separately 
indexed at the end of the volume. These are both 
useful additions, but when one recalls the richness 
of the Indian flora and its remarkable diversity, 
ranging from tropical to high alpine, and includ- 
ing biological groups of great variety and in- 
terest, one could wish for a more attractive and 
living introduction to its study. 


OPTICS AND MECHANICS. 

(1) Mirrors, Prisms, and Lenses. A Text-book 
of Geometrical Optics. By Prof. James P. C. 
Southall. Pp. xix+579. (New York: The 
Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1918.) Price 17s. net. 

(2) Notes, Problems, and Laboratory Exercises 
in Mechanics, Sound, Light, Thermo-mechanics, 
and Hydraulics. Prepared for Use in Connec- 
tion with the Course in Natural and Experi- 
mental Philosophy at the United States Mili- 
tary Academy. By Prof. Halsey Dunwoody. 
Pp. v+369. (New York: John Wiley and 


Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 


1917.). Price 13s. 6d. net. 


CIENTIFIC writers in the United States 
appear to have laboured under smaller diffi- 
culties due to war conditions than British authors. 
Here are two new American text-books, of which 
the first is sure to be welcomed by a wide circle 
of readers, whilst the second is adapted for a 
special class of students: 

(t) Prof. Southall is known as the author of a 
treatise on ‘‘The Principles and Methods of Geo- 
metrical Optics.’’ The present volume, although 
in some sense an abridgment of the larger work, 
contains a considerable mass of new and original 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103 | 


material. . It is intended to serve as an introduc-— 
tion to the theory of modern optical instruments, 


but only the simplest mathematical processes have 
been employed. In the earlier and more ele- 
mentary portions of the subject the author has 
purposely entered into much detail, and he has 
been very successful in imparting fresh interest 
to an old and well-worn subject. . The need for a 
text-book dealing with ophthalmology and applied 
optics on modern lines has long been felt, and 
there is. no doubt that certain portions of this 
volume will be helpful to the modern oculist and 
optometrist. Thus, for example, the author has 
been at some pains to explain the fundamental 
principles of ophthalmic lenses and prisms. It 
is unfortunate that lack of space prevented the 


detailed description of any single optical instru-— 


ment, and it may be suggested that an account 
of the microscope should be included in a future 
edition even at the expense of some other sections. 
The book is provided with a number of problems 
appended to each chapter, and with clearly 
executed diagrams. The photographic illustra- 
tions of reflection from plane mirrors 
special interest. so ttae 9 


“Unfortunately, at present geometrical optics — 


would seem to be a kind of Cinderella in the 
curriculum of physics, regarded perhaps with a 
certain friendly tolerance as a mathematical dis- 
cipline not without value, but hardly permitted to 
take rank on equal terms with her sister branches 
of physics. On the contrary, it might be inferred 
that any system of knowledge which had already 
placed at the disposal of scientific investigators 
such incomparable means of research as are pro- 


re of 


4 


vided by modern optical instruments, and which _ 


has found so many useful applications in the arts 
of both peace and war, would be deserving of the 
highest recognition, and would be fostered and 


4 


encouraged in all possible ways.” HS: 
Prof. Southall’s book should serve to stimulate 
the study of optics in our colleges and universities. 


(2) It is difficult to understand the principles 


on which Prof. Dunwoody has arranged the mis- 
cellaneous contents of this volume. The title on 
the cover of the book is even more misleading 
than that on the title-page. It is “Laboratory 
Exercises, Notes, and Problems in Physics.’’ Yet 


only about twenty pages are concerned with 


“Sound, Light, Thermo-mechanics,’? and about 


ten with “Hydraulics.” The greater part of the 


contents is concerned with “Mechanics,’’ about 


150 pages being devoted to ‘“‘ Notes on Mechanics,” 


including graphical statics and 


the mathe- 


matical treatment of translation and rotation in 


the case of a rigid body. About an equal 
number of pages is given to an extensive list of 
problems ranging in difficulty from those suitable 


for schoolboys beginning the subject to those. 
requiring a knowledge of differential equations. _ 


In some cases hints for the solution of the problem 
are added. . 

Of the laboratory exercises, 
thirteen are on mechanics, including one on the 


fifteen in all, — 


: 


E 


i ; 


JUNE 19, 1919] 


Ee Wiicamane, 


NATURE 


viscosity of fluids, two on light, and one on 
sound, The exercises are illustrated* by half- 
tones, but as no written description of the ap- 
aratus: is given it is difficult in some cases to 
éss how the experiment is to be carried out. 
the student would often be at a loss if guided 
by these notes alone. H.-S: ALien. 


SECRET OR MYSTERY? 


_ Man’s Personal Life as Viewed in the Light of 
othesis of Man’s Religious Faith. By 
eorge Trumbull Ladd. Pp. ix+287. 
don: Longmans, Green and Co., 1918.) 
e vio 6d. net. 
te Philosophy of Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll. With 
mn Appendix of Leading Passages from Certain 
Other Works. Edited by Philip E. B. Jourdain. 
| Pp. 96. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 
| Ltd., 1918.) Price 3s. 6d. net. 
| (a) JT is said that the reader of a once famous 
Bo yait book entitled “The Secret of Hegel ”’ re- 
__ marked when he closed the volume that whatever 
__ the secret might have been it had been very suc- 
a . No difficulty of discovery is likely 


ges 


~ 


4q B val le ti le reader of Dr. Ladd’s “Secret of 
Personality.’’ His secret is an open one, and in 
the author’s genial treatment personality is not 


| mysterious either in the sense of inspiring awe or 
_ in that of suggesting occult sources of knowledge. 
__ Philosophy itself throws a strange light on man’s 
- youth and in the attraction it has for us in our 


you ith anc ‘in our old age, with the eclipse of 
rest it undergoes in the stress of active life. 
So in this little book we feel the professor’s keen 
_ enjoyment in his old age (he was born in the same 
__ year as M. Clemenceau), writing not to instruct 
$s, not to guide us in metaphysical or psycho- 
gical research, not even to console us, but to 
xpression to his own reflections on the 
Mr. Jourdain’s satire on the work of a con- 
~ temporary philosopher will afford much amusement 
_ to those who are familiar with that philosopher’s 
_ method and with the kind of problems to the solu- 
_ tion of which he devotes his energy and ingenuity. 
_ To those’ who do not know this work or are un- 
‘interested in it, not only will the humour be lost, 
but the object of the book will also be unintelli- 
gible. To such it will appear a cryptic puzzle not 
worth trying to solve. Yet some of the papers 
are excellent for their logical nonsense, and might 
themselves be set as subjects for a logical seminar. 
Particularly good is the one entitled “‘The Mor- 
tality of Socrates.’’ What one cannot help feeling, 
however, in regard to the whole is that the author 
) satirised is himself endowed with a very abundant 
fund of humour which makes its presence felt in 
the most ultra-mathematical and logical disquisi- 
tions, and many of Mr. Jourdain’s brightest hits 
are jokes concerning his author’s jokes. More- 
over, a joke prolonged into a book tends to 
‘become so serious as to threaten to defeat its 
intention. 
% NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


’ 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Mikrographie des Holzes der auf Java vorkom- 
menden Baumarten, im Auftrage des Kolonial- 
Ministeriums. Unter Leitung von Prof. J. W. 
Moll, bearbeitet von Dr. H. 'H. Janssonius. 
Finfte Lieferung. Pp. 337-764. (Leyden: E, J. 
Brill, 1918.) 

THE present part completes the third volume 

(dealing with the calycifloral section of Dicotyle- 

dons) of the detailed description of the minute 

structure of the wood of the tree species occurring 
in Java. It comprises the families Rhizophoree, 

Combretaceze, Myrtaceze, Melastomacee, Lythra- . 

riew, Samydacee, Datiscee, Araliaceee, and Cor- 

nacez, and includes the description of 124 species 
and varieties. At the beginning of the account 
of each family are given a list of the literature, an 
enumeration of the material examined, and a sum- 
marised description of the general characters of 
the anatomy of the wood and its constituent 
elements. Then follow, first, a discussion of the 
bearing of the results of the investigation on the 
systematic grouping of the genera and species 
within the family; secondly, a table in the form of 

a key for the determination of the species by 

means of characters afforded by their wood-struc- 

ture; and thirdly, a detailed description of the 
characters in each species, with a block illustra- 
tion of the first species described for each genus. 

The authors have brought together much detailed 

information on the minute structure of the wood 

of the species examined, and the work when com- 
pleted will form a valuable contribution to the 

systematic study of genera and species from a 

point of view which hitherto has been insufficiently 

recognised. 


Molecular Physics. By Dr. James Arnold 
Crowther. Second edition. (Text-books of 
Chemical Research and Engineering.) Pp. 
viii+190. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1919.) 
Price 6s. net. 

Tue fact that a second edition of Dr. Crowther’s 

little volume has been required so soon shows 

that the praise given to the first edition in NATURE 
for March 25, 1915, was not undeserved. 

A complete revision of the material has been 

carried out, and, in spite of the conditions of a 

great war not being favourable to theoretical 

research, some additions have been made. In 
particular, the results obtained in the laboratory 
of Sir Ernest Rutherford have increased our 
knowledge of the structure of the atom, and the 
author has added a special chapter on this pro- 
foundly interesting subject, while the chapter on 
the chemistry of the atom has been almost com- 

pletely rewritten from the point of view of Sir J. J. 

Thomson’s theory of valency and chemical affinity. 

The complaint as to the absence of an index in 

the earlier edition has been at least partly met by 

a subject index occupying a couple of pages. In 

its revised form it is certain that the book will be 

well received, and will be read not only by physi- 


304 


NATURE 


[JUNE 19, 1919 


cists, but also by those engaged in other scientific 
pursuits who desire trustworthy information as 
to the ‘new physics.” H.' S.A. 


Le Rocce. Concetti e Nozioni di Petrografia. 
By Prof. E. Artini; Pp. xx+636+Tav. xxxii. 
(Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1919.) Price 18.50 lire. 

Pror. ArTINI states in his preface that there has 

been no general treatise on rocks in the Italian 

language since that by Achiardi, published thirty 
years ago. He rightly remarks that a transla- 
tion is always an indifferent expedient; a book for 

Italians should be rich in Italian examples. He 

_ looks on rocks from the point of view of a 
naturalist, and his use of landscapes among his 

illustrations makes us hope that he will some day 

give us a petrography of Italy that will connect 
mineral evolution with the scenery from Monte 

Bianco to Catania. The material here brought 

together is thoroughly up to date; we may cite, for 

instance, the remarks on idrogels (p. 186), on 
bipyramidal quartz (p. 338), and on the alleged 
gneissic Grundgebirge (p. 544). Graphic methods 
of representing rock-composition are illustrated. 
As an Italian detail, may we point out (p. 319) 
that gabbro, and not eufotide, is of Tuscan origin, 
the name of a Tuscan village having been utilised 
by von Buch? ‘The treatment of sedimentary 
rocks is unusually adequate, and the photographic 
plates of thin sections are extremely clear and 
helpful. This compact volume is so full of funda- 
mental concetti that it certainly should have been 


provided with an index. GAs. hs 
Agricultural Bacteriology. By Dr. H. W. Conn. 
Third edition, revised by H. J. Conn. Pp. x+ 


357. (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son and 
Co., 1918.) Price 2 dollars net. 


WHuiLe the general plan of this book remains the 
same as before, considerable changes have been 
introduced in the sections on soil bacteriology, 
on the control of milk supplies, on plant diseases, 
and on laboratory technique. In some cases, 
however, further information might have been 
given with advantage; thus under slimy or ropy 
bread practically no description is given of the 
causative organism. Under ‘‘ tuberculosis ”’ the il- 
lustration Fig. 50 is stated to depict ‘‘ a bit of ani- 
mal tissue ’’; what is actually shown is a giant cell 
only; the tubercles are stated to be “swollen 
masses of tissue,’’ and among animals that suffer 
from tuberculosis dogs and cats are mentioned ; 
actually these animals rarely suffer from the 
disease. The consideration of the bacteriology of 
the soil, of milk, and of milk products is adequate, 
and such details as protozoa in the soil and soil 
sterilisation and the possibility of the accumula- 
tion of toxic substances in “worn-out soils ’’ are 
all referred to. In an appendix a scheme of 
laboratory work is given, with detailed exercises, 
which should be of value to the teacher. The 
book is freely illustrated and clearly printed, and 
forms a good elementary introduction to the wide 
subject of agricultural bacteriology. 
Ride 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


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. | 


Wireless Telephony. 


REFERRING to my letter on this subject in Nature 
of June 12, Mr. Godfrey Isaacs tells me that his 
wireless remarks with regard to secrecy were intended 
to apply, not to the apparatus actually in use on 
May 28, but to a new Marconi system, the apparatus 
for which is only now in course of manufacture. The 
scientific world will, I am sure, await with interest 
details of this new secret wireless telephone system. 

A. A. CAMPBELL SWINTON. 

40 Chester Square, London, S.W.1, June 17. 


Gamoufiage of Ships of War. 


Pror. Kerr, in the course of a letter which ap- 
peared in Nature of May 15 under the above heading, 
paid me a high tribute by stating that, during the 
summer of 1917, “the value of the principle [i.e. 
obliterative colouring] was now recognised [by the 
Admiralty] and its application entrusted to skilled 
hands,’’ but the main point in his letter was to show 
that the principle of obliterative colouring was no 
new thing, and was common knowledge to biologists : 
this no one will question. My aim in replying to his 
letter is with the view of showing that I was not 
working on biological lines, and is thus to remove a 
misapprehension. ‘ 

I feel that Prof. Kerr has not thoroughly grasped 
the idea of the special form of camouflage on which 
I was engaged, and of which I still claim to be the 
originator. ‘‘ Dazzle-painting,” so called officially, 
had one purpose in view only, viz. to upset a sub- 
marine commander’s estimate of a vessel’s course, 
when carrying out an attack with torpedo. I was 
under no misapprehension as to its value for gunnery, 
and in my original submission to the Admiralty in 
May, 1917, I made no claim that it might be used for 
this purpose, as I felt certain that paint could not 
possibly have sufficient carrying power to stultify the 
enemy’s range-finders at the great distances at which — 
a modern action would probably be fought. 

Subsequent experiments on dazzled ships with — 
range-finders justified this belief. : 

The accurate estimation of a vessel’s course is the — 
prime factor required by a submarine commander to 
ensure successful attack. In every dazzle design this 
point was studied to the exclusion of all others, 7.e. 
to frustrate accurate calculation of course. The mere 
breaking up of a vessel’s form by strongly contrast- 
ing colours would not achieve this end without careful 
study of the perspective and balance of the design. 

I am not aware that this occurs in biology, i.e. the 
disguise of direction. 

Surely the obliterative colouring of birds and animals 
is operative only so long as the bird or animal is in © 
a state of rest; the moment movement commences 
the illusion is destroyed. The ship subject to torpedo 
attack ‘is in constant movement. Again, in how 
many cases is Nature’s scheme for protection success-_ 
ful when the subject is seen on a ridge silhouetted — 
against the sky? Yet this is the only point of view — 
from a submarine when observing a ship through the . 


periscope. 
F 


NATURE 


395 


June 19, 1919] 


_ My contention throughout has been that the degree 
of visibility of a vessel was of little consequence pro- 
viding she could be seen at all. Prof.’ Kerr agrees 
that it is not possible to render a ship strictly in- 
visible, but only to reduce her visibility. This in my 
- ‘view is not enough. A submarine commander, whose 

one object is to sink. ships, will not be put off by 
reduced visibility. We know from some of the com- 

manders themselves that they constantly located a 

vessel by its smoke when still hull down, i.e. before 
the vessel itself could be seen at all. 
__ Prof. Kerr says that of the various methods which 

‘Nature makes use of, there are two alone of practical 

value for application to ships: (a) obliterative colour- 

ing; (b) compensative shading. I have endeavoured 
to show that the contrasting colours, as used in 

fase painting, were not used in Nature’s way, i.e. 
_as obliterative colouring. 

_ To turn to compensative shading, I must say, after 
extended observations at sea, I have failed to observe 
apy igein in this method of painting. In a letter of 
this length it is not possible to go into all the causes 
of its failure, but only to state briefly one or two of 
the main objections. To take the practical side first, 
what shadows are there in our modern battleships to 


compensate which would retain white paint for more. 


_ than a few hours? ‘The various controls on the mast 
are in close juxtaposition to the funnel, and subject to 
constant heat and smoke. The hawse-pipes are rusty 
after a few hours’ steaming, while the shadow cast by 
the flare of the bow is automatically compensated by 
_ reflected light thrown up from the bow wave. There 
js a small shelter deck amidships, far too deep shadow 
for any light paint to overcome. 
In the case of the merchant vessel the same diffi- 
culties arise. No shadows cast by passenger decks 
‘can be overcome by the use of white paint, which is 
itself dependent on light for luminosity. These decks 
‘present a very different proposition from a bird’s breast 
‘receiving reflected light from the ground or sand on 
which it stands, or from the glitter of water below. 
I am not theorising in making these statements; they 
are the direct outcome of observation at sea for some 
_ years. ; 
_ There is-one point I should like to emphasise in 
_ the matter of ships’ camouflage, and that is, the 
actical application of a design to a ship. A scheme 
_may be evolved which appears perfect on paper, but 
the result, when actually applied, will be most dis- 
appointing. Most theorists with whom I haye come 
in contact—and they are many—only think in ‘‘ one 
ship”? when evolving a scheme for disguise. What 
has to be realised is that it is necessary to deal with 
hundreds of ships, painting simultaneously and at 
high ia The authorities concerned with ship- 
ping during the war could not think of any delay in 
unloading and getting vessels to sea in the shortest 
possible time. Consequently the painting of these 


_ vessels had to be carried out while loading or un- 


loading, and under every other disadvantage, such as 
rain and coal dust. We were sometimes able to get 
a hose on to parts of a ship blackened with coal dust 
whilst painting, sometimes not. So that I fear so 
subtle a thing as compensative shading would have 
vanished before a vessel put to sea. It may be men- 
tioned here that more than 3000 British ships alone 
were dazzle-painted in the last eighteen months of the 
war, and we sometimes had as many as a hundred 
vessels painting in one port simultaneously. 
It should be remembered that dazzle-painting was 
adopted at a time when twenty to thirty ships were 
being sunk weekly, so that the life of the nation 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


depended on turning ships round and getting them 
to sea again in the shortest possible time. 
Dazzle-painting was never intended for use on 
‘ships of the line,’’ but only for merchantmen singly 
or in convoy and war vessels working with them; 
and, judging from the great number of reports re- 
ceived from merchant captains, who in the early 
stages of dazzle-painting were averse to it, but later 
came to see its object, there can be no question that 
it achieved its purpose. NORMAN WILKINSON. 


Question Relating to Prime Numbers. 

Ir is well known that no algebraical formula can 
represent prime numbers only, and that primes can 
only be found by trials (which may be facilitated by 
algebraical processes). If the mth prime number, 
counting from unity, be denoted by n, and if n is 
plotted in terms of m, it will be found that n is very 
approximately represented by a formula of the type 
Am? (A=3:15, p=1-133, are close to the values of 
the constants). 

The differential of this curve is given in the accom- 
panying diagram, and the true values of dn/dm are 


“I © 6 
ae 


Ww bh MN HA 


Oo —_ AS 


OC  ). aoe fs S&F 8. 9) J0 
mM. 


om Thousands 
O-~ Aeerage difference of successive 
Chousands of prime numter< 
ABZ 


Full lurve.— Differential of 315.m 
shown by the circles. The agreement between the 
curve 3:15 m**** and the true values of n (taken 
from Barlow’s tables) is too close to be shown with 
advantage on the scale to which the diagram is 
drawn. The differential curve is a good mean of the 
actual values of dn/dm. 

Are there any investigations which give a reason for 
the tendency of n to approach a definite function of 
m, or as to the ultimate value of dn/dm when m 
increases without limit? A. MALLock. 

6 Cresswell Gardens, South Kensington, S.W.7. . 


306 


NATURE 


[June 19, 1919 


THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT. 


HE honour of the first direct trans-Atlantic 
flight, for which the Daily Mail offered a 
prize of 10,000l., has fallen to two English avia- 
tors on a British machine. The Vickers “Vimy ”’ 
bomber has made the crossing, with Capt. J. 
Alcock as pilot, and Lt. Whitten Brown as navi- 
gator. Newfoundland was left at 4.25 p.m., 
G.M.T., on June 14, and a landing made at 
Clifden, Galway, at 8.40 a.m., G.M.T., on 
June 15. The machine is a standard bombing 
aeroplane, slightly modified for the present flight, 
and has a span of 67 ft. It carries two Rolls- 
Royce engines of 375 h.p. each, and the gross 
load is about 12,500 lb. The passage was made 
in 16 hours 15 min., giving an average speed of 
nearly 120 miles per hour. The wind was favour- 
able, but the weather very bad, according to 
the report of the aviators. Clouds were met at 
all altitudes, and it was generally impossible to 
see either ocean or sky. At the higher altitudes 
the machine became covered with ice, and at one 
- time the air-speed indicator became clogged, thus 
robbing the pilot of his best guide as to the atti- 
tude in which he was flying. The sense of hori- 
zontality was for the time lost, and the machine 
executed various evolutions until it had fallen so 
low that the sea became visible, and Capt. Alcock 
was able to recover a normal attitude. 

Only four observations of position were taken 
during the flight, these being made with reference 
to the sun, the moon, the Pole star, and Vega 
respectively. Under these adverse conditions 
the precision with which the correct course was 
kept is very remarkable. All ships were warned 
that the flight was taking place, and asked: to 
wireless their positions, but the aviators received 
no messages to guide them, and were entirely 
dependent on their own scanty observations. 

Owing to the favourable wind, only two-thirds 
of the petrol was used during the flight, and the 
time of crossing was but two hours more than 
the minimum that had previously been calculated 
for the most favourable conditions possible in the 
North Atlantic. The average altitude was about 
4000 ft., but attempts were made to find better 
atmospheric conditions at various altitudes up to 
11,000 ft. without success. 

The flight may well-be regarded as one of the 
most wonderful feats of recent times, and the two 
brave aviators are to be heartily congratulated on 
their great achievement in the face of such enor- 
mous difficulties. It is probable that an early 
start was made, in spite of bad weather reports, 
owing to the fact that the Handley-Page machine 
was almost ready for flight. The circumstances 
of Hawker’s attempt were thus repeated, but this 
time no engine trouble was experienced, and the 
passage was successfully completed in worse 
weather than that with which Hawker had to 
contend. The primary importance of engine trust- 
worthiness has often been commented upon, and 
the history of the Atlantic attempt has strikingly 
demonstrated it. 


NO. 2590 VOL. 103] 


4 


Y ee: 


It is of interest to note that both Messrs. 


Vickers and Handley Page are believers in 


methods of design based upon model experiments, 


and that both firms possess their own wind-— 


tunnel equipment by means of which such experi- 
mental data can be obtained. bf 

It is only ten years since the first flight across 
the Channel was made, and now the Atlantic has 
been flown under extremely adverse conditions. 
Such a record of rapid progress surely leaves 
room for the most optimistic views of the future 
possibilities of aviation as a rapid means of com- 
munication between distant parts of the world. — 


1. fai 


Weather Conditions. Pot Cee e 
On Friday night, June 13, the Air Ministry nec? 
‘Conditions are favourable from west to east. A belt 
of high pressure extends across the Atlantic, just 
south of the course... .” Pee 
The. wireless reports of weather issued | 
Meteorological Office show that the winds during the 
flight all had a large amount of westing in their 


direction, and on the eastern side of the Atlantic 


weather was cloudy, with some rain. ee eee 

Faraday, at about 20° W. long., in close 
proximity to the aeroplane, at 1 a.m. June 15, had a 
moderate south-westerly gale with rain. Much of the 


excess speed throughout the flight is doubtless due — 


to the brisk following wind, and to have achieved the 


journey in sixteen hours from coast to coast is am 
accomplishment not to be easily beaten. Ay 

At this time of year the disturbances moving 
generally north-eastwards across the Atlantic are 


usually at their most northern limit, and the strongest 


winds experienced on the track of steamships or air- 
craft have a large amount of westing. Fog, however, 
is at its worst in the summer season, Ist on the 
western side of the Atlantic sleet and snow would 


probably have to be encountered at the height of — 


2000ft. or more, at times, at any season of the ° 


BRITISH PETROLEUM. 


he long ago as 1896 the late Sir Boverton. 
Redwood examined a sample of oil from — 


Ashwick Court, near Shepton Mallet, and reported 
that it was straw-coloured, transparent, and free 
from fluorescence. The odour was reminiscent 


of refined petroleum, the specific gravity was 


o’816, and the flash point (Abel) 175° F. 
In 1906 he wrote: “A considerable number of 
other districts where petroleum similarly occurs. 
are known, and, although it has been suggested 
that some at least of the deposits may have been 


by the 


Fetes ' 


produced by a natural process of distillation from 


coal or bituminous shales, there is no reason to ~ 
doubt that most of them are true petroleum, and — 


are quite distinct from the oils which are obtained 
by known processes of distillation from either 
coal or shale.’? Later, in 1911, Sir Boverton 
examined and reported on an oil from a well at 


Kelham, and stated that the material should be 


regarded as:a “true normal petroleum,’ and in 


1914 he advocated that the bore hole should be hy 
deepened, believing that “more productive strata 


might be found at greater depth.’’ It is a strange 


coincidence, not untouched by the irony of fate, — 


that the last piece of work carried out before he 
died was the analysis of the Hardstoft oil. 


|. Jone 19, 1919] 


NATURE 


397 


The Hardstoft oil was struck at a depth of | 


3077 ft., and at the outset flowed inte the bore 
hole at the rate of about 350 ft. per day. Sir 
Boverton Redwood’s analysis is as follows :— 
vie rij, 5 oil of dark brown colour by trans- 
mitted light, but exhibiting strongly marked 
exe fluorescence and of characteristic odour. 
oil contained only a trace of water, and 
ed the specific gravity of 0°828 at 60° F. 
Flash point (Abel), 73° F. 
_ Distilling below 150° C.; 4°5 per cent. by 
Vi 1 
Distilling between 150°—300° C.; 41’o per cent. 
by volume; sp. gr., 0°783; and flash point, ros° F. 
Mr. Hackford’s percentage analysis is as 
follows :—_ 
_ Motor spirit, 7-5 
_ Kerosene, 39°6 
_ Gas oil, 20-0 


Lubricating oils, 30°5 
Paraffin wax, 3-0 
Sulphur, 0°26 
Specific gravity, 0°823. 

' Chemical characteristics: Paraffin base ‘con- 
' taining naphthene. 

__ It is clear that the oil is of high grade, and if 
the wells yield it in quantity the country . will 
possess an asset of inestimable value. 

During the past week the casing has been 
fitted with a valve and a line to a receiving tank, 
into which oil is flowing at about 400 gallons per 

day. No water at present has been found with 
the oil. The 8}-in. casing is now at the bottom 
of the hole, and drilling has been resumed. The 
evidence so far indicates that a true oil rock ‘has 
been penetrated, and that the oil is neither a 
filtrate nor has it migrated. Whether or not the 
distribution of the oil is local and limited or ex- 
tensive and in quantity time alone will show. 
Active work is in progress at Brimington, 
where the hole is 2660 ft. deep, and at Renishaw, 
where 2950 ft. have been penetrated. At any 
time oil may be struck in these localities. 
Drilling may be expected shortly near Newark, 
where, at Kelham, oil has previously been ob- 
_ served, and a licence from the Ministry of Muni- 
_ tions has been issued to the Oil Field of England, 
_ Ltd. The Kelham show was a somewhat heavier 
oil than that from Hardstoft, and on being topped 
it yielded 91°4 per cent. of fuel oil. Provision is 
being made to drill down to 4000 ft., the first 
strike having been made at 2440 ft. in 1911. 
In the Midlothian district Messrs. S. Pearson 
-and Sons, Ltd., are pushing on with the’ pre- 
liminaries for drilling down to 4o00 ft. through 
the shale seams. Success in this project would 
indicate a new lease of activity for the Scottish 
shale industry. 


FATHER WALTER SIDGREAVES, S.]. 


| eg hah WALTER SIDGREAVES, §.J., 

_ the director of the Stonyhurst College 

Observatory, died, after a lingering last illness, 

at Stonyhurst on June 12 in his eighty-second 

year. He had been ailing and failing in strength 

for the last six months, but with indomitable 
NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


courage he carried on the routine work of the 
observatory to within a month of his death. 
Sidgreaves was born on October 4, 1837, the 
second son of Edward Sidgreaves, of Grimsargh, 
near Preston; he was educated at Stonyhurst, 
entered the Society of Jesus in 1855, and was 
ordained priest in 1871. He was for two periods 
director of the observatory at Stonyhurst, first 
during: the years 1863-68, while the late Father 
Perry was engaged in his theological studies, and 
secondly, after the death of Father Perry in 1889, 
on the total solar eclipse expedition at Salut Isles, — 
French Guiana. The acquisition and erection of 
the equipment of the observatory, astronomical, 
magnetic, meteorological, and seismological, is 
almost entirely due to his efforts. In 1863 Sid- 
greaves commenced the regular series of mag- 
netic observations which has been carried on, 
and in the last thirty years by himself, ever since 
that date. His very last observation on May 3 
was of the magnetic dip. In 1866 he installed 
all the self-recording meteorological instruments, 
and in the following year purchased an §8-in. 
equatorial refractor. This instrument supplanted 
the 4-in. refractor, which, however, had the. dis- 
tinction of having been the first telescope system- 
atically used by the famous Father Secchi, when 
he was an exile at Stonyhurst during the revo- 
lutionary troubles in Italy in 1848. After the 
death of Father Perry the equatorial was fitted 
with a 15-in. object glass, the memorial sub- 
scribed for by friends of Father Perry. 
Sidgreaves took part in four expeditions as 
companion to his successor in office—in 1868-69, 
when they made a magnetic survey of the west 
and east of. France, and in 1874 and 1882, when 
they observed the transit of Venus across the 
sun’s disc at Kerguelen Island and in Madagas- 
car. His chief papers communicated to the 
memoirs and monthly notices of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society dealt with the subjects of solar 
physics, and more particularly of stellar spectro- 
scopy. In his memoir, “On the Connection 
between Sun-spots and Earth-magnetic Storms ”’ 
he came to the conclusion that the effects 
observed were attributable to clouds of 
electrons circulating between the sun and the 
earth. A long series of observations of the H 
and K lines in the general light of the sun showed 
that the sun approximated to the class of stars 
which exhibit bright as well as dark lines in their 
spectra. But Sidgreaves’s chief researches dealt 
with stellar spectroscopy, and with the instru- 
ments which he devised he took a whole series 
of remarkably fine spectra of the brighter stars. 
His published papers are concerned more par- 
ticularly with the spectra of o Ceti, y Cassiopeiz, 
and 6 Lyre, and with the Nove of 1892 and 
1901. He was as an observer most painstaking, 
methodical, and accurate, and sceptical of all 
results that could not be thoroughly. substantiated. 
He had all the dogged grit and perseverance of 
the typical Lancashire character. Being afflicted 
with deafness, particularly so in his later years, 
he avoided public appearances; but his lecture 


308 


NATURE 


[June 19, 1919 


on 6 Lyre before the Royal Institution in 1904 
will be remembered. His photographic work in 
stellar spectroscopy was awarded a gold medal 
in the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, and a grand 
prix by the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908. 

At Stonyhurst, Sidgreaves also, in his younger 
years, taught mathematics and chemistry, and, as 
a priest, physics, to the students of St. Mary’s 
Hall for twenty-five years with great success. 
Everyone who came in contact with him was 
attracted by his kindly and amiable disposition. 
He effaced himself that others might have more 
time for research«work. He was elected a Fellow 
of the Royal’ Astronomical Society in 1891, and 
served for many years on its council. 


NOTES. 

Many subjects of importance are to be discussed at 
the meeting’ of-.the International Research Council, 
to be held in Brussels on July 18-28. It may. be re- 
membered that the council arose out of Inter-Allied 
conferences held in London and Paris last year (see 
NaTurRE, December 26, 1918). ‘Steps are to be taken 
at Brussels: to establish the federation in its final 
form. The statutes of the council are to be discussed 
and also those of international unions of astronomy, 
physics, mathematics, geodesy and geophysics, and 
other departments of science. There will be a report 
of a committee on international co-operation in 
chemistry, and one on the foundation of the federation 
of societies of pure and applied chemistry. The im- 
portant question of the biological exploration of the 
North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean will also be 
brought forward. The executive committee, consist- 
ing of MM. Picard (chairman), Volterra, Lecointe, 
Hale, and Schuster, acting upon the views expressed 
at the conference held in Paris in November last, 
has unanimously decided to recommend to the coun- 
cil that the following nations, which were neutral 
during the war, be invited to co-operate :—Denmark, 
Spain, Holland, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, and 
Switzerland. It is suggested also that Czecho- 
Slovakia and Finland should be considered as possible 
co-operating nations. The executive committee was 
appointed as a temporary body only, entrusted with 
the duty of bringing forward proposals at Brussels, 
and promoting the formation of national councils, the 
federation of which will form the International 
Council. It may be dissolved when the International 
Council is finally constituted. 


In the first issue of the Crucible, a magazine 
recently started by the science students of the Uni- 
versity of Aberdeen, there is a _characteristically 
trenchant article by Prof. Soddy. Under the metaphor 
of new wine into old bottles, Prof. Soddy points on 
one hand to the praiseworthy labours of the junior 
staffs in our universities in carrying to a high degree 
of efficiency the teaching of experimental science to 
thousands of eager students, and on the other to lack 
of prevision on the part of the authorities in en- 
couraging research. It is safe to say, indeed, that 
the ‘conservative instincts’ of the governing bodies, 
many members of which have not the least conception 
of what is meant by scientific research, tend rather to 
discourage than to encourage the hard-worked assis- 
tants from engaging in any form of research work. 
Even. the Carnesie Trust for the Universities of 
Scotland, one of the primary objects of which was to 


promote scientific study and research, -has expended: 


out of its millions only some 14 per cent. on research 
NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


of) all. kinds, including historical, 


‘ linguistic, an 
economic subjects. S ; é 


have maintained several first-class research 
ships since the Trust was founded. In short, how 
can science. as a progressive factor in civilisation get 
a fair chance in ancient institutions largely governed 
by medieval conceptions? This is virtually Prof. 
Soddy’s complaint; and it is one calling for serious 
reflection and strenuous endeavour on the part of all 
who have the welfare of the nation at heart. 


professor- 


pea 


A RELIEF expedition under Capt. Godfred Hansen, 


of the Danish Navy, has left Copenhagen to pla 

depét of stores for Capt. Roald Anundaae ins hice 
Land. Capt. Hansen, who in 1903-5 was second-in- 
command of Amundsen’s expedition in the Gjoa, has 
according to the Morning Post, sailed in a Danish 
Government vessel for Upernivik, in Greenland. In 
July he hopes to reach North Star Bay in lat. 76° N., 
where he and his party will winter. In the spring the 
will start north, taking Eskimo with them on wil 
travel via Cape Morton and Kennedy Channel to 
Fort Conger, Greeley’s quarters from 1881 to 1883. 
The majority of the party will remain at Fort Conger 
and engage in hunting, while the leader and one other 
man will push on to Cape Columbia, a distance of 
about six hundred miles, in order to leave a year’s 


rations, together with guns and ammunition and a _ 


detailed description of the route by Knud Rasmussen, 
the Danish explorer of North Greenland. Returning 
to Fort Conger, Capt. Hansen and his men will leave 
for Greenland in the autumn as soon as Kenned 
Channel freezes. It is most improbable that Capt. 
Amundsen in the Maud will reach Grant Land next 
summer, since his drift across the polar basin will 
probably occupy at least three years, but in the event 
of his ship being crushed, the depét will be invaluable. 
In any case, it will serve him well in the course of 


time, unless the Maud is carried east of Greenland. 


OnE result of the war has been that the tendency in 
Germany is more and more in the direction of co- 
operation. From two recent translations which Sir 
Robert Hadfield has had prepared, to whom we 


are indebted for copies, we note that the techno- 


logists of Germany are convinced that technical 
interests can only be furthered by combination. The 
union of technical men was formed so long ago as last 
December, with the support of most of the German 
technical societies, for the purpose of securing for 
the technologist that recognition of his importance 
which has apparently been denied him hitherto. The 
new body seems to have been primarily inspired as 
an offset to the pernicious and undermining influence 
of certain groups who are trying to gain the ascend- 
ency in Germany. In the propaganda publication the 


Union. states that a technical expert succeeded in ~ 
saving some 20,000 tons of coal a month in an ex- — 
plosives factory without diminution of output. Another — 

body to be formed is the German Empire Industrial — 


League, which is a combination of existing groups, 


and will embrace an organisation styling itself the 


Joint Executive of Employers and Employed. It is 


hoped that all industrial interests will find expression — 


in this. new body. 
WE regret to learn that official information has been 


received that the Cape Provincial Council, Cape Town, ~ 


has decided to exterminate the herd of elephants in 
the Addo Bush Reserve. With the exception of a 


small herd in the Knysna Forest, these are the last | 


survivors: of the wild South African elephant. T 
animals in the Addo Bush Reserve have become a 


According to Prof. Soddy, the — 
loss on.the money saved, occasioned by the deprecia- 
tion of ‘British investments during the war, would 


\ 


a 


June 19, 1919] 


NATURE 


399 


source of danger and damage to the surrounding 
farms. By breaking down fences and. destroyin 
waterworks, and generally bringing about a state o 
terror and insecurity, they are the cause of actual 
dam. to a serious extent. They hamper farming 
operations and agricultural development. Neverthe- 
“Yess, the drastic step that has now been decided upon 
cannot fail to arouse considerable dissatisfaction in 
the sporting and scientific world. 


We have received a copy of a proposal endorsed 
by many well-known scientific men for the establish- 
ment of an institute of commercial and industrial 
psychology and physiology. The proposal is accom- 
panied by a summary of thirty investigations in which 
the scientific analysis of industrial movements resulted 
in a notable improvement of output, and reference is 
also made to the effects of shorter hours and the 
introduction of rest pauses. Amongst the scientific 
upporters of the proposals are Sir Walter Fletcher, 
Me . W. B. Hardy, Lt.-Col. Myers, Prof. C. S. 
Sherrington, and Prof. E. H. Starling. The secretary 
is Mr. G. Spiller, 1 Great Tower Street, E.C.3. 


Mr. F. Furppance, at one time a temporary assis- 
tant in the herbarium at Kew, has been appointed 
assistant curator of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. 
Tue Guy medal of the Royal Statistical Society for 
el A been awarded to Dr. J. C. Stamp, who 
e contributed papers to the society on “The 
‘Effect of Trade Fluctuations on Profits” and ‘‘ The 
Wealth and Income of the Chief Powers.”’ 


A prrecror of research is about to be appointed, at 
as of not less than 1250l. per annum, by the 
British Cotton Industry Research Association, 
108 Deansgate, Manchester. Forms of application 
and further information are obtainable from the secre- 
tary of the association. The latest time for receiving 
applications for the post is July 2r. 


Tue council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has 
guns ' the Miciasugall Brisbane prize for the period 
1 ge Prof. A. Anstruther Lawson, of Sydney, 
for his memoirs on the prothalli of Tmestpterts tan- 
 nensis and of psilotum, published in the Transactions 
4 : f the society, together with previous papers on 
 eytology and on the gametophytes of various gymno- 


=) 


Ar the meeting of the Franklin Institute, Phila- 
_ delphia, held on May 21, the Franklin medal awarded 
to Sir James Dewar was ‘received by Major-Gen. 
J. D. MeLachlan, representing the British Govern- 
ment, and the presentation of the Franklin medal to 
Major-Gen. George Owen Squier, U.S. Army, was 
‘also made. (An address was given by Major-Gen. 
Squier on ‘‘Some Aspects of the Signal Corps in the 
World-War.” 


% sixth lecture of the series arranged by the 
. ‘sacl Reconstruction Council will be held in the 
Saddlers’ Hall, Cheapside, E.C.2, on Wednesday, 
June 25. The chair will be taken at 4.30 p.m. by the 
Right Hon. J. H. Whitley, and a lecture will be 
delivered by the Right Hon. C. W. Bowerman on 
“Some Industrial Problems.”’ . 
tickets should be made.to the Secretary, I-R.C., 
2 and 4 Tudor Street, E.C.4. 


; annual general meeting of the Society of 
§ Chornical yb will be held in London on 
July 15-18, under the presidency of Prof. Henry 
Louis. On Tuesday, July 15, there will be a con- 
ference at the Mansion House, when addresses will 
be given by representatives of the Inter-Allied Con- 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


Applications __ for, 


ference. Sir William J. Pope, chairman of the 
Federal Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry, will 
open the conference. The subjects of other confer- 
ences will be:—Power Plant in Chemical Works; 
Empire Sugar Production; Dyestuffs, Synthetic 
Drugs, and. Associated Products; The Chrome 
Tanning Industry; and Recent Developments in the 
Fermentation Industries. A reception will be held at 
the British Scientific Products Exhibition, Central 
Hall, Westminster, on July 17. 


THE New Zealand Department of Lands issued in 
1918 a report on the ‘“‘Waipoua Kauri Forest: Its 
Demarcation and Management."’ This forest, which 
has recently been demarcated by Mr. D. E. Hutchins, 
was made a national reserve under the State Forests 
Act of 1908. It covers 29,830 acres, and contains a 
large number of old and giant trees of Kauri, Agathis 
australis, an endemic conifer yielding a very valuable 
timber. The forest is in a wild state, bringing in no 
revenue at present. Mr. Hutchins recommends a 
system of management by which the old trees would 
be speedily felled and a young, regular growth estab- 
lished, which in course of time would yield an 
enormous revenue. The Government owns five other 
Kauri forests, each averaging 12,000 to 15,000 acres. 
As there are estimated to be about 500,000 acres of 
restorable Kauri forest altogether, it is desirable, 
perhaps, in the interests of science and of scenic 
beauty, that one of the five Government forests, or a 
portion of one, should be left in its natural state, 
with a fair number of the oldest trees untouched, in 
spite of the temptation to realise the money worth 
of all the finest timber. 


THE North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and 
Shipbuilders will hold a summer meeting, which is 
being called the Victory Meeting, on July 9-11 in New- 
castle. The meeting is the first of the kind it has held 
since July, 1914, when, on the eve of the war, the 
institution received the Institution of Naval Architects 
and the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in 
Scotland at a joint meeting. Among the distinguished 
guests invited are Marshal Foch, Sir David Beatty, 
and Sir Douglas Haig, upon whom honorary fellow- 
ship of the institution will be conferred at the in- 
augural meeting. Papers recording the industrial 
work of the North-East Coast during the war will be 
read by Mr. A. H. J. Cochrane, Mr. M. C. James, 
and Mr. Launcelot E. Smith. Lady Parsons, who 
will receive the diploma of honorary fellowship during 
the proceedings, will address the meeting on 
“Women’s Work in Engineering and Shipbuilding 
during the War.” This will be the first occasion upon 
which a woman has delivered a paper before this 
institution. Other important papers will be read by 
Lord Weir of Eastwood, Lt.-Comdr. Wilkinson, Mr. 
Georges Constantinesco, and Prof. MacLennan. The 
two first-named authors deal with the subjects in 
which they are eminent experts: the development of 
aircraft during the war and thermal efficiency in 
Diesel and other internal-combustion engines. .Comdr. 
Wilkinson will describe. his work in the ‘ dazzle- 
painting ” of ships. Mr. Constantinesco will explain 
his new system of power transmission, and illustrate 
it by practical experiments. Prof. MacLennan has not 
yet named the subject of his lecture. 


Ir is well known that radiographers, if unpro- 
tected, are liable to injury by X-rays, such as 
‘*burns,” intractable dermatitis which is liable to 
become cancerous, and. sterility. Dr. Hernaman- 
Johnson in the Journal of the Réntgen Society 
(vol. xv., No. 59, p. 45) discusses the protective 
measures that should be taken in diagnostic work by 


310 


NATURe 


[JUNE 19, 1919 


radiographers. He. recommends that (1) the tube 
should be entirely enclosed in a box opaque to X-rays, 
and (2) scattered radiations should be prevented from 
reaching the body of the observer. The measures to 
be taken to fulfil these conditions are discussed. True 
secondary radiation is not a danger except in the case 
of certain metallic articles worn close to the body, 
and then only if the precautions named are not 
efficiently carried out. 


BULLETIN 174 (May, 1918) of the Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station of the Rhode Island State College 
deals with the part played by bacteria of the para- 
typhoid group in the causation of disease in poultry. 
The authors (Philip Hadley, Marguerite Elkins, and 
Dorothy Caldwell) conclude that there are six principal 
disease types among the typhoid- and cholera-like 
diseases of birds :—(1) Fowl cholera, due to B. avi- 
septicus of the Pasteurella group; (2) fowl typhoid, 
due to B. gallinarum, Klein, of the actual paratyphoid 
group; (3) paracolon infections, due to paracolon bac- 
teria in the strict sense; (4) bacterial white diarrhoea, 
due to B. pullorum A; (5) infections in adult stock 
with B. pullorum |B; and (6) infections with certain 
intermediate strains. The report succeeds in eluci- 
dating the bacteriology of several poultry diseases 
about which much confusion formerly existed. 


Tue World Trade Club, of San Francisco, has 
circulated widely copies of a letter addressed by the 
club to Lord Balfour of Burleigh, advocating the 
immediate introduction of the metric system of 
weights and measures in the United Kingdom. The 
letter points out that both Great Britain and the 
United States were obliged to make use of the metric 
system in foreign countries during the war, and 
urges that the adoption of the ‘‘meter-liter-gram” 
system is absolutely necessary in the interests of 
education and business, and of our foreign trade in 
particular. Recipients of the letter are requested to 
sign and dispatch the printed forms at the end, ad- 
dressed to Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson 
respectively, calling for legislation to bring about the 
exclusive use of the system in this country and in 
the United States. 


In the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research 
Society (vol. iv., part iii., September, 1918) Dr. W. 
_Crooke describes a remarkable form of headdress 
worn by women of the Banjara tribe, wandering car- 
‘riers in northern India and the Deccan. It consists 
of a stick or ‘‘ horn ’? made of wood or silver, which 
is placed upright on the top of the head, the hair 
being wound round it, and over it the headcloth is 
draped in a graceful fashion. Numerous analogies 
to this form of headdress are traced in Central Asia, 
Assyria, among the Druses, and in ancient Indian 
statuary. It seems to be a mark of distinction, pre- 
sumably confined to married women, and its use may 
ultimately depend upon the theory of the sanctity of 
the head. But, so far, the evidence from India does 
not fully corroborate this. The same is the case with 
the theory which would connect the Banjaras with 
some northern tribe, though it is possible that the 
Charan branch may have been priests of the Gurjaras, 
one of the many branches of the Hun tribes which 
invaded India in the fifth and sixth centuries of 
our era. 


Messrs. A. N. Wincuett and E. R. Miller (Amer. 
Journ. Sci., vol. xlvi., p. 599, and vol. xlvii., p. 133) 
describe a remarkable dustfall that occurred at Madi- 
son, Wisconsin, on March 9, 1918. Microscopic 
examination and mechanical analysis indicate that the 
material is not volcanic, but merely wind-borne, and 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


was derived from rocks physically disintegrated in a 
very arid climate, probably . 
Arizona. 
thus “transport a million tons of rock material a 
thousand miles or more.”’ ram 


Mr. ‘S. S. (BUCKMAN, in a paper entitled “ Jurassic. 
I.—Lias’’ (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 


Chronology : 
London, vol. Ixxiii., p. 257, 1918), has made the most 
important contribution to our knowledge of Jurassic 
strata in the Inner Hebrides since Judd’s work of 
forty years ago. The paper, with Mr. J. W. Tutcher’s: 
appendix on zonal sequence in the Lower Lias, covers 
also a wider field, and the discussion to which it 
gave rise shows that the gaps in the record suggested 
by the details of the palzontology .were not imme- 
diately accepted by stratigraphers. Cee & 


Tue Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural 
History. Society for November, 1918 (Longman, 
London, price 5s. 4d.) contains an account by Mr. 
C. W. Hobley of a voleanic eruption of Donyo 
L’Engai, a mountain in the trough-valley about forty 
miles south of the Anglo-German boundary in East 
Africa. This outburst occurred in January, 1917, and 
appears remarkable for the amount of sodium car- 


bonate thrown out with the volcanic dust over a wide. 


area. Mr. Hobley goes back to the old theory that 
metallic sodium may be a cause of volcanic eruptions ; 
but the presence of Lake Natron a few miles to the 


north makes it possible that Donyo L’Engai was 


built up above the deposits of similar saline waters, 
which were blown up with the volcanic matter from 
below. 


Pror. Firiprpo Erepia has published an instructive 
paper on the climate of Gorizia in a recent issue of 
the Bollettino Bimensuale of the Meteorological Society 
of Italy. Gorizia is in lat. 45° 56’ N., long. 13° 37’ E., 
and meteorological observations have been maintained 
since 1870, which are discussed for the forty-five 
years ended 1914. The mean annual temperature is 
127° C. (549° F.), the average varying from 
228° C. (731° F.) in July to 2-8° C. Gr F.) in 
January. Pressure falls to a minimum in April, when 


cloud amount is highest, and is at a maximum in 


January. August is the sunniest month, with 63 per 
cent. of the total possible against 41 per cent. in 
April. The mean annual rainfall is 1595 mm. 
(62:8 in.), with extremes of 200 mm. (7-87 in.) in 
October and 70 mm. (2-76 in.) in January. The 
wettest month was October, 1889, with 497 mm. 
(19:57 in.), and in the Januaries of 1880 and 1888 
and the Februaries of 1890 and 1891 no rain fell. 
Calms. prevail for more than half the time, and 
north-east is the most frequent wind experienced in 
every month of the year. Snow falls on five days, 
hail on four days, and rain on 142 days annually. 
Thunderstorms are frequent, the mean annual number 


being twenty-eight, of which 60 per cent. occur in © 


the three summer months. In a note entitled ‘‘ Sulla 


Direzione delle Correnti Aeree in Sicilia,” that — 


in vol. xxvii. of Rendiconti della R. Accademia del 
Lincei, Prof, Eredia gives an analysis of the monthly 
direction of the wind for nine places in Sicily based 
on observations from 1891-1910, the mean pre at 
being. obtained by Lambert’s formula. 


Accorp1NG to U.S. Commerce Report No. 85 (1919), 
a discovery of copper is reported from near Beaudoin- _ 
ville, a port at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, — 


Belgian Congo. 


ButteTins Nos. 9 and ro of the Advisory Councit. 


of Science and Industry for the Australian Common- 


wealth are just to hand. They deal respectively with . 


; ’ from New Mexico or 
It is pointed out that a single storm may 


| 


June 19, 1919] 


NATURE sil 


| the manufacture and uses of ferro-alloys and alloy 
_ steels from the raw materials in Australia, and with 
substitutes for tin-plate containers (tin cans). The 
latter is a specially interesting report, giving informa- 
tion as to the manufacture of wood and cardboard 
containers and of the machinery used, varnishes, the 
properties of the different materials, etc. 


etal he 


_ Booxrets have reached us from the firm of Messrs. 
| Adam Hilger, Ltd., describing the wave-length 
i introduced in 1904 and various acces- 

ries. which may be employed in connection with the 
instrument. The constant deviation prism is rotated 
by means of a fine steel screw, to which is fixed a 
drum provi with a scale of wave-lengths. In the 
most recent instruments this scale is on the side of 
the drum towards the eye, so that the wave-lengths 
can be read without quitting the eyepiece. In one 
form f the instrument provision is made for the 
use of a Fabry and Perot etalon, by means of which 
vave-lengths may be determined to a very high 
ch or for a Michelson echelon or a Lummer- 
arallel plate for demonstrating the Zeeman 
t. Another development of great importance is 
he improved form of polarisation photometer, based 
n that described by P. G. Nutting, which, when used 
in as ction with the constant deviation spectro- 


meter, provides a powerful tool for spectro-photometry. 
The attention of the technical chemist may usefully 

e irected to this method of- investigation, which has 
y proved of service in research on dyes and on 
c plates. 


rel ta 
’ 


he adds, 
sd as certain conclusions; 
m the basis of observational evidence, con- 
views have also been admitted.’’ Dr. Chap- 
sems finally to accept the Birkeland-Stérmer 
as to the joint cause of magnetic storms and 
electrical ions discharged from the sun, 
opposition to Birkeland he thinks these must 
ays, not cathode- or B-rays. During magnetic 
he accepts a highly ionised layer coming down 
BG ten. above the earth’s surface. At a 
rel he supposes normally existent a second 
ig layer, its ionising agent being ultra-violet 
identifies with y-rays. In it are the 
surrents to which the regular (solar) diurnal 
: ultimately due. Accepting as a fact that 
orms are not accompanied by special 
c f € ul tial gradient at the earth’s 
i. , it is supposed that the upper atmosphere is 
so good a conductor that the charge from the a-rays 
a: bast instantaneously distributes itself uniformly 
4 over a spherical surface, and so does not influence the 
electrical field at lower levels. The sudden rise and 
the su nt slow decline of horizontal force charac- 
teristic of magnetic storms in low and mean latitudes 
are ascribed to vertical movements of the atmosphere, 
cutting the horizontal lines of the earth’s magnetic 
field. ‘“‘The general nature of the movement can be 
readily inferred. The mutual repulsion of the en- 
ng led charge spread over the world-wide spherical 
dayer ces an upward, outward movement, as in 
_ a charged soap-bubble. Thus the air travels vertically 
- upwards, except during the first few minutes -of a 
2% etic storm. For at first the downward momen- 
tum of the injected particles depresses the air before 
' the electricity has accumulated sufficiently to reverse 
’ the motion.” 
; NO. 2590, VOL. 103] . 


THE possibilities of exploitation of the River Dee, 
from its source in Wales to the city of Chester, for 
the development of low-fall water-power, economically 
utilisable for the generation of electrical energy, is 
the subject of a recently issued report by Mr. S. E. 
Britten, arising out of a conference held in June, 
1917, by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 
The Engineer for May 30 contains a résumé of. the 
report, from which we gather that Mr. Britten’s 
scheme provides for sixteen power-stations at various 
points along the river’s course, with falls generally 
ranging from 7} ft. to 124 ft. (there is one case of 
a 37-ft. fall), and capable of producing in the aggre- 
gate 60,000,000. electrical units per annum. The 
capital cost of the scheme is estimated at 702,240l., 
and, with an average sale of about 48,000,000 units 
at 13d. per unit, a surplus balance of 205,468l. is 
counted upon. Included in the estimate are the six- 
teen hydro-electric stations at 29,700l. each, a tunnel 
at 60,000l., and sixty-one miles of transmission line 
at 65,0001. The possibilities of the scheme for pro- 
ducing power are equivalent to a consumption of 
70,000 tons of coal per annum. The valuable charac- 
teristics of the river for salmon-fishing have not been 
lost sight of.. The quantity of fish caught annually is 
about 2500, with a gross weight of 13 tons, valued 
at 37501. From six years’ observation made in con- 
nection with the Chester Weir there is no evidence, 
according to the report, that the fish suffer in the least 
degree from the establishment of hydro-electric works. 


Tue following books are announced for early pub- 
lication :—‘t Menders of the Maimed: The Anatomical 
and Physiological Principles underlying the Treatment 
of Injuries to Muscles, Nerves, Bones, and Joints,” 
Prof. A. Keith; ‘“ Fractured Femurs: Their Treat- 
ment by Calliper Extension,’ Major M. G. Pearson 
and Capt. J. Drummond (H. Frowde and Hodder 
and Stoughton); ‘* Psychology and Parenthood,” H. A. 
Bruce (W. Heinemann); *‘Our Atlantic Flight,” 
H. G. Hawker and Lt.-Comdr. M. Grieve, with an 
introduction by Major-Gen. J. E. B. Seely (Methuen 
and Co., Ltd.); ‘Opportunities in Chemistry; or, 
Chemistry in, Everyday Life,” E. Hendrick (Univer- 
sity of London Press); and ‘‘ Senior Practical Chemis- 
try,” H. W. Bausor (University Tutorial Press, Litd.). 
The following works are in the press for publication 
by the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Washing- 
ton) :—‘‘ The . Cactaceze: Deseriptions and [llustra- 
tions of Plants of the Cactus Family,” N. L. Britton 
and J. N. Rose, 4 vols.—vol. i., ‘‘The Ecological 
Relation of Roots,’ J. E. Weaver; “The Carbo- 
hydrate Economy of Cacti,” H. A. Spoehr ; ‘* Climatic 
Cycles and Tree-growth,” A. E. Douglas; ‘‘ Plant 
Indicators: The Relation of Plant Communities to 
Conditions and Practices,’ F. E. Clements; and 
‘Hydration and Growth,” D. T. MacDougal. 

Tue price of Norton’s “Star Atlas,” noticed in 
Nature of June 12, was incorrectly given as 3s. 6d. 
The publishers ask us to point out that the selling 
price of the boolx is 8s. 6d. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


Tue Sorar Ectirse or May 29.—We have received 
through the office of the Scientific Attaché of the 
American Embassy the following message from Dr. — 
L. A. Bauer, director of the Terrestrial Magnetic 
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
referring to observations of the total solar eclipse of 
May 29 :-——‘Cape Palmas.—Complete success; inner 


‘corona very bright, marked outer corona extensions 


S.S.E., N.N.W.; brilliant red prominence W.S.W.; 
several stars seen region sun; no shadow bands; 
magnetic effect confirmed.’’ 


312 


NATURE 


[JUNE 19, 1919 


_ THE AsTROGRAPHIC CaTaLOGuE.—Reference is made 
in the report of the Oxford University Observatory 
for the past year to the progress made in certain zones 
of this work, which were originally allotted to the 
observatories that have been unable to complete their 
undertaking without some help. The plates taken 
and measured at the Vatican Observatory are reduced 
and published under the direction of Prof. Turner, 
and the printing of vol. iv., which will complete nearly 
half this section, is in progress. The plates taken at 
the Santiago de Chile Observatory are sent to the 
University Observatory for measurement and reduc- 
tion, but the supply is slow and scarcely satisfactory. 
The Hyderabad Observatory, which took over a zone 
left undone by a South American observatory, and 
may be considered an offshoot of Oxford, for both its 
directors received their training there, has made rapid 
progress, but this may be somewhat hindered by the 
death of its young and energetic director, Mr. Pocock, 
to whose widow the Nizam has granted a pension of 
tool. a year. 


THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD. 


HE thirteenth annual meeting of the British 

Science Guild was held (by kind permission of 

the Master and Wardens) at the Goldsmiths’ Hall on 

Tuesday, June 17, the Right Hon. Lord Sydenham, 
president of the guild, in the chair. 

The adoption of the annual report, which recorded 
the various activities of committees of the guild, was 
moved by Sir Richard Gregory. Special reference was 
made to the report presented by the Education Com- 
mittee on ‘‘Industrial Research and the Supply of 
Trained Scientific Workers,’ which has been sent to 
the Prime Minister, the Minister of Education, and 
other authorities concerned. Shortly after its issue 
a deputation of representatives of British universities 
was received by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
and the President of the Board of Education, who 
expressed sympathy with the plea for more generous 
State aid to the universities. The Civil Service Esti- 
mates for t1gig-20, since published, show that 
1,000,000l. is allotted to the maintenance of university 
institutions, as compared with 500,0001. for the year 
1913-14. It is felt, however, that a full inquiry into 
the provision of university and higher technical 
education in this country is still needed. 

Another subject that has received attention from a 
committee of the guild is the organisation of research 
in relation to fisheries. The report emphasises the 
importance to a maritime nation of investigations of 
the sea and development of its fishing resources. The 
work of existing bodies in this field deserves fuller 
support, and the establishment of an Advisory Council 
or Board of Marine Research is suggested. Especially 
it is urged that there should be a properly equipped 
institute and museum of oceanography in this country 
similar in scope to those existing in France, Germany, 
and now being planned in Denmark. A memorandum 
on the Decimal Coinage Bill is presented by the 
Metric System Committee, while the Technical Optics 
Committee has urged upon the President of the Board 
of Trade the necessity of establishing a strong optical 
industry in this country. 

Simultaneously with the adoption of the annual 
report, the election of Major-Gen. the Right Hon. 
J. E. B. Seely, Admiral Sir David Beatty, Field- 
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, and the Right Hon. the 
Lord Mayor of London as vice-presidents of the guild 
was announced. Major-Gen. Seely, in addressing the 
meeting, expressed his appreciation of this honour 
and his sympathy with the aims of the guild in 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] | 


regard to higher technical education and research, 


illustrating from his experience the important part 


played. by the latter both in the war and in relation 


to industry. He referred particularly to aviation, a 
field in which progress was absolutely dependent on 
science—a fact repeatedly illustrated in the war and 
in the recent Atlantic flights. Of great importance 


was the perfecting of a system by which an aviator 


could at any moment ascertain his whereabouts or 
determine when he was flying upside down. He 
believed within a few years wireless telephony would 
go far towards the solution of the first of these 
problems. 


An address was then delivered by the president, | 


Lord Sydenham, on ‘Science and Labour Un- 
rest.’’ Such unrest, he remarked, was largely due to 
the revolution in industry brought about by the intro- 
duction of tools and machinery and the subsequent 


tendency, still proceeding, towards larger under- 


takings. In this process the intimate and friendly 
relation formerly prevailing between master and man 
had been partially lost. Moreover, the introduction 
of scientific methods of reproduction rendered work 
repetitive and monotonous, so that the personal skill 
of the craftsman to-day was, in general, inferior to 
that he possessed in the pre-machinery age. Science, 
however, which was responsible for these causes of 
unrest, could also remove them by providing for the 
worker better conditions of living; and among the 
pressing problems of this. nature housing was one of the 
most important. Science had also shown that and 
long hours meant diminution of output, and researc 
was now being made into the best means of eliminating 
industrial fatigue. Lord Sydenham also referred to 
various economic fallacies current among workmen, 
which found a congenial soil in the present unrest. 


Fuller education in economic subjects was necessary 


in order that these errors might be corrected. _ 

Sir J. J. Thomson, who followed, referred to the 
many developments in applied science which had taken 
place during the war, and expressed the hope that the 
manipulative skill and aptitude for research developed 
in various special industries or for purposes of war 
would be preserved and utilised in the future in peace- 
ful pursuits. He also emphasised the vital importance 
of scientific knowledge to officers in the Arm and 
Navy, and especially to the General Staff—a_ 


1 matter 
which had been much neglected in the past. Similarly 
we should not make the progress we ought to make 


until the boards of public companies and the Govern- 


- ment Departments included men imbued with scientific 


method, which he believed could be evolved only by 
scientific training. Sir J. J. Thomson also referred 
to the changes which were being made in the condi- 
tions of examination for the public service, whereby 
scientific subjects would be placed in a better position. 
He did not, however, mean to imply that the selection 
of men for appointments involving scientific Iknow- 
ledge should rest only on the results of examination. 
At the present time an opportunity offered itself of 
selecting men whose record showed ability in some 
field of science, and it was suggested that advantage 
should be taken of it. 


In conclusion, a vote of thanks to the ‘Wardens or 


the Goldsmiths’ Hall was moved by Lord Avebury and 
seconded by Col. Sir John Young, who referred to t 
loss which the guild had sustained in the recent deat 
of Sir Boverton Redwood, who had taken a keen 


interest in its work for many years, and was a past 


master of the Goldsmiths’ Company. <A vote 


thanks to the chairman and speakers, moved by Major .— 


Sir Ernest H. Shackleton, was adopted by acclama- 


tion. : 
‘ 


en a 


June 19, 1919] 


NATURE 


3t3 


IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE. 


BY in 8 re of the Chief of the Imperial General 
ff, the universities, together with various 
Docenenss concerned with technical, commercial, 
-and agricultural education, sent representatives to a 
conference held at Australia House on June 11 and 
‘12 for the purpose of discussing problems which have 
presented calves to the War Office in connection 
with the working of the educational schemes within 
the British Army and the Forces of the Dominions. 
‘Sir Henry Wilson described Lord Gorell’s work as 
an effort to weave education into the life of soldiers, 
to make use of all special knowledge and skill pos- 
sessed by enlisted men, and to hand back the soldiers 
on their return to civil life better citizens than they 
would have been but for their experience in the Army. 
Mr. | r, President of the Board of Education, 
said that the great war from which we are just issuing 
has been, in a sense never before equalled, a war of 
science. Marvellous discoveries have been made in 
connection with aerial warfare, warfare against Ger- 
‘man submarines and German gas, but the most sur- 
“prising invention of all was the invention of education 
an the Army. It was an invention scarcely second in 
to the invention of fire-arms. Referring 

ith the calling together for the first time of young 
— from every Dominion overseas and the inclusion 
of them after the war in the home universi- 

ties, he said that he would like every Englishman 
who went to the Dominions, and every member of 
our Dominions who settled in any other part of the 
cpa it to feel that his children would have the best 
educa tunities that the Empire could afford. 
3 «Hei ame like to see the most promising students, 
whatever > might be their special aptitudes, able to 
migrate to the university, in which they could attain 
to the best opportunity of development in their par- 
sinalars subjects. 
; of students and the need for a greatly 
Universities Bureau were two subjects 
omen occupied the attention of the conference. 

‘The directors of education for the several overseas 
Forces emphasised the great need which they had 
cco of a central office at which they could 
information regarding the regulations, the 
and the personnel of the various universi- 
_ Their demand for closer centralisation and 
iiformity of procedure led to a good deal of friendly 
The diversity of the British universities, Sir 

‘Roadie MacAlister pointed out, is their glory. They 
are able in an exceptional degree to adapt themselves 
_to local conditions, to seize opportunity, and to make 
___ experiment. He contrasted them in this respect with 
the universities of France, from a visit to which, as 
one of the Ate of the French Republic, he had just 
4 pea 1 the speakers, however, agreed that co- 
opera st the umiversities is greatly to be 
Sted! As S illiam Ashley put it, ‘‘ the more they 

_ become ote upon State support, the more desir- 
able will it be that they should take counsel together.” 
The functions which might be undertaken by the 
Universities Bureau, if it were adequately staffed and 
endowed with funds, were defined by many speakers. 
President Tory would have it an office from which he 
could obtain information about men suitable for em- 
oyment by the universities overseas. Prof. Ramsay 
uir desired that it should undertake very great 

S Vedsonsibilities in connection with the universities of 
‘India—work which no Government Department could 
perform to the complete satisfaction of our Indian 
-fellow-subjects, because the Government must always 
be suspected of an ulterior aim, whereas the Universities 
Bureau would be managed by a federation, of which 
the Indian universities themselves would form a part. 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


Sir Henry Hadow, who presided over the session of 
Thursday morning, emphasised the importance of en- 
couraging a free interchange of students for research 
work, and especially of young teachers. If migration 
is to be made popular and successful, the university 
laboratories will need to be well equipped, especially 
on the technological side. Technological courses should 
be widened and made to include as: much general 
mental training as can be introduced into the cur- 
riculum. Mr. A. P. M. Fleming, speaking on behalf 
of the Federation of British Industries, urged that 
heads of departments are needed who are well 
educated in a general as well as in a technical sense. 
For many years to come the demand for men capable 
of undertaking research will greatly exceed the supply. 

Lord Bledisloe at the afternoon session described 
agriculture as the industry most dependent upon 
science, and at the same time the most backward in 
recognising its obligation. He announced that the 
Board of Agriculture is prepared to participate in 
organising in London an Imperial Bureau of Agri- 
cultural Information. Dr. J. W. Robertson, ex- 
Principal of Macdonald College in the MoGill Uni- 
versity, described the successful working of ‘‘illustra- 
tion ’’ farms. The conference closed by adopting a 
resolution proposed by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick :— 
‘That there is a general desire throughout the Empire 
that means shall be found to give practical effect to 
the policy, aspirations, and suggestions expressed 
during the four sittings of the Conference, and, in 
order that this may come about, the conference re- 
quests the Imperial Education Committee to submit 
to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom a 
report of its proceedings, with a request that it be 
brought to the notice of all the Prime Ministers of the 
Empire, either at the Imperial Conference, or in such 
other manner as may be deemed appropriate to ensure 
early and practical results.” 


THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH. 


‘TBS report of the Astronomer Royal of the work 

done at the Royal Observatory during the year 
ended on May to was presented to the Board of 
Visitors on Saturday, June 14. Some of the details 
of the report are here summarised. 

One of the two Chief Assistants, Mr. Jones, who had 
been engaged in optical work at Woolwich for nearly 
three years, resumed his duties at the observatory 
soon after the armistice Mr. Jackson, the other Chief 
Assistant, five members of the permanent staff, and 
eleven temporary computers who have been serving 
with the armies abroad in various capacities, returned 
to the observatory on different dates since February I. 
With so many members‘ of the staff absent it is not 
surprising that the work of the observatory has had 
to be curtailed in several ways, and the number of 
transits recorded with the transit-circle during the year 
was 3224, of circle observations 2818, which figures 
may be compared with an annual average number of 
12,000 before the war. The sun, moon, planets, and 
fundamental stars have been observed on the meridian 
throughout, but other stars only to a limited extent. 
The observations of the moon with the transit-circle 
and with the altazimuth show that the increase of the 
error of the moon’s place in the ‘‘ Nautical Almanac,” 
which has persisted since 1883, when Newcomb’s 
empirical correction to Hansen’s tables was introduced 
into the ‘‘Almanac,”’ has now ceased, for the mean 
correction to the tabular right ascension, +0:92s., 
shown by the observations in 1918, is ‘practically 
identical with that found in 1916 and 1917. The cor- 
responding correction required by the ‘‘Connajssance 
de Temps,” which depends on Delaunay’s tables as 
revised by Radau and Andoyer, is +0-28s. 


314 


NATURE 


[JUNE 19, 1919 


The observations with the Cookson floating zenith- 
telescope have been carried on throughout the war, 
and the result of a discussion of seven years’ observa- 
tions with the instrument was presented to the Royal 
Astronomical Society on June 13. Besides a deter- 
mination of the variation of latitude at Greenwich, 
which may be considered trustworthy, as the discord- 
ances from a smooth curve rarely exceed a few 
hundredths of a second of arc, the observations also 
furnish a value of the aberration constant, which, de- 
duced from the seven years’ observations, is 20-442", 
corresponding to a solar parallax of 8815”. The 
values derived from the observations of individual 
years show rather a large range, and the possibility 
of systematic disturbing causes is being investigated. 

Turning to the equatorials, the 28-in. refractor was 
at the disposal of M. Jonckheere until he returned to 
his home in Lille in January last. The observations 
of double-stars made by M. Jonckheere have been pub- 
lished in the Astronomical Journal. The object-glass 
of the 26-in. refractor, which had been dismounted in 
September, 1917, was replaced on October 15, 1918, 
and photographs of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter 
were taken on twenty-six nights during the apparition 
of last winter for Dr. de Sitter, who is making a 
research on the elements of their orbits. Photographs 
for stellar parallax have also been taken. with this 
instrument. The 13-in. object-glass of the astro- 
graphic telescope is now in Brazil, having been used 
in observation of the eclipse of May 29. With this 
instrument a series of photographs were taken of the 
nova which appeared in Aquila in June, 1918, to 
determine its variation of magnitude in the subsequent 
months. The work of the Astrographic Catalogue is 
being supplemented by determination of the proper 
motions of the stars contained in it by comparison 
with earlier catalogues, and also by direct comparison 
of pairs of plates taken at an interval of about twenty 
years. 

The record of the sun-spots has been continued, and 
photographs of the sun were obtained on 208 days. 
The measurement and reduction of the sun photo- 
graphs -for 1917, the series being completed_by_photo- 
graphs taken at the Cape, is in progress, During the 
period covered by the report the activity of the sun 
has been considerable, but there has been, on the 
whole, a perceptible decline since the great disturb- 
ances of August, 1917. 

The mean values of the magnetic elements for 1918 
and three previous years are as follows :— 


Dec. W. Horizontal Vertical Dip 
6 t force force ping 
IgI5 14 50:5 018508 0:43315 66 518 
. 1916 14 46:9 0°18494 043313. 66 52-7 
1917 - 14 37:0 018477. 0:43305 66 53-6 
1918 --- 14 27:2  0:18462  0:43290  66.54:2 
The annual diminution of declination increased 


considerably about 1910, its average value from 
tg00-10 being 4-9'. The horizontal force which had 
been increasing since measurements were begun at 
Greenwich in 1846 reached'a maximum about Igio, 
and is now diminishing. The dip which had been 
diminishing since measurements were begun in 1843 
reached a minimum about 1913, and is now increasing. 
The principal meteorological features reported for 
the year ended April 30, 1919, are:—The mean tem- 
perature was 49'5°, or o-1° below the average of the 
seventy-five years 1841-1915. The highest tempera- 
ture in the shade was 89-8° on August 22, and the 
temperature exceeded 80° on six days. ‘The lowest 
temperature was 15:5° on February 9, and on fifty- 
five days it fell as low as 32°, i : 
The duration of bright sunshine registered was 
1436 hours out of a possible 4456 hours. The rainfall 
was 31-14 in., of 690 in. above the average for the 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


or more) was 194, the largest number for thir 
years; 7-34 in. of rain fell in July, 1918, bc 
e work of rating and issuing the chronome 
for use of the Navy has been excessive, During the 
year 8631 chronometers and watches were received 
and 6713 issued. The number sent for repair was — 
2990.. The corresponding figures in the report of 1914 
were 2094, 2110, and 934 respectively. The woo 
time-ball on the observatory is to be replaced by one 
of aluminium, and the work is now in progress, 


period 1841-1915, The number of rainy days oats ie 


_ The report ends with a reference to the system of 
time-zones for time-keeping at sea, which. fal rds 
of the Admiralty have decided to establish in H.M. 
Navy; also to the substitution of a day inning at 
oh, midnight for the astronomical day in ail caeticel 
publications. The Admiralty has decided that the 
alteration shall be made in 


the ‘‘ Nautical Almanac” — 


beginning in the year 1925, and in the ‘“ Admiralty — 


“*Tide-Tables”’ for 1920. riage 


Pe ka Pade 


THE SOUTH-EASTERN UNION OF 
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, 

6 Baie twenty-fourth annual congress of the South. 
Eastern Union of Scientific Societies was held — 


in the Guildhall, London, on June 11-14, under the — 
A. Smith Woodward. In his . 


presidency of Dr. 
opening address the president referred C to. 
the pioneer work of Mantell in discovering the fossil 
giant reptiles in the Sussex Weald, and showed how 
the later finds in Belgium and North America had 
partly modified, partly extended, his conclusions. He 
mentioned that Mr. Reginald W. Hooley had recently 
found in the southern cliffs of the Isle‘of Wight a 
skeleton of an iguanodon which rivalled those from 
Bernissart, Belgium, in perfection. The ; 
showed a finely granulated skin. The sudden endi 
of the ‘ geological age of reptiles,” as Mantell name: 


it, still awaited explanation, for the distribution of i 


the giant reptiles was almost world-wide at the time. 
The mammals found the land practically vacant for 
occupation, and none of them attained a larger size 
than a tapir until the Middle Eocene period. = 
Mr. L. W. Chubb described the woodlands of 
London, and showed the importance of the work of 
the Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society. 
The congress passed a resolution urging the London 
County Council to secure Castle Wood on Shooter’s 
Hill, Woolwich, as a public resort. ‘Dr. A. B. Rendle, 
in an address to the botanical section, referred to the 


facilities for research at the South London Botanical — 


Institute, which was founded by the late Mr. A. O. 
Hume. It was important to compare the British 
flora in detail with that of the European continent, 
and much remained to be done in studying growth- 
stages. Mr. C. C. Fagg reported on progress with — 


the regional survey, and showed several maps on — 


which he had plotted records in the neighbourhood of © 
Croydon. Pp 


terraces. The Rev. T. W. Oswald-Hicks showed a 
series of lantern-slides illustrating the life of mos-— 
quitoes, which he had prepared, to be lent to the 
societies of the union. In this way he hoped to spread 
an interest in the subject and enlist the help of more 
observers and collectors of mosquitoes. Mrs. Plomer 


Young mentioned that several thousand lantern-slides — 


illustrating. natural history were now at the disposal 


of the union. and could be borrowed by the constituent — 


societies. Sir Edward W. Brabrook was elected” 
president of next year’s congress, which is to be held 
at Eastbourne. 


Mr, Reginald A. Smith exhibited a map — 
of London on which he had marked the finds of — 
Paleolithic implements in their relation to the river- — 


u_eré 
a 


Joxe 19, 1919] 


NATURE 


$15 


‘| © THE TEXTURE OF SANDS. 

) Aageouss ‘chemical analyses of sands have 
.. frequently been made for industrial purposes, 
and mineral analyses are now a feature of geological 


Bowie tions into the petrology of sediments, com- 


paratively little attention has. been paid to the 


cal composition. This is particularly the case 
in the matter of the inter-relation of the mechanical 
i with either the chemical or mineral 
tion. 


ie > chatieetion between the mineral and chemical 
sompositions of sediments is clear, the minerals repre- 
nting the particular manner of grouping of the 
remical elements. The relation of the mechanical 
sition to either the chemical or mineral con- 
‘ion opens up a big field for future work, equally 
, geological interest and immediate 
ial cation. 
Sediments can be graded, according as they are 
parse ie fine, by screening or by elutriation in cur- 
ents of air or water. The latter method has almost 
re replaced the older and less scientific one of 


mau: 


Dt tensions to accuracy, it can- 


methods of separation can be arranged, but the test- 


ing of the aceuracy of the process by actual measure- 
ment presents difficulties. A separation has, how- 
ever, frequently been effected by subsidence methods 
supposedly accurate at the point 0-005 mm. diameter. 

The grade sizes chosen are not of such great 
moment if graphical representation of the sediments 
by means of curves is adopted. For example, in 
Fig. 1, the method of plotting cumulative percentage 
weights against grade size is utilised. To keep the 
diagram within reasonable compass, the grade sizes 
are plotted horizontally at distances proportional to 
their logarithms. The ordinates at the grade size 
represent for each curve the percentage weight of 
material greater than that grade size. It is obvious 
that if a particular sediment be subjected to mechani- 
cal analysis upon a basis of grade sizes different from 
the above, the results should yield the same curve. 

In the strict geological sense, the expression ‘‘ sand”’ 
is a grade term, and is limited to material ranging 
from not less than 0-05 mm. to not more than 2 mm. 
in diameter. A perfectly graded sand would be one 
consisting of grains each with the same mean dia- 


ey ere = =-- Silt ----9¢ --Clay--- 


If screening is to retain 
1007 


ot be carried out with sieves of less 
than 0-25 mm. aperture. On the 
ther hand, elutriation of material 
nore . in diameter is 


3 


ré Sige 
an ines of Matinents the two 
methods of procedure may be suc- 
an 0-25 mm. in diameter being 
|, and that 0-25 mm. in diameter 
or less being separated into grades 
Bt Ne. elector” jn water. (Whilst 
2 | at by air-currents has been 
ted commercially for grading the 
q of fine grinding, such as 
_ cement, silica-flour, barytes, etc., it 
cannot — 


a 


& 
oO 


— Cumulative percentage weights 


3 


be considered sufficiently 
for scientific work.) 


e@onter 22 moulding sand, esi 


agent a Belgian t mpg op 
3X Semnten Re Res" moulding- Sand, Ser Erth,. 


—_? 


ves ith” aes riding Band: Chariton 


“Sit ts _ regrettable that no general 
er _ exists as to the grades 
_ sediments should be 


2-0 1-0 


arated. Soil analysts have 
pted a axles which, for cer- 
nt reasons, has not commended itself 


a 


a to those g ists who have worked at the problem. 
Another and different set of grades has been adopted 
_ by the potters in the separation of clays. The fact 


that comparatively few tables of mechanical analyses 


have yet been published is the strongest possible 
: definite se for agreement without delay upon a 
; ite set of grades. 
Such a division of sediments into grades is neces- 
4 sarily artificial. Nevertheless, the grades adopted by 
the geologists have as their basis the natural charac- 
teristics of the material so-named as observed “in the 
field.” The grading system frequently adopted is :— 
>2 mm. digneier: gravel (G); >1 mm. and <2 mm., 
very ¢ nd (VCS); >o-5 mm. and <r mm., 
-coarse sand (CS); >025 mm. and <o5 mm., 
medium sand, (MS); >o-1 mm. and <o25 mm., fine 
sand (FS); >oos; mm. and <o-r mm., coarse. silt 
or superfine sand (cs); >o-o1 mm. and <o-05 mm., 
’ fine silt (fs); and <o-o1 mm. diameter, clay or mud 
| (ec). It is a matter of controversy as to how far 
qa srial of diameter less than o-o1 mm. may be 
accurately separated. Both elutriation and subsidence 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


0:25 ori mms, 


~secaiie Sizes (diameter pe calsaiaties) 


Fic. 1.—Mechanical composition of sands: graphical amnohcatatibat 


meter. Such a sand has never been found naturally, 
but the ideal is closely approached by certain dune- 
sands which have been exposed to the transporting 
action of wind and water so frequently that grains 
smaller or greater than the average have been respec- 
tively carried ahead or left behind. 

The term ‘sand’? in the commercial sense, how- 
ever, is used for sedimentary material of varying 
grades (as, for example, moulding sands), or even 
for the unclassified products resulting from the 
crushing of hard siliceous rocks, etc. 

The texture of sands used in the casting of. metals 
and alloys (particularly, perhaps, of steel, where the 
conditions are the most exacting) is of considerable in- 
dustrial importance, as well as of scientific interest. 
When samples of the sands which have proved most 
successful for steel moulding are subjected to 
mechanical analysis, it is found that each consists of 
a high percentage by weight of the sand grade, a 
relatively large proportion of the clay grade, but little 
or no silt or superfine sand grade. Graphically ex- 
pressed, the mechanical composition of such sands, of 
which ‘Belgian yellow"’ and “Cornish red” are 


316 


NATURE 


[JUNE 19, 1919 _ 


apposite examples, is shown in Fig. 1. The sand 
grade consists preferably of coarse or medium sand, 
the Belgian material being therein more suitable than 
that from Cornwall (St. Erth). Verticality of the 
graph over the region of the sand grade marks the 


thereby assisting to produce a homogeneous glass as 
rapidly as possible. 


The inter-relation of chemical and mechanical con- 


stitution is well brought out in moulding sands of 


good quality like these from St. Erth, Cornwall, and 


Fontenay aux Roses, 


near Paris 


257VCS-* —CS nt MS ~ of — =FS-—>E — Cs — MO fone cine peed tay CORO: (Figs. 2 and 3). Not only must the 
sand be composed of suitable grades; 
g it must also be highly refractory to 
% alumina , 5 me 6 heat, and capable, for example, of 
$54 RP Seda ii! withstanding the effects of molten 
3 o% steel run from converters and electric 
Sia? / furnaces. (‘‘Open-hearth’”’ steel is 
S , not so exacting upon the sand.) The 
ac é Ferric oxide (Fe.0,) refractoriness to heat is indicated by 
q / nate the fact that chemical analysis of the 
§ j ind oxide, (Fe) Te — = coarse, medium, or fine sand grades 
< ° 40 “oss onfgnition Shows them to be high silica sands 
g aes ! y containing only small proportions of | 
£ 10F 37 Nahata ee a 4 alkalis and alkaline earths, 
$ ~ Te Pe ee. rar The variation of chemical ecom- 
3 i position with grade is expressed 
g t sub . graphically in Figs. 2 and 3, where 
S55 XO ee xem x eons x6 Sam 5¢ the high silica content of the sand 
; 4r shee eradee E SEE Analysis of the 
b ~ Rotate as .. clay grade shows that its composition 
: r LG ome XE pre closely resembles that of meee first- 
SS eS ee a Oe class British fireclays, which are also 
1-0 0-5 0:01 very refractory. In addition, the 
> Grade-sizes (diameter in Millimetres)- Mechanical Composition; diagram illustrates the presence of 
Fic. 2.—‘‘ Cornish red” sand for stze! moulding : graphical representation of variation of chemical @ relatively high percentage of 


composition with grade. 
sample before elutriation. 


preponderance of this grade, and horizontality over 
the region of the fine sand and silt grades indicates 
the relatively subsidiary character of the latter. This 
peculiarity in grading of moulding sands may be inter- 
preted in the light of their behaviour in the foundry. 
A maximum pore-space would be yielded by a rounded 


The large crosses + indicate the chemical composition of a “‘ bulk” 


hydrated ferric oxide; this compound 
is probably present in a_ colloidal 
form, and is responsible for much of 
the Pisey isis strength of the bond of the moulding 
sand. , 

The widespread American practice, now of mahy 
years’ standing, of milling together a naturally oc- 
curring siliceous sand with a good fireclay and a 


be ed 


| 


certain amount of an artificial bond, such as dextrin, . 


presence of cards, rounded 25 {VRS ES br —MS-Pe= “P= Senai— = 6 — — r 

grains in the sands mentioned 2 ene 

above, therefore, permits the 4% 

escape of the gases and vapours §& 

produced when the hot metal 420+ 

enters the mould. In short, the ® wy 

mould is said to be well‘‘ vented.” eee 

If silt and fine sand were present $ Oa Ae 

in any considerable quantity, this &,,J on s 

natural venting would be gravely ny ne a) 

impaired. The clay grade is re- § Poa fey 

quired to act as the “bond” § } Bag ee 

uniting the sand grains together. Silica ay 

Both the Cornish and Belgian  §'9) percentage 19 X—~4. ha 

sands mentioned have a strong 9 4) ad r 

bond—that is, contain a  rela- 8 74 

tively high proportion of true § 64 

clayey material (14 to 20 per g 5 

cent.). The ideal condition in S * see 

which the clayey bond exercises 7% bd i 

a maximum effect is that of a sd jah 

pellicle, as thin as possible, com- ‘ ao re SS ee nee ane en ooo eae 7 

pletely enveloping. each quartz 1-0 0-5 0-25 01 0-05 0-01 alae 

grain. — Grade-sizes (4. ter in Millimetres) — Mechanical Composition. — 
In_contradistinction to such . Fic. 3.—‘‘ French red” sand for steel moulding : graphical representation of variation of chemical 


peculiarly graded sands (for they 
are abnormal geologically, and 
hence are of restricted occurrence) 
are the well-graded materials desirable for glass manu- 
facture. A sand such as that from near King’s Lynn 
(Fig. 1), which contains a high percentage of grains 
belonging to the medium sand grade and practically 
no silt or clay, passes freely and evenly into melt, 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


composition with grade. The large crosses + indicate the chemical composition of a “bulk” _ 
sample before elutriation. mit 


flour, molasses, etc., is in this connection very 
significant. It yields an indication of the manner in 


which the absence of the remarkable naturally bonded _ 


sands of Western Europe has been compensated by 
the production of an artificial mixture of somewhat 


: 


JUNE 19, 1919] 


NATURE 


317 


similar chemical and mechanical constitution, the 
resemblance having unwittingly been evolved. 

Similarly, the study ‘of the variation with grade 
in the mineral constitution of a sand presents 
results of great interest. The detrital minerals oc- 
curring in each grade vary in proportion, species, and 
physical characters. Generally speaking, the per- 
centage weight of the heavy detrital minerals in any 
grade varies inversely with the grade ae 

eo Po Goi H.: B: 


THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL 
vibe aaa SOCIETY. 


CEs annual general meeting of the American 
_ Philosophical Society was held on April 24-26, 
and a programme of more than fifty papers covering 
awe Satie of subjects was presented. The sessions 
were presided over by the president, Prof. W. B. 
Scot} , and by Vice-Presidents G. E. Hale, H. L. 
son, and 
_ Two important features were a symposium on the 
solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, and one on chemical 
rarfare. In the former, special attention was given 
hotographs and their interpretation of the promin- 
ces and the coronal arches and streamers obtained 
9y members of the several expeditions sent from the 
Lick, the Mount Wilson, the Lowell, the Sproul, and 
_ the Yerkes Observatories. Several conspicuous 
_ prominences were shown, and these were generally 
_ surrounded by complex coronal structures. These 
coronal arches or “hoods” are probably among the 
most notable and remarkable photographed to date. 
_ They point to an intimate relation between the 
pperenencen and the surrounding coronal structure. 
rom the comparison of the observations of earlier 
_ eclipses made at different epochs of solar activity, it 
_ seems probable that complex coronal detail and dis- 
turbed regions of the corona around the prominences 
are more pronounced near sun-spot maxima. 
_ The symposium on chemical warfare was impressive 
as in icating the enormous quantities of poisonous 
es, phosgene, mustard, and chloropicrin, made by 
> United tes and shipped to Europe. Col. M. T. 
ygert, who was in charge of the General Chemical 
Warfare Service, gave a brief historical introduction. 
‘He was followed by Col. F. M. Dorsey, who spoke 
on ve emical Warfare and Manufacturing Develop- 
ment”; while Col. W. H. Walker gave an address 


+ A. Noyes. 


t 


on the production of chemical warfare munitions. 
Col. Bradley Dewey treated in detail the American 
means of defence against the deadly gases used in 
war, and told how more than five million gas-masks 
were made in eight months and sent overseas with 
nearly three million canisters for holding the absorb- 
ing chemicals, and how these chemicals were ob- 
tained, one item being four hundred tons a day of 
-coconut-shells and peach-stones for producing the 
charcoal necessary. 

__ A paper on ‘‘Detection of Submarines” by Dr. 
H. C. Hayes, who was stationed at the Naval Experi- 
mental Station at New London, discussed various 
The most effective one resulted 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103 | 


ranging Service of the A.E.F., analysed the work of 
this Service, the success of which was remarkable. 
The location of active enemy batteries and of the 
direction of fire of friendly guns by, means of sound 
is new, while that by visual means—flash ranging—is 
an outgrowth and extension of standard artillery 
methods. 

A sound-ranging section was in the field with the 
first American Division, March, 1918, while on the 
date of the armistice the entire front of the 2nd 
American Army was covered by both flash- and sound- 
ranging sections. The “central” or calculating 
station, situated generally in a dug-out or ruined 
house, was more elaborate than in the case of the 
flash because of the greater instrumental installation 
of the sound-ranging section. The ‘“‘central’’ instru- 
ment recorded photographically the time of arrival of 
the sound of enemy guns at a series of instruments 
at surveyed positions near the front line and covering 
a length of about five miles. This instrument de- 
livered automatically developed and fixed photographic 
records in less than a minute after the sound of the 
enemy gun reached the front line, and this record 
could be interpreted by the use of quick graphical 
methods, so that the position of the enemy gun could 
be telephoned to the friendly artillery in about a 
minute more. The probable accuracy of the location 
could be given, and also the calibre and target of the 
piece which had just fired. The service was not inter- 
fered with by rain or fog or darkness, though it was 
rendered less accurate by strong winds. Calculations 
were rendered difficult by great artillery activity, 
though not impossible except under actual “ barrage’ 
conditions. 

In ranging the friendly artillery on enemy objec- 
tives it was possible to range all the guns of the 
battery simultaneously, thus effecting considerable 
time-saving over other methods of ranging. If the 
ranging was being done on an enemy battery which 
had just fired, the accuracy attained was very great 
(less than twenty-five yards) because of the fact that 
in this case no wind or temperature corrections need 
be applied in the calculations. 

A popular lecture, followed by a reception. was given 
on the Friday evening by Prof. Arthur G. Webster 
on ‘Recent Applications of Physics in Warfare.” 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


CampripcE.—Col. C. S. Myers and Lieut. H. W. 
Phear have been elected fellows of Gonville and Caius 
College. 

Mancuester.—Mr. W. L_ Bragg has been appointed 
to the Langworthy chair of physics in the University 
of Manchester in succession to Sir Ernest Rutherford. 

Prof. D. H. Macgregor has been appointed to the 
Stanley Jevons chair of economics in succession to 
Prof, S. J. Chapman, and Prof. O. T. Jones to the 
chair of geology in succession to Sir T. H. Holland. 


Oxrorp.—The statute for the reform of Respan- 
sions, which lately passed Congregation, came on 
June 17 before a well-attended meeting of Convoca- 
tion. After speeches in favour of the statute by Mr. 
E. Barker, fellow of New College, and Mr. C, Nor- 
wood, Headmaster of Marlborough, and against it 
by Mr. E. Walker, fellow of Queen’s, and the Regius 
professor of Greek (Prof. Gilbert Murray), a division 
was taken, from which there appeared 306 for the 
statute and 312 against it. The chief resident oppo- 
nents of the statute have, however, pledged themselves 
not to resist a proposal by Prof. Gilbert Murray to 
introduce a statute on the earliest opportunity which 
will provide for the exemption from compulsory Greek 


318 NATURE [JUNE 19, 1919 
of men seeking honours in natural science or ) twenty-five years, and indicates also their probable 
mathematics. occupation in life. The diagram. includes all grade 


In the same Convocation the honorary degree of 
D.C.L. was conferred on Charles William Dyson 
Perrins, to whose liberality is due the fine new 
chemical laboratory in South Parks Road. 

The: gift of 25,o00l. for the encouragement of the 
study of modern languages from Sir Heath Harrison, 
of Brasenose College, was gratefully accepted. The 
proceeds of this sum will be expended, partly on the 
provision of instruction within the University; and 
partly on the institution of travelling scholarships. 

SHEFFIELD.—Sir Henry Hadow, Principal of Arm- 
strong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, has been appointed 
Vice-Chancellor of the University. 


StR JAMES CampBELL, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Dublin Uni- 
versity, in succession to Archbishop Bernard, who has 
become Provost of Trinity College. 


APPLICATIONS are invited by the Senate of the Uni- 
versity of London for the filling of the newly 
instituted chair of aeronautics tenable at the East 
London College. The latest time for receiving ap- 
plications is the first post of Monday, July 7. 


Tue Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry has 
awarded four more fellowships for post-graduate 
study in the laboratories indicated :—Capt. W. H. 
Hoffert and Capt. A. G. Pollard (Rothamsted Experi- 
/ mental Station), Mr. L. A. Ravald (Municipal 
Technical College, Manchester), and Mr. M. L. 
Wilson (The University, Manchester). 

WE learn from Science that Queen’s University, 
Kingston, Ontario, has received an additional endow- 
ment of 200,000l. for the general purposes of the 
University. It is proposed to secure several more full- 
time professors and to develop the departments of 


physiology, bacteriology, and public health. A. fund | 


of 40,000l. is also available to be expended. in the 
reconstruction of the hospital. 


TuE tenth British Esperanto Congress was held in | ~.; A hi ’ give 
Liverpool during the Whitsun week-end, and more whith Nature has endowed ‘hint $6 a8) to ah 
The 


James G. Legge, | 


than five hundred Esperantists were present. 
congress was opened by Mr. 
Director of Education in Liverpool, who gave the con- 


gressists a warm welcome, and expressed his sym-_ 


pathy with the aims of Esperanto. The annual 
general meeting of the ‘British Esperanto Association 
was held during the congress, and many speakers 
commented on the recent progress made and on the 
suitability of the present time for a vigorous propa- 
ganda. The social functions of the congress. were of 
a very varied nature. Two concerts were given, 
Esperanto being almost exclusively used for songs and 
recitations. The public was admitted to one of these 
concerts, and between the musical items demonstra- 
tions were given with the help of foreign Esperantists 
who were present, A visit was paid to the University 
of Liverpool, where the congressists were addressed 
by the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Alfred Dale, who after- 
wards showed the party some of the interesting 
features of the University. Parties of more than two 
hundred Esperantists also visited the Port Sunlight 
works of Lever Brothers and one of the Atlantic 
liners at the docks. The organising committee of the 
congress is to be congratulated on the excellence of 
their arrangements, and it was generally agreed that 
the congress was the most successful and enjoyable 
that has yet been held by British Esperantists. 


A CHART prepared by Principal J. C. M. Garnett, 
College, of, Technology, Manchester, shows what 
the vouth of the country should be receiving in 
the way of education between the ages of ten and 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103 | 


| processes of Nature, and with the ultimate 


of education,,from the elementary schools (public, and 
private preparatory) to the universities and to pig 
is 


graduate work, and includes also full-time and 


- time courses, both general and special. The system . 


one ‘proposed to be brought into operation in Eng- 
land during the decade ending ten years hence,” and 
it is, therefore, not very obvious why 30 per cent, of the 
youth should be shown as having no further school 
education after leaving the part-time secondary school 
at the age of eighteen. There is also no provision 
shown for general cultural education, such, for ex- 
ample, as that given so successfully in the Danish 


“People’s High Schools,” unless something Bit 4 
a 


kind is to be inferred from the footnote: “ Junic 
senior technical courses do not mean narrow vocational 
courses, but a general education which has a 


of interest in some group of occupations, into one of | 


pie the pape is expected to enter.’’ Why not, 
owever, provide a general education for persor : eigh- 
teen years of age and upwards which hist, de ve a 
centre of interest in life itself rather than in any 
group of occupations? In Denmark, “of the 79 
Government accredited schools, 48 adhere to the cul- 
ture idea, pure and simple; and in this list are, per- 
haps, a majority of the schools which have done most 
to place a real stamp on the character of the nation ” 
(H. Foght in “ Rural Denmark and its Schools”). — 


An address on science and education recen 
delivered by Prof. J. Graham Kerr before the Royal 
Philosophical Society of Glasgow includes an earnest 


plea for the inclusion of science in any scheme for the 


complete and efficient education of the citizen. 
science is meant, not merely the acquisition of book 
knowledge or that it be taught ex cathedra, but the 


patient, accurate, and direct investigation of pheno- — | 


mena in order that the pupil may attain a first-h: 


knowledge based upon individual experience of the 


of ‘‘the training and development of the p vith 

him ‘the 
highest possible degree of competence for suc y 
tackling the problem of the life which lies beyon 
the school or college.’”. The address is thoro 


democratic in its aim, and Prof. Kerr would so order: 


our system of education as to bring its facilities within 
reach of the poorest of the community where ability 
merits aid and encouragement. In his view it is 
essential to enlightened popular government that the 


mass of the people should enjoy the advantages of a 
sound education, and that science in ee ital 
aspects be continuously taught throughout the school 


and college career. He is of opinion that the sub- 
ject of physics lends itself admirably in the early 
stages of training, since its phenomena are simple and 
demand, through repeated measurements, complete 


accuracy, and, along with mathematics, he would in-— 


separably link with it a training in the use of the 
English language. discu 
conditions under which a stable OS ee 
subsist and progress, and demands that bio 

science should find a place in the training of the future 
citizen, so that he may grasp the principles which 
underlie the problems of communal life. He further 


advocates the establishment of free popular lectures 


on science. 


‘Tue Journal of the’ British Science Guild for April. 


contains a report by the Education Committee of the 
suild on ‘Industrial Research and the Supply of 
Trained Scientific Workers.’’ Data are presented con- 


trasting the facilities for research and sums expended - 
on technical education in this country with those in the 


can 
ogical - 


Prof. Kerr further discusses the | 


—— oe 


eo ee Ss ee a ee 


i 
j 
: 
{ 
: 
é 


JUNE 19, 1919] | 


NATURE 


319 


United States and in Germany. In the United States 
there are 10 students at universities and technical 
institutions per 10,000 of population, in Germany 14, 
and in the United Kingdom only 6; Scotland, 
however, is more favourably situated, the value 

17. According to Sir J. J. Thomson’s 
committee, the total annual output of first and 
second class honours men in science and engineering 
from all the umiversities in this country is little 
more than 500. The number of men students enter- 
ing umiversities and colleges of England and Wales 
duding 1913-14 was about 4400, about half this 
number being from public schools. Of youths leaving 
public schools about 25-30 per cent. pass on to uni- 
versities; of boys leaving State-aided schools at ages 
over sixteen years, probably only 10 per cent. 
Whereas the income from endowments of the eighteen 
State-aided universities and colleges of England and 
Wales amounts to about 100,000l., a third of the income 
being from Parliamentary grants, the total gifts and 
endowments of universities and Romer in the United 
States in a single year, 1913-14 (excluding grants from 
States, the Federal Government, or wiunicipalities) 


was equivalent to an income exceeding 200,000l. The 


bequests to universities and colleges in the United 
Kingdom in the same year amounted to, roughly, 
5 per cent. of the American endowments, t.e. to about 
» same value as the income derived. The Journal 
o contains the report of the organising committee 


| 
of the British Scientific Products Exhibition and a 


list of donors. The success of the 1918 exhibition is 


regarded as of hopeful augury for the corresponding 
exhibition arranged to take place this year. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


LONDON. 

Geological Society, June 4.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 
president, in the chair.—Dr. A. S, Woodward: The 
dentition of the Petalodont shark, Climaxodus. The 
author describes the nearly complete dentition of a 
new species of Climaxodus from the Calciferous 
Sandstone of Calderside, near East Kilbride (Lanark- 
shire), now in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edin- 
1 . Climaxodus and Janassa are shown to be 
two distinct genera. These Petalodonts are especially 
noteworthy among the Elasmobranchii, because during 
the greater pat of the life of each individual there 
- have been more than six or eight teeth in 

ecession, a condition remarkably different from that 
in all ordinary sharks and skates, in which the suc- 
cessional teeth are always very numerous and rapidly 
P laced. The same limited tooth-succession is to be 
ob: age ei Carboniferous Bi pate s. and 
perhaps also in the contemporaneous Psamm ontide. 
—F " Nibcieatiaih -A new theory of transportation by 
ice: the raised mariné muds of South Victoria Land 
Antarctica). A series of deposits of marine muds are 

ound on the surface of floating ‘‘land-ice” in the 
deep bays of Ross Sea (Antarctica), Similar deposits 
are also found on land up to a height of 200 ft., in 
some cases on old ice, in other cases on moraine. 
The deposits are briefly described, and former theories 
concerning them are discussed. A new theory is put 
forward, prefaced by an account of the nature of the 
typical ice-sheet which bears them. The upper sur- 
face of the sheet is known to suffer a net annual 
decrease, and evidence is given to show that the lower 


: 


‘surface has a net increase by freezing from below. 


The theory is that the sheet will freeze to the bottom 


in severe seasons, and enclose portions of the sea- 
floor. Owing to the method of growth of the sheet 
by increments from below, the enclosed portions will 
ultimately appear on the surface, thus being raised 
vertically as well as translated horizontally. 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


‘the 


Linnean Society, June 5.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 
président, in the chair——H. N. Dixon: Mosses from 
Deception Island. The mosses were collected on 
Deception Island, South Shetlands, by Mr. James C. 
Robins. Deception Island is in lat. 63° S., long. 
60° 30’ W., closely adjoining the Antarctic continent 
(Graham Land). It has been very little visited, and 
until the present century only two plants—an unnamed 
moss and a lichen—had been observed. Two mosses 
were collected there in the second French Antarctic 
Expedition (1908-10) by MM. Gain and Gourdon. 
The present collection consists of eight species, one 
known from most of the colder regions of the world, 
one hitherto recorded only from the South Orkneys, 
three of general Antarctic distribution, two hitherto 
known only from the Antarctic continent, and one new 
species. The interior of the island is a vast crater, 


into which the sea has irrupted, and is about five 


miles across. Connected with this is a small lagoon, 
some 500 yards in diameter; Mr. Robins describes it 
as giving no bottom at 200 fathoms, and as fed by 
warm or hot springs from the volcano. The whole 
crater would seem, in the middle of extreme glacial 
surroundings, to afford an almost unique example of 
an isolated biological area, and would appear to 
deserve a careful survev as regards its fauna and 
flora, especially in so far as concerns that of the 
warm springs and the lagoon fed by these.—Miss . 
Alwen M. Evans: The structure and occurrence of 
maxillule in the orders of insects. This paper em- 
bodies the results of the author’s investigation into 
the structure and distribution amongst insect orders 
of those vestigial mouth-parts which Hansen (1903) 
homologised with the maxillule of Crustacea. In it 
is included, as completely as space will allow, what 
has hitherto been written as to the presence and form 
of these structures of the Insecta, since Hansen’s 
theory was put forward.—E. E. Unwin: Notes upon 
the reproduction of Asellus aquaticus. The intimate 
relationship between the moulting of the cuticle and 
the reproductive processes is clearly shown, and the 
details of the marriage-clasp, copulation, release of 
oostegites, ege-laying, and fertilisation are 
described. The appendages associated with these 
operations are also described. The aeration of the 
eggs in the brood-pouch is effected by a periodic 
movement of the oostegites and by the flapping action 
of the maxillipedes. The eggs are prevented from 
escaping at the anterior end of the pouch by the posi- 
tion and movement of the first pair of legs, and by a 


special coxal lobe carried by the maxillipedes. 


Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, May 26.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair._G. Bigourdan: The observatory of the 
Hétel de Cluny, afterwards the Nautical Observatory. 
__H. Douvillé: Concerning a memoir of J. de Lap- 
parent on the breccias of the neighbourhood of 
Hendaye.—P. Termier and G. Friedel : The débris of 
strata, or “Klippes,” of the Alais plain; fragments 
of mylonitic Urgonian limestone placed on the Oligo- 
cene.—H. de Chardonnet: An application of the eight- 
hour day. An account of the successful introduction 
of the eight-hour day in Hungary in the artificial silk 
industry. The machines are run continuously, women 
taking two shifts during the day, and men the shift 
from 10 p.m, to 6 a.m.—L. E. J. Brouwer: The in- 
variant points of the topological transformations of 
surfaces.—F. Vlés: Remarks on the serial constitu- 
tion of absorption spectra. Several absorption spectra 
can be represented by the relation 

A=A,+An+Bn?+Cn’, 
where n is an integer. Examples are given for the 
absorption spectra of potassium permanganate, 


320 


NATURE 


, [JUNE 19, 1919 " 


haemoglobins, chlorophyll, and. neodymium chloride.— 
A. Colson; Reduction of cryoscopy to the general laws 
of solubility—A. Noyes: The counter e.m.f. of 
polarisation in sulphuric acid. The counter e.m.f. 
ofa solution of sulphuric acid at first diminishes with 
the temperature, proportionally ,to the reciprocal of 
the absolute temperature. From 60° to 120° C. the 
fall is more rapid, and above 120° it scarcely varies 
at all. The change may be attributed to a difference 
in the mode of ionisation.—G. Langlois: A new 
synthesis of benzylidene-acetone. Cinnamene is con- 
densed with acetyl chloride in presence of diethyl- 
aniline. The product was characterised as benzylidene- 
acetone by its oxidation products, formation of 
dibromide and semicarbazone, and by elementary 
analysis.—J. Guyot and L. J. Simon: ‘The action of 
heat on the methylsulphates of the alkalis and allxa- 
line earths. At 220°-280° C. sodium and potassium 
methylsulphates give methyl ether and a _ pyro- 
sulphate, some methylsulphate being formed as a by- 
product. With barium and calcium methylsulphates 
methyl sulphate is the main product of the reaction, 
with minimal proportions of methyl ether.—P. 
Pelseneer: Production of hybrids. in molluscs.—L. 
Roule: The first phases of embryonic development in 
Palemon serratus. Criticism of a recent communica- 
tion to the Comptes rendus by M. E. Sollaud on the 
development of Leander-Palemon squilla.—C, Vaney 
and A, Allemand-Martin: The action of Hippospongia 
equina of the coasts of Tunis on the Posidonia.—H. 
Contiére: The morphology of the limb of the Crus- 
tacea.—E,. Fernandez-Galiano: The conjunctive tissue 
of the heart of the snail.—C. Gessard: An achromo- 
genic variety of the pyocyanic bacillus... This new 
type gives pyocyanine on glycerine gelose-peptone, but 
gives no pigment when cultivated in aqueous peptone. 
M. Ménard and C, Delval: The action of the X-rays 
on fibro-myomas of the uterus in woman.—A. Robin: 
The hydration, soluble residue, and insoluble residue 
in cancer of the liver. A new theory on the genesis 
of- cancer. . : 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 

An Introduction to the Study of Science. By W. P. 
Smith and E. G. Jewett.. Pp. xi+620. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd.) 7s. 6d. net. 

The Foundations of Geography in the Twentieth 
Century. By .F. Schrader.. (Herbertson Memorial 
Lecture, 1919.) Pp. 26. (Oxford: At the Clarendon 
‘Press.) 2s. 6d. net. 

The Analysis of Minerals and Ores of the Rarer 


Elements. By Di. W. R. Schoeller and A. R. Powell. 
Pp. x+239.. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd.) 
16s. net. 


A Handbook of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxico- 
logy. By Dr. A. Brend. Pp. xiii+317. (London: 
C. Griffin and Co., Ltd.) tos. 6d. net. 

An Arithmetic for Preparatory Schools, with 
Answers. By T. Dennis. Second edition. Pp. xiv+ 
376. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 4s. 6d. 

Differential Calculus for Colleges and Secondary 
‘Schools. By Dr. . Davison. Pp. viii+309. 
(London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 6s. 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


THURSDAY, June 19. 

INSTITUTION OF MINING ENGINEERS, at 11.—Lt.-Col. D. Dale Logan : 
(a) The Difficulties and Dangers of Mine-rescue Work on the Western 
Front. and Mining Operations carried out by Men wearing Rescue- 
apparatus ; (4) Accidents due to Structural Defects of Apparatus or 
Injury to Apparatus. and the Future of the Proto Apparatus.—M. W. 
Blyth and L, T. O'Shea: The Examination of Coal in Relation 
to Coal-washing.—Prof. F. W. Hardwick: Replv to the Discussion 
on his Paper on the Training of Students in Coal-mining, with Special 


NO. 2590, VOL. 103] 


Reference to the Scheme of the Engineering Training Organisation. —W- 
Maurice: The Education of Colliery Managers for Administrative and 
Social Responsibilities. es 
Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Bakerian Lecture. Hon. R. J. Strutt: A Study — 
of the Li: e Spectrum of Sodium as Excited by Fluorescence. as" 
LINNEAN Socikty, at 5.—T.A. Dymes: Notes on the Life-history of the 
Yellow Flag, Jr7s psendacorus, Linn., with Special Reference to 
Seeds and Seedlings during their First Year.—Dr, G. H. Rodman: Egg- 
cave of a Spider from the South of France—Cyrtarachne tulerculifera.— | 
S. L. Moore: A Contribution to the Flora of Australia.—A. W. “ah 
Observations on Certain Species of Bryozoa, chiefly belonging to the 
Selenariadz, Conescharellinidz, etc.—Dr. E. Penard: Studies on some 
Flagellata,—Ir. W. M. Tattersall: Report on the Stomatopoda and 
pe page Decapoda Collected by Mr. Cyril Crossland in the Sudanese 
ed Sea. : ‘arth 
InsTITUTION OF Mininc AND METALLURGY, at 5.30.—W. H. Goodchild = 
The Genesis of Igneous Ore Deposits. : 
CHEMICAL Society, at 8. 


WEDNESDAY. June 25. aoe 
GEOLOGICAL SociETY, at 5.30.—A. E. Kitson: Outlines of the Geology of 
Southern Nigeria (British West Africa), with Esnecial Reference to the 
Tertiary Deposits.—Prof. J. B. Harrison and C. B. W. Anderson: Notes 


on the Extraneous Minerals in the Coral-Limestones of Barbados. 


THURSDAY, June 26. pe a pl 

Roya Society, at 4.30.—Frobable Papers: Dr. A, E. H. Tutton: Mono- 
clinic Double Selenates of the Cobalt Group.—Bertha Ayrton: A New 
Method of Driving off Poisonous Gases.~ Dr, F. W. Aston: Experiments 
with Perforated t,lectrodes on the Nature of the Discharge in Gases at 
Low Pressure.—Mary Seegar and Prof. Karl Pearson: De Saint-Venant 
Solution for the Flexure of Cantilevers of Cross-section in the Form of 
Complete and Curtate Circular Sectors; and on the Influence of the 
Manner of Fixing the Built-in End of the Cantilever on its Deflection.— 
Dr. H. Jeffreys: The Relation between Wind and the Distribution of 


Pressure. 
FRIDAY, June 27. f . 
PuysicaL Society, at 5.—Prof. C. L. Fortescue: The Current-Voltage 
Characteristics of High-Voitage Thermionic Rectifiers.—Prof. Ernest 
Wilson: The Measurement of Small Susceptibilities by a Portable 
Instrument. ae 


PAGE 


CONTENTS. 
Text-books of Botany .. . . «.. 4 «: sceus Soe 
Optics and Mechanics. By Dr. H.S. Allen... . 302 
Secret or: Mystery.?... we 3. gale. eee eee 303 
Our Bookenelt” os) oe: see ae oe 8 we «SOS 


Letters to the Editor :— ee 
Wireless -Telephony.—A. A. Campbell Swinton, — 
F.R.S SiS! 


. ee le. ete HO, Tee OY eS LM on Ake ot epeen tree 
Camouflage of Ships of War.—Lt.-Comdr. Norman 
Wilkinson ii csi cons oo ecclesia 
Question Relating to Prime Numbers. (With Dia- 
gram.)—A. Mallock, F.R.S. ... 5... +. . + « 305 


The Atlantic Flight; .. <2. {5.:.)0-. 4s) mie eee ee 
British Petroleum 4:3... .i..% «lepers ey 
Father Walter Sidgreaves, S.J... ....... + 307 
Notes ... oe LASSE ee aan 


Our Astronomical Column :— f 
The Solar Eclipse of May 29... ........ + 312 
The Astrographic Catalogue . 2. 2 1 6 ee eee 

The British Science Guild 24°. |. °C. Se 

Imperial Education Conference. ... . ee ye a 

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich. . 

The South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies . ; 

The Texture of Sands, (Jllustrated.). By P.G. H. B. - 

The American Philosophical Society ........ 

University and Educational Intelligence... . . 317 


Societies and Academies... ...... +++ + 319 


Books Received ... Jy 0000 See 
Diary of Societies 


Bie. “a Se. (0). @) one ier a ee ee 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: © 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., | ip 
_ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2,. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 
Publishers. ooo pees 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 


Telegraphic Address : Puusis, Lonpon. ee 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. ee ae 


NATURE 


321 


peuneP AY, JUNE 26, 1910. 


FOREST POLICY AND LAW IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 


(1) The Development of Forest Law in America: A 
Historical Presentation of the Successive Enact- 
ments, by the Legislatures of the Forty-eight 

_ States of the American Union and by the 

_ Federal Congress, Directed to the Conservation 

_ and Administration of Forest Resources. By 

Jj. P. Kinney. Pp. xviiit+254+xxi. (New 

- York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: 
. Esha and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 11s. 6d. 


rae The ‘Essentials of American Timber Law. By 

Jj. P. Kinney. Pp. xix+279+x. (New York: 
. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman 
_ and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 13s. 6d. net. 

«) a the coming of European settlers 
the forests of the United States occupied 

an énormous area, half the whole country being 
covered with trees. This vast heritage has been 
greatly diminished. In the east there was little 
or no open land for the settlers, and clearings had 
to be made for farms and villages. Forest fires, 
felling for timber, and grazing have also shared 
Sederety in the destruction of a great part of the 
original forest. The history of the movement, so 
far as it is expressed in legal enactments, by which 
a check has been put on the wasteful exploitation 
of the great natural resources of timber is well 
iven in the volume entitled “The Development of 

Forest Law in America.’ 

_ Contrary to general belief, the Colonial legisla- 
tures in early days passed many laws against the 
destruction of forests by fires, and made enact- 
ments prohibiting waste of timber on common 
Yands by unnecessary or indiscreet cutting. In 
1818 a Massachusetts Act authorised agricultural 
societies to offer premiums to encourage the 
arid of oak and other trees necessary for ship- 

wilding; and, soon after, many States imposed 
severe penalties for the offences of cutting timber 
or setting fires on public lands. The first effective 
steps, however, in conservation were taken in 
1885, when the New York legislature established 
a permanent forest administration and created 


| forest reserves in the Adirondack and Catskill 


Mountains. The administration was specially 
charged with the duties of prevention and control 
of forest fires and with the encouragement of 
forestry on private lands. 


In 1881 a Federal Act was passed which autho- | 


tised the President to create ‘“‘forest reservations 
in any State or Territory having public lands, 
wholly or in part covered with timber or under- 
growth, whether of commercial value or not.’’ It 
was high time, as sixty years had passed since the 
last preceding Act contemplating a general 
reservation of lands for the purpose of conserva- 
tion of timber. “During this long period the 
Ppineries of the Northern States, which had seemed | 


NO. 259I, VOL. 103] 


inexhaustible in 1831, had largely disappeared; the 
future exhaustion of the timber supply of the 
Southern States had become apparent to the far- 
sighted, and the transference of the title from the 
Federal Government to private individuals and 
corporations of vast areas of the incomparable 
forests of the Pacific Coast region had been 
effected.’ The Government began to take strong 
measures. President Harrison immediately set 
aside 17,000,000 acres of forest reserves out of 
the public lands which had not been distributed 
to settlers. Influenced by the ideas of Gifford 
Pinchot, who became chief of the Division of 
Forestry at Washington in 1898, virile Presidents 
like Cleveland and Roosevelt increased year by 
year the forest reserves until they amounted in 
1905 to 100,000,000 acres. The name “national 
reserves ’’ was changed to “national forests ’’ in 
1907. Besides the national forests, set aside out 
of public lands in the. west, which now cover 
170,000,000 acres, there are. mountain forests in 
the east, in the Appalachian and White Mountains, 
which are being gradually purchased under. the 
provisions of an Act passed in 1911 that autho- 
rised the expenditure of 11,000,000 dollars in their 
acquisition. 

In addition many of the States have State 
forests, New York owning, for example, 1,800,000 
acres, and Pennsylvania 400,000 acres. Nearly 
300,000 acres of forests, owned by various cities 
and towns, have been acquired with the object of 
protecting the urban water supplies from con- 
tamination by impurities, which are always present 
when water catchment areas are subject to farming 
or grazing. In many of the States planting is 
encouraged by the distribution of young trees to 
private persons at low rates, and in other States 
bounties for planting are given—in Kansas, for 
example, 10 dollars per acre planted. In New York 
plantations of trees of from 1 to too acres are 
exempt from all taxation for a period of thirty- 
five years. The book under review is replete with 
information of this kind, showing the various ways 
in which forestry is encouraged in the United 
States by Government action. 

(2) This is a compact treatise dealing with 
the statutes concerning property in_ trees, 
forests, and forest products in the United 
States, and with the interpretation of the laws by 
the courts. The first two chapters define and 
classify property and ownership in general. The 
next chapter treats of trees and timber as pro- 
perty. The legal doctrine of waste, timber tres- 
pass, and contracts referring to timber are each — 
the subject of three chapters. Inspection and 
measurement of timber products are treated in 
twelve pages, and the laws referring to transport 
of timber by water in thirty pages. Mortgage on 
timber; the laws of boundary and highway trees; 
trees, nurseries, and sawmills as fixtures, are each 
the subject of a separate chapter. The final pages 
discuss the free use of timber taken from public 
lands by settlers and by mining, telegraph, and 
_ railway companies. 


Ss 


322 


NATURE 


\ 


[Juxe 26, 1919 


These two text-books on forest law by Mr: 
J. P. Kinney form an important contribution to 
the rapidly growing mass of American. forestry 
lierature, and impress one with the painstaking 
way in which authorities and cases have been cited. 


INORGANIC AND PHYSICAL 
CHEMISTRY. 

(1) Recent Discoveries in Inorganic Chemistry. 
By J. Hart-Smith. Pp. x+91. (Cambridge: 
At the University Press, 1919.) Price 4s. 6d. 
net. 

(2) Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic 
Chemistry. By Dr. Alfred W. Stewart. With 
an introduction by Sir William Ramsay. Third 


edition, Pp. xv+284. (London: Longmans, 
Green, and Co., 1919.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
(3): Osmotic Pressure. By Prof. Alexander 


Findlay. Second edition. (Monographs on 
Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.) Pp. xi+ 
116. (London: Longmans, ‘Green, and Co., 
1919.) Price 6s. net. 
ih... ECENT Discoveries in Inorganic 
Chemistry ’’ isa summary of facts 
culled from the literature of inorganic chemistry 
during the last fifteen years or so. “The book 
is in no sense intended to be a text-book, but is 
rather to be regarded as a supplement to existing 
text-books.’’ Regarded from this point of view, 
the little volume fulfils its object. It will serve, 
at any rate, to indicate many of the more im- 
portant subjects of recent inorganic research, 
although the account given of each is in general 
so brief that the original work and the collateral 
literature will have to be consulted. As the book 
stands, the title is rather too comprehensive. 
(2) This book, which has now reached its third 
edition, consists of twenty chapters, eight of 
which are devoted to inorganic problems, four to 
radio-activity, and six to physical chemistry. It 
is written in a very clear and lucid style, and is 
eminently readable. Arbitrariness in the choice 
of the material discussed is almost inevitable in 
a book of this size. Thus whilst we find an 
excellent account of such subjects as radio-activity, 
X-rays and crystal structure, atomic numbers, 
and analysis by means of positive rays, we do not 
find any consideration of the modern advances 
made in chemical thermo-dynamics (such as the 
Nernst heat theorem), nor an account of the 
quantum theory, photo-chemistry, colloids, the 
work of Perrin and of Millikan on the determina- 
tion of the Avogadro constant, the work of Lang- 
muir on surface action, and the modern views of 
allotropy. Perhaps the least satisfactory chapter 
is that which deals with the structure of the atom. 
The subject i is admittedly difficult to treat, but the 
author is scarcely justified in devoting a single 
paragraph to the Rutherford-Bohr atom, whilst 
giving a page to the purely geometrical ‘atom 
model of G. N. Lewis, and five pages to his own 
atom, from which no quantitative results have as 
yet been obtained. Further, the gibe at the school 
of Ostwald in chap. xx., and the reference to 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


the 


suffered, are singularly inappropriate. As a 
matter of fact, the portions of the book which 
deal with inorganic chemistry and radio-activity 
are very much more satisfactory than the treat- 
ment of physical chemistry. rh SEE) 

(3) Prof. Findlay’s monograph on osmotic 
pressure is already so well known that it is only 
necessary to direct attention to the fact that a 
second and enlarged edition has now appeared. 
After dealing with the problems of the experi- 
mental measurements of osmotic pressure for both 
dilute and concentrated solutions, Prof. Findlay 
goes on to discuss in some detail the significance 


of the results obtained. This devetops into a most — 


illuminating account of the theory of solutions, 
involving a consideration of the allied properties, 
vapour pressure, lowering of freezing-point, | and 
rise of boiling-point. Stress is rightly laid upon 
the necessity for distinguishing betwee 
thermo-dynamic significance of osmotic sure 
and the various attempts which have been made 
to picture the mechanism on a molecular basis. 
An equally clear distinction is drawn betweer 
osmotic pressure itself, the phenomenon 
osmosis, and the mechanism. of permeability of 
the membrane. The monograph is indispeqsaliie 


to every physical chemist. regs: 
W..C. McC. Lewis. 


THE PRIMITIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM. — 
The Elementary Nervous System. — “Prof: 

G. H. Parker. (Monographs on Exp imental 

Biology.) Pp. 229. (Philadelphia and London : 

J. B. Lippincott Co., 1919.) Price 2. 5 dollars 

net. 

EAGENT research on the flincdens: of . the 

nervous system of man and other mammals, 
such as Head’s clinical observations and Sher- 
rington’s experimental work, has revealed the 
fact, which had not been adequately recognised 
before, that many of the most archaic dispositions 
of the. primitive nervous system have. survived in 
the highest vertebrates, where, as a rule, they 
are disguised and hidden from view by the more 
obtrusive features that give the vertebrate nervous 
system its distinctive character. 

The need for a fuller and more accurate know- 
ledge of the nature and origin of the earliest 
nervous mechanisms has thus become more 
insistent and essential to everyone who is attempt- 


ing to understand the working of any of the 


more complex types of nervous system. 

For some years, and especially during the last 
ten, Prof. Parker, of Harvard, has been 
investigating the simpler types of neuro-muscular 


apparatus, and has published (mostly in journals. 


that are not easily accessible) a series of memoirs 


dealing not merely with the structure, but also — 


with the functions, of this system, making use of 
the exact methods of modern quantitative 
measurement to estimate and express the results 
of his experiments. 


“thirty years of relative stagnation ”’ from. 
which physical chemistry is supposed to have 


the 


; 


ee 


_ JUNE 26, 1919] 


NATURE 


$*3 


_. Those who have followed his researches, no less 
_ than those who are not acquainted with the 
illuminating results of his work, will heartily 
_ welcome this small volume (one of a new American 
_ series, inspired, as the editors tell us, by the series 
of British monographs on physiology and _ bio- 
_ chemistry), in which he has collected his scattered 
+ | and woven their contents into a clearly 


: 


| co-ordinated and simple story. 


The book deals mainly with the neuro-muscular 
system of “the three simpler phyla of the multi- 
cellular animals, the sponges, the ccelenterates, 
_ and the ctenophores,’’ but some of the most 
_ illuminating passages in the work deal with the 
_ survival of such primitive mechanisms in the heart, 
1 the alimentary canal, and other parts of the 
_ higher vertebrates. This. much-tilled field of 
_ research was well worth re-cultivating; and 
_ Prof. Parker has been able to clear away much of 


_ the uncertainty and confusion in the results 
obtained by earlier workers, and to bring to light 
_ many new points that had escaped notice before. 
Although it must be obvious that the functions 
of the most primitive nervous system, as an 
_ instrument to quicken and direct the response to 
_ changes in the animal’s environment, pre- 
_ suppose the existence of a muscular system to 
perform such quick and precise actions, it 
_ remained for Prof. Parker to discover that the 
_ differentiation of muscle did actually precede the 
_ appearance of a nervous system. 
_ Another important feature of the book is the 


up the difficulties of the problem of nervous trans- 
_ mission in sea-anemones. 
2 Prof. Parker seems to adopt the tradition 
_ of the text-books of physiology for students that 
the most primitive type of nervous system is of 
the two-celled receptor-effector type—simply a 
ecialised sensory cell put into connection with 
a neighbouring muscle either directly or through 
the intermediation of a nerve-cell. But it is 
difficult to conceive of the biological usefulness 
of such an arrangement of isolated neuro-muscular 
units; and, so far as I am aware, there is no 
evidence of its existence, except in conjunction 
with a system that links up the whole organism. 
As Prof. Parker himself has shown (pp. 94 and 
" 95), stimulation of one spot (in an animal pro- 
- vided with the most primitive type of nervous 
system) excites a response of the whole animal, 
- and not merely of a single muscle-fibre. 
G. ELiiot 


| OUR BOOKSHELF. 
_ A Practical Handbook of British Birds. Edited 
by H. F. Witherby. Part i. Pp. xvi+64. 
(London: Witherby and Co., 1919.) Price 4s. 
+ et. $e 
OrniTHOLOGY, judged by its voluminous and 
_ ever-increasing literature, is to be regarded 
‘as one of the most attractive branches of 
- natural science studied in the British Isles, and 
_ the works devoted to our native birds are amongst 


rf NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


SMITH. 


- convincing series of ingenious experiments to clear . 


the most popular of all. The appearance of yet 
another book on British birds may be welcomed, 
since it brings our knowledge of the subject up 
to date. In recent years great changes have been 
made in the scientific nomenclature of ornithology, 
and, alas! are still in progress, while the recog- 
nition of numerous racial forms among the birds 
on the British list has rendered the study of the 
varied members of our avifauna difficult, especially 
for the field observer, and hence has given a great 
impetus to collecting. In addition to these major 
changes, important advances have been made in 
our knowledge of the many and complicated 
movements of migratory birds witnessed on our 
shores; and also the periods of moulting and 
other changes in plumage. All these come within 
the scope of the work under consideration. 

The information under each species is divided 
into sections, and dealt with throughout in uni- 
form order. These sections include keys to the 
various groups from orders to species, plumages, 
nesting, food, distribution, etc. While this 
method of treatment has its advantages in brevity, 
it detracts much from the literary aspect of the 
work, and renders it unattractive reading. 
Though the plan has been carefully carried out, 
the sections lack uniformity in treatment, inas- 
much as those devoted to plumages are redun- 
dant as compared with the rest. The shorter the 
accounts of plumages the better, provided they 


‘are adequate, for unnecessary details are neither 


conducive to lucidity nor helpful. As regards the 
illustrations, the coloured plates (of which there 
are to be twelve) are good, and the text figures 
(which are numerous), though: satisfactory on the 
whole, are in many cases poor,,and in others un- 
necessary. It is a sign of the times that,a hand- 
book on British birds, professedly compact and 
concise, should run to 1200 pages. The work is 
to be issued at intervals in eighteen parts, an 

when complete will form two volumes. 


Soils and Fertilisers. By Prof. T. L. Lyon. - 
Pp. xxii+255. (New York: The Macmillan 
Co. ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1918.) 
Price 6s. 6d. net. ° 

Tuts little book is written chiefly for elementary 

students in secondary agricultural schools, for 

short-course students in colleges, and for teachers 
attending summer courses. A good deal of the 
material is drawn from the author’s well-known 
larger work on soils, which was written for 
senior students. In spite of differences of con- 
ditions here and in the United States, the English 

teacher will find the book of interest as being a 

compact summary of the points which an Ameri- 

can teacher brings before his students. 

The first three chapters deal with soil forma- 
tion, a subject which in this country is left to the 
geologist, the soil student taking the soil as he 
finds it and not concerning himself with its origin. 
Then follows a section on soil water, which ir 
many parts of the States is of great practical 
importance, and in any case presents many 
features of scientific and educational interest. 


324 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


The author distinguishes. three forms of soil 
water: hygroscopic water, a thin film absorbed 
from the air and condensed on the particles of 
the dry soil; capillary water, also a film, but 
thicker than the preceding, taken up by soil in 
contact with liquid water and held by surface 
forces; and gravitational or free water, which can 
drain away, and, indeed, should be allowed to do 
so wherever it assumes unduly large proportions. 
No mention seems to be made of the mole plough, 
which, in this country, has proved of great value 
in drainage work. Afterwards comes a chapter 
on the bacteria of the soil, followed by one on 
soil air and soil temperature. 

The remainder of the book deals with fertilisers. 
It is evident that American farmers suffered 
much less from shortage of fertilisers than did our 
own farmers as the result of the war. For, whilst 
an English book written, like the book before us, 
in 1918 would have been compelled to devote much 
space to substitutes and to revise considerably the 
descriptions of processes and comparative stand- 
ards, the author did not find such alterations 
necessary, and his chapters differ little from 
what might have been written before the war. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to 
return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 


scripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. ° 


No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 


The Credibitity of Long-continued Experiments. 


Ar the Rothamsted Experimental Station certain 
experiments are continued for a long series of years 
in order to amass sufficient data to allow of proper 
statistical treatment. Some of the experiments have 
been carried on since 1843, others since 1852, 1856, 
1860, etc. A characteristic feature of the work is 
the length of time for which particular observers are 
responsible for their records, some being in charge 
of the same work for twenty, thirty, or forty years. 
. The fundamental weakness in such long-continued ex- 
periments is one inherent in human nature itself: 
errors once introduced are apt to persist, and to cause 
much harm unless they are soon detected. 

In many of the experiments it is not possible to 
institute any very satisfactory check on the results. 
In some cases, however, this can be done. The 
measurements taken at the rain and drain gauges 
afford an instance, and the agreement is so close as to 
deserve record. 

In 1870 three drainage gauges and one rain gauge 
were set up at Rothamsted, each 1/1000 acre in area. 
The rain gauge is simply a very large funnel embedded 
in the soil; the drain gauges are also large funnels, 
but filled with soil to depths of 20, 40, and 60 in. 
respectively. In constructing them, however, the soil 
was not disturbed, but was left in its natural position, 
whilst the framework of the gauge, by an ingenious 
arrangement, was built round it. From 1870 to the 
present day readings have been taken of the amounts 
of water percolating through the drain gauges: this 
amount being some 40 to 60 per cent. of the water 
collecting in the rain-gauge. Samples of the water 
from each gauge are then sent to the laboratory, 
where the chlorine ‘and nitric and ammoniacal nitro- 
gen are determined. 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


. 


This work went on without intermission from 1888 — 
until 1916, when it was suspended owing to. the — 
sudden death of Dr. N. H. J. Miller, who had been — 
in charge the whole of the time. \ ae 

The results have now been calculated out and 
added up. 

It is well established that soil neither absorbs nor, 
gives up chlorine to water containing sodium chloride. 
in solution, therefore the amounts of chlorine foie 
in the drain gauges ought to be equal to that in the 
rain gauge if the numerous separate records were 
accurate. Over a short period there is always liable 
to be a difference, because some of the chlorine may 
not yet have had time to percolate, but over a long 
period this is eliminated. The actual results obtained 
at Rothamsted are :— “trike! 

Chlorine in lb. per acres =) = 
rom drain gauges mp ae 
- From rain 


via 
G4 eG 


Average per 


annum for =k 
4 years 20 in. 40 in. 60 in. 
1882-92 12:24 13:27) 1245.5) eee G4 
1892-96 1415 I51Q9 1424 1435 
1896-1900 1626 17-61 1607 ‘17:90 
1900-04 1767 1865 14-79 “17-23 
1904-08 16:23 16:18 16:00 fs ned 
1908-12 1957 1886 20-67 188 
1912-16 19:02 18:93 19:58 19°54 
Total amounts for 28 years ieee) agama bc) 
1888-1916 ... 460°56 474:76 467-20 466:00 © 


The number of measurements involved is very large; 
there are some 18,000 readings at the gauges — 2 
large number of titrations in the laboratory. The 
gauge-reading has to be multiplied by its titration 
value, and the resulting figures are then added up. 
Considering the multiplicity of the data, the agree- 
ment in the results is remarkable; the widest 
divergence over twenty-eight years is only 2 per cent. 

This close agreement is the result of careful dail, 
work, and not of accident. There is no corres nd 
ence in the laboratory between the rain and th 
drainage samples; this is prevented by the cairy-over 
of water and of chlorine in the drain-gauges from 
day to day, and even month to month. Nor is there 
any possibility of straining readings to compel agree- 
ment; the figures were not regularly added up during 
the course of the work, but only at rare intervals. 

The result shows how accurately continuous | ob- 
servations can be made provided care is taken. The 
readings at the gauges haye throughout been taken 
by Mr. E. Grey, who without fail and in all weathers 
has stuck to the work. The titrations were made by 
the late Dr. Miller, who would have felt great pride 
in the final result had he lived to see it. Fortunately, 
Mr. Grey is still in charge of the gauges. ctr 

E. J. Russet. | 

Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden. 


The Lustre of Some Feathers of Humming Birds. 


Tue brilliantly metallic feathers of the crests and — 
gorgets of most humming birds, which are also 


erectile, must have a great significance, and present — 


an interesting problem. Why should the most intense 
brilliancy be on those particular spots? 

An explanation suggested itself while observing a 
doctor examining the throat of his patient, in bright » 
sunshine, by the help of a laryngoscope fixed upon 
his forehead, his patient being placed with his back” 
to the light. hyn 3 

Holding a humming bird, in bright sunshine, in _ 
front of the corollz of flowers that were turmed away 
from the light, the illumination of the inside of the 
corolla was most striking, and its use in revealing any 
small insects it might contain became quite apparent. _ 


es as 


i 


_JuNE 26, 1919] 


NATURE 


325 


. The refulgent patches of feathers are absent in some 
groups of humming birds, such as the ‘‘ Hermits,’’ 
‘but these have the habit of frequenting the gloom of 
the forests, and of catching the small insects that 
form their food from on, or beneath, the foliage, and 
these habits explain their absence. 

Perhaps this suggestion may lead others to investi- 
gate the facts from a more strictly scientific view- 
point. H. J. CHARBONNIER. 

_ Rose Cottage, Olveston, nr. Bristol. 


The Stinging Instinct in Bees and Wasps. 


Ir is almost impossible to irritate a worker wasp 
or bumble-bee to the pitch that it will fly to attack, 
except when it is defending its home. The queen 
wasp or bumble-bee will not even defend her home. 
If she is disturbed when the nest is in a very early 
stage, she deserts it. When it is in an advanced 
stage she will return to it afterwards. Worker honey- 
bees are also disinclined to attack except when de- 
fending their home But in beating off a threatening 
bee as one walks through the apiary, one is very 
likely to get stung. The readiness to attack and the 
force of the attack are in proportion. to the popula- 
tion of the colony. As soon as the nest or hive is 
removed, the returning bees or wasps that hover 
around the old place, vainly searching for it, cannot 
be induced to attack. 

But recently I took a hive of bees out of its winter 
case and carried this case, which had a few of the 
bees crawling around the flight-holes, to a distant 

art of the apiary. Two hours later some of these 
oa still remained on the case, and I started to brush 
them off. They flew up angrily at me and gave me 
several stings. Hive-odour is evidently an important 
factsr in the stimulation of the stinging instinct. 

F. W. L. SLApDEN. 
- Ottawa, Canada. 


The American Astronomical Society. 


_ Some of your readers may have seen the erroneous 
statement in the issue of Science for May 9, 1919, 
p. 446, stating that at the next meeting of the 
American Astronomical Society there would be repre- 
sentatives from the observatories of Greenwich, 
Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, and Potsdam. This 
statement was copied from a _ student publication, 


_which confused the coming meeting with the attend- 


ance at previous meetings of the society. There will, 

of course, be no German or Austrian astronomers at 

any meeting of the society in the near future. 

ue Jor: Stespins (Secretary). 
Urbana, Illinois, June 11. 


GRAIN PESTS AND THEIR 
INVESTIGATION.! 


CONSIDERABLE number of different in- 
sects and mites occur in flour and 
stored grain, some of which bring about 
serious damage, while others are of com- 


1 Royal Society, Grain Pests (War) Committee. Report No i., May, 
1918. (12) Introductory Note. By the Chairman of the Committee. (2) 
ey on the Effect of Air-tight Storage upon Grain Insects. Parti. By 
Prof. A. Dendy. Report No. ii., 1918. (1) Bionomic, Morphological. and 
Economic me Fo on the Acarids of Stored Grain and Flour. By Prof. R. 
Newstead and H. Muriel Duvall. (2) Appendix i. By Prof. J. M. Beattie. 
43) A dixii, By A. E. H i 
on Wheat Supplies. Report No. iii, November, 1918. (1) Report on the 
Effect of Air-tight Storage upon Grain Insects. Part ii. By Prof. A. 
Dendy and H. D. Elkington. (2) Experiments with Two Secondary Grain 
Pests, showing their Tnability to Attack Sound Wheat. Bv Prof. A. Dendv. 
%. Observations on the Attraction of Certain Grain Beetles, especiallv 

eevils, by Water. By Prof. A. Dendy. Memoranda Nos, i.-iii. Issued 
January 24, 1918. 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


umphries. Member of the Royal Commission 


| paratively little economic importance. Up to 
_the year 1917 very little had been done in this 
country with the view of determining the best 
methods for dealing with grain pests. No trust- 
_worthy estimates were available as to the actual 
_damage sustained by cereal crops while in stor- 
| age, although there is abundant evidence that 
' material injury is incurred to both wheat and 
maize, either before or after its arrival in Britain. 
| In June, 1916, the Council of the Royal Society, 
as the result of a correspondence with the Board 
of Agriculture, appointed the Grain Pests Com- 
mittee for the purpose of investigating the rela- 
| tive importance of grain insects, suggesting 
measures for combating them, and inquiring into 
the extent of the losses sustained. The Com- 
mittee included Mr. J. C. F. Fryer (Board of 
Agriculture), Mr. O. E. Robinson (representing 
the milling trade), with Prof. Herdman as chair- 
man. Representatives of the Liverpool grain 
trade and of the Incorporated National Associa- 
tion of British and Irish Millers were also added. 
Direct relations with the trades concerned were 
established, and problems observed in the mills 
and warehouses were investigated both on the spot 
and in the laboratory. It was decided to divide 
the work between several institutions in London 
and the Liverpool University, while further work 
was delegated to the zoological laboratory at 
Oxford. 

The results obtained by the Committee’s investi- 
gations are being issued by the Royal Society in 
two series : (1) Memoranda mainly of a provisional 
nature; (2) reports of the detailed investigations. 
Three reports and the same number of memor- 
anda have appeared up to date. The first report, 
by Prof. Dendy, deals with the effect of air-tight 
storage upon grain insects. The earlier belief 
that grain weevils are almost independent of ven- 
_tilation, and can live indefinitely in tightly closed 
vessels, is not borne out by Prof. Dendy’s experi- 
ments, in which» hermetically sealed vessels were 
used. By enclosing Calandra granaria and C. 
oryzae in hermetically sealed vessels containing 
wheat, the carbon dioxide evolved was observed 
to have a lethal effect upon the imprisoned insects, 
It was found that within the limits of a wide range 
of conditions as to temperature, moisture, and 
degree of infestation hermetical sealing is a very 
effective method for dealing with the weevil prob- 
lem. The time taken to bring about the lethal 
effects appears to depend chiefly upon the relative 
volume of air present. In practice it is, there- 
fore, of first importance to ascertain that hermet- 
ical sealing of the silos or other receptacles is 
effectively carried out. 

The greater part of the second report is by 
Prof. Newstead and Miss Duvall on the Acarids 
of stored grain and flour. The most important 
species concerned is Aleurobius farinae, which is 
not infrequently accompanied by the predaceous 
mite Cheyletus eruditus. An excellent account of 
the structure and bionomics of the latter species 
is given: the authors express doubt whether it is 
ever sufficiently abundant in Nature to be effective 


326 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


in reducing Tyroglyphid pests. It is found that 
mites will not injure wheat and flour in which the 
moisture content is 11 per cent. or less, whatever 
the temperature may be. When the moisture 
exceeds 13 per cent. they increase and flourish ex- 
ceedingly; given favourable moisture conditions, 
the mites increase very rapidly between 60° and 
75° F., while between 40° and 50° F. increase is 
retarded. The remedy advised for mite-infested 
wheat is to screen it thoroughly in order to re- 
move as many of the mites as possible, and to 
subject it to treatment whereby the moisture is 
reduced, such as a blast of hot air followed by 
cooling. Prevention from attack may be secured 
by storing flour with a low moisture content— 
below rx per cent. The lowest lethal temperature 
for the mites was. found to be 120° F., which 
required at least six hours’ application to be effec- 
tive. In the form of appendices to the report are 
observations by Prof. Beattie on the degeneration 
of flour caused by bacteria, and by Mr. A. E. Hum- 
phries on an examination of flour samples into 
which acari had been introduced. 

In the third report Prof. Dendy, in conjunction 
with Mr. H. D. Elkington, records the effect of 
air-tight storage upon other grain insects. It is 
claimed that air-tight storage is probably the most 
effective method of preserving all grain and cereal 
products from any insect or mite attack. It is 
particularly satisfactory to note that this method 
was found to be successful in destroying the larvee 
of the notorious Mediterranean flour moth 
(Ephestia kiihniella), along with the various other 
species dealt with. At the end of the report 
Prof. Dendy gives an account of experiments 
which go a long way towards proving that the 
beetles Triboliwum castaneum and Silvanus surina- 
mensis are unable to attack sound wheat. It 
appears, therefore, that these pests are of a 
secondary nature, only attacking and completing 
the destruction of already damaged grain. Ina 
third article Prof. Dendy records observations 
which confirm the general opinion that Calandra 
oryzae and C. granaria are powerfully attracted by 
moisture. When water is present in sufficient 
quantity, C. oryzae is the more strongly attracted 
species. 

In the forthcoming reports we shall look forward 
to a presentation of the results of testing these 
important laboratory experiments on a large scale 
in mills, warehouses, and elsewhere. During these 
times of food scarcity and high prices it is urgent 
that opportunities for this work should be afforded 
as speedily as possible. Every saving in grain 
destruction, with the consequent economy in the 
use of shipping, contributes towards the early 
settling down of the country to more normal con- 
ditions. To avoid waste in every form should be 
a keynote of natioral reconstruction. The import- 
ance of storage in air-tight receptacles is widely 
recognised in India, although the factors involved 
have not been understood. The initial difficulties 
of constructing air-tight silos and receptacles need 
to be surmounted. Once this is achieved, as 
Prof. Dendy remarks, the method is likely to 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


prove valuable where large quantities of grain 


have to be stored for lengthy periods, especially — 


in hot climates or even during long sea voyages: 


Air-tight storage is likely to prove effective not 


only as a preventive measure, but also as a remed 
against badly weevilled grain. Both the Commit- 
tee and the investigators directly concerned are 
to be congratulated upon the experimental results 
so far achieved. Fundamental observations of 
this nature can scarcely fail to prove beneficial to 
the State. A. D. Imms. 


THE JEWELRY TRADE IN WAR-TIME.| ° 


INERAL INDUSTRY” is an annual 
publication which treats of the state of 
the trade of the various minerals entering into 
commercial use in the United States during the 
previous year. The volume for the year 1917 did 
not appear until the close of last year. As. for | so 
many years past, the chapter in it on precious 
stones comes from the pen of the well-known 
authority on all that is concerned with gem-craft, 
Dr. G. F. Kunz, of New York. With his cus- 
tomary happy touch he interweaves*the! statistics 
of imports with much that is of interest to the 
economist and the mineralogist. 

We have remarked before on a similar occasion 
that the jewelry trade acts as a very sensitive 
barometer indicative of the general state of trade 
in a country. The unpreparedness of the Allied 
nations for war, and especially of our own country, 
had led to the placing of immense orders for muni- 
tions in the United States, and the consequent 
keen demand for labour brought sudden affluence 


to certain classes in the community. The result 
was that the imports of wae stones in 1916 
reached unprecedented heights. the follor 


year the industrial position had te tie stabilised, 


and the imports stood at a figure—just under 
41 million dollars—which was about that of the 


more prosperous years immediately preceding the 
war. It must, however, not be forgotten that 
prices had risen very considerably. Thus Dr. 


Kunz tells us that in Great Britain the cost of cut 


diamonds had advanced between 30 and 40 per 
cent., the increase being about equally divided 
between the rise in wages and the advance in the 


charge for the rough stones. 


Many have’ remarked as a curious and unsatis- 
factory state of affairs that in the days before the 


war, whereas practically all the rough stones in the — | 


world passed through London, very few indeed of 


them were cut in England. A century ago things 


were different ; then London vied with Amsterdam, 


but for some reason or other—possibly the want 


of a fostering hand—the industry pined and 
withered, and a few years ago had all but passed 
away. Under the stimulating care 
Bernhard Oppenheim, efforts are now being made 


of -Mr.:_ 


to restore the industry, and a very promising  — 


scheme, which has had the practical support of the 
powerful 


Oh 3 The Production of Precious Stones for the Year 1917.” 
Kunz. ‘ Mineral Industry,” 1918, vol. xxvi., pp. 576-6or. 


De Beers Company, is WORE at. 
By Dr. G. Fe 


Nd in Mi 


oe 


ry tel a alate cgpeiacmn 


ma! 


ys Or 


ali coal REE Oe &: 
1S accel ear pene Ce tae mln nhac me a, 


Burmese jade, which 


thas been found ‘In ten-carat stones. 


_JuNe 26, 1919] 


NATURE 


327 


Brighton for enabling men partially disabled in the 


War to be trained in the craft of cutting gem- 
stones, and especially diamonds. 


_ Of what in the trade are known as fancy stones, 
the most popular during the year under review 
ir to have been sapphire and emerald. Ruby 
mains under a cloud, probably owing to the 
ition of the synthetical product. The 
is worked by Chinese and 
Japanese artificers, has been in considerable 
demand. Gem-stones, on account of their hard- 


ness, find a use in industry. The diamond drill is 


a familiar instance, but. it may not be so well 


ies 
rai eo) 


_ known that some electric motors have jewelled 


ings; one factory in the United States used 
for that purpose no less than a ton of sapphire 


Tok 


ga . ae. 
_ Among the mew occurrences of gem-stones 


referred to by Dr. Kunz may be mentioned opal, 
with an emerald-green to apple-green play of 
colour, from Hésaka, Japan; black opal from 


uarts Range Field, South Australia; and chryso- 

from Lac La Hache, British Columbia, which 
) Dr. Kunz 
makes no reference to the beautiful blue zircons 
from India, which form one of the most interesting 
novelties in London jewelry of recent years; but, 


perhaps ‘owing to the interruption of the ordinary 
_trade channels, these stones had not, at least in 
any quantity, reached New York. 


ea. 


NOTES. 


_ Apprrionat interest has been given to the forth- 
coming commemoration of the centenary of the death 
of James Watt by the movement just inaugurated in 
Glasgow to found locally a James Watt chair of 
ngineering at the University. Birmingham engineers 
ed some time ago that a similarly named chair 
be installed in the University of their city, 
*s holding a centenary commemoration and 
ig an international memorial to the three great 
s, Watt, Boulton, and Murdock. The com- 
emoration in Birmingham will be held on Sep- 
tember 16-18. London, Glasgow, and Greenock, and, 
indeed, all parts of the country, are heartily co- 
ating, and, with few exceptions, the universities 
and ific societies, together with many manu- 
facturers and individual eminent men, are associating 
themselves with the scheme. In the Science Museum 
at South Kensington steps are being taken to arrange 
a comprehensive exhibition of Watt relics. In Bir- 


SOW 


a 


' mingham the Watt relics existing there, which have 
so carefully been preserved by the forethought of Mr. 


George Ta , and were a few years back presented 
to the city, will be completely re-arranged and displayed 
with many additions. Two pumping-engines made 
by Boulton and Watt will be seen; one, the first sold 
by the makers in 1776, will be actually shown under 
steam, and raising water. A memorial service will be 
held in the Parish Church at Handsworth, where the 


three contemporaries are buried. A garden-party will 


be held in the park at Heathfield Hall, where the 
garret workshop still remains as Watt left it. Lec- 
tures will be delivered by eminent men and a cen- 
tenary dinner held. Some doubt seems to have been 
raised with regard to the claims of Birmingham to 
an international memorial. It should be remembered, 


however, that Watt’s association with Boulton led to | 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


the success of his engine. Boulton’s factory was 
famous for workmanship throughout Europe. It is 
true that Watt conceived his first ideas whilst work- 
ing at the University in Glasgow, but he gained no 
practical success until he went to Birmingham. He 
spent the best part of his life there, including the 
evening of his days after he retired from business. 
The foundations he laid by scientific thought and care- 
ful study have resulted in the great and universal 
application of steam, and the appeal comes appro- 
priately from Birmingham for an_ international 
memorial to him. 


Tue Wilbur Wright memorial lecture was given on 
June 18 at the Royal Society of Arts by Mr. Leonard 
Bairstow. The subject was ‘The Progress of Avia- 
tion in the War Period,” and the lecture commenced 
with a résumé of the progress made during the last 
five years, and a discussion of the possibilities of the 
present-day aeroplane for commercial purposes. By 
far the most interesting part of the lecture was that 
dealing with stability. An account was given of the 
use of the acceierometer to record the acceleration of 
a machine during any manoeuvre, and of the informa- 
tion which has been obtained from its readings. Only 
in rare cases is the acceleration such as to reduce the 
pilot’s apparent weight to zero, and in the majority 
of “stunts” he is pressed into his seat by a force 
greater than his normal weight. Mr. Bairstow ex- 
hibited a gyroscopic model which clearly showed the 
nature of stable and unstable oscillations, and then 
showed some lantern-slides made from accelerometer 
records, in which these types of oscillation had been 
observed on actual aeroplanes. He _ strongly em- 
phasised the necessity for a thorough investigation of 
all the problems connected with the stability of aero- 
planes, and expressed a hope that, now the war is 
ended, systematic research will be put in hand to 
provide fundamental data. which will enable the 
scientific designer to treat stability with the same 
degree of certainty as he is now able to compute the 
performance of a machine. Mr. Bairstow’s opinions 
on this point are of great interest, as he was the first 
to apply the results of wind-tunnel experiments on 
models to the complete calculation of the stability of 
a machine. 


At the summer meeting of the Anatomical Society, 
held at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, on 
June 21, Major E. Distin Maddick exhibited a series 
of moving films which he had prepared to illustrate 
the application of the kinema to the teaching of 
anatomy. During the war Major Maddick designed 
and prepared many films for the use of cadets of the 
Royal Air Force, showing the building up and dis- 
mantling of aeroplanes and of aeroplane engines. In 
these films the spectator saw the various machines 
taken to pieces and the parts again assembled, ex- 
hibited and built up at a rate suitable to permit a 
demonstrator to name the various parts and explain 
their uses. It was this method which Major Maddick, 
who is a member of the College of Surgeons, has 
applied to the teaching of anatomy. His films show 
a human skeleton which turns its various aspects to the 
audience and then begins slowly to disintegrate until 
only the spinal column is left. The parts then begin 
to assemble, and part by part the skeleton is again 
built up. For large audiences desirous of becoming 
acquainted with the elements of human anatomy 
Major Maddick’s films will serve a most excellent pur- 
pose, and are certain of a welcome by our soldiers in 
France and on the Rhine. The members of the 
Anatomical Society, while admiring the excellence of 
the technique shown by Major Maddick’s films, ex- 
pressed the hope that he would extend its application, 


328 


NATURE 


_ 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


particularly to the movements of limbs and joints in 
health as well as in disease. Such films would prove 
invaluable for investigators, teachers, and students. 


An | International . Hydrographic . Conference was 
opened in London on June 24. The subjects, to be 
discussed are:—(1) Charts; (2) sailing directions; 
(3) list of lights; (4) notice to mariners; (5) time- 
signals, distance-tables, and other miscellaneous hydro- 
graphic publications; (6) tide-tables; (7) instruments 
used for surveying on shore and at sea; (8) time- 
measuring instruments; (9) interchange of publica- 
tions; and (10) establishment of an International 
Bureau. ‘Representatives were present from Argen- 
tina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, 
France, Great Britain, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, 
Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Siam, Spain, 
Sweden, and the United States. Rear-Admiral Sir 
John Parry »was elected president of the conference ; 
M. Renaud, vice-president; and Mr. W. D. Barber, 
secretary. : 


Pror. F. Soppy has been elected a foreign member 
of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in succession 
to the late Sir William Crookes. 


THE council of the’ British Scientific Instrument 
Research Association has appointed Mr. H. Moore to 
be assistant director of research. 


Mr. L. G. Rapcuirre, of the Municipal College of 
Technology, Manchester, has been awarded- the gold 
medal of the Worshipful Company of Dyers, London, 
for his researches on the sulphonation of fixed oils. 


Tue following acceptances of lectureships in con- 
nection with the Royal College of Physicians of 
London are announced :—Dr. J. L. Birley, the Goul- 
stonian; Sir W. Leishman, the Horace Dobell; Sir 
J. Rose Bradford, the Lumleian; and, for 1921, Dr. 
J. L. Golla, the Croonian.: : 


Tue Ministry of Health for England and Wales has 
now been formally established by Order in Council, 
and the King has approved the appointment of Dr. 
Addison as the first Minister of Health. The func- 
tions and staff of the Local Government: Board will 
be taken over by the Ministry. 


THE annual general meeting of the Research 
Defence Society will be held at the rooms of the 
Medical Society of London, 11 Chandos Street, 
Cavendish Square, on Thursday, June 26, at 4.30, 
Lord Knutsford presiding. A short address will be 
given by Sir Anthony Bowlby on ‘Experimental 
Medicine and the Sick and Wounded in the War.” 


THERE will be an additional meeting of the Royal 
Astronomical Society this session, probably on July 11, 
to receive certain American astronomers who are on 
their way to Brussels to take part in the conference 
of the International Research Council, which will be 
opened there on July 18. The party is expected to 
include Profs. Adams, Boss, Campbell, Eichelberger, 
Mitchell, Schlesinger, and Stebbins. 


Tue last conference of the present series on ‘‘ Health 
Work for Whitley Councils” will be held under the 
auspices of the Industrial Reconstruction Council on 
Tuesday, July 14 at 6 p.m., in the Hall of the Insti- 
tute of Journalists, 2 and 4 Tudor Street, E.C.4. The 
chair will be taken by Sir Alexander Roger, and the 
opening address given by Dr. E. Halford Ross, after 
which will follow questions and discussion. No 
tickets are necessary. 


Tue death is announced, in his seventy-fifth year, 
of Dr. William Gilson Farlow, professor of crypto- 
gamic botany at Harvard University since 1879. Dr. 


NO, 2591, VOL. 103] 


Farlow was president of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences in 1905. 
books on “The Black Knot,’ ‘‘ Diseases of Olive a 
Orange Trees,” ‘‘The Gymnosporangia,”’ 


Index of Fungi. 


A SUMMER meeting of the Royal Meteorological 
Society will be held at Kew Observatory, Richmond, 
on Wednesday, July 2. A demonstration of a port- 
able wireless apparatus for use in the location of dis- 
tant lightning flashes will be given by Mr. R. A. 
Watson-Watt, and the president (Sir Napier Shaw) 
will exhibit two diagrams showing the motion of air 
in travelling depressions. Pilot-balloon ascents will 
be made from the observatory grounds, and there will 
be an exhibition of autographic records of the observa- 
tory, photographs of clouds and other meteorological 
phenomena, and recent meteorological instruments. 


Tue President of the Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries has appointed a Departmental Committee to 
arrange for the testing, adaptation, and improvement 
of machines likely to prove of value to agriculture, to 
examine inventions and new devices, and to advise as 
to the further steps which should be taken to promote 
the development of agricultural machinery. . The Com- 
mittee consists of the following members :—Sir 
Douglas Newton (chairman), Mr. G. C. Baddon, Mr. 
Thompson Close, Major J. G. Merrison. Capt. B. J. 
Owen, Mr. H. G. Richardson, Prof. R. S. Seton, and 
Mr. J. G. Stewart. The secretary of the Committee 
is Mr. V. E. Wilkins, Board of Agriculture, 72 Vic- 
toria Street, London, S.W.1, to whom all communica- 
tions should be addressed. Feet 

As already announced in Nature (February 6, 1919, 
p. 448), a revision of ‘‘Pritzel’s Index” is in course 
of preparation by the Royal Horticultural Society, 
with the assistance of botanists attached to the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Kew, the- Natural History Mu eum, 
the Linnean Society, and the co-operation of the 
U.S. ‘Government Piant Bureau. dc 


possibly be increased to 4oool. in consequence of t 
present enhanced cost of labour and materials. Up 


to the present contributions amounting to 9681. have | 
been promised, but, being of the opinion that many | 
more people would like to have a share in the issue of 


this important work, an appeal for subscriptions has 
just been circulated by the Royal Horticultural 
Society, Vincent Square, S.W.1. poy’ 


THERE has been formed in America a Union of 
Scientific Federal Employees similar to the National 


Union of Scientific Workers in this country. The 
aims of both unions, to advance science as an essential - 


element in the national life by improving the status 
of the scientific worker, are stated in terms which 
are nearly identical. The American union differs from 
the British; first, because it includes only Federal 
employees, and, secondly, because it is affiliated to a 


“Labour” organisation. The first difference already 


seems likely to disappear; the second indicates a 
difference in political conditions rather than in policy, 
for one of the chief arguments urged in America for 
affiliation was based on the cordial relations of the 
Labour unions to the Federal Departments. Another 
argument, which has also been urged over here, is 
that intimate relations with scientific workers will 
widen the outlook of the Labour unions. There is 
no indication at present how the American union 
proposes to solve the difficult problems connected with 
qualifications; perhaps they do not arise while 
membership is restricted to Federal employees. 
secretary of the union is P. G. Agnew, Bureau’ of 
Standards. 


j sé Marin i i 
Algee of New England,” ‘‘The Potato Rot,” and an if 


He was the author Pie} 


The estimated cost 
of the production of the work is 3500l., which may 


The — 


$f 


xX 
me 


¥ 


nt 


q 
i} 


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=) 


2 
“© 
= 


$ j 


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‘2 


aiding research and of  centralising 


JUNE 26, 1919 | 


NATURE 


* 


o 


29 


__. REGULATIONS have been drafted by the Society of 
Engineers for association with other engineering 
e 


_ The scheme admits members of such asso- 


tiated societies to various privileges offered by the 


Society of Engineers, such as attendance at meetings, 
Visits, functions, etc., the use of the library and 
reading-room, and also of the appointments and 
employment register. The society contributes to the 
associated society not more than one-fifth of the 
annual subscription paid to the society by each 
nember thereof who is also a member of the asso- 
ated society at the date of his election. Provision is 
0 made for the representation of associated bodies 
at meetings of the council of the Society of Engineers, 
but it is stipulated that the latter does not assume 
responsibility for any acts done or liabilities incurred 
by any associated society. It is stated that the 
Gloucestershire Engineering Society was the first to 
be associated with the scheme. 


Tue inaugural meeting of the American Society of 
Mammalogists was held in the New National Museum, 


Washington, D.C., on April 3 and 4. Officers were 


elected as follows :—President: C. Hart Geet 


Smithsonian Institution. Vice-Presidents: E. 


Nelson, U.S. Biological Survey, and Wilfred H. 


i 

| 

‘Osgood, Field Museum of Natural History. Recording 
Secretary : 


H. H. Lane, University ue be sn 
ay ic rtd pond: Secretary: Hartley H. T. Jackson, 
U.S. Biological Survey. Treasurer: Walter P. Taylor, 
U.S. Biological Survey. With the intention o 
ideas an 


energy, committees were appointed on the life- 


histories of mammals, the study of game mammals, 


AE 


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; 
4$ 
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ee 
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itself 
ine 


anatomy and phylogeny, and _ bibliography. 
icy of the society will be to devote 


to the study of mammals in a broad way, 


_ cluding life-histories, habits, relations to plants and 
animals, evolution, paleontology, anatomy, and other 


phases. The publication of the Journal of Mam- 
malogy, in which popular as well as technical matter 
willoee presented, will begin this year. Membership 
in the society 1s not confined to Americans, but any 
person interested in mammals is invited to. join. 
ps lication for membership may be sent to Mr. 
Jartley H. T. Jackson, U.S: Department of Agricul- 
tae hVadhiicigton, B.C. 


Tue drought which has been so severely felt over 
the southern portion of England came to an end on 
June 20, when there was an inch of rain over the 
metropolitan area due to the peste of a secondary 
disturbance. In many parts of the country, especially 
in the north and west, there was a break in the 
drought on June 12 due to the passage of a well- 


_ developed cyclonic disturbance across the country. 
- Over London { 
_ rainless for 25 days from May to to June 3 inclusive, 
and for Kew Observatory the Daily Weather Report 


ally the weather was absolutely 


For a 


4 June 19 the total rainfall at Kew was only 0-08 in.; 


continuing at the time of our going to press. T 
rainfall for the seven weeks, May 1 to June 18, varied 
much in different parts of the country. At Stornoway 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


‘ 


the measurement was 5-50 in., at Glasgow 475 in., 
and at Birr Castle, Ireland, 5-65 in. At the English 
stations the Meteorological Office returns show that 


fhe rainfall was very much less. The amounts 
were :—Liverpool, 1:82 in.; Nottingham, 1-63 in.; 
Yarmouth, 1-32 in.; Jersey, 0-85 in.; Portland, 


0-64 in.; and Dungeness, 0-34 in.; whilst for the 
London area the Rainfall Organisation at Camden 
Square had 0-48 in., Greenwich Observatory 0-45 in., 
and Kew Observatory 0:19 in. The absolute drought 
was severe and prolonged, but the partial drought 
was of comparatively short duration compared with 
others in the spring of former years. 


Tue Government of the Punjab has recently an- 
nounced that three great irrigation schemes, each 
costing tooo lakhs of rupees, are now under con- 
sideration. They are expected to yield a financial 
return of from 6 to 8 per cent. on the capital expendi- 
ture. These projects are: A canal starting from the 
Indus at Kalabagh to irrigate 5,000,000 acres, or 
8000 square miles, of wilderness lying between’ the 
Indus, Jhelum, and Chinab rivers; the Bhakra 
reservoir dam, 350 ft. high, to be built across the 
Sutlej at the debouchure from the Himalayas in order 
to store up 110,000 cubic ft. of water for purposes of 
irrigation during the winter; and the Sutlej valley 
project of canals from the Sutlej near Ferozepore 
for irrigation chiefly of the territories of Bikaner and 
Bahawalpur. 


Tue Moriori, who inhabited the Chatham Islands, 
and are now practically extinct, have excited an 
interest comparable in kind, though not in degree, 
with that aroused by the extinct Tasmanians. They 
have until quite recently been regarded as a branch of 
the Maori people driven to the Chathams many 
generations .ago by tribal war. But this view has 
been challenged on linguistic and other grounds, 
among which are differences between the Maori and 
Moriori vessels. The latter are carefully described by 
Mr. H. D. Skinner in the May issue of Man. Mr. 
Skinner’s conclusion is that ‘tthe Moriori Waka-rimu 
may very well have combined elements derived. from 
raft and canoe, a development necessitated by the 
absence at Chatham Islands of any timber from which 
a dug-out canoe could be made. ... The use of 
rowing, as opposed to paddling, for the propulsion of 
canoes has been recorded amongst the Maoris on the 
west coast of the South Island, while an oar of the 
Moriori type was found many years ago in a cave at 
the head-waters of the Taieri in Otago, and is now 
in the Otago University Museum.’’ 


Tue Veterinary Review for May (vol. iii., No. 2) 
contains a valuable bibliography on contagious abor- 
tion of cattle. It starts from the year 1895, and con- 
tains 225 references. The remainder of the issue is 
occupied with abstracts, bibliography on current 
literature of veterinary subjects, and book reviews. 


Capt. Major GREENWoopD discusses problems of 
industrial organisation in a paper published in the 
March issue of the Journal of the Royal Statistical 
Society (vol. Ixxxii., part ii.) The advantage in 
respect of retention of workers of the factory with 
a welfare system appears to be considerable. As 
regards the influence of the type of work, the younger 
women doing heavy work do not seem to fall away 
faster than those of a similar age doing light work, 
but with women above twenty-two years of age there 
is a decided difference. Contrasting day-workers and 
continuous night-workers, the percentage inferiority 
in output of the night-workers amounted to 17+4:1 in 
winter and 12+3 in summer. As regards hours of 


330 


NATURE 


[ JUNE 26, 1919 


labour and output, a reduction of 8} hours per week 
(from 68-2 hours to 59-7 hours) increased the gross 
output by 8 pef cent. 


From an analysis of more than half a million ad- 
missions to sick report of troops in camps in the 
United States, of whom 531,445 were white and 
15,186 coloured, Lt.-Col. A. G. Love and Major 
C. B. Davenport form a comparison of white and 
coloured troops in respect to incidence of disease. 
As regards total relative frequency of disease in the 
two races, the coloured troops were about I9 per 
cent. more liable to go on sick report than the white 
troops. The coloured troops were relatively less 
resistant to diseases of the lungs and pleura as well 
as to certain general diseases, like tuberculosis and 
smallpox; they are also much more frequently in- 
fected with venereal diseases. But the uninfected 
negro is highly resistant to diseases of the skin, 
mouth, and throat; he seems to have more stable 
nerves, has better eyes, and metabolises better (Proc. 
National Acad. Sciences, vol. v., p. 58, 1919). 


Dr. H. H. Laucuiin has made a cytological and 
statistical study (Carnegie Inst. Washington, Publica- 
tion Ne 265, pp. 48+18 tables) of the relative and 
absolute durations of the several arbitrarily delimited 
progress-stages in cell-division. His material was 
found in the root-tip cells of the common onion. 
With great carefulness Dr. Laughlin has determined 
the duration of ten successive stages at temperatures 
of 10° C., 20° C., and 30° C. The total period at these 
three temperatures was 292-52, 240-97, and 91-56 
minutes respectively. The resting stage counts for 
194-92, 15957, and 33:26 minutes; the early prophase 
for 52-2550, 59:2592, and 51-4147. Thereafter the 
changes take place very rapidly. The velocity increase 


at a given temperature compared with the velocity of ‘ 


the same stage at 10° C. lower (what is known as 
the Q,, value) approximates to the expectations 
deducible from van’t Hoff’s law. That is to say, 
‘the mitosis behaves in its velocity increments to 
temperature-increments like the simpler chemical re- 
actions. But this does not mean that mitosis is ‘Sa 
simple chemical reaction.” Far from it; we have to 
deal with a répertoire of activities, a vast complex 
of physical and chemical activities, in which the 
many aberrations from the velocity-gradient of a 
simple chemical process are mutually cancelled. The 
‘author’s study marks a distinct step of advance in 
the analysis of mitosis. 


Tue ‘‘tillite’’ with scratched boulders in the 
Varanger district of Finmarken is referred by Olaf 
Holtedahl, of Kristiania (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xlvii., 
p- 85, Ig19) to a pre-Caledonian epoch, probably 
Ordovician. A comparison is made with the coarse 
conglomerates of Girvan in Ayrshire. The paper 
reviews the Palzozoic rocks of Finmarken, and 
assigns an inorganic and concretionary origin to the 
structures known as stromatolites, including Crypto- 
zoon and Gymnosolen. The author cannot agree with 
Walcott that the limestones containing these objects 
were accumulated in fresh water, but he thinks that 
algal activities may have aided in the deposition of the 
calcium carbonate. 


“THE zoning of the ‘‘Karroo System” of South 
Africa, which is in reality the representative of more 
than one system, receives a new investigation from 
Mr. A. L. du Toit in the Proceedings of the Geo- 
logical Society of South Africa for 1918 (p. xvii). 
The author carries the glacial Dwyka series down into 
the Upper Carboniferous, and the Ecca beds thus 
become Lower Permian. The Cave Sandstone at the 
top of the Karroo formation is regarded as’an zolian 
deposit of probably Rhztic age, comparable with the 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103 | 


Pleistocene léss of the northern hemisphere. . 
former wide extension of the overlying Drakens 


evidence goes, within the Rhzetic series. 


Tue Press of Aragon (Spain) has recently publish: 
a description of trials made by a Spanish (nee Ly 
of straw-compound as a substitute for coal. This 
fuel is said to have great advantages over coal for 
locomotives and agricultural tractors, as it develops 
sufficient heat in thirty minutes to give the nesieeaey 
head of steam. The U.S. Commerce Report No. 86 
(1919), reporting this discovery, states that the ashes’ 
left by the fuel in question make an excellent fertiliser. 
Another Spaniard has patented a process for the use 
of banana fibre for textiles, yarns, cords, and alpar- 
gata soles as a substitute for hemp and jute. Trials 
have proved satisfactory, and plant is to be laid down 
to work the process. com 

THE recently issued annual report of the Decimal 
Association shows that the efforts of the association 
in favour of the compulsory introduction of decimal 
coinage and the metric system of weights and 
measures continue to make satisfactory progress. The 


Bill brought forward by Lord Southwark last year 


has aroused the interest of many public bodies, and 
numerous resolutions have been passed in favour of 
decimal coinage. 
ance until the Royal Commission appointed to deal 
with the subject issues its report, which is e ed 
in the early autumn. A number of local educational 
bodies have signified their approval of the proposal 
to introduce the metric system of weights and 
measures. British’ Chambers of Commerce abroad 
are actively supporting the proposed reform, as they 
regard the adoption of the metric system by this 
country as an essential preliminary to success in 
supplanting German ascendency in foreign markets. 
Although the use of the system has been for many 
vears permissive in the United Kingdom, business 
firms adopting it suffer much inconvenience owing to 
the railway companies refusing to accept consignment 
notes made out in terms of metric weights; this diffi- 
culty will continue to hamper progress until the system 
is made obligatory. The Decimal Educator, a 
quarterly journal started by the association during the 
year, has met with a marked measure of success. 


Wirn reference to Irish reconstruction problems, 
the question of producing industrial alcohol was dis- 
cussed by Dr. J. Reilly, of the Royal Naval Cordite 
Factory, in a lecture delivered before the Royal 
Dublin Society a short time ago. One of the chief 
points suggested for consideration was whether, by 
the use of alcohol as a motor-fuel, the dependence of 
this country upon foreign supplies of petrol could 
not be obviated or lessened. We import about 


150,000,000 gallons of petrol yearly. To replace this — 


by alcohol obtained from potatoes about 7,000,000 tons 
of the latter would be required. Allowing for rota- 
tion crops, this quantity of potatoes would require 


The — 


lavas, including the basalts along the Zambesi, is 4 
indicated, and these are also brought, so far as present — 
, data, 


The measure will remain in abey- - 


some 6,000,000 acres of land for its production. At — 


present Ireland grows about 4,000,000 tons of pota- — 


toes per annum. She could grow more, no doubt, 


S Ry 


though how much more is not at present very clear. — 


Assuming that the requisite amount of land could 
be spared after food needs were supplied, the prac- 
tical test of the matter would be the price of the 
alcohol produced in relation to that of petrol. As to 


this the lecturer gives no dogmatic pronouncement; 
he only suggests that there is a case for considera~ — 


tion. In a country such as Ireland, with a large 
agricultural population, it is essential for prosperity 
that the land should be made to provide more wealth, 


JUNE 26, 1919] 


NATURE 


33! 


_ both in the shape of food and in that of raw material 
for industry. It has been argued that crops with a 
higher starch-content can be grown more cheaply in 
beget ‘countries, and the resulting alcohol could, 
i would, be imported here. Against this Dr, Reilly 
_ remarks truly that it is unwise for a country to rely 
Burn on foreign supplies. 


_ AMONG forthcoming books of science we notice the 
_ following :—Vo". iii. of the English translation, by 
| Be2 Browne, of Doyen’s ‘Surgical Thera- 
d Cox); 

Ma 


and Operative Technique” (Bailliére, Tindall, 
“The Story of the English Public Health,” 
Morris, and “Infant and Young Child 
H. Scurfield (each in the new series of 


r Malcolm 
Enlich abc Health) (Cassell and Co., Ltd.); ‘*The 
of the Child,” Dr. C. ‘Dunn '(Samp- 


son. oo "Me and et ico,, Ltd.) ; and a-new and revised 
: Mental Diseases,” Dr. H. R. Cole (Uni- 


London ine Lid.). “The Chemical 
i i -Book ” aap em by Messrs. 
Band and Morris, of Red ion Passage, W.C.r. 


. F. Epwarps, 83 High Street, Marylebone, has 
oa a catalogue (No. 391) of ‘nearly 1000 items 
ing the Dominions, Colonies, and Depen- 

rs the British Empire. It contains many 
‘ks, is carefully classified, and will doubtless 
¢ many readers of Nature. Mr. Edwards has 
ulated a short list (No. 390) of new books at 
r prices. Many of the volumes deal with 
fic su an The catalogues will be sent free 
7h. jon. 
2 Tre (Scientific , Attaché to the American Embassy 
| informs. us that the position of the solar prominence 
a referred to in the cablegram from Dr. L. A. Bauer 
3 | eee se last week (p. 311) was wrongly recorded. A 
re message, states that the position should have 
_ been given as south-south-w est instead of west-south- 
# wiiirc iri 
¥ 
’ 
. 
: 


re OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


a 


“Tne Pianets.—The three bright planets which have 


the sun on July 21, Saturn on August 28; 
whilst Venus, which will be at greatest elongation 
“ch OA ie July” 5, is approaching greatest brilliancy 
sust 8), se will be at inferior conjunction on 
er 1 Mars is coming into view as a 


paar rising in the N.E. 
On the | evening of July 2, at oh. GM.T., 
a very close and interesting approach of Venus 
and- een may be observed in the W.N.W.. sky. 
_ The two objects will be separated by an apparent 
distance of 10’ of arc. Venus will set at about 
10.30 G.M.T., and will be a brilliant object, offering 
a strong contrast to the feeble appearance of Saturn 
in the strong twilight. It will be interesting to 
examine the two planets in the same field of view 
- with a good telescove, and to note the great difference 
in colour and brilliancy to the unaided eye. This 
pe a will form one of the most attractive 
| planetary tions of 1919. It is true that the 
* Saifiticiion 6 of Venus and Saturn is not a rare event, 
although one of the same character as that to which 
_ we are now referring is very seldom observed, since 
it will take place at a very convenient time for ob- 
4 servation and the objects will be unusually near each 
other. On a few evenings preceding and following 
July 2 the changes in the relative places of Venus and 
_ Saturn will be considerable, and it will be enter- 
a taining to trace them from night to night. 


ADMIRALTY TIDE-TABLES.—A ‘sentence in the Astro- 
~ nomer Royal’s report, noticed in last week’s NaTurRE, 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


‘| been so conspicuous during the last few months are 
now leaving the evening sky. Jupiter will be in con- | 
Pe 2 

| = 


may have given rise to misconception. The day used 
in the Admiralty tide-tables for the current year and 
previously begins at midnight, and is divided into two 
periods of twelve hours, a.m. and p.m. respectively. 
The change to be introduced into the issue of the 
tables for 1920 i> that the hours will be numbered 
from 0 to 23. 


THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. 


HE annual visitation and inspection of the 

National Physical Laboratory by the (General 
Board took place on Tuesday, June 24. The numerous 
visitors invited by the Board made a tour of the 
laboratory, and were given an opportunity of seeing in 
operation various subjects of interest which are at 
present being investigated at the laboratory. 

The engineering department exhibited an apparatus 
for the determination of the absolute viscosities of 
liquids at high pressures. The liquid under test is 
arranged to flow through a capillary under a con- 
stant-pressure difference, and its velocity calculated 
from the indications of the instrument. The Lan- 
chester worm-gear testing machine for obtaining the 
efficiency of a worm-gear was shown. The machine 
is so arranged that a pressure corresponding to a 
transmission through the box of as much as too h.p. 
can be obtained between the gear-teeth, it being neces- 
sary to supply from an external source only the losses 
in the gear and apparatus. In the apparatus used 


| for the measurement of journal friction, a tilt due to 
- a force of about 1/300th of a pound weight acting at 


the end of a 3-ft. lever could be measured. Varia- 
tions of the coefficient of friction of the bearings due 
to different oils could be observed with this apparatus. 
Other exhibits in this department, were the fol- 
lowing :—An apparatus for testing the wear of 
stranded cables, an extensometer for use at high tem- 
peratures, a high-velocity impact testing machine, and 
a wear-testing machine. ; 

The aeronautical department demonstrated how 
data for solving problems such as the following are 
obtained in the wind channels :—({1) The mutual inter- 
ference of air-screw and body, and the flow in the 
neighbourhood of the air-screw; (2) the spinning of 
aeroplanes; (3) the balancing of rudders; and (4) the 
determination of the rotary derivations on .SS. Zero 
airship. Various models of complete machines and 
a model of a mooring device for rigid airships were 
exhibited. 

Demonstrations were given in the metallurgy 
department of ‘the rolling of high tensile aluminium 
alloys. The recuperative gas furnace and the electric 
“ring” furnace for high-temperature work were seen 
in operation. A chronograph for the direct plotting 
of time-temperature observations in the form of 
‘* inverse-rate "’ curves. as required for the heating and 
cooling curves of metals and alloys, was demonstrated. 
The curve vlotted by the instrument may be regarded 
as the differential coefficient of the simple time- 
temperature curve representing the observations. 

Tests on seaplane-floats were carried out in the 
William Froude national tank. Two different types 
of experiment were conducted: (a) on resistance, 
running angle, and longitudinal stabilitv of a float 
when planing on the water; and (b) on the impact of 
a seaplane when alighting on water, measurements of 
the deceleration and the blow received by the float 
being made. 

In the large gauge-room, which was added to the 
metrology department during the war for the purpose 
of testing gauges used for munitions, were seen 
different types of gauges and the methods of testing 
them. During the busiest veriod of the war some 


35? 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


10,000 gauges were dealt with in this building alone. 
A minimeter of special design was shown which en- 
abled rapid and accurate measurements to be made 
on slip-gauges. The instrument serves to indicate the 
difference between the gauges under test and the 
corresponding standard gauges kept at the laboratory. 
A difference as small as one millionth of an inch is 
readily shown on the scale of the instrument. The 
following instruments for measuring and inspecting 
screw-gauges were exhibited:—(1) Screw diameter- 
measuring machines of the ‘floating micrometer 
type,’’ (2) screw-pitch measuring machines for check- 
ing accuracy of pitch of scfew-gauges, and (3) vertical 
projection apparatus giving a magnification of 50. 
Errors of o-ooo1” in the thread form can be detected 
with this instrument. 

The exhibits of the optics division included the 
following :—A large Michelson interferometer, as 
modified by ITwyman, for testing prisms and lenses; 
another interferometer used for determining the 
planeness of flat surfaces and the parallelism of glass 
plates, on which measurements could be made to 
within a tenth of an interference fringe; the following 
methods for the accurate determination of the curva- 
tures of lens surfaces—(a) a magnification method for 
very steep curves such as are encountered in micro- 
scope objectives, (b) the Guild precision spherometer 
for medium curves, and (c) an arrangement of Newton 
rings for shallow curves, either convex or concave; a 
simple projection apparatus for testing mirrors for 
defects in polishing, silvering, or in quality of the 
glass; and apparatus for testing blocks of prisms 
for strain. : 

The heat division showed an apparatus for testing 
the heat-insulating properties of materials employed 
in the construction of cold stores, an apparatus for 
detecting contantinated regions in thermo-elements, 
and an instrument (designed by Mr. E. A. Griffiths) for 
indicating the contents of the petrol tank of aircraft 
or automobiles. The latter works on the principle 
that the heat loss from a wire is greater when the 
wire is immersed in a liquid than when exposed to 
air or vapour. The instrument is compensated for the 
effect of varying atmospheric temperatures. 

The exhibits of the electricity department included 
apparatus for the accurate measurement of capacity 
at low frequencies; an electrical method of measuring 
frequency; apparatus for measuring the amplifying 
power of valves at audibie frequency; the reception of 
continuous Waves by the heterodyne method; and a 
three-electrode valve set for producing oscillations of 
telephonic frequency. 

‘The working of the Paterson-Walsh electrical 
height indicator was demonstrated. This instrument 
consists of two observation tubes capable of rotation 
about parallel axes placed at a known distance apart. 
The two parts are electrically connected, and the con- 
nections are so arranged that the height of the object 
is given directly on a dial attached to the apparatus. 
Other items of interest shown were the methods of 
testing radium dials, the testing of insulators for high- 
voltage transmission under artificial rain, arc lamps 
for searchlights, and the heating of buried cables. 


PHYSIOLOGY OF SEX AND REPRO- 
DUCTION IN POULTRY. 


N numerous animals it seems that the determina- 
tion of sex depends upon the chromosome content 

of the egg-cell and sperm-cell. But there is consider- 
able evidence that in some cases the normal sex-ratio 
may be experimentally modified and in some degree 
controlled. This led Prof. Raymond Pearl (Proc. 
Amer. Phil. Soc., vol. Ivi., 1917, pp. 416-36) to make 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


a statistical investigation of the sex-ratio in the 


domestic fowl, and he considers data ee 


22,000 chicks. In families of ten and more Prof. 


found the ratio of males per 1000 females to be ote 


or 48-57 per cent.; and it is very interesting to n 

the nearly perfect agreement of this result with 
Darwin’s, which was 48-64 per cent. There is normal 
variability from stock to stock and from year to year, 
and aberrant sex-ratios occur. But before these 


aberrant sex-ratios can be regarded as indicative of — 


either environmental or hereditary effects, it is neces- 
sary to show that they occur with such frequency as 
to exceed considerably the frequency expected on the 
basis of chance alone. This has not been done. In 
regard to the flocks Prof. Pearl dealt with, there was 
evidence that the pre-natal mortality is not differential 
in respect to sex. It follows that the sex-ratio ob- 
served at birth is substantially the same as the initial 
zygotic sex-ratio—that is to say, the ratio determined 
by the constitution of the fertilised ovum. In another 
paper (Science, vol. xlvi., 1917, p. 220) Prof, Pearl 
states that hens with high fecundity as a fixed charac- 
teristic tend to produce a larger proportion of female 
offspring—a very important conclusion. ej 

For measuring the net reproductive ability of mated 
pairs of the domestic fowl (Barred Plymouth Rocks) 
Prof. Pearl proposes (Genetics, 1917, pp. 417-32) a 
reproductive or fertility index. This index expresses 
the actual number of chicks produced by the mating 
and capable of living three weeks after hatching as a 
percentage of the maximum total number of chicks 
which it would be physiologically possible for the 
mating to produce. It has a mean value of about 
12 per cent. Net fertility, as measured by the repro- 
ductive index, is a rather highly variable character, 


agreeing in this respect with other purely physiological _ 
As to the influence of age, it is shown 


characters. 
that reproductive ability, as measured by the index, 
diminishes with advancing age of the birds mated, 
having its maximum when each of the birds mated 
is from ten to fourteen months old. The rate of 
decline with advancing age is more rapid in the males 
than in the females. ; 

In mammals there is a steady increase in the rate 


‘of fertility to a maximum, after which, with a further 


increase in age, there is a decline to total sterility. 
But in the fowls Prof. Pearl experimented with there 
is a steady and progressive decline in fertility after 
the first breeding season (Proc. Nat, Acad. Sci., 
vol. iii., 1917, pp- 354-56). There is a significant 
drop in reproductive ability as we pass from a com- 
bined age of two years for the mated birds to three 
years. In passing from three years to four there is no 
significant change. In passing from a combined age 
of four years to five there is a large drop in the net 
reproductive ability of the a 

Miss Alice M. Boring and Prof. Pearl discuss 


(Anat. Record, vol. xiii., 1917, pp. 253-68, 6 figures) 


the extraordinarily discrepant statements that are 
made in regard to the presence or absence of inter- 
stitial cells in the testes of male birds. 


But they may be, and usually are, quite absent from 
the testes of birds more than six months old and of 
full sexual maturity as regards both primary and 
secondary characters. This makes it difficult to 
believe that the interstitial cells of the testes have (in 
the case of the fowl) any causal influence upon the 
secondary sex-characters. 
interstitial cells invariably present in the ovary, and 
they notice that these elements are structurally iden- 
tical in the two sexes.’ e 

In a joint paper (Amer. Journ. Anat., vol. xxiii., 
1918, pp. 1-35, 9 plates, 6 figures) Prof. Pearl and 


They find 
these elements in the testes of just hatched chicks. 


The observers found true. 


See ee 


aed eh 


: maxim 
and 


JUNE 26, 1919| 


NATURE 


333 


7 Miss Boring report the results of their study of the 


Its origin is from the 


j spenue -cuteum .in the hen. 
_ theca interna of the ovary, and it is clearly homologous 


with the corpus luteum of the cow. The course of 
its development is an abbreviation or fore-shortening 


7 of that in the cow, corresponding, indeed, with the late 


involution stages. Its resemblance to the corpus 
uteum of the oviparous duckmole is striking. The 
corpora lutea in hen and cow contain a similar yellow 
fatty substance. In both there is a yellow amorphous 
igment in the cells containing the fatty substance. 
fa the hen a mass forms in an atretic or undischarged 
follicle, which is practically identical with 
ia luteum that forms in a discharged follicle. 
_ The same investigators have made a study of eight 
| oh of hermaphroditism in poultry (Journ. Exper. 
Zool., vol. xxy., 1918, pp. 1-30, 9 plates, g figures). 
The birds in question were females with embryonic or 
degenerating ovaries. Three were changing to a male 
condition in respect to reproductive organs, external 
characters, and even sex behaviour. ut no struc- 
tural counterpart was found for the abnormal 
behaviour of one hen treading another hen. Develop- 
ment of comb, spur, and wattles does not stand in 
any direct quantitative relation to the sex-condition 
of the gonad, but the shape and carriage of the body 
have a Seneral relation thereto. The amount of lutear 
cells or ec is in precise correlation with the 
degree of external somatic femaleness exhibited by 
the individual, but it does not appear that the inter- 
stitial cells of the gonads have any causal relation to 
thé secondary sex-characters in the abnormal birds 
here dealt with. | 

We have not come to an end of the interesting 
adget of papers from Maine. Thus there is an in- 
vestigation by Prof. Pearl (Amer. Naturalist, vol. li., 
1917, PP: 54 and pp. 636-39) redefining the con- 
cept of inbreeding, and showing how the degree of 
kinship between any two individuals may be most 
precisely expressed. There is another by Prof. Pearl 
and Mr. S. W. Patterson showing that milk production 
cerert vith age in a definite manner (following a 
logarithmic curve), and in Jersey cows reaches its 
at approximately the age of eight years 
sven months. coy Cie 


the 


ey 


INDUSTRIAL DEVELOP- 
MENT. 


: 
HE British Scientific Products Exhibition, which 
has been organised by the British Science Guild, 
and will be opened by the Marquess of Crewe at the 
Central Hall, Westminster, on Thursday, July 3, will 
afford an opportunity for vindicating the supremacy 
of Great Britain in the field of discovery and inven- 
tion. It will show the strength and variety of home 
manufactures and indicate the indispensability of 


SCIENCE AND 


. science in industry, in peace as in war. 


One of the practical results of the exhibition should 


be to create new markets for new products and estab- 


lish new industries for dealing with raw materials. 
The extent to which Germany had derived benefit 
from the exploitation of these resources and _ in- 
sidiously u her control to our disadvantage was 
not realised until after the outbreak of war. With 
this knowledge before us, and the conviction that 
most strenuous efforts will be made by Germany to 
appropriate trade and commerce which in Imperial 
interests we should secure for ourselves, it is of the 
utmost importance to accentuate the lesson which 
events have taught us. The exhibition will provide 
this means of enlightenment and its influence at the 
present epoch cannot be over-estimated. 

We must leave for a later occasion the account of 


NO. 259I, VOL. 103] 


e 


the main features of the exhibition, and direct atten. 
tion here to the one aspect which deserves special 
emphasis. Modern industry requires the use of a 
greater number of skilled research workers and of 
men with technical knowledge for responsible positions. 
The census of production (1907) showed that the net 
annual output per head is generally greatest in those 
industries which employ the highest proportion of 
persons receiving salaries as distinct from wages, and 
it diminishes as one passes to industries where the 
percentage of wage-earning employees increases. 
Thus, taking the nine leading industries, but not 
including coal-mining, the highest annual output per 
head is 1851. in the chemical industries, where 12 per 
cent. of the persons employed receive salaries and 
88 per cent. wages; next in order of annual output 
per head and proportion of salaried employees come 
iron and steel factories (118l.) and engineering fac- 
tories, including electrical engineering (108l.); and at 
the bottom of the list are the jute, linen, and hemp fac- 
tories with a net output of 611. only, the percentage 
of wage-earners being 98, of salaried persons 2. 
These figures indicate that the employment of skilled 
technologists means increased productivity, and they 
point to the importance of improved training of 
artisans in technical schools. If research methods are 
to be more generally applied to industries. greater 
skill and accuracy will be required from the general 
body of workers, so that it is not merely the duty 
of the universities and colleges to supply highly 
trained research workers, but the technical schools 
have also the important duty of educating the artisan 
for the new type of work required under the new 
conditions. 

The way to increase the number of highly skilled 
technologists is to make their position and prospects 
better than they have been. Many employers still 
express their preference for the so-called practically 
trained man over the man with scientific treining, 
whereas in other countries the college-trained techno- 
logist finds ready acceptance in all branches of in- 
dustry. Whether it is accepted or not, the fact 
remains that much of the commerce and manufacture 
of the modern world demands the leadership of highly 
trained, widely informed men, and that these men 
must be forthcoming if we are to be able to take a 
leading place among the nations of the world. It 
should be the purpose of an efficient educational 
system to provide adequate opportunities for the train- 
ing of men of this type from whatever station of life 
they may be selected. Of all methods of reconstruc- 
tion none is more likely to add to national wealth 
and strength than the application of science to in- 
dustry; and the more men there are capable of being 
entrusted with it, the greater will be the progress. 


THE HISTORY OF THE LONDON PLANE. 


i hy an atticle on ‘‘The Artificial Production of 
Vigorous Trees,” an abstract of which was pub- 
lished in Nature, January 7, 1915, p- 521, Prof. 
Augustine Henry directed attention to certain well- 
known trees, like the Lucombe oak, Huntingdon elm, 
cricket-bat willow, and black Italian poplar, which 
owe their vigour and botanical characters to the fact 
that they are of hybrid origin. Such hybrids arose as 
chance seedlings due to cross-pollination of two trees 
of different species growing together. The introduc- 
tion into Europe during the seventeenth century of 
North American trees which grew alongside similar, 
but distinct, European species in parks and gardens 
was the occasion of considerable hybridisation. Trees 
like the black Italian poplar and the London plane, 
which have never been seen anywhere in the wild 


334 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


state, are intermediate in botanical characters between 
an American and a European species in each case, 
and are undoubtedly first-crosses. 

The origin and history of the London plane, 
Platanus acerifolia, form the subject of a paper by 
Prof. Henry which appeared in the Proceedings 
of the Royal Irish Academy for April last. This tree 
has all the peculiarities which are met with in a 
first cross. It is intermediate in fruit and in leaves 
between the supposed parents, the Oriental plane, 
which is indigenous in Greece and Asia Minor, and 
the Occidental plane, which grows in a wild state in 
the forests of the eastern half of the United States. 
Its vigour is exceptionally great, as is usual in hybrids 
of the first generation; and its seeds when sown 
produce a mixed and varied crop of seedlings, in 
which are variously combined the characters of the 
two parents. Several supposed forms of the London 
plane, which are not uncommonly cultivated, appear 


Fic. 1.—Platanus orientalis. From Thermopylz seed. 


to be chance seedlings of this tree, being hybrids of 
the second generation. 

The London plane is’ extensively used for 
planting in the streets of towns of Europe 
and North America, as it has been found to 
surpass all other trees in its powers of resistance to 
drought, smoke, and other unfavourable conditions of 
soil and atmosphere. In the cities of New England, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., the London plane is much 
more successful as a street tree than the Western 
plane, notwithstanding the fact that the latter is the 
finest and largest native broad-leaved tree in the 
forests of these States. The selection as a street tree 
of the London plane in preference to the native species 
in the regions where the latter flourishes depends on 
the vigour inherent in the former tree on account of 
its hybrid origin. 

The London plane, being undoubtedly a_ hybrid, 
must have originated as a chance seedling in some 
botanic garden where an Occidental plane and an 


NO. 259I, VOL. 103] 


Oriental plane happened to be growing close together. 
Such a seedling, by the vigour of its growth and the 
novelty, of its foliage, would attract attention and be 
propagated by an observant gardener. The ease with 
which the London plane can be raised from cuttings 
would much facilitate its propagation. Prof. Henry 
shows that it possibly originated in the Oxford 
Botanic Garden about 1670, though this surmise 
cannot be definitely proved. 

The Occidental plane was introduced from America 
into England by Tradescant in 1636, about a century 
later than the earliest record of the Oriental plane 
in this country. By 1670 there would have been trees 
of the American species old enough to bear pollen. 
The connection with Oxford is as follows :—Jacob 
Bobart, jun., who succeeded his father as curator of 
the botanic garden at Oxford in 1680, left in MS. 
“An Enumeration of Trees and Shrubs,” in which 


Fic. 2.—Platanus occidentalis. 


for the first time there is mention in any record of 
the London plane. This MS. is, unfortunately, with- 
out date, but a similar MS. has 1666 on the fly-leaf. 
In the ‘‘ Enumeration” the planes in cultivation are 
distinguished as follows :— : 

No. 475. Platanus ortentalis, pilulis amplioribus. 

No. 476. P. inter ortentalem et occidentalem media. 

No. 477. P. occidentalis aut virginiensis. : 

Corresponding with the diagnosis, No. 476, of the 
London plane, as intermediate between the Oriental 
and the Occidental species, there is a dried specimen, 
undoubtedly P. acertfolia, in the Sherard Herbarium 
at. Oxford labelled “ Platanus media.”’ 

The first published description of the London plane 
was by Plukenet in 1700 in his ‘‘ Mantissa” (p. 153), 


which reads as follows:—‘‘Platanus orientalis et 
occidentalis mediam faciem obtinens, Americanus, 
globulis grandioribus, foliis splendentibus atris.” 


The type-specimen. of this description is in the British 
Museum, Herb. Sloane, No. roi, folio 112. In addi- 


Se ee ee 


ds 


' age of the Ranelagh Club tree. 


JUNE 26, 1919| 


NATURE 


335 


tion; there are two sheets of specimens, collected by 
Petiver about the same period, one of which, Herb. 
Sloane, No. 149, folio 237—two fine leaves of P. aceri- 
folia—is labelled ‘‘ Platanus media, n.d., Bobart, Ox.” 
It is possible that the original tree from which this 

ecimen was taken by Bobart was then living in the 
Oxford Botanic Garden. As Plukenet describes this 
pine as bearing large fruit-balls in 1700, it may 
ave been then thirty years old, which would give 
the date of origin of P. acerifolia as 1670. 

‘This history synchronises well with the date of the 
magnificent London plane, probably the oldest in 
Europe, which is living in the Palace Garden at Ely, 
and now measures rio ft. high, the trunk being 23 ft. 
in girth at 5 ft. above the ground. It was planted 
by Taping when he was bishop there between 1674 


| 
| 
| 
| 


| 
| 


and 1684. Bishop Gunning spent some time at 


Oxford before his appointment to the Ely diocese. 
The splendid London plane at the Ranelagh Club, 
Barnes, is precisely of the same size as the Ely tree, 


and is probably of the same age, both these trees | 


Kew. 


Fic. 3.—Platanus acerifolia. 


being apparently cuttings of the original tree, which 
is postulated in this account to have heen in the 
Oxford Botanic Garden. There is no record of the 
There are two other 
immense London planes, probably coeval with the Ely 
tree, namely, one at Peamore, near Exeter, and the 
other at Woolbeding, Sussex; but no particulars of 
their history can be obtained. 

On the Continent there are no examples of the 
London plane approaching in size or age the fine trees 
at Ely and Barnes; and no mention is made of it by 
any Continental writer before 1703, when it was 
briefly, described by Tournefort. Since the latter date 
the cultivation of the London plane has spread over 
the Continent, and it is now common in towns in 
France and Germany. In the United States, as stated 
above, it is widely cultivated as a street tree, but 
almost invariably under the erroneous name of 
P: orientalis. The true P. orientalis is very rare in 
America, and is never used for planting in streets. 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103 | 


Various seedlings of the London plane have been 
selected from time to time, and one of them, 
P. pyramidalis, which originated on the Continent 
about 1850, is now as commonly planted in the streets 
of our towns as the true London plane. Another 
seedling, P. hispanica, a beautiful tree resembling 
the Occidental plane in foliage, was known in Eng- 
land before 1731, and must have come from seed of 
one of the earliest London planes. The history of 
P. hispanica is as follows:—Miller, in his ‘ Dic- 
tionary” (seventh edition published in 1759), mentions 
in all four planes. The Occidental and Oriental 
planes, he says, ‘‘are undoubtedly distinct species, but 
there are two others in English gardens, which I 
suppose to be varieties that have accidentally risen 
from seed; one is titled the maple-leaved plane (P. 
acerifolia), and the other is called the Spanish plane- 
tree.’’ .He considered P. acerifolia to be a seminal 
variety of P. orientalis, as seeds of a large Oriental 


ee 
“ Rett 
Sh 


NS 


Fic. 4.—London plane at Ely. 


plane in Chelsea Garden produced plants of this sort 
several times. His description of the Spanish plane 
is unmistakable: ‘It has larger leaves than the other 
sorts, more divided than those of the Occidental plane, 
sharply indented in the edges, light green, foot-stalks 
short and covered with a light down. It grows faster 
than the other sorts, but I have not seen any very 
large tree of this kind.’’ He further states that he 
planted four planes, one of each sort, in'1731. 

It would appear from this evidence that P. hispanica 
originated some time before 1731, and was probably a 
seedling of one of the early London planes, which by 
this time had been bearing seed for many years. This 
beautiful tree has always been rare in cultivation. 
There are, however, two fine trees at Kew, which 
have tall, straight stems, with ascending branches 
above and pendulous branches below, bearing magni- 


336 


NATURE 


ficent foliage. P. hispanica has been considered by 
many authors to be a variety of P. occidentalis, but 
the achenes clearly show it to be of hybrid origin. 

The history of the other peculiar planes, here 
regarded as hybrid seedlings of the second generation 
on account of their botanical characters, is obscure. 
They may ultimately prove to be identical with young 
seedlings of P. acerifolia which are now growing at 
Kew and Glasnevin, when these in after years acquire 
adult foliage and bear fruit. This would be a posi- 
tive proof of their hybrid origin. 

The botanical characters of the two parent species, 
of the London plane, and of the supposed descendants 
of the latter, six of which are in cultivation, have 
been carefully investigated by Prof. Henry, assisted 
by Miss M. Flood. The numerous differences 
observable in the achenes, fruit-balls, and leaves of 
these trees prove to be exactly of the same kind and 
range as occur in hybrids artificially produced, and 
afford presumptive evidence that from P. acerifolia, 
an accidental cross between two wild species, the 
other planes, such as P. pyramidalis, P. hispanica, 
etc., only known in the cultivated state, are 
descended. 

When the seed of a first-cross is sown the seedlings 
produced constitute a mixed and varied crop, in which 
are variously combined the characters of the two 
parents. The best proof, then, of the hybrid nature 
of P. acerifolia is the fact that it does not come true 
from seed, which appears to have been known to 
Lorberg in 1875 and to Gadeceau in 1894. Two 
sowings made in recent vears establish this very 
clearly. There are now eight seedlings* planted in 
the Queen’s Cottage grounds at Kew which were 
raised from seed of P. acerifolia that was sown in 
April, 1911. These range in height from 4 ft. to 
10 ft., and are very diverse in foliage, some closely 
resembling P. orientalis, and others resembling 
P. occidentalis, a few being intermediate. One of 
them appears to be identical with P. ‘hispanica. 
There are also two seedlings at Glasnevin, which are 
the only survivors of a set raised at Cambridge in 
1910 from seed of a large London plane growing 
near the main gate at Kew. The rest of the set died 
from drought, having been transplanted into a field 
in that dry vear. These two seedlings are extremely 
unlike in foliage; one has leaves indistinctly lobed, 
resembling those of P. occidentalis; the other has 
deenly lobed leaves, and differs little from P. orientalis. 

The artificial production of a cross between 
P. orientalis and P. occidentalis has not been possible 
in this country, where there exists no adult living 
tree of the latter species from which pollen could be 
obtained. An attempt to reproduce P. ; 
cross-pollination of the Occidental and Oriental planes 
might be made in the United States, using the native 
tree as the female parent. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


CamBRIDGE.—Mr. R. H. Rastall, of Christ’s Col- 
lege, has been appointed Universitv lecturer in 
economic geology, Mr. Herbert Stone University lec- 
turer in forestrv, and Mr. F. Debenham, of Gonville 
and Caius College, University lecturer in surveying 
and cartography. : 

Mr. T. C. Nicholas, of Trinity College, has been 
appointed assistant to the Woodwardian professor of 
geology, and Mr. J. M. Wordie, of St. John’s Col- 
lege, demonstrator of petrology. 

Mr. A. W. Hill, of King’s College, and Mr. E. H. 
Rayner, of Trinitv College, have been approved for 
the degree of Sc.D. 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103! 


acerifolia by . 


[JUNE 26, 1919 | 
EpINBURGH.—The University Court, on the recom=_ 
mendation of the Senatus, has resolved to re-estab- — 


lish the lectureship in military history and strategy. — 
It has also been resolved to institute a diploma in ~ 


public health. 


Dr. H. S. Allen, reader in physics, King’s i 4 


London, and secretary of the Physical Society 
London, has been appointed lecturer in natural p 
sophy. 


Mr. S. C. Monk has been appointed lecturer in 
ale 


electrical engineering at the Devonport Technica 
School. F vere 
Tue resignation of Dr. R. L. Weighton of the chair 
of engineering at Armstrong College, Newecastle-upon- 
Tyne, is announced. ey 
Tue first award of the William Gibson research 
scholarship for medical women (nine ee per 
annum) has been made to Miss M. Esther Harding. 
The scholarship is held for two years. i? 
Ir is announced in the Times that Capt. S. E. 
Whitnall, University demonstrator of human anatomy, 


Oxford, has been appointed professor of anatomy at. — 


McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and that the 
same University has appointed Capt. John Tait, lec- 
turer in experimental physiology.in the University of 
Edinburgh, to the Drake professorship of physiology. 
AMERICAN university women have founded a fellow- 
ship as a memorial to Miss Sidgwick, one of the 
two women members of the British Educational Mis- 
sion which paid a visit last year to the United eer 
where the death of Miss Sidgwick occurred. T 
fellowship is to be awarded annually to a British 
woman for a year’s graduate research work at an 
American college or university. For 1919-20 it will 
be tenable at Columbia University, New York. Par- 
ticulars may be obtained from, and applications made 
to, Miss L. C. Kemnson, Bedford College for Women, 
Regent’s Park, N.W., before July 1. ee) 
Tue council of the University College of South 
Wales and Monmouthshire has appointed Dr. A 
Trow to the office of principal of the college. Prin- 


nilo- 


Re has 


Te 


cipal Trow became head of the department of botany 


at the College of South Wales and Monmouthshire 
in 1893, and obtained the degree of D.Se. of the 
University of London in 1899. He has been Acting- 
Principal of the college since the retirement of Dr. 
E. H. Griffiths in Sentember, 1918. His chief pub- 
lications are on the biology and cytology of aquatic 
fungi and on genetics. His studies of the common 
groundsel constitute a valuable addition to our know- 
ledge of the inheritance of quantitatively variable 
characters. The work that will devolve upon Prin- 
cipal Trow for the next few years under the scheme 
of reconstruction to be effected as the result of the 
Report of the Royal Commission on University 
Education in Wales will be of a critical character, 
and of vital importance for the growth and evolution 
of the institution. taaA 


School Science Review, the new ovublication pro-— 


moted by the Association of Science Masters (formerly 
the Association of Public School Science Masters), will 
be greatly appreciated by all interested in the progress 
of science. To teachers themselves it will supply that 


long-felt want: a medium for the regular interchange. 


of opinions from the schools point of view, and for 
the record of new ideas in courses and ex 
work; to wider educational circles it will show clearly 
what is being done in the leading schools for the 


advancement of science. The first number runs to_ 


thirtv-two vages of most readable material. Mr. C. L. 
Brvant, of Harrow, writes a valuable account of the 


perimental — 


‘etic aeetes - 4 R 
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Frank Stevens, the resident curator, has sent us 


_ Salisbu 


JuNE 26, 1919] 


NATURE 337 


_ work and influence of the association since its incep- 


tion in 1900. Mr. Durrant, of Marlborough. supplies 


a contribution dealing with ions in solution, and gives 
many valuable suggestions for the treatment of the 
- subject in schools. 
_ the aims, objects, and methods of science teaching, 
_ and lays stress upon the value of research work in 
_ science classes. 
_luminating article on research, appeals for an exten- 


Sir William Tilden deals with 


Mr. Hough (Oundle), in an il- 
sion of such work among school pupils, and gives 
definite examples of how school researches have 
helped to solve industrial problems. Mr. Hart-Smith 
(Battersea) contributes an account of recent advances 
in chemistry, and space is found for notes on ap- 
ey and experiments, reviews, and current topics. 

he Review, which is to be published four times a 
year, is replete with interesting matter, and the editor 
(Mr. Adlam, City of London School) may be warmly 
congratulated on the excellence of the publication. © 


Tue Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s 


sury, in consultation with the President of the 


technical education in the United Kingdom in 1913-14 


in comparison with the United States and Germany. 
The article was afterwards made the basis of a report 
issued by the British, Science Guild upon ‘Industrial 

earch and the Supply of Trained Scientific 
Workers.”’ Since then the Civil Service Estimates 
for 1919-20 have been issued (see Nature, April 10), 
eh toey show that the total amount of the grants 


‘to be paid out of the Exchequer for the maintenance 
of university institutions is 1,000,000l.. instead of about 
500,000. There is also a supplementary non-recurrent 
grant of 531,000l. in aid of maintenance of universi- 
ties and colleges. The Committee just appointed is 
‘apparently to inquire into financial needs only.. What 
is wanted is a Commission to make a broad survey 
-of the whole subject of university and higher technical 
education from the point of view of national needs 
and how far the existing provision satisfies them. 


In the form of a thirty-two-page pamphlet, Mr. 


“Some Account of the Educational Work at the 
Museum, 1916-19.” This work consists 
essentially of classes for school children, beginning 
with the elementary schools of the city, extending to 
those of the adjacent villages and to some of the 


_-secondary schools, and, finally, to some bodies of 
_ adult students. The school classes, begun in 1913 as 
private and informal talks by Mr. Stevens, developed 
»by 1916 into an historical course sanctioned by the 


-educational authorities as part of the school lessons. 
.The first course dealt with prehistoric and early his- 
toric times, in relics of which the neighbourhood and 
‘the museum of Salisbury are so rich. The pamphlet 


_ gives synopses of this and later courses, and indicates 
_ the objects used in illustration of each lecture. 


“The 
NO, 2591, VOL. 103 | 


museum specimens,’’ as Mr. Stevens happily puts it, 
‘took the place of the experiments at a chemical 
lecture in impressing the facts of the lecture.” But 
they did more than that; they emphasised the relation 
of the home locality to national life, and showed how 
the general course of history was reflected in Salis- 
bury. Thus a living interest was given to a lesson 
that is too often a dry memorising of names and 
dates, intelligence was trained, and citizenship cul- 
tivated. The value to the children is obvious. But 
the museum has also been a gainer. The number of 
adult visitors has increased every year, and this growth 
of the public interest in the collections has led to an 
increase in donations and subscriptions. Further, 
under the terms of the Wilkes bequest, a sum of 
3001. per annum has been allotted for the continuance 
of the school classes. Mr. Stevens has laboured, and 
now writes, with a justifiable enthusiasm. His 
example is most worthy to be followed, and those 
who would follow it should beg a copy of his 
pamphlet. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LonpDON. 


Royal Society, June 5.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, 
in the chair.—Dr. P. Phillips: The relation between 
the refractivity and density of carbon dioxide.—P. N. 
Ghosh: The colours of the striz# in mica, and the 
radiation from laminar diffracting boundaries. (a) The 
striae are shown by an examination of the Haidinger’s 
rings in mica (and otherwise) to be the boundaries 
between parts having slightly different thicknesses. 
(b) The colour of any stria as seen in the Foucault 
test is complementary to the colour of the central 
fringe in the laminary diffraction-pattern produced by 
it. (c) The colours are altered by holding the mica 
obliquely, or by immersing it in a cell containing 
liquid. (d) The luminosity of a stria in the Foucault 
test is approximately a maximum when the phases of 
the wave-front, after passing through the plate on the 
two sides of the stria, are opposite, and practically 
zero when the phases are identical, (e) Attesmpts to 
reproduce the phenomenon by etching glass plz tes with 
dilute hydrofluoric acid were not very successful, 
owing, apparently, to a want of sufficient sharpness in 
the boundary thus produced. This is indicated by the 
fact that such a plate shows distinct asymmetry with 
reference to the direction of the incident light, both 
in the Foucault test and in laminar diffraction. (f) The 
striz in mica appear doubled (with a black line in the 
centre) when the light coming to a focus is screened 
in a symmetrical manner, instead of by a knife-edge, 
as in the Foucault test—Dr. E. F. Armstrong and 
Dr. T. P. Hilditch : A study of the catalytic actions at 
solid surfaces. The rate of hydrogenation of a number 
of unsaturated fatty oils in presence of finely dis- 
seminated nickel has been studied and the results 
expressed in the form of curves. These are charac- 
terised by an initial linear segment followed by an 
abrupt change of direction to a segment of gentler 
slope, which is also linear at first, but subsequently 
may exhibit considerable curvature. The point of in- 
flexion is at a corresponding part of each curve. The 
two well-defined linear components of the curves cor- 
respond with the hydrogenation of glvcerides more un- 
saturated than olein and to the hydrogenation of olein. 
The curves never approach the logarithmic type 
required for a unimolecular action. The general 
aspect of the curves obtained for catalytic hydrogenas 
tion is markedly similar ‘to those obtained in the case 
of enzymes, and they undoubtedly represent related 
phenomena. 


338 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


> 


Royal Meteorological Society, June 18.—Sir Napier 
Shaw, president, in the chair.—Sir Charles Close: 
Note on the rainfall at Southampton and London 
during a period of fifty-seven years (1862-1918). The 
variations in rainfall in England are so, great that 
any seasonal period can be detected only by the study 
of many years’ statistics. Even when the statistics 
are available for a long period, the form in which they 
are usually published does not readily lend itself to a 
clear appreciation of the existence of a simple seasonal 
period. Thus the monthly means are usually uncor- 
rected for variation in the lengths of the months, and 
the custom of treating the months separately produces 
an effect of discontinuity. If, however, after cor- 
recting for monthly inequalities, the accumulation of 
rainfall, reckoning from any fixed date, is tabulated 
and plotted, the rainfall assumes a more regular 
aspect. If, further, from these monthly figures of 
accumulation we deduct the average precipitation, the 
remaining figures approximate to a simple sine-curve 
with an annual period. The irregularities left over 
occur chiefly in September and October. The fifty- 
seven years’ rainfall at Southampton, from 1862-1918, 
have been examined in this way, and the London 
rainfall for the same period. For Southampton, 
counting from April 1 (but any date will do), the 
accumulation, in inches at m months, as represented 
by the expression 


2:63 x N—095-1-35 sin (n x 30°-45°). 
For London by the expression 
2-13N—0-7 sin (n x 30°). 


The maximum irregularities left over’ amount to 
0-30 in, and 0-20 in. respectively on October 1. It 
would appear, then, that at the places in question the 
rainfall can be considered to result from uniform 
precipitation throughout the year, modified by a 
simple annual harmonic term, further modified by 
small irregularities in September and October.— 
Lieut. J. Logie: Note on tornadoes. The paper aimed 
at showing that no convection currents are capable of 
producing tornadoes of the intensity claimed for some 
of these storms. Working from the equation 
dp/dh=—gD (which is shown to be sufficiently 
accurate for the purpose in hand, even in a tornado- 
centre), and assuming that at some height the pres- 
sure above the tornado is equal to that at the same 
level outside, the author computes the difference of 
temperature between the air in the centre of the 
tornado and that outside. For a tornado having a 
pressure reduction of 50 millibars at the surface the 
mean temperature difference is found to be 23° A. if 
the tornado extends only to 5 km. (16,000 ft-:), 10° A. 
if it extends to 10 km., and 5° A. if it extends to 
15 km. From the known values of the lapse-rate of 
saturated air, it follows that under conditions of 
maximum instability a saturated ascending current 
not less than 8 km. high might produce a tornado 
of this intensity. Since such instability rarely occurs, 
and, in addition, ascending currents of saturated air 
are usually everywhere penetrated by descending 
masses of cooler air, even a tornado of this intensity 
is unlikely to be so produced in natural conditions. 
The case of a 2s0-millibar reduction is also con- 
sidered as being at times actually achieved. In this 
case the temperature difference, even if the tornado 
reaches 15 km., is shown to exceed 35° A., a differ- 
ence not capable of being produced by the release 
of latent heat due to condensation of cloud, and still 
less likely to be caused by simple heating of the 
ground surface. It is suggested that the required 
rise of temperature may be due to the lightning 
which is usually described as a characteristic of the 
funnel-cloud.—Capt. D. Brunt: <A __ periodogram 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


the waves pass from layer to layer of the atmosphere. 


analysis of the Greenwich temperature records: 
monthly mean temperatures at Greenwich for the 
years 1841-90 were taken and represented by a 


Fourier series up to 100 terms, so as to permit of 


the detection of any periods of length greater than 
one year. Periods of 9-5 years, 5 years, 4 years, 
23 months, and 20 months were shown to exist, all 
having amplitudes of the order of 0-5° F. Some of 
these correspond with periods found in other meteoro- 


logical records, e.g. the 20-month period» has been — 


found by Prof. Turner in the rainfall records of 
Greenwich and Padua. ‘The interval covered by the 
observations was insufficient to permit a detailed dis- 
cussion of periods of length greater than about ten 
years. Many of the periods found were not con- 
tinuous during the whole interval covered by the 
observations, e.g. the 20-month period died away 
about 1894, being replaced by a period of about 
23 months. The general result of the investigation 
was to show that periods in astronomical sense do 
not exist in these temperature records. It was shown 
that the effect of correcting the observations for the 
effect of the periods found was to produce an 


inappreciable diminution of the standard deviation of 
the observations, tending to show that the variations 
of the monthly mean temperatures from year to year 


are to be regarded either as purely chance variations 
or as due to periods of length less than a year.— 


Lieut. G, Green: The propagation of sound in the — 
propag sound in the 


atmosphere. | Sound-waves emitted by a ~ source 
situated on the earth’s surface generally undergo re- 
fraction as they advance owing to the ch 
conditions of wind velocity and of temperatt 


as 


8g | 


In the paper a mathematical discussion i 
the paths of sound-rays issuing in all directions 1 
a source, under certain conditions of wind velocity 
and temperature closely resembling the conditions 
generally to be observed in the atmo eee 
mathematical results obtained would make it possible 
to calculate the mean speed of sound in any chosen 
direction from a source to a recording instrument at 
a given distance from it, provided observatiot is of the 
horizontal velocity of the wind and of the ait, 
perature of the air have been taken at the earth’s 
surface and at various heights above the surface. 
The mean horizontal velocity of a sound element in 
tracing out a rav is equal to the sum of the velocity of 
sound and the horizontal component of wind velocity 
in the plane of the ray, taken at a height above the 
earth’s surface equal to one-third the total height 
reached by the rav. Numerical results are given for 
special cases to illustrate the effect of a given wind 
gradient on the propagation of sound in all directions 
from a source; and the effect of the same wind 
gradient combined with a favourable. and also an 
unfavourable, temperature gradient. The case of a 
wind increasing in velocitv and veering as we ascend 
from the earth’s surface is illustrated in the closing 
section of the paper. erage 
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, June 19.—Mr. 
H. K. Picard, president, in the chair—W. H. Good- 
child: The genesis of igneous-ore deposits. The 
primary object of this paper is to provoke discussion. 


a 


of 


Its scope is limited to the synoptic presentation of a - 


few of the more important principles and processes 
concerned in the formation of ore deposits from rock 
magmas, together with an outline of sundry more or 
less novel methods for elucidating the nature of those 
processes. Starting out with the fundamental prin- 


ciple that ‘‘ the meaning of a vast number of the struc- — 


tures with which the geologist is confronted—either in 
the field on the grand scale, or in the laboratory with 
his small specimens—cannot, as a rule, be correctly 


ae eae 7 -, sina 
e, ¥ " - . a. +t “ 3 "ay 4 
eee ire Sahar ie wine) Suey See go ee eee ean Tee ae ore eee . 


_ characters and directions of the chemical 


ia ane wan neces Met ten —— 


mepanbohbidiate 


oe 


_ JUNE 26, 1919] 


NATURE 


339 


gauged without some. considerable knowledge of the 
Various physico-chemical equilibria within the masses 
at various stages of the general cooling process,’’ the 
author proceeds to enunciate four leadin principles 
as laid down by Le Chatelier, van’t Ho , Ostwald, 
and Henry as a basis for calculating the general 
; : changes 
occurring during the cooling. He then deals with the 
volume relationships of minerals and the problem of 
volcanic power, the evolution of igneous rocks by 
Magmatic differentiation, and the formation and 
behaviour of submagmas, from. which he goes on to 
classify igneous-ore deposits under three types, namely, 
those due to precipitation concentration, solution con- 


centration, and a third group which appears to arise | 


from the degasification of enriched subsidiary magmatic 
differentiates, this latter class not improbably includ- 
ing the metallic copper of the Lake Superior region 


_-and the gold deposits of the Rand.’ The author’s 


endeavour is, however, rather to illustrate a method 
of attack on some of the problems than to discuss in 
detail any particular deposits, and he urges a more 
extended practice of what he terms magmatic geology 
‘as a means to that end. ‘ 


eran : EDINBURGH. 

Royal Society, June 2.—Dr. John Horne, president, 
‘in. chair.—Dr. L. Dobbin: The presence of formic 
acid in the stinging hairs of the nettle. The generally 
ac - view that formic acid is present in the 
stinging hairs of nettles is not convincingly estab- 
lished a previous investigations in which nettles, as 
a whole, and not exclusively the cell-contents of the 
stinging hairs, were submitted to examination. The 
author has secured the collection of these cell-contents 
alone, and the conversion of the free acid or acids 
which they contain into corresponding salts, by press- 
‘ing the leaves of growing nettles between strips of 
‘the purest filter-paper previously impregnated with 
barium hydroxide or sodium carbonate and dried in 
air. The optical characters of the lead and barium 
salts OS pedis from the material so collected were 
gem d by aid of the polarising microscope, and 
the various preparations were found to include crystals 
‘scantadirig the same characters as known specimens 
of lead formate and barium formate.—Dr. R. A. 
-Houstoun: X-ray optics. Part i. A method that the 
author developed ten years ago for calculating the 
number of electrons per molecule concerned in the 
production of an absorption band is applied to absorp- 
tion bands in the X-ray region. The mean result for 
five “K” bands comes out 1-002. This is at once a 
verification by a new method of the wave-lengths in 
the X-ray region, and a guarantee that the theory of 
dispersion holds in this region. Other X-ray problems 
are then treated.—Dr. A. C. Mitchell: Pulsations of 
the vertical component of terrestrial magnetic force. 
An account was given of observations recently made 


ay at Eskdalemuir Observatory of pulsations in the 


vertical component of the earth’s magnetic force. 
Although the ordinary recording magnetograph may 
apparently register an undisturbed state of the earth’s 
magnetism, minute investigation by means of large 
loops of cable laid over the ground shows that there 
is continual agitation going on. This state of dis- 
turbance is less noticeable during the night than 
during the day; it takes peculiarly characteristic forms 
during displays of the aurora; while the method of 


_ observation is sufficiently delicate to observe oscilla- 


tion periods as low as one-seventh of a second. These 
very rapid oscillations are, it is believed, identical with 
the fundamental period of the earth’s oscillation as 
an electrified sphere. Other sudden changes, such as 


those which frequently usher in a magnetic storm, , 


R. A. Marr (Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A.): Samples of 
encysted wood. This wood, obtained from the Balsa 
tree, 1s extremely light, its density being about half 
that of cork. Unfortunately, it rotted easily in its 
natural state, but by a special process discovered by 
the author a waterproofing mixture could be carried 
to the centre of any piece of timber, coating the cells 
and ducts with an extremely thin permanent film. In 
this form the wood had been of great service in 
floating mines during the war. 


Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, June 2.—M. Léon Guignard in 
the chair.—E. Picard, B. Baillaud, and M. Ferrié: A 
project of the Bureau des Longitudes relating to the 
determination of a network of longitudes and latitudes 
all over the world. Three points are suggested : Paris, 
Shanghai, and near ‘San Francisco. The differences 
of longitude are to be determined by comparisons 
between pendulums using wireless signals. The pre- 
cision attainable should be of the order of o-o1 sec. of 
time. Greenwich and a point in New Zealand are 
suggested as additional points on the chain.—H. 
Deslandres : Observations relating to the total eclipse 
of the sun on May 29, made at the Meudon Observa- 
tory. The eclipse was not visible at Meudon, and it 
did not prove possible to organise an expedition on 
account of war conditions. Observations of an un- 
usually large prominence were made. Experiments 
on wireless communication with the Island of Ascen- 
sion were also made; the signals from this station 
are not usually perceived during the daytime, but at 
the moment the umbra and penumbra of the moon 
produced a weakening of the normal illumination on 
that portion of the earth between Ascension and 
France the signals were clearly made out.—G. 
Bigourdan: The unification of astronomical and civil 
time. It has been agreed between the United States, 
Great Britain, and France that, commencing January 1, 
1925, the astronomical day shall commence, like the 
civil day, at midnight.—M, Tilho: A scientific expedi- 
tion of the Institute of France in Central Africa. 
Geographical sketch of the Tibesti, Borkou, and 
Ennedi.—M. Emile Bourquelot was elected a member 
of the section of chemistry in succession to the late 
M. Jungfleisch.—G. Julia: Integral functions and 
growth.—E, Kogbetliantz : The summation of divergent 
series.—]. Rey: The flow of petrol vapour.—P. Fox: 
Measurements of stellar parallax at the Dearborn 
Observatory. Data for thirty-five stars are given, 
obtained by the photographic method. The accuracy 
is about o-o1 sec,—E. Belot: New data on the primi- 
tive solar nucleus, its encounter with the original 
nebula, and the formation of spiral nebulze.—M. 
Marti: A method of sounding at sea from a moving 
vessel, based on the propagation of sound in water. 
A small charge of explosive is detonated. A micro- 
phone receives and records the original sound, and 
then its echo, reflected off the sea-floor. The accuracy 
of reading permits of detecting differences in depth to 
about 1 metre, but the uncertainty of the mean tem- 
perature of the water introduces an error of about 0-3 per 
cent.—L. Dunoyer: The error in dead-reckoning in- 
volved by incomplete knowledge of the wind veloci- 
ties.—H. Abraham and E. Bloch: The measurement in 
absolute value of the periods of high-frequency oscilla- 
tions.—M. Boll: The evolution of very dilute solutions 
of tetrachloroplatinic acid in total darkness and at 
varying temperatures.—G. Chavanne and L. J. Simon: 
The critical solution temperatures in aniline of the 
principal hydrocarbons contained in petrol. Seven- 
teen hydrocarbons were examined, and these were 
found to fall in three main groups: the aromatic 


can also be studied in detail by this method.—Col. ; hydrocarbons miscible at the ordinary temperature; 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


340 


NATURE 


[JUNE 26, 1919 


paraffins, ranging from pentane to octane, with a 
critical solution temperature of about 72° C.; and 
saturated cyclic hydrocarbons with a critical solution 
temperature of about 36° C.—M. de Mallmann; The 
system  chlorine-hypochlorous acid-sodium — hypo- 
chlorite.—M. Dalloni: The dome of Noisy-les-Bains 
and the Habra (Algeria).—-M, Mascré: The réle of 
the nutritive layer of pollen.—H. Piéron: The part 
played by physiological energy losses in the relation 
which unites the time of sensorial latency to the in- 
tensity of stimulation.—J. E, Abelous and J, Aloy: 
The inversion of saccharose by mechanical ionisation 
of water. A 5 per cent. solution of sugar in water, 
after five passages through a spray pulveriser, con- 
tained the same amount of invert-sugar as a similar 
solution to which four drops of pure hydrochloric acid 
has been added and left in repose for the same time 
(40 minutes).—A. Vandel: The determinism of the 
two modes of reproduction of Polycelis cornuta,— 
MM. Hartmann and Peyron: Neo-formations of chorio- 
ectodermic origin in tumours of the testicle. 

June 1o.—M. Léon Guignard in the chair.—G. 
Bigourdan: Co-ordinates and instruments of the 
observatory for navigation. Historical account of the 
position and instruments in the observatory in the 
Hétel de Cluny, dating from about 1750-75.—A. 
Rateau: Theory of the flight of aeroplanes at various 
altitudes.—E. Borel: The theory of ensembles and the 
decimal numbers.—P. Boutroux: A mode of definition 
of a class of multiform functions in the whole of the 
domain of existence of these functions.—H. Cramer : The 
distribution of the prime numbers.—F. Michaud: The 
vapour-pressure of liquids in thin layers. Starting 
with data by Devaux on the variation of the surface 
tension of a thin film of one liquid on another, such 
as oil on water, it is shown that the vapour-pressure 
of the oil on the water under these conditions is 
reduced to about 1/5000th of the normal saturation- 
pressure. Similar considerations apply to the case of 
a thin film of a liquid. on a solid, such as water on 
glass.—Ph,. Glangeaud: The casual or superposition 
voleanic group of the. Mont Doré massifs.—C. E. 
Brazier: The influence of the vertical distribution of 
temperatures on velocities of the wind measured in the 
neighbourhood of the soil—G. Bertrand: The pre- 
servation of fruit without the addition of sugar, 
alcohol, or antiseptics, and without sterilisation by 
heat. Fruit washed in cold water can be kept in a 
good state of preservation in cold water, provided 
that the bottles are completely filled and that air is 
wholly excluded.—R, Fosse: The mechanism of the 
artificial. formation of urea by oxidation and the 
synthesis of natural vrinciples in plants. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


The Analytical Geometry of the Straight Line and 
the Circle. By J. Milne. Pp. xii+243. (London: 
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 5s. 

Projective Vector Algebra: An Algebra of Vectors 
Independent of the Axioms of Congruence and_ of 
Parallels. By Dr. L. Silberstein. -Pp. vii+78. 
(London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 7s. 6d. net. 

Physical Laboratory Experiments for Engineering 
Students.. By Profs. S. Sheldon and E. Hausmann. 
Part i. : Mechanics, Sound, Heat, and Light. Pp. v+ 
134. -(London:. Constable and Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. 

Photography: Its Principles and Applications. By 
A. Watkins. Second edition. Pp.xvi+333. (London: 
Constable and Co., Ltd.) ros. 6d. net. 

Farm Concrete. By K. J. T. Ekblaw. 
(New. York: The Macmillan Co.; 
millan and Co., Ltd.) 8s. 6d. net. 

The Modern Milk Problem in Sanitation, Economics, 


NO. 2591, VOL. 103] 


Pop. xi+295. 
London: Mac- 


and Agriculture. By J. S. MaoNutt. “Pp: xi+258- 
plates xvi. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; Loni” 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 1os. 6d. net. ; 
Peach-Growing. By H. P. Gould. Pp. xxit426— 
plates xxxii. tNew York: The Macmillan Co.> 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 10s. 6d. net. 
Navigation By Prof. H. Jacoby. I 
Pp. xi+350. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 11s. 6d, net. 
The Causes and Course of Organic Evolution. By 
Prof. J. M. Macfarlane. Pp. ix+875. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co ; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd.) 17s. net. : 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


‘THURSDAY, Jone 26. ren 

Roya. Society, at 4.30.—Dr, .A.-E. H. Tutton: Monoclinic Double 
Selenates of the: Cobalt Group.+Hertha Be eo A New Method 
of Driving off Poisonous Gases.—Dr: F. . Aston: ts. 
with Perforated Electrodes. on the Nature of the Discharge in Gases at 
Low Pressure.—Mary Seegar and Prof, Karl Pearson: De Saint-Venant 
Solution for the Flexure of Cantilevers of Cross-section in the Form of 


oh 
os 
- 
Fi 


Complete and Curtate Crate DO: BAe ae the Influence of the 
M of Fixing the Built-in End of the Cantilever on its | ion. — 
Dr. Hi. Jetireys , The Relation between Wind and the Distribution of 


Pressure. —Prof. C. H. O’Donoghue: The Blood Vascular System of the 

Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus.—And other Papers. 
FRIDAY, June 27. 

Puysicat Society, at 5.—Prof. C. L. Fortescue: The Current-Voltage 

Characteristics of High-Voitage Thermionic Rectifiers.—Prof. Ernest 

Wilson: The Measurement of Small Susceptibilities by a Portable 


Instrument. 
MONDAY, June 30. : 

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Capt. L. B. Turner: The 

Oscillatory Valve Relay : A Thermionic Trigger Device. ' iS 


CONTENTS. PAGE 
Forest Policy and Law in the United States © 32 
Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. By Prof.W.C. — 


McC. Lewis : a Lt oe G22 
The Primitive Nervous System, By Prof. G. — 
Elliot Smith;-F.R.S. oc) 2.0.54 a ee 
Our Bookshelf . piste tasters B23 
Letters to the Editor :— i priiadtene<t 
The Credibility of Long-continued Experiments:x—  . 
Dr. E. J. Russell, F.R.S. +: bosque 
The Lustre of Some Feathers of Humming Birds.— 
H, J. Charbonnier . 4 ee 
The Stinging Instinct in Bees and Wasps.—F. W. L, 

Sladen ye a erae oe a C Oe pater! 925 

The American Astronomical Society.—Dr. Joel — 
Stebbins , 2 ee, Lee a a er ee 
Grain Pests and their Investigation. By Dr. A.D. 

Imams 22090 ‘ el Le Palliat aetat + + 325 
The Jewelry Trade in War-Time ... . site nersgeo 
Notes . Fils } Ses 4d Pe j 327 
Our Astronomical Column :— ey) 
“The ‘Planets: ite 4. five isyyet pee oa HPT ae ee 

Admiralty Tide-tables...... «0 5 sc 0% seen oo» 338 
The National Physical Laboratory ...  .. . 331 
Physiology of Sex and Reproduction in Poultry. 

By J. Bee ea een retege 332 
Science and Industrial Development ....... 333 
The History of the London Plane, (lJIllustrated.) . 333 
University and Educational Intelligence. . . . . 336 
Societies and Academies... .. 1... ..-4-. 337 
Books Réceivedsay wi. isos “te ae 4 34° 

Gael rie ilec i? ale Soe 340 


Diary of Societies 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 


Publishers. 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, Lonpon, 
Teleshone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


Second edition. 


NATURE 


341 


THURSDAY, JULY 3, idio. 


} SIR WILLIAM TURNER. 
| Sw William Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., Professor 
of Anatomy and Principal and Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Edinburgh. A Chapter in 
_ Medical History. By Dr. A. Logan Turner. 
_ Pp. xv+514. (Edinburgh and London: William 
_ Blackwood and Sons, 1919.) Price 18s. net. 
cp all the distinguished men who have passed 
“—' away during the years of the war, few or 
none have shown more devotion to, and. done 
greater service for, the institution ‘and the pro- 
fession to which they belonged than the late Sir 
William Turner. 
_ The life-history of a man who, without money 
or influence to facilitate his progress, became 
demonstrator, professor, principal; and vice- 
_ chancellor in a great university, and president of 
‘the General Medical Council, is naturally an 
attractive subject for a biographer, and, provided 
that the writer of the history has had an intimate 
acquaintance with his subject and has a thorough 
appreciation of the circumstances of the period in 
which the events dealt with took place, the bio- 
graphy is likely to be both interesting and instruc- 
tive. 
__ Fortunately the conditions have been adequately 
fulfilled, and Dr. Logan Turner’s history of his 
father’s life and of the circumstances of the time 
in which it was lived shows that he has inherited 
two at least of his father’s characteristics—full 
; nar a the subject to be dealt with, and the 
faculty of clear exposition which renders promi- 
nent and comprehensive all its chief features. 
Sir William Turner was a many-sided man; he 
‘was interested in teaching, government, adminis- 
_ tration, and research; he dealt, therefore, with 
many problems, and left them all in a clearer 
position than that in which he found them; but, 
since his researches commenced in his early days 
as a teacher and ended only with his life, and as 
his work as a developer, organiser, and governor 
extended over the greater part of the time that he 
‘was connected with the University of Edinburgh, 
his many activities in the various spheres over- 
lapped one another to a very large extent. This 
_. has been recognised by his biographer, who has 
_ dealt with the events of the history, not in strict 
__ chronological order, but, to quote his own words, 
“rather in the form of a series of sections, each 
more or less complete in itself.” 
_ The book commences with an. account of the 
boy, William Turner, following him from Lan- 
caster to London, and from London to Edinburgh; 
then it touches upon his early difficulties, anxieties, 
and successes as a demonstrator under Goodsir; 
afterwards comes the period of work as professor 
“of anatomy, and in that section the author dis- 
cusses the reasons for the rise and fall of the 
number of the students in the anatomy class in 
three decennial periods. The succeeding section 
deals with Sir William’s scientific work, which 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


covered very wide and varied ground, though the 
greater part of it was in connection with marine 
mammals and anthropology. 

The remaining half of the book is devoted to 
Sir William’s work in the Senatus Academicus; 
his association with the Medical Act of 1886. and 
the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1889; the pro- 
gress and extension of the Medical School of 
Edinburgh during his periods of office as pro-. 
fessor and principal; and it concludes with a 
summary of his character in relation to his 
administrative work. 

Such a bald outline of the plan on which the 
biography is written gives no idea of the entranc- 
ing history of the times during which the work 
was done, which the author has made the setting 
for the life-history of his subject, and into which 
he has introduced a series of letters which passed 
between Sir William and the numerous distin- 
guished men with whom he was associated in 
connection with all the various branches and 
phases of his work. The letters carry the reader 
back to 1854, when John Goodsir first wrote to 
Mr. William Turner, and thence onwards to 1908, 
and they include several from Charles Darwin 
which are now published for the first time. 

It is possible that the reader will not agree 
with all the author’s opinions and conclusions, but 
he will be bound to admit that they are fair and 
tenable, and he will find the book interesting, 
illuminating, and eminently readable from the 
beginning to the end. 


APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY. 

The Physiology of Industrial Organisation and the 
Re-employment of the Disabled. By Prof. Jules 
Amar. ‘Translated by Bernard Miall. Edited, 
with Notes and an Introduction, by Prof. A. F. 
Stanley Kent. Pp. xxv+ 371. (London: The 

_ Library Press, Ltd. 1918.) Price 30s. net. 

HSC AMAR displayed, in the research 

which formed the subject of his doctoral thesis 

of 1909, much ingenuity in applying the some- 
what difficult technique of indirect calorimetry to 
the study of human energetics under unfavourable 
conditions. Later, in various researches which are 
described in his treatise ‘‘Le Moteur humain,’’ the 
same resourcefulness was manifested; in particu- 
lar, his measurements of the respiratory meta- 
bolism of metal workers deservedly attracted 
attention to a line of inquiry which was, and is, of 
considerable practical importance. Since then the 

French Government has utilised Prof. Amar’s 

talents in a wider field, and the present volume 

contains a general account of his recent work. 

No reader of this book can fail to be impressed 
by the mental acuteness, mechanical ingenuity, 
and enthusiasm displayed by its author, particu- 
larly, perhaps, in the concluding section, which 
treats of the re-education of war cripples, ex- 
pounds the principles of prosthesis, and describes, 
with numerous diagrams and photographs, a large 
number of valuable devices. 

Had Prof. Amar restricted the scope of his 

T 


342 


NATURE 


[Jury 3, 1919 


undertaking to matters with which he is thoroughly 
familiar, the most censorious critic would have 
found little to blame; but he has attempted to cover 
so large a field that the most friendly reader is 
often reminded of Dr. Johnson’s ungallant dictum 
that a ‘‘ woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walk- 
ing on his hind-legs. It is not done well; but you 
are surprised to find it done at all.’’ The psycholo- 
gist will perhaps feel this when confronted with 
such questions as: “Can it be that thought also 
constitutes a radio-active phenomenon? Is_ it 
evolved from the disappearing cerebral substance 
by a process as yet inexplicable? ’’ while the 
physiologist must object to difficult problems of 
nutrition being summarily and dogmatically de- 
cided, the decision being emphasised by such 
aphorisms as: ‘‘ The chains of the laboratory 
must not too closely shackle the limbs of education, 
for education is a thing which lives and moves.’’ 
The general physiological introduction is, in 
fact, the weakest part of the book, and the method 
of its presentation in an English edition is, we 
think, open to criticism. ‘The work is announced 
as edited, with notes and an introduction, by Prof. 
Stanley Kent, and on pp. 28-29 a note, containing 
a mild witticism as to the work of the heart, duly 
appears. But the editor has not thought it his 
duty to amplify the citations of literature. © Ferrier 
is cited in a French translation, Hill and Flack in 


a short. French abstract, while a misleading ac- 


count of the chemical physiology of respiration is 
allowed to stand without any marginal references 
to the papers of Haldane, Pembrey, or their 
pupils. Similarly, the English reader of the sec- 
tion upon the physiological action of alcohol 
should have been directed to the _ recent 
report of the scientific committee appointed by 
the Central Control Board, a report which 
modifies some of the inferences likely to be 
drawn by the general reader from Prof. Amar’s 
statements. The description on pp. 73-75 of in- 
direct calorimetry should have been supplemented 
by references. to some of the recent papers ac- 
cessible to the English reader; as it stands, it 
conveys a very inadequate impression of the diffi- 
culties of such work. 

We have directed attention to these defects 
because, in the introduction, an appeal is made to 


a wide circle of readers, and we fear that an- 


erroneous impression of simplicity and finality may 
be conveyed. In our opinion, the book should have 
received much closer editorial supervision before 
being placed in the hands of the general public. 

M. G. 


THE PROBLEM OF INDIVIDUALITY. 


(1) Conscience and Fanaticism: An Essay in 
Moral Values. By George Pitt-Rivers. Pp. 
xvi+112. (London: Wm. Heinemann, 1919.) 
Price 6s. net. 

(2) The Nature of Being: An Essay in Ontology. 
By Henry H. Slesser. Pp. 224. (London: 
George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1919.) ‘Price 
ros. 6d. net. 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


(3) Life and Finite Individuality: Two Symposia. 
1. By J. S. Haldane, D’Arcy W. Thompson, — 
P. Chalmers Mitchell, and L. T. Hobhouse. — 


2. By Bernard Bosanquet, A. S. Pringle-Patti- 


son, G. F. Stout, and Viscount Haldane. . 
Edited for the Aristotelian Society by Prof. 
H. Wildon Carr. Pp. 194. (London: Williams 
and Norgate, 1918.) Price 6s. net. ae 
WE have been forced by great world events to 
revise many accepted formule ahd analyse 
anew many familiar concepts. The period of re- 
construction on which the human race seems to 
have entered is not confinéd to economic and 
social relations, and “‘unrest’’ is not merely de- 
scriptive of the labour world; it extends to the 
sphere of speculation. In the new order which 
we feel arising it is easy to see that the pre- 
dominant interest is the problem of the limits of 
individuality. pekinese 
(rt) Mr. Pitt-Rivers has given us a study of 
very great interest and value if we consider, not 
the erudition or lack of erudition it displays, for 
it makes no pretence to any, but the ‘special cir- 
cumstances which have led to its conception and 
production. A young officer in such leisure as is 
afforded to him in the intervals between the active 
operations of campaigning relieves the ennui by 
setting himself the task of studying the’ curious, 
and to him irritating, phenomenon, the conscienti- 
ous objector. He has done it very well. There 
is a certain lack of co-ordination between the parts 
of his book, but what we are struck with is the 
freshness with which one who has responded 
cheerfully and whole-heartedly to the call of the 
community views as an intellectual puzzle the 
case of the man who fanatically rejects that call, 
even to the extent of incurring ignominy and 
extreme personal suffering. | 
(2) Mr. Slesser’s “‘Essay in Ontology”’ is a 
much more ambitious effort. It proposes in a 
very short treatise, divided into easy sections with 
bold headlines, to settle finally the vexed problem 
of metaphysics. It regards the enterprise as both 
simple and easy. To enter the kingdom of philo- 
sophy we have only to become as little children. 
It brings to mind the famous adventure of a pro- 
fessor in the Academy of Laputa, who simplified 
the task still further by inventing a machine by 
means of which works of philosophy could be pro- 
duced without any aid from learning and study. 
(3) If anyone wants a corrective to the notion, 
by no means uncommon, that the problems of 
philosophy are simple and only require that we 
shall consent to be disingenuous, he will find it 
if he will study the second symposium in the Aris- 
totelian Society’s supplementary volume. ‘The 
question discussed from various points of view by 
Prof. Bosanquet, Prof. Pringle-Pattison, Prof. 
Stout, and Lord Haldane, “Do finite individuals _ 
possess a substantive or an adjectival mode of 
being? ’’ deals with the problem which presents 
probably the deepest cleavage in philosophical 
opinion, not only to-day, but also throughout the 
modern period. It is a metaphysical and a logical — 
problem. Is reality ultimately monistic, or is it 


_ not always very skilfully strung together. 


JULY 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


343 


monadistic? If monadistic, how are the monads 
related to one another and to God? And, is the 
unity of knowing. and being such that there can 
be only one ultimate subject of every judgment to 
which. all predication refers ? 
# first symposium in the volume, “Are 
: physical, biological, and psychological categories 
irreducible? ’’ is of much narrower range, but of 
_ very wide and practical interest from the point of 
_ view of scientific method. Dr. J. S. Haldane, in 
; the opening paper, makes a powerful appeal to 
his special experimental work on the physiology 
_ of breathing, and also to his experiments on bleed- 
ing and on the action of the kidneys, as con- 
_ clusively proving the inadequacy .of the ordinary 
_ mechanistic explanation. His contention is that 
in vital phenomena the investigation must proceed 


.| ratte function to structure, and never vice versa. 


(3. He. gd AN the neo-vitalist hypothesis equally with 
* anistic, and proposes a principle which 
4 eo suggests may be named “organicism,’’ but 
‘ uh penlly: the philosophical principle of per- 
The activity of life consists in the main- 
tenance of a normal or constant equilibrium in a 
continuously disturbing environment, and an 
| 6 sm is a system of interconnected normals. 
| The thesis. is criticised from somewhat different 
_ points of view in the papers of Prof. D’Arcy 


_ Thompson, Dr. Chalmers-Mitchell, and Prof. Hob- 


house, but Dr. Haldane is able to claim in his 


reply that on essential points there is general 


_ agreement. 

The two symposia have been reprinted from 
the Aristotelian Society’s Proceedings. They 
- cannot fail to be welcome to a great number of 
iS or a convenient form of this independent 


a 


i. rae i OUR BOOKSHELF. 
| Traisaagnce> of Labour and its Organisation. By 
Josefa loteyko. (Efficiency Books.) 
cS - viii+199. (London: George Routledge and 
‘Sons, Ltd., 1919.) Price 3s. 6d. net. 

Iw this little book Dr. Ioteyko treats of the human 
_ motor and the measurement of industrial fatigue, 
scientific management, measurement of aptitudes, 


al anthropological comparison of the sexes from the 


_ point of view of strength and endurance, alimenta- 
- tion and work, re-education of the left hand. for 
F the:-mutilated, and Belgian methods of technical 
_ education and the University of Labour. 
_ he earlier part of the book consists largely 
_ of material gleaned from different authors, and 
. Much 
_ important work remains unnoticed, and the treat- 
ment, as a whole, is inadequate. If the intention 
_ was to write an elementary book for the use of 


j Biiaoera, a different style and simpler language 


If-it was to 


A might. well have been employed. 
those already 


_ produce a volume useful to 


acquainted with the subject, a. more exhaustive. 


_ treatment would have been suitable. 


- The need has passed for small books written. 


- merely to attract attention to the importance of 
. NO. 2592, VOL. 103} 


the matter. The study of the organisation of labour 
is entering on a new phase, and requires a new 
treatment. There are persons sufficiently learned 
in the subject to assume the réle of teachers, and 
it is to be hoped they will soon find time to make 
the learning they possess available for all those 
who desire to pursue the matter in the light of 
modern knowledge. 

This book is one of Messrs. Routledge’s “ Effici- 
ency ’’ series, and we naturally looked for internal 
evidence of efficiency in it, but we must confess 
to some disappointment at the occasional use of 
words to express an English idea whereby the 
meaning is obscured. For instance, on p. 55, 
where it is stated that “a man should be required 
to load during a strictly defined time,’’ a com- 
pletely wrong idea is given of Taylor’s meaning. 

Typographical errors are met with frequently, 
and, though these may perhaps be viewed leni- 
ently in existing circumstances, one cannot help 
feeling that the exercise of a little care would 
have led to their elimination. 

For the rest, the book is evidence of the interest 
that is taken in an important subject, and we 
welcome it accordingly. 


Army Gardens in France, Belgium, and Occupied 
German Territory. Their Making and Manage- 
ment, with Plans and Directions suited to the 
Garden Service. of the British and American 
Expeditionary Forces. By Georges Truffaut, 
with the collaboration of Helen Colt. Pp. 65. 
(Versailles: CEuvre des Pépiniéres sere 
du Touring-Club de France, 1919.) 

Tuis booklet, which has, been drawn) up Fal 

M. Georges Truffaut, Director-General of. Army 

Gardens on the F rench Front, is a very interest- 

ing record of a remarkable piece of work, which 

has been of immense service to the armies in 

France. During the past two years 7ooo vege- 

table gardens have been established in the actual 

war zone behind the French front, and, in addi- 
tion, large national nurseries for vegetable’ 
plants have been formed at Versailles. Fifty-six 
other nurseries for raising seedling vegetables. 
for gardens near the front have also been estab- 
lished, and during 1918 some 200,000,000 seed- 
ling vegetables were distributed. Tables of 
vegetable rationing and full details of the 
cultivation and cropping of the gardens are given, 

also particulars as to the arrangement of the. 
gardens, manuring, and other cultural matters. 

The value of the publication is heightened by 
the illustrations of the huge nursery of. about 
79 acres at Versailles, of some of the smaller: 
nurseries at Champigneulles and Baccarat, and of 
some of the Army gardens. A list of the vege- 
tables suitable for cultivation, with their seasons 
and other particulars, is given, and also plans for 
the planting of a given area of ground. 

Though, happily, the immediate military need 
of the gardens and nurseries has come to an end, 
the results achieved are by no means lost, as the 
work done by M. Truffaut .and his staff should’ 
have far-reaching effects not only in France, but 
also in this country. 


344 


NATURE 


[Jury 3, 1919 


The Peace Conference Atlas. A Series of Maps 
to Illustrate Boundary and Other Questions 
under Consideration at the Peace Conference, 
1919. Maps 24. (London: Edward Stanford, 
Ltd., n.d.) Price 5s. 

THIs small atlas is not designed specially to illus- 
trate the Peace Treaties, but rather the problems 
which faced the Peace Conference. It should 
prove useful in studying the vexed problems of 
European racial and national boundaries. The 
‘maps are black and white, with the boundaries, 
as in 1914, in red, and a red wash used in many 
cases to indicate areas of speech. Presumably 
the dividing line is taken at a bare majority, but 
this is not stated, and in any case we fear that 
such simplification of Eastern European problems 
as these clear-cut maps suggest is outside the 
scope of practical statesmanship. In comparing 
the maps showing Italian speech and the boun- 
daries of Yugo-Slavia we note some discrepancies, 
but on the whole the maps are carefully prepared 
and well printed. The larger scale maps deal 
chiefly with Eastern Europe, but the late African 
and Pacific possessions of Germany are not 
omitted. 


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.] 


Dr. Kammerer’s Testimony to the Inheritance of 
Acquired Characters. 


Pror. MacBripe’s letter in Nature for May 22 last 
calls for some statement from me. When, in Igto, I 
Was engaged in writing those chapters of my book, 
“Problems of Genétics”’ (1913), which deal with the 
effects of changed conditions in producing genetic 
variation, I endeavoured to form an opinion as to the 
validity of the cases usually claimed in recent years 
as having given positive results. I had no difficulty 
in showing that nearly all this evidence is un- 
substantial. The copious and astonishing observations 
said to have been witnessed by Prof. Tower, of 
Chicago University, and by Dr. Kammerer, of the 
Vienna Versuchsanstalt, naturally called for excep- 
tionally careful examination. The results of both 
these authors had been very widely accepted, and had 
begun to pass current in the text-books. In the case 
of Prof. Tower’s paper, as I demonstrated in my 
book, close textual criticism revealed features which 
suggested that implicit confidence should be postponed 
pending confirmation—a conclusion to which I had 
already come when, on a visit to Chicago in 1907, 
I had seen illustrative specimens which Prof. Tower 
was good enough to show me. Prof. Tower’s results 
are still quoted (e.g. by Babcock and Clausen in their 
recent text-book, 1918), but we have for some years 
awaited fresh light on the facts or any explanation of 
the difficulties to which I directed attention. 

In the case of Dr. Kammerer’s statements, most 
were plainly incapable of ready verification. The 
instance of Alytes was the most favourable for this 
purpose, inasmuch as the males with the horny pads, 
said to have been produced in response to changed 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


conditions, could be easily preserved. So, no doubt, 
‘“‘sattsam 
bekannte ’’ history, as Prof. Baur calls it, has been pub-— 
lished in numerous German periodicals; but there was 


might the Salamanders, of which the 


this difference : that whereas Salamanders corresponding 
with Dr. Kammerer’s several patterns can be had from 
the dealers, students of the Batrachia are, I under- 
stand, agreed that Alytes with Brunftschwielen does 
not exist in Nature. I therefore wrote from Cam- 
bridge (July 17, 1910) to Dr. Kammerer asking for 
the loan of a demonstrative specimen, promising to. 
examine it with every care and to return it in due 
course. He replied in English (July 22) that he was 
on a holiday, continuing : 
returned to my usual work—two congresses and a 
journey to Munich are still between—I will send to 
you any objects you may need for your book and 
have interest for, with the greatest pleasure! I ho 
that it will not be too late then for using them in 
the chapter, ‘ Effects of External Conditions,’ of your 
future book. “1: ty WS 
‘““T am not quite sure whether I killed already speci- 
mens of Alytes with ‘ Brunftschwielen’ or am pos- 
sessing only living males of this (F,) generation. 


‘But I do not doubt that also other objects are 


well fitted to show easily the effect of conditions and 
their inheritance. Especially my new experiments on 
influence of soil, etc., upon colours (not yet pub- 
lished, except some preliminary notes; for instance, in 
the Verh. Deut. Naturforscher u. Aerzte, Salzburg, 
1909) are much more favourable for that purpose than 
the instinct variations, in spite of their morphological 
consequences. 


‘‘T have also promised (i.e. Dr. Przibram has in my 


name) to Mr. Doncaster to spare him a series of tad- 
poles with alterations, etc., for your museum; and 


it is my intention to fulfil this promise, together 


with that given to you in my present letter during 
the beginning of this autumn.” Nevertheless, neither 
I nor the Cambridge Museum (as Dr. Doncaster tells 
me) ever received any of the promised material. __ 

Later in the summer of 1910 I unexpectedly was. 
able to attend the Mendelfeier at Briinn, and was for 
some time in Vienna, having the privilege of being 
the guest of my old friend Dr. Przibram. I was 
many times at the Versuchsanstalt, and inquired in 
vain for the Alytes. On one occasion especially, about 
October 3 or 4, I was there in company with Profs. 
E. Baur, Lotsy, Nilsson-Ehle, Dr. Hagedoorn, and 
the late M. Ph. de Vilmorin. Those who survive of 
that party will remember that, on conferring together, 
we all shared the same feeling of doubt. After seeing 
what Dr. Kammerer showed us we were entirely 
unconvinced, and in particular it seemed to us inex- 
plicable that, if Alytes had existed with Brunftschwielen 
in July, one specimen of so great a curiosity should 
not have been preserved, if only for exhibition with 
the Salamanders at Dr. Kammerer’s numerous lec- 
tures. I may add that I expressed my doubts cate- 
gorically to Dr. Przibram, the head of the Anstalt, 
but I am glad to think that, though he defended 


Dr. Kammerer, our cordial intercourse continued un-. 


broken up to ‘the time of the war. Few, I imagine, 


will now consider that, on the evidence available, my 


scepticism was not justified. (For an elaborate and 
destructive criticism of Dr. Kammerer’s statements, 
see Boulenger, G. A., Ann. and Mag., August, 1917, 


Pp. 173). aX 
After reading Dr. Kammerer’s new paper I agree 


with Prof. MacBride that a fresh inquiry is desirable. 


The two photographs, Taf. x., Figs. 1 and 2, which 
he accepts as proof of Dr. Kammerer’s observation, 
present some very curious features, and I feel much 
curiosity concerning them. It is, of course, on Fig. 2 


‘*As soon as I shall be | 


EM ne 


_ JuLy 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


345 


that the case rests. This photograph, said to be the 
work of Prof. E. D. Congdon, of Harvard, is extra- 
ordinarily bad. It represents a Batrachian lying on 
its back, seen from in front. Were we not told that 
‘it is Alytes, the fact could not have been ascertained, 
for all but the hands is a blur. The hands are seen 
from their dorsal surfaces. On the radial side of the 
wrist of the right hand is a lump which Dr. Kam- 
merer claims as a Brunftschwiele. The phalanges of 
the thumb, as Dr. Kammerer expressly declares, are 
_ unmodified in this specimen, and no Schwielen are 
* visible on the left arm or hand at all. Though on 
analogy with other genera Schwielen might well occur 
‘on the wrist or forearm, the proposition which Fig. 2 
‘is intended to support is not that set forth in the 
riginal paper which I criticised (cf. especially Arch. 
Entwm. 1909, xxviii. Taf. xvi., where a modified 
thumb is vaguely represented). In the text of the 
present paper we are told that the Schwielen are very 
variable in position and extent. I do not, however, 
nd any mention of modification in digit iv. This 
; nger is, of course, external, and could scarcely func- 
‘tion in the embrace; nevertheless, the outer side of 
digit iv. is most conspicuously thickened in the right 
hand of the animal shown in Fig. 2. So striking is 
_ this appearance that everyone to whom I have shown 
sips, ire at first sight supposes this thickening to be 
e Schwiele illustrated. I myself, on looking at the 
; cture before reading the details, had no doubt that 
‘this was the Daumen with its excrescence, the hand 
psi 3 thus supposed to present a palmar view. Dr. 
J enger at once pointed out to me that this inter- 
pretation was impossible, for the reason, among 
others, that the comparative lengths of the digits 
proved the hand to be shown in dorsal view, and that 
the modified digit is iv. It must be remembered that 
the photograph is so indistinct that much is left to 
the imagit 


wt 


£ 


SS 


wipe Sone 


on. 

The peculiarity of the right digit iv. would be still 
more manifest if Fig. 1, which gives a normal Alytes, 
were a genuine piatograph. It has, however, been 
‘so clumsily painted up that the extremities are not 
a Tike those of any animal. Each finger and toe has 
a painted outline, not always in the right place, and 

only on comparison with actual specimens can the 
full extent of the modification in digit iv. of Fig. 2 be 
be errr As it stands, this digit is very like the 
Daumen of the original figure. I will not yet venture 
on a positive interpretation, but I may remark that 
what the new evidence suggests is that these modifica- 
tions, whatever they may be, and to whatever cause 
they may be due, can also appear on the outside of 


digit iv. 

| find it difficult to understand why, if these struc- 
tures are as Dr. Kammerer declares, he did not make 
a proper series of photomicrographs of them in sttu, 
showing their several positions and forms—no very 


hard task for such an institution as the Versuchsan- 
 stalt. Entomologists and students of fungi make such 


photographs constantly. Even one good ordinary photo- 
graph or drawing would have shown more than the 
Behigdous pictures now offered us. If anyone wishes 
to see how Alytes looks in a good photograph, he 
should turn to Boulenger (Bull. Ac. Roy. Belg., 1912, 

. 573). The latest of Dr. Kammerer’s figures dates 
Aen July, 1913. A long series of Arch. Entwm. has 
been published during the years of the war, often 
with magnificent plates. Dr. Kammerer does not 
state how many modified Alytes he has had, but by 
implication they have been numerous. If, on second 
thoughts, he was unwilling to send one to England, 
could he have resisted the temptation to send one to 
the Berlin Museum tto be shown to Prof. Baur, and so 
confound him and other sceptics? Three years had 
elapsed since we openly expressed our disbelief, but 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


I know that up to January, 1914, no such specimen 
had been sent. 

Prof. MacBride co that sceptics should repeat 
experiments on the inheritance of acquired characters. 

e, however, are likely to leave that task. to those 
who regard it as a promising line of inquiry. Why 
do workers in that field so rarely follow up the claims 
of their predecessors? Each starts a new: hare. 
Scarcely has one of their observations been repeated 
and confirmed in such a way that we could be sure 
of witnessing the alleged transmission if we were to 
try for ourselves. Brown-Séquard’s observation’ on 
guinea-pigs is an exception. That has been repeated 
by various observers, until at length, by the work of 
Graham Brown, the mystery may be regarded as 
explained. The observation was true, but the inter- 
pretation was faulty. As I have often remarked, 
acquaintance with the normal course of heredity is an 
indispensable preliminary, without which no one can 
interpret the supposed effects of disturbance. This 
knowledge of normal genetic physiology is being 
slowly acquired, and already we have enough to show 
that several variations formerly attributed to changed 
conditions should not be so interpreted. Even in this 
case of Alytes, were a male with incontrovertible 
Brunftschwielen before our eyes, though confidence 
in Dr. Kammerer’s statements would be greatly 
strengthened, the question of interpretation would 
remain, pending the acquisition of a knowledge of 
Batrachian genetics. W.. Bateson. 

June 22. 


The Food of Rats. 


In Nature of September 19, 1918 (vol. cii., p. 53) 
a summary is given of an article by Prof. P. Chavigny 
on the food of rats. Some of the statements in this 
article appear to me to be extraordinary, particularly 
the alleged necessity for rats to get cooked human 
food. The hordes of rats which swarm along our 
foreshores, and in granaries and like places, could not 
possibly get sufficient cooked human food to keep 
them alive, yet they are plump and well-fed. Any- 
one who has kept fowls or ducks in a rat-infested 
place knows that rats will carry off and devour chicks 
and ducklings, even dragging them from under the 
brooding mother, eating them raw. Attacks on living 
and dead human beings and smaller animals are by 
no means rare. Along the water-front rats freely 
catch and eat crabs, and they will devour raw fish 
with avidity. 

Certainly rats will eat cooked food when they can 
get it, but they are omnivorous feeders, and I have 
personally known them not merely to gnaw, but to 
devour pumpkin, melon, apple, and other fruits. Of 
pumpkin-seeds they are very fond, and an apple-core 
makes a good bait for a trap. They do not seem to care 
much for raw beef; I have noticed them attack raw 
potatoes and pumpkin-seeds, neglecting raw steak 
which was lying alongside. Under. a creeper in my 
garden near Sydney the common snail (H. aspera) 
was very abundant, and M. decumanus used to devour 
large quantities; the apex of the shell was always 
bitten off so that the mollusc could be readily ex- 
tracted. On the Upper Waikato River, New Zealand, 
the same rat dives into the water and gathers the 
fresh-water Unio. On the river-banks the shells are 
gnawed open and the animal eaten. The shells are 
always bitten through at the same spot of one valve, 
but I forget now whether that was the right or left 
one. - 

In Australia at certain seasons a “ cutworm ” moth, 
known as the “bogong” or ‘“‘bugong” (Agrotis 
infusa), swarms in myriads in many places, and is, 


346 


NATURE 


[Jury 3, 1919 


after ‘the wings have been ‘singed in a charcoal fire, 
used as an article of food by the aboriginals. These 
moths sometimes invade ‘the cities and crowd: into 
houses and stores for the ‘sake of darkness. At Mel- 
bourne, ‘in a Jarge sugar ‘store, I ‘have ‘noticed 
M. decumanus collect ‘the moths and eat the bodies, 
rejecting the wings. 

There ‘came under’ my notice lately at Pennant 
Hills, near Sydney, a case of a curious article of food 
for a rat. A rat gained access to 'the laundry attached 
to my house, ‘and for some weeks it used ‘to drag 
pieces of common soap behind any shelter and devour 
them. That the soap was really eaten was evident, 
because no particles were left lying about. — Ulti- 
mately I succeeded in trapping the rat, which was a 
half-grown male, M. decumanus. An empty spring 
trap was placed open in a box having an opening just 
over the jaws. A piece of tissue-paper was arranged 
over ‘the jaws and the whole covered with a thin layer 
of bran, a bait being laid at the far end of ‘the box. 
On examination I found the intestines empty and the 
stomach gorged with fresh bran, which the rat had 
scooped up before entering the ‘trap. Although I 
searched carefully I could never find any ‘means of 
exit from the laundry or see the rat, but I presume 
it must have got other food somewhere, for abso- 
lutely nothing edible was ever placed in ‘the laundry. 
The rats’ excreta were always quite normal, 

THos. STEEL. 

Sydney, April 28. 


SOME RECENT ATOMIC WEIGHT DETER- 
MINATIONS. 


"T‘HE story, adequately told, of the evolution 

of ideas and the development of knowledge 
concerning the stoichiometrical constants we ‘term 
atomic ‘weights forms’ a most ‘interesting chapter 
in the history of the philosophy of chemistry. In 
point of time it would extend over no very long 
span. There are men living who are personally 
cognisant of its most important phases, and some 
of them in early life were acquainted with others 
who may ‘be said to have connected their: own 
epoch with that of those who witnessed the begin- 
ning of experimental efforts to obtain quantitative 
estimations of their values. 

The formulation of the laws of chemical 
combination involved the necessity for exact 
knowledge of the relative weights with which 
substances enter into such combination, and, as 
is well known, Dalton himself made tentative 
trials to obtain some definite conception of their 
measure. -But Dalton was not a_ particularly 
skilfulor accurate experimenter; his apparatus 
and ‘methods of quantitative work were very crude 
and even below the standard of his time. This 
was fully recognised by ‘his contemporaries, par- 
ticularly by Berzelius, who may be said to have 
been the first. to attempt precise determinations 
of atomic weights. The work of Berzelius and 
his coadjutors marks, in fact, an epoch in the 
history of the subject. 

Of course, as is now well understood, the germ 
of Dalton’s ideas, although ‘he probably was un- 
conscious of it, is to be found in the work of his 
predecessors, but it does not seem to be generally 
known that Cavendish, in effect, postulated and 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


put into practice the fundamental conceptions ex- 
pressed in the laws of constant, multiple, and 
reciprocal proportions. He appears to have con- 
vinced himself years before the time of Proust and 
Berthollet that the same substance is invariably 
composed of the same elements united in the same 
proportion, and, as can be shown ‘from his pub- 
lished writings, he made quantitative analyses on 
the implicit assumption of the other laws. ‘This 
was first pointed out by George Wilson, and has. 
been more fully developed in the course of a 
critical examination of Cavendish’s memoirs in 
the Phil. Trans. for 1786 and 1788 on “‘Freezing 
Mixtures,’’ contained in an annotated edition of 
his complete papers, published and unpublished, 
which it is to be hoped the Cambridge University 
Press may soon be in a position to issue. 
It would occupy more space than is available 
to attempt to trace the several phases, which, 
like milestones, mark successive stages in the 
progress and ‘development of knowledge concern- 
ing atomic weights, nor is it necessary to set out 
in detail the various reasons which have led 
chemists to recognise the imperative necessity of 
knowing these constants with the highest attain- 
able precision. Philosophers like Berzelius always 
desired the ‘utmost accuracy in the abstract 
interests of truth. But, to begin with; the only 
practical use of atomic weights, or combining 
proportions as they were called by Davy, was in 
quantitative efforts to elucidate the chemical com- 
position of substances, and, considering the im- 
perfections of quantitative methods, an approxima- 
tion to exactitude sufficed. When ‘substances 


Berzelius’s time ‘sufficed for ‘the determination of 
exact formule, and enabled ‘the nature and pro- 
gress of a chemical change to be traced with 
precision. . me TC 

But in recent time, and with the development 
of chemical theory, atomic weights have acquired 
a wider importance and a new significance, and 
a much higher degree of accuracy is demanded. 
It is, in fact, almost ‘useless to discuss certain 
questions unless these constants have been rigo- 
rqusly determined. Very much now depends upon 
little differences—the little difference, indeed, fre-— 
quently makes all the difference. But, unless this 
is established with reasonable certainty, it is a 
waste of time to base an argument upon it. We 
thus enter upon another and ‘the latest phase in 
the development of the subject. fuse 

For this new departure, which may be, said to 
start with Stas, the chemical world. is. greatly 
indebted to. American ‘chemists, such as J. P. _ 
Cooke and his ‘colleagues, Oliver Huntington and — 
Theodore Williams; and to J. W. Mallet, Morley; 
and Noyes. Prof. Theodore Williams has worthily 
maintained .the traditions of the Harvard school, 
and it is largely to his work and example that the 
present high ,standard -has been reached. We 


_ Tuny 3,199] 


NATURE 


347 


owe to him. in great.measure the enormous im- 
provement in technique which distinguishes 
_ modern determinative work of this kind. Such 
_ work will,not pass muster to-day unless it is per- 
formed, with the scrupulous. regard. to detail. and 
conscientious search for causes of error and for 
smeans to avoid them which characterise the 
_ ‘determinations he has directed. 

America, moreover, is to be congratulated in 
_ ‘possessing a publishing agency like the Carnegie 
_ Institution of Washington, which undertakes the 


_ printing and distribution of important scientific 


_ -memoirs which might seriously tax the means of 
_ most scientific societies, and which, on account 
of their specialised character, no ordinary pub- 
lisher would be likely to accept. as a business 
proposition. 
___ A recent publication by the Carnegie Institution 
is concerned with the results of a determination 
Et of the atomic weights of boron and fluorine by 
“Messrs. Edgar F. Smith and Walter K. van 
I ‘Haagen.’ As it presents some features of general 
‘interest, an account of the work may not be 
re 
- The redetermination of the atomic weight of 
_ boron has revealed the unexpected fact that the 
_ value for this constant hitherto accepted is at 
_ least 1 per cent. too high—a remarkable circum- 
stance, all things considered. Boron, of course, 
is a common and widely distributed element, and 


the ‘estimation of its atomic weight has been 


¢ made by at least half-a-dozen experimenters since 
_ the time of Berzelius with such concordant 
results that it might be assumed that it was fairly 


_ well known. But there are certain considerations 


connected with these determinations which might 
occasion doubt. To begin with, there is no great 
choice of methods in this particular case of a 
sufficiently valid character upon which to base 
_ determinations. Practically all the numbers 
__ depend upon the analysis of borax, either hydrated 
or anhydrous. We have here an instance of what 
has been frequently deprecated in atomic weight 
_ work. A determination based upon the amount 
of water in a hydrated salt rests upon a faulty 
F inciple. It presupposes that the amount of 
Gittag er in a hydrated salt is absolutely definite and 
constant, and that adventitious water can be 
_ separated from that which is supposed to be 
normal to the constitution of the salt, of which 
‘there is no absolute proof. It further assumes 
‘that the salt can be completely dehydrated under 
the particelar conditions of the experiment, which 
‘May or may not be the case. Now, as all the 
previous determinations of the atomic weight of 
‘boron rest upon practically the same basis, they 
‘may involve the same fortuitous errors, and 
‘Messrs. Smith and van Haagen’s investigation 
_ shows that, as a matter of fact, they do. The 
“substantial uniformity of the previous results is 
therefore misleading. It is a recognised canon in 
atomic weight work that a value can be accepted 
1 “The: Atomic Weights of Boron and Fluorine.” By Edgar F. Smith 


and ter K. van Haagen. (Washington: The Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, 1918.) . 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


My 


be given .of it. 


with confidence only if it is based . upon 
methods involving different principles and -modes 
of manipulation free from known. sources of error. 
In these analyses of borax the manipulative pro- 
cesses were of the. simplest possible character, 
and of themselves not liable to introduce error if 
properly conducted. The main error is traceable 
to the water and to an imperfect. knowledge of 
the .conditions under which the borax could be 
completely. dehydrated. 

The. persistent retention of water by substances, 
even when, exposed to high temperatures, is, of 
course, no mew ‘fact, and many instances might 
No rational explanation of the 
phenomenon is known. In the case of.borax 
Messrs. .Smith,and van Haagen offer an explana- 
tion which -has at least the merit of ingenuity, if 
not of generality. In effect it is as follows: When 
the hydrated salt is heated the water of crystallisa- 
tion is evolved, and at first passes through the 
liquid state before escaping as steam, forming 
droplets of an aqueous solution of borax, which 
is then hydrolysed as follows :— 

NasB,O;+H,O=t2NaBO,+2HBO, 

Na ,B,O; +3H,Os=2NaQOH+4HBO,. 
This process is known to occur in weak aqueous 
solutions of borax. The sodium metaborate and 
hydroxide on concentration slowly recombine with 
the boric acid, reforming borax. It may be that 
on heating the borax the expulsion of water takes 
place more rapidly than the recombination of base 
and acid, and therefore heated borax may contain 
more or less sodium metaborate or hydroxide and 
free boric acid, and that the recombination is only 
complete after prolonged fusion. 

“According to this view,’’ say the authors, 
“the last traces of water expelled from fused 
borax are not merely the last portions»of the water 
of crystallisation proper, but are to be looked 
upon as water of neutralisation, resulting from 
the recombination of sodium metaborate (or 
hydroxide) with boric acid, both of which were 
produced by a transient hydrolysis during the 
earlier stages in the dehydration; and this view 
explains why the last traces of water should be 
removed with greater difficulty than the bulk. 
Hence the final loss of water in the dehydration 
of borax may in all probability be due to the 
completion of such reactions as the following :— 

2NaBO,+2HBO,=Na,B,0;+H,0 

2NaOH +4HBO,=Na,B,0,+3H,0.” 
In support of this hypothesis the authors point 
to other instances in which salts which are ex- 
tensively hydrolysed in solution retain the last 
traces of water with great tenacity. There are, 
however, cases to which this reasoning scarcely 
applies. Indeed, even in the particular instance 
of borax the authors point out that it is not neces- 
sary to assume this hydrolytic action. \ Borax in a 
state of fusion may dissociate into sodium meta- 
borate and boric anhydride :— 

Na,B,O,—-2NaBO,+B,0,. 

This dissociation may begin before the water is 
completely expelled, and the hygroscopic boric 


348 


NATURE 


[Jury 3, 1919 


anhydride may combine with this water and so 
rétard the final dehydration. 

But, whatever may be the true explanation, it 
cannot be doubted that this obstinate retention 
by heated, and even fused, borax of about o'2 per 
cent. of water is the main cause of error in all 
previous attempts to determine the atomic weight 
of boron by means of this salt. That the com- 
plete dehydration of borax is difficult was recog- 
nised by Dobrovolsky so far back as 1869, and 
was known to Hoskyns Abrahall, who concluded 
that the dehydration of borax was untrustworthy 
for ascertaining an atomic weight ratio. 

In 1893 the late Sir William Ramsay and Miss 
Emily Aston published the results of a redeter- 
mination of the ‘atomic weight of boron which 
appeared to them to confirm the commonly 
accepted value of 11’o. Their methods consisted 
(1) in ascertaining the water of crystallisation in 
borax, and (2) in converting dehydrated borax 
into sodium chloride by repeated distillation with 
hydrochloric acid and methyl alcohol, according to 
the process of Gooch and Rosenbladt. All the 
weighings are given in their paper to seven places 
of decimals—an assumption of precision scarcely 
warranted by the circumstances, and an instance 
of. what Kopp was wont to call Decimalspieleret. 
The ‘results of the first method varied from 11°04 
to 10°85; the mean value adopted was 10’g21. 
Two series were made by the distillation method ; 
the first gave values varying between 11°015 and 


‘10°879: adopted mean = 10°952; in the second 
the extreme values were 10'992 and 10'936: 
adopted mean 10'966. In the last series the 


amount of chlorine in the common salt was deter- 
mined by gravimetric analysis in the usual way, 
which afforded a new ratio. The numbers thus 
obtained were uniformly above r1 (11'003-11"09Q1 : 
adopted mean 11'052). 

The details given by Ramsay ‘aed Aston permit 
of a discussion of their observations in the light 
of the facts obtained by: Messrs. Smith and van 
Haagen, and it is satisfactory to find that the 
two sets of observations can be brought into com- 
plete harmony. Indeed, certain inconsistencies 
among the results of the English observers, on 
which they themselves commented, but were un- 
able to explain, are now cleared up, and serve to 
corroborate the results of the American chemists. 

The recalculation of Ramsay and Aston’s ex- 
perimental numbers by means of the best-deter- 
mined ratio of AgCl: NaCl shows that the incon- 
sistency referred to becomes slightly greater. 
From the weight of NaCl, B = 10951; from that 
of AgCl, B = 11061, or a difference of fully 1 
per cent. Now the method which they adopted 
to dehydrate borax combined with their low value 
for the density of vitreous borax—2'29, as against 
the proper value, 2°357—-makes it practically 
certain that the fused borax still contained ap- 
proximately o°3 per cent. of water, and that the 
sodium chloride, although heated to 350°, still 
retained water the amount of which may be com- 
puted from the ratios. It was o’214 per cent. 
By introducing these corrections, which are not 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


arbitrary, but fully warranted by the fac, a 
Ramsay and Aston’s first series leads to the value — 
B = 10'go1, and their second series to B = 10'909. 
They agree, therefore, among themselves, and are 
in conformity with the result of 10’900 obtained: 
by Messrs. Smith and van Haagen. 


As regards the new determination of the tonne . 


weight of fluorine, it must suffice to say that it 
depends on the ratios of sodium fluoride to sodium 
borate and sulphate, and on a cross-ratio between 
sodium chloride and sodium fluoride. Eight deter- 


-minations varying between 19’002 and 19008 gave 


F = 19'005, which completely confirms the present 
international value. T.. E... THORPE. 


THE PEACE TREATY AND MINERAL 
FIELDS. 

aie Treaty of Peace has taken into account 

the economic relations of the contracting 

parties and the effect upon these of the peace 

conditions to a degree that has never been 


_approached in any previous document of the kind. 


It is not too much to say that, whereas all 
previous peace treaties have © been | essentially 
diplomatic, the present one is essentially indus- 
trial in its outlook. The only mineral rights speci- 


_fically referred to are those involved in the cession 


of the coal basin of the Sarre to France; ; it is 
difficult to understand, by the way, why, in the 
published English version of the treaty, the 
German spelling of the name has been used 
instead of the French. This cession bulks very 
large in the Treaty, but is of far less importance 
than would appear at first sight. It is estimated 
that. the total quantity of coal contained in the 


-Sarre basin is only 5°7 per cent. of the total 
quantity owned by Germany, so that the loss to 


Germany in respect of coal reserves is insignifi- 
cant. From the point of view of annual output, it 
is somewhat more important; Germany produced 


‘in 1913 about 1914 million tons of bituminous 


coal, out. of which the Sarre district produced 
about 14 millions, or rather more than 7 per 
cent. 
coal-field means a great deal to France. 

Before the war the total coal output of France 
was about 424 million tons, so that the Sarre 
coal-field will increase the ultimate producing 
capacity by about 33 per cent. Of the total pro- 
duction nearly 22 million tons came from the 
Pas-de-Calais district, whilst the Nord district 
produced nearly 8 millions—about 70 per cent. 
of the entire production. These two districts 
have been almost wholly wrecked by the 
Germans ; owing to the configuration of this coal- 
field, in which the coal-measures are overlain by 
Secondary, highly water-bearing strata, it was 
easy to do very serious damage by merely blow- 


ing in the watertight shaft linings and thus | 
drowning out the pits; owing, further, to the fact 


that many of the more important collieries are 
connected by drifts with each other, recovering 
merely a few of the shafts or even sinking new 
ones will not suffice, and practically all the old 


On the other hand, the possession of this 


a 


_ Jury 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


349 


‘shafts will have to be re-lined before production 
on any reasonable scale of output can be com- 
-menced. It cannot be hoped to do this in less 
than five years. 

The Peace Treaty provides that due diligence 
shall be exercised in the restoration of these 
mines, but that Germany shall make up any 
deficiency in French coal output from these areas 
‘for ten years, the quantity to be thus delivered 
“not to exceed 20 million tons annually for the 
_ first five years, and 8 million tons annually 
for the next five years. Furthermore, Germany 
‘is to supply France with 7 million tons a year for 
ten years, 44 to 84 million tons yearly to Italy, 
and a certain quantity also to Luxembourg. At 
_ the most, however, Germany will not have to 
provide more than about 32 to 35 million tons 
a year, or about one-fifth of the output left after 
_ the Sarre basin has been handed over. The price 
to be paid for this coal is to be the German pit- 
a head price, provided that such price does not 
_ . exceed the British pithead price for export coal. 
___. Thus, incidentally, the Sankey award has had the 
result of enabling the Germans to charge our 

_ Allies 4s. 6d. per ton more for coal than they 
would otherwise have been able to do. 
It is possible that Germany may lose a certain 
amount. of her Silesian coal to Poland, but it 
_ seems clear that at the worst Germany will retain 
+ more than two-thirds of her coal reserves, and, as 
_ these were originally about two and a half times 
“our own reserves, and more than half the total 
coal of all Europe, she is not seriously weakened 
in this respect, although France is undoubtedly 


No other minerals are specified in the Peace 
Treaty, but it is well known that the restoration 
to France of Alsace and Lorraine will have a pro- 
‘found effect in many respects. First of all France 
“re-enters into possession of the whole of the 
Lorraine iron-ore fields; the vast deposit of 
_ “‘minette ’’ thus becomes wholly French, with the 
__ exception of a small amount within the frontiers 
__ of Luxembourg, and, now that the latter country 
_. ceases to form part of the German Zollverein, it 
__ may be hoped that this ore will be diverted to 
| Belgium, where it ought to go. Before the war 
2 Germany produced from the conquered province 
___ of Lorraine about 21 million tons of iron ore, or 
_ about three-fourths of its total output, so that the 
loss of Lorraine is for Germany an extremely 
_ serious matter. On the other hand, France is 
_ tolerably rich in iron ores, and the additional 
_ quantity of which she resumes possession will 
_ not matter to her very much, except for the fact 
_ that she can dispose of her surplus to other 
nations. Above all, the cardinal fact, which 
_ makes for world-peace more than would a dozen 
_ Leagues of Nations, is that Germany has no 
_ longer the iron-ore supplies with which to manu- 
facture the immense stores of munitions which 
___ she would need if she were to commence the next 
_ war of which a certain section of Germans is 
_ already talking. 
7 NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


ESP Soe a 


Fae’: 
Paclaite 


ae 


P< 


aa, | 


Another important point, equally well known, 
is that, with the rich potash deposits of Alsace 
in French hands, the German potash monopoly 
is broken, and the rest of the world is no longer 
bound to come to her for that important product. 
Thus it may be said that Germany has lost a 
large slice of her mineral assets; to maintain her 
position will need all the industry of her hard- 
working population, and it is more than ever 
clear to-day, with the Peace Treaty before us, 
that the future belongs to that nation which 
chooses to put in most real, steady, hard work 
for the next ten years. by Ses 


NOTES. 


WE announce with profound regret that Lord Ray- 
leigh, whose achievements in many fields of scientific 
research are familiar to all men of science, and 
esteemed throughout the world, died on June 30 at 
seventy-six years of age. 


WE record. with devout gratitude that the Treaty 
of, Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers 
and Germany was signed at Versailles on Saturday 
last, June 28, thus bringing to a close a struggle in 
which the leading nations of the civilised world have 
been engaged for a period of nearly five years. 

e German delegates, in a statement to the 
Press, declare that they have signed {the Treaty 
without any reservations whatsoever and in the 
honest intention of carrying out its provisions. 
They hope, however, that the Entente may in time 
modify some of the conditions. The return of peace 
has given rise to great rejoicing throughout the United 
Kingdom, and in the following message the King 
expresses the feeling of the people :—‘‘ The signing of 
the Treaty of Peace will be received with deep thank- 
fulness throughout the British Empire. This formal 
act brings to its concluding stages the terrible war 
which has devastated Europe and distracted the world, 
It manifests the victory of the ideals’ of freedom and 
liberty, for which we have made untold sacrifices. I 
share my people’s joy and thanksgiving, and earnestly 
pray that the coming years of peace may bring to 
them ever-increasing happiness and prosperity.’? Sun- 
day next has been appointed by Royal proclamation 
as the day of general thanksgiving, and Saturday, 
July 19, will be devoted to national rejoicings. 


Fottowinc quickly on the Atlantic flight by 
heavier-than-air machines, a Service venture, under 
the control of the Air Ministry, is being made by R34, 
a machine lighter than air. This airship left East 
Fortune, Scotland, for Long Island, New York, in 
the early hours of Wednesday morning, with six 
officers and 20 N.C.O.’s and airmen, under the com- 
mand of Major G. H. Scott, and also three officers 
travelling as passengers. The return journey was to 
be commenced in a few hours, after replenishing 
supplies. The distance to a destination near New 
York is approximately 3000 nautical miles. There 
will be no attempt to follow a direct route, but the 
airship will be navigated to secure the best weather 
conditions and to avoid unfavourable conditions. 
If the weather proves unfavourable to a_ westerly 
crossing, the ship will return to her base in the British 
Isles. There is a meteorological officer on board who 
will chart information received by wireless through 
the Air Ministry. An interesting discussion of the 
geostrophic winds or gradient winds for June, which 
give the air-flow practically at about 1000 ft. elevation 
over parts of the North Atlantic, has been made by 


35° 


NALURE 


[Juxy 3, 1919 


the .Meteorological. Office. At, 50° N. and 25°) W. 
daily observations for twenty-eight years in June show 
that westerly and south-westerly winds greatly pre- 
dominate, whilst easterly winds are rare. Similar 
conditions are shown in 50° N. and 40° W., but north- 
westerly winds are more frequent ‘than further to the 
eastward. Wireless reports for several days past pub- 
lished by the Meteorological Office show a great 
amount of northerly wind, moderate to strong in force, 
ranging from so to 30 nautical miles an hour, and 
fair weather with a good deal of cloud over the*eastern 
portion of the North Atlantic. Probably better pro- 
gress would be made in proximity to the goth parallel 
than by following the Great Circle track, as lighter 
head-winds would be experienced on the outward 
passage. 


On the motion for the third reading of the Dogs 
Protection Bill in the House of Commons on June 27, 
its rejection was moved by Sir Watson Cheyne and 
seconded by Sir Philip Magnus. The ground on which 
this amendment was based was the ‘‘unnecessary and 
vexatious obstacle ‘to medical research ” ‘that would 
be imposed by it, the delay involved in additional 
certificates being frequently a matter of great import- 
ance. The Minister of Health (Dr. Addison) con- 
curred in this view, and pointed out that there was 
no breach of faith on the part of the Government in 
reconsidering its amendment passed at the Report 
stage. He held that Parliament had no right to stop 
or needlessly to embarrass such ‘research work as that 
on rickets. ‘The Bill was rejected, the voting being 
62 for the third reading, 101 against. : 


Sir Norman Lockyer has been elected an associate 
of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et 
des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in the section of mathe- 
matical and physical .sciences. 


Tue death of Dr. 


is announced, on June 27, 


R. Dancer Purefoy, past president of the Royal Col-. 


lege of Surgeons, Ireland, and a member. of the 
Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Dublin Society. 


Sir Joun Tweepy has been asked to deliver ‘the first 
Thomas Vicary lecture (on anatomy and surgery, in- 
stituted by the Barbers’ Company) to the Royal Col- 
lege of Surgeons of England. Prof. Elliot Smith and 
Dr. F. Wood Jones have been appointed by ‘the 
college Arris and Gale lecturers. 


Tue death is announced, on July 1, in his seventy- 
eighth year, of Sir John T. Brunner, Bart., the well- 
known chemical manufacturer, who was associated 
with the late Dr. Ludwig Mond in the foundation 
of the alkali works of Brunner, Mond, and Co. 
around Northwich, which are now among the largest 
of their kind in the world. 


A series of earthquake shocks caused much injury 
and loss of Jife in the. districts of Florence and 
Bologna on June 29. The Exchange Telegraph Co. 
reports that the Ximenian Observatory at Florence 
has been greatly damaged; and Father G.. Alfani, 
director of the observatory, states that the shocks are 
the worst which have been experienced in Italy since 


1895. 


Ir is announced in Science that the seismological 
library of Count F. de Montessus de Ballore, director 
of the Seismological Service of Chile, has recently 
been purchased by Dr. J. C. Branner and presented 
to Stanford University. This is probably one of ‘the 
most complete collections of seismological literature 
in existence, and it is accompanied by a manuscript 
catalogue containing nearly 5000 titles. 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


Tue council of the Royal Society of Arts has 


awarded the society’s silver medal for the following — 


é 


papers read before the society during the past = 


sion:—E. C. de Segundo, The Removal of ~ 
Residual Fibres from Cotton-seed, and their Value ‘fo: 


Non-textile Purposes; Sir Frank Heath, The Govern- 


ment and the Organisation of Scientific Research 
W. L. Lorkin, Electric Welding and its Applications 
W. N. Boase, Flax: Cultivation, Preparation 
Spinning, and Weaving; Lord Montagu of Beaulieu 
Aviation as affecting India; and Prof. J. C 
McLennan, Science and Industry in Canada. 


Tue Imperial War Conference, after considering. the 


oS NAR er 


- 


cag | 


or. 


report of .a committee of which Sir James Stevenson, 


Bart., was chairman, made a recommendation in 
favour of the -constitution of an Imperial Mineral 
Resources Bureau. This body has now been set up 
and charged with the duties of collecting information 
regarding the mineral resources and: metal require- 


ments of the Empire, and of advising the various 


Governments and others concerned from time to time 
what action might appear to be desirable to enable 
those resources to be developed and made available 
to meet the requirements of the Empire. The 
Governors of the Bureau have ‘been appointed, one 
by the Home Government (the representative of which 
is the chairman of the Bureau), one by each of the 
five self-governing Dominions, 
Government of India and the Secretary of State for 
the Colonies, with six representatives of the mineral, 
mining, and metal industries appointed by the Minister 
of Reconstruction after consultation with the principal 
institutes and institutions representing those indus- 
tries. The Governors have now received their charter 
of ‘incorporation, and are engaged in putting into 
effect their scheme of organisation In order that the 
Bureau may be able successfully to discharge its 
functions and issue information of an up-to-date 
character, the Governors are seeking the closest co- 
operation and assistance of the various Government 
Departments, scientific institutions, societies, and 
other bodies with which the Bureau hopes to be asso- 
ciated. The offices of the. Bureau are at 14 Great 


Smith Street, Westminster, $.W.1, .and all 
communications should be addressed to the 
secretary. “aes | 


A REPRINT has recently been issued in booklet form 
of the article entitled “Patent Law and the Legal 
Standard of Novelty,” first published in the En sineer 
for April 11 last. ‘“‘Historicus,” the author of the 
article, directs attention to the fact that it was owing 
to a blunder committed by the Courts in the eighteenth 


century that the legal standard of novelty was raised 


from that of the practice of the art to that of absolute 
novelty within the realm. To this blunder has it 
been due that upon the shoulders of the inventor has 
been placed an onus of proof which he is to-day 
unable to bear. The subject is considered under 
the following headings :—(1) Is the legal standard of 
novelty a practicable one from an administrative point 
of view, or reasonable from the economic one? (2) To 


what extent can relief be granted from the legal — 


requirement? (3) What modifications would it neces- 


sitate in the law and practice of letters patent? The 


opinion ‘is expressed by ‘‘ Historicus” that an official 
examination which would satisfy legal requirements 
is an administrative impossibility, and, further, that 


relief from ‘the unduly high standard of novelty ‘pre- 
vailing to-day is the primary need of the inventor. . 


Such relief could, it is pointed, out, be readily afforded 
him if the law and practice of letters patent were 
founded on the assumption that the applicant for pro- 
tection intended ‘to make good” at the earliest op- 


Te 


one each by the 


Jury 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


351 


‘portunity. If this view found acceptance, the situation 
‘could be ‘met by ‘the institution of a preliminary 
“examination limited in nature and extent, but suffi- 
‘eient in ‘character ‘to enable the inventor to approach 
the capitalist in the first instance with a broad claim 
_ for his invention, the title to which could be assured 
_ ‘later by carrying out ‘the manufacture of the invention 
a Tue controversy on the subject of mother-right 
_ which has arisen between Dr. E. Sidney Hartland 

-and some American anthropologists is continued by 
3 . R. H. Lowe in the University of California Pub- 
ications on American Archzology and Ethnology 
(vol. xvi., No. 2). Dr. Hartland advanced two pro- 
positions : first, that normally, and apart from a few 
; } that seem well established, kinship was 
Ea} ully reckoned on one side only; secondly, that 
_ ‘descent through the mother regularly preceded descent 
_ through the father. The objection raised to the first 
dogma is that almost uniformly the lowest tribes lack 
_the unilateral mode of reckoning kinship. The second 
‘ ee erly contested: the development 
_ of patrilinear out of matrilinear descent is denied as 
oning two vital groups of empirical phenomena— 
_ the fre absence of the supposed symptoms among 
- -undou -matrilinear peoples, and the enormous 
extent of - ing. The matter is still sub judice, 
but the discussion, which is full, of interest, may be 
_ commended to the notice of all students of sociology. 


‘In the University of California Publications in 

_ American Archzology and Ethnology (vol. xiv., No. 4) 
Mr. S. A. Barrett gives an elaborate account of a 
eries of rites performed by the Wintun Indians, who 
rmer amas a territory lying between the Sacra- 
mento River and the crest of the coast range of Cali- 
fornia. Their culture seems more closely related to 
that of the Pome, adjacent on the west, than to that of 
_ the Maidu, who are separated from them by their own 
_ south-eastern kinsmen. The object of all their icere- 
- monies, but especially that of the Toto and the Hesi, 
is, primarily, by a series of dances and dramatic per- 
forma iy to ensure plentiful wild harvests, and, 
_ secondarily, to secure the health and general prosperity 


Pe Bay 
,« 


; people. The performance of the Toto is be- 
to assure an abundance of green foods, such 
ndian potatoes, by which is meant Brodicea, 


Re Calochortus, and their bulbs, as well as the plants 
the fe lage ‘of which is eaten. The Hesi is thought to 
_ produce ripe foods in plenty: grass seeds, manzanita 

rries, and especially acorns. 

In Mind (N-S. 110, April) Mr. H- S. Shelton dis- 

_ cusses the syllogism and other logical forms. His aim 

_ is to define more clearly than is usually done in text- 

_ books the exact sphere of logic, and to distinguish 

_ elements in it which, being of a metaphysical type, 

are misleading in logical argument. He maintains 

_ that in making any deduction three processes are 

' involved :—(a) The abstracting from reality the con- 

_ cepts of the aspect with which we are dealing, 

: (B) ing with regard to these concepts by means 

_ of some universal rule, and (c) the reference back 

ain to reality of our. conclusion. It is only when 

s last has been. completed that we can be sure 

that our conclusion is materially true. He emphasises 

strongly that the sphere of deductive reasoning is not 
the sphere of empirical reality, and so logical con- 


= 


4 


= lusions require empirical verification. ‘This view 
must not, ,however, be taken to imply that there is 
cai no_ sphere for formal logic; 

to recognise what it can do. It is argued that the 
* fundamental ‘form of deductive reasoning ‘is’ the 


a on the contrary,’ by 

_ defining more clearly what it cannot do, we are able 

_ syllogism, and that there is a ‘sense in ‘which -all 
NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


deductive reasoning, whether the rough and ready 
product of ordinary life or the more exact deductions 
of mathematical science, is and must be formal. In 
everyday life and ordinary arguments the various 
elements are so entangled as to obscure the essential 
characteristics of reasoning, and it is the function of 
logic to emphasise those aspects likely to be over- 
looked. The article should prove interesting ‘both to 
men of science and to logicians. 


AN artificial lava-flow, in places 6 ft. thick, was 
recently formed at a bottle factory in Kinghorn, Fife, 
by the corrosion of ‘the floor of a tank through the 
solvent action of the glass. Seventy tons of ‘‘ metal” 
were thus liberated, taking five days to cool, and 
developing, either directly or by contact-action with 
bricks, an interesting series of rock-forming minerals. 
The products have been carefully studied by Mr. 
G. V. Wilson from a petrographic point of view 
(Journ. Soc. Glass Technology, vol. ii., p. 177, 1918; 
see also NaturRE, May 16, 1918, vol. ci., p. 217). 
Corundum occurs as a _contact-product with bricks 
rich in alumina, and sillimanite, similarly developed, 
proves valuable as a protective lining on the bricks, 
as was pointed out in the discussion following the 
‘paper. ‘Oligoclase arose in the absorption-zone 
between the bricks and the attacking glass, and small 
bipyramidal crystals of quartz, like those of many 
rhyolites, separated out in a portion of the glass that 
was stained violet by manganese and injected into the 
bricks after the main greenish glass. Itis hence inferred 
that these later injections consolidated below 870°, 
and questions of temperature are critically considered 
throughout the paper. Tridymite and ‘wollastonite 
were the only minerals developed in ‘the general body 
of the glass, which is held, on account of the absence 
of pseudo-wollastonite, to have been at no time at a 
higher temperature than 1200°. 


In Professional Paper No. 17 of the Survey of 
India, Col. Sir S. G. Burrard makes an important 
contribution to the theory of isostatic compensation 
of inequalities in the earth’s crust. Hayford in 1909 
showed that in the United States this compensation 
is generally complete, and uniformly distributed in 
depth down to a uniform depth of about rio km. 
But measurements of gravity in the outer Himalayas 
and in the adjacent alluvial plains of the Gangetic 
trough have hitherto been regarded as incompatible 
with the theory of isostasy. One suggestion which 
has been made to account for this is that in India 
the geological unheavals have taken place too recently 


to allow the compensation to be perfected as yet, but 


the anomalies in gravity seemed to correspond with 
over-compensation. Sir 'S. G. Burrard discusses this 
and other recent views on the subject preparatory to 
describing his own investigation, in which the novel 
point is that the excesses and deficiencies of density 
occurring in the different geological formations of the 
region are taken into account. In the past the theory 
of isostasy has been applied only topographically to 
the excesses and deficiencies of mass visible.as moun- 
tains and oceans at the earth’s surface; the density 
of the geological formation has not been considered 
hitherto because the depth. to which any particular 
rock extends.is frequently undetermined, so that its 
total volume and mass ‘are unknown. Sir S. G. 
Burrard estimates the average depth, and width of the 
Gangetic trough across six different sections, and 
adopts ‘mean values of the density of the ight rock 
deposits in the trough, including those into which, at. 
no considerable depth, the alluvium. is compacted by 
pressure. -The crustal attenuation in the trough, 
assumed. compensated for .by denser rocks beneath, 
according to.the isostatic theory, is shown to produce 


352 NATURE [| JULY 3, 1919 


negative anomalies of gravity over the trough, and 
positive anomalies on either side of it; these are, in 
fact, the discrepancies which required explanation. 
After showing the agreement of the theory with the 
Himalayan and Gangetic observations, Sir S. G. 
Burrard similarly discusses the data for other great 
Indian troughs, and finds further confirmation of the 
existence of isostasy. 


Tue Geophysical Journal of the Meteorological 
Office, or the British meteorological and magnetic 
year-book, for 1917, recently received, gives daily 
values of the several elements observed in the British 
Isles. Data are dealt with for solar radiation, 
meteorology, atmospheric electricity, terrestrial mag- 
netism, and seismology. Results for the upper air 
are given for certain stations situated in different 
parts of the United Kingdom, and nephoscope ob- 
servations are made at Aberdeen, together with tables 
showing the occurrences of aurora. The hours of 
bright sunshine are given for several stations and the 
percentage of the possible duration; the normal values 
for some stations are for thirty-five years. Meteoro- 
logical results comprise pressure, temperature, wind 
direction and velocity, and precipitation; the values 
are taken from self-recording instruments. Estimation 
is made of the cloud amount and the weather. Mag- 
netic data are given for the observatories at Kew and 
Eskdalemuir (Dumfriesshire). Earth temperatures 
and the mean level of underground water are given for 
each day at Kew Observatory. Referring to the 
anemographs and to the wind factor derived from the 
revolution of the cups of the anemometers, it is noted 
that ‘recent investigations have shown that the 
correct factor depends on the speed.’’ 


A note from the Nela Research Laboratory which 
appears in the February issue of the Journal of the 
Franklin Institute deals with the observations of Mr. 
M. Luckiesh on the influence of temperature on the 
transmission of a number of commercial coloured 
glasses. In general, the transmission decreases as 
the temperature of the glass is raised from 30° C. to 
350° C., and in some cases there is a slight change 
of colour of the light transmitted, which, from the 
table of results given by the author, appears to be 
towards the red end of the spectrum. For medium 
red glass coloured by copper the transmission at 
350° C. is 84 per cent. of that at 30° C., for deep red 
copper glass 42 per cent., and for blue-green copper 
glass 82 per cent. For pink gold glass, purple man- 
ganese, and dull yellow glass it is go per cent. or 


more, while for lemon-yellow glass it is 71 per cent.- 


The cobalt glasses transmit well, deep violet showing 
no diminution at 350° C., while light blue transmits 
at 350° C., 8 per cent. more than at 30° C. For a 
yellowish-green chromium glass the transmission is 
67 per cent. only. 


Mr. Harry J. POweELw’s paper on glass-making 
before and during the war, recently read before the 
Royal Society of Arts, is a valuable summary of the 
achievements of the British glass trade in the very 
trying conditions of war. Many new types of manu- 
facture were undertaken by individual firms, and 
especially in the field opened up by the war, which 
deprived. this country of the different classes of 
scientific glassware obtained prior to 1914 from Ger- 
many. Thanks to assistance from Sir Herbert Jack- 
son and the Institute of Chemistry (who supplied 
recipes of certain German glasses), this particular 
branch of the industry has obtained a good start in 
the direction of rendering our country independent! of 
_ German supplies in future. ‘The author, however, 
warned his listeners that Germany (and especially 
Jena) have probably made progress as well during the 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


war. It therefore behoves British science and the 
glass industry to cooperate more clearly than in the 
past; and no doubt the new Institute of Glass Techno- — 
logy at Sheffield University will contribute in no small — 
measure to the attainment of this object. ete 


LICHTENBERG’S dust figures caused by an electric — 
spark were observed for the first time in 1777. Since — 
then they have formed the subject of a long series ~ 
of investigations. P. O. Pedersen has recently pub- — 
lished in English the first part of a detailed examina- 
tion of the subject (Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes — 
Selskab, Mathemiatisk-fysiske Meddelelser, i., 11). — 
In order to obtain pure and simple figures the 
Lichtenberg gap must be subjected to a very high — 
impulsive voltage of very short duration. The size, — 
shape, and character of the figures are independent of 
the nature of the plate and the mechanical and — 
physical condition of its surface. They are controlled — 
almost exclusively by the nature and pressure of the 
surrounding gas. The difference between the positive 
and negative figures is very striking. The pure nega- — 
tive figure appears as a white disc broken up into — 
separate parts by a number of fine dark radial lines. — 
It is attributed to ionisation by collision produced by 
electrons moving outwards from the electrode. The 
positive figures consist of sharply defined stems or 
trunks with short, well-defined branches or offshoots. — 
It is suggested tentatively that they are due to posi- — 
tive particles moving outwards from the electrode. 
One difficulty in the way of this view is the fact 
that the velocity with which the positive figure spreads 
out from the electrode is two or three times greater 
than the corresponding velocity for the negative 
figure. The results already obtained seem to indicate 
that the elucidation of the formation of the figures 


will prove of considerable theoretical importance. _ 


ALTHOUGH surveying by means of photography is a 
comparatively old art, and was actually employed more 
than twenty-five years ago for mapping some 25,000 
square miles in America under conditions that 
rendered surveying by the usual method quite impos- 
sible, it is the recent war that has brought it into 
prominence, and done more than any other circum- 
stance to demonstrate its advantages. Moreover, the 
recent methods are new so far as they allow the use 
of a very high viewpoint, and also the vertical position 
of the camera, which brings the sensitive plate parallel 
to the ground, instead of, as is usual, perpendicular 
to it. New conditions and new desiderata have led 
to the designing of new forms of cameras, and these 
we referred to a few weeks ago. But these new 
conditions have given rise to new problems, many 
of which. were solved during the war, but for obvious 
reasons are only now getting published, In the 
British Journal of Photography for May 30 there ap- 
pears a small series of articles on ‘* Calculations in 
Aerial Photography,” by M. L. P. Clerc, the results 
of which were empoyed by the French Aerial Photo- 
graphic Service. In these M. Clere considers “ the — 
lowering of the horizon line in photographs taken 
from high view-points,’’ and gives a diagram which 
shows the extent of the lowering in .mm. for 
various heights and various focal lengths of the ob- — 
jective. ‘The estimation of the height of objects by 
the measurement of their cast shadows in aerial photo- 
graphy” is also accompanied by a chart, in which a 
series of curves gives the height sought under the 
various conditions that affect the shadow. ‘‘ The limit ~ 
of admissible angling in vertical or horizontal photo- 
graphy ”’ is, as in the other cases, worked out mathe- 
matically, and the results expressed in curves on charts _ 
for convenience in practice. 


Jury 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


353 


THE governing body of the College of Science, 
University of Calcutta, has expressed a desire that 
_ the researches undertaken in the various departments 
_ of the college should be published from time to time 
_ in the form of memoirs or bulletins. Through the 
courtesy of Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray, we have re- 
_ eeived a copy of the first of these memoirs issued by 
__ the department of chemistry; it is a volume devoted 
_ to the organic thio-compounds. Some of the papers 
_ have already appeared in a condensed form in the 

_ Journal of the Chemical Society; these have been in- 
_ corporated with additional matter so as to present a 
_ connected account of the thio-compounds which give 

tise to tautomeric changes and to the formation of 

pg a ari derivatives. The author remarks that 

_ time alone can show whether there will be a con- 
tinuity in the regular issue of such memoirs, and 

_ warns those who intend to pursue chemistry in India 

_ that they must not expect to reap a rich harvest in 
_ the near future. For a thousand years or more India 


been a tabula rasa so far as the cultivation of 
e physical sciences is concerned. ‘‘ We in the East 
mn living in silent and ecstatic meditation.” 
_ Pioneers in the introduction of Western science have 
= no native tradition to follow up: they must formulate 
Me their | wn schemes and carry them out as best they 

. eee the same time, the work already turned 
* epee of the pupils is full of hopeful augury for 
the future, 


4 Ae 


& ne 


and travel. ‘The list contains several scarce items, 
i $ runs of scientific serials, but for the most 
deals with volumes of current interest and 


A NoTEwortHy feature of the latest catalogue 
} _180) of Messrs. W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., Cam- 
e, is the Oriental library of the late Dr. A. F. R. 
foernle, of Oxford, 
_ hundred items (the Sanskrit portion of the library. is 
_ not included, being promised for a later catalogue). 


comprising more than _ four 


Other works offered for sale by Messrs. Heffer deal 


iat with folk-l ‘e, mythology, and allied subjects; there 


_ is also a list of recent purchases in science books, 


many of which are publications issued abroad. The 
_ catalogue is sent free by the publishers upon 
_ applicaticn. 


ie ; 

Mr. J. Y. Bucuanan, F.R.S., is publishing through 
_ the Cambridge University Press a volume entitled 
_ “Accounts Rendered of Work Done and Things 
_ Seen.” It will comprise some thirty-three papers, 
_ mostly dealing with scientific subjects. Among them 
are several from our columns. Others are ‘ Geo- 
graphy, in its Physical and Economical Relations”; 
_ “A Retrospect of Oceanography in the Twenty 
_ Years before 1895’’; ‘““On a Method of Determining 
the Specific Gravity of Soluble Salts by Displacement 


B in their own Mother-liquor, and its Application in the 
Case of Alkaline Halides”’; 


( *“On the Oxidation of 
_ Ferrous Salts”; ‘Lakes,’ and “On the Com- 
 pressibility of Solids.’’ The essays will be printed in 


their original form. Messrs. H. K. Lewis and Co., 


% Ltd., will shortly issue to subscribers ‘Sir William 


_ Osler’s Anniversary Book,.’? which is now in course 


- of preparation by Sir W. Osler’s pupils and colleagues 


numbering about a hundred. 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


Nova Aguita.—This temporary star, which ap- 
peared last year, is slowly pursuing its course of 
decreasing brightness, and is now about magnitude 6} 
or fainter. Observations by Mr. Harold Thomson, in 
the Journal of the British Astronomical Association 
for May, give 6-14 as the magnitude on March 28, 
6-14 on April 26, 6-37 (the mean of observations with 
two instruments) on May 22, and 664 on May 26. 
These magnitudes are determined by comparison with 
the neighbouring star B.D.+0° 4027, the magnitude of 
which is taken as 6-04. Mr. Thomson adds that the 
visual spectrum strongly resembles that of Nova 
Geminorum II, at a similar stage of its career. The 
continuous spectrum is still visible from about the 
position of the D line to near Hy. The brilliance of 
the nebula line at 5007 is intense. There is at least 
one bright line remaining of the group near D, 
which was so conspicucus in the early stages, and 
bee lines or bands are still visible near 464 and 

7. 


THe ParaLttax OF THE ORION NepuLa.—The dis- 


_ tance of this well-known nebula, or rather of the stars 


associated with it, has been determined both by Prof. 
Kapteyn and Prof. W. H. Pickering with consider- 
able divergence in its amount. In both cases the 
results were deduced by a method which is practically 
comparing the brightness of the stars in question 
with the brightness of stars of the same types the 
distances of which are assumed to be known. Prof. 
Pickering obtained the value o-0005”, whilst Prof. 
Kapteyn found 0-0054". In the April issue of Pub- 
lications Ast. Soc. Pac. Prof. Pickering attempts to 
explain this wide discordance by’ the fact that the 
same stars of the nebula formation were not used in 
the two investigations, and that the type of spectrum 
assigned, and therefore luminosity, were different. He 
now accepts 0:0020” as the value of the parallax, and 


considers this to be a maximum value. 


PLANETARY NeEBULA.—The 60-in. reflector of the 
Mount Wilson Observatory is being used by Mr. van 
Maanen for the determination of stellar parallaxes photo- 
graphically by the usual method relative to comparison 
stars. Mr. van Maanen is specially finding the parallaxes 
of nebula, and the distances of six of the planetary 
class have lately been published (communication to 
the National Academy of Science, No. 56, reprint). 
The absolute parallaxes of the central stars range from 
0-008" to 0-023", and, the photographic magnitudes 
having been derived, it is possible to determine the 
absolute magnitudes, the mean of which for the six 
nebule is +91. This faint absolute magnitude is 
noteworthy because the spectra of these objects con- 
sist in many cases of bright lines, whereas with the 
stars in general bright-line spectra are usually asso- 
ciated with high luminosities, some Wolf-Rayet stars, 
for instance, the spectra of which resemble those of 
planetary nebulz in some respects, having been found 
to have a mean absolute magnitude not far from o. 
The linear dimensions of these objects can obviously 
be found from their measured angular diameters, and 
the major axis of the largest of the six, N.G.C. 6720, 
is given by Mr. van Maanen as 10,000 astronomical 
units, and the smallest, N.G.C. 7662, as 1350 units, 
which may be compared with the orbit of Neptune, 
the diameter of which is 60 astronomical units. It is 
to be noted that in the new General Catalogue these 
six objects are not described as planetary in every 
case, the two above-mentioned being in the annular 
class. 


354 NATURE [ JULY 3, 1919 


MEDICAL SCIENCE IN THE WAR. 
Sik ANTHONY BOWLBY, at the annual general 

meeting of the Research Defence Society on 
June 26, gave an admirable little address on ‘* Experi- 
mental Medicine and the Sick and Wounded in the 
War.’’ He spoke with authority; there is no surgeon 
with more right to do that. But, of course, he could 
not do more than touch points here and there of the 
great subject. He took for these points typhoid, 
tetanus, gas-gangrene, dysentery, and _ trench-fever, 
and he began with this praise of our Army: that it 
had. been the healthiest Army in the war, partly 
because ‘‘the average Briton is naturally a cleanly 
animal,’’ partly because the British soldier under- 
stands a reasonable explanation, and is guided by it 
in daily life, and partly because our Army Medical 
Service, ‘“‘a body of men. unequalled in. any other 
country on the face of the globe,’’ was constantly 
lecturing to the combatant officers, who in their turn 
instructed their men in the ways of health. So it 
came to pass that the amount of “* sick wastage” in our 
Army was kept low; and that is how the war was won. 

If that were all, or anything like all, there would 
be some excuse for the foolish people who say that 
the health of our Army was safeguarded, not by ex- 
perimental medicine, but by ‘ordinary sanitation.” 
But, as Sir Anthony said, “‘the hygiene of to-day is 
based upon the experimental medicine of yesterday.” 
It was hygiene to protect our men against typhoid 
and our wounded men against tetanus; but it came 
out of the experimental work of Nicolaier, Wright, 
and others; there was no possible way but that, if 
it was.ever to come. He reminded his. hearers -of 
the vivid contrast early in the war between the British 
Expeditionary. Force and the French Army; how 
France, to save herself, had to send out her Army 
unprotected against typhoid; there was no time to 
protect them; “‘the result was that between August 1 
and April they had as many as 60,000 cases of 
enteric.’? He might have added the not less remark- 
able results of the protective treatment later in the 
war against paratyphoid. 

Next, Sir Anthony spoke of tetanus. We all 
remember how, in the first months of the war, our 
national anxiety for our men was heightened by the 
dreadful news that there was a great deal of tetanus 
among the wounded :—‘ At the beginning of the war 
in France we had a truly terrible attack of tetanus 
among our wounded. Everybody was surprised and 
alarmed. The prevalence of the disease had not been 
anticipated, and consequently there was no pro- 
phylactic serum in proportion to the number of troops. 
We could not suddenly supply them with preventive 
doses of serum. It had to be made. We obtained all 
the supplies we could get from America, but it took 
time. In August, September, and October, 1914, our 
troops were to a great extent uninoculated, and the 
result was an appalling amount of tetanus. Shortly 
afterwards almost every man was able to be 
inoculated. The ratio of the number of cases of 
tetanus to the number of wounded was about six 
times as high in September, 1914, as it was in 
November, and nine times as high as it was in 
December of the. same year.”’ 

Sir Anthony spoke also of experimental medicine 
in relation to the study and treatment of gas-gangrene 
and of dysentery, and he and Capt. Walter: Elliot 
(who seconded a vote of thanks to him) spoke of 


trench-fever. and of those memorable experiments: on) 
self, by British and American volunteers, which proved! 


the transmission of trench-fever by lice, and made it 


possible to bring down ‘‘by leaps and bounds” the: 
evil done by the disease. Strange to think, with 


these facts before us, that there are so many people 
who still belong to ‘anti-vivisection ’’ societies. 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


EXPERIMENTAL, STUDIES OF 
SELECTION. ie 
R. A. STURTEVANT has experimented (Pub- 
lication 264, Carnegie Institution of Washing- — 
ton, 1918, pp. 1-68, 1 plate) with a mutant race of — 
the fruit-fly, Drosophila melanogaster (ampelophila), — 
with the particular object of determining the effects of 
selection. The mutant character in question is known 
as Dichet; it. appeared in 1915 in a single female — 
which had wings extended and bent backwards near 
the base, and with only two dorso-central bristles 
instead of the usual four. This ‘“ Dichet” charact 
behaves as a dominant, and it appears that the factor 
or gene corresponding with it is located “in the third 
chromosome, approximately five units to the left of 
pink.” Dichzt-flies are more variable in bristle- 
number than are non-Dichets. The variability is 
partly environmental, partly genetic. die (he | 
Selection is generally admitted to be capable of 
effecting change, either gradually or suddenly, in the — 
mean character of a mixed race, but if this be granted 
a number of questions arise. Does selection use ger- 
minal differences that are already present, pon? ‘er- 
ences that arise during the experiment? To this the 
author answers that selection produces its effects 
chiefly through isolation of factors already present, 
though occasionally available mutations do arise in 
the course of the experiment. But if selection uses 
new differences, does it cause them to occur more 
frequently, and does it influence their direction? To 
this the author answers that there are no available 
data warranting an affirmative answer. = 
What selection does is to isolate genetic differences 
already present. The experiments made on the - 
Dicheet-fly go to show that genes are relatively stable, 
not being contaminated in heterozygotes, and mutating 
mation of 


FUNGUS DISEASES OF ECONOMIC 
PLANTS. a: een 

cyere A. REINKING (Philippine Journal o 
Science, vol. xiii., section A, July, 1918) supplies: 

a list of fungus diseases of Philippine economic plants 
which will be of value to plant-growers in other 
tropical: areas. The warmth and moisture of the 
climate account for the great number and’ destructive- 
ness of these diseases during the wetter months of 
the year, and Mr. Reinking estimates that in’ the 
province in which’ he is specially interested at least 
ro per cent. of agricultural crops are d _by 
fungi. The great factors in the spread and destruc- 
tiveness of fungi are the lack of proper culture, of 
sanitation, of pruning, and of spraying. Many of the 
plants concerned are widely cultivated in the tropics,’ 
and the paper has been written in order to give some: 
idea of the prevalence of plant diseases, their causes, 
mode of attack, plant hosts, the amount of damage,- 
and also the methods of control. Many of the diseases, 
are due to fungus species new’ to science. The 
account is illustrated by twenty-two plates and forty- 
three text-figures. | pecan iG 
Under the title ‘Seedling Diseases of Conifers”. 
(Journal of Agricultural’ Research, Washington, D.C., 


2] 


Jury 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


335 


wol. xv., December, 1918), Carl Hartley, T. .C. 
‘Merrill, and Arthur S. Rhoads have made a valuable 
contribution to the study of forest pathology. Damp- 
‘ing-off is the most serious disease of very young 
seedling conifers, and several types of the disease are 
‘described. In addition to the well-known Pythium 
debaryanum and Corticium vagum, species of Fusarium 
and Botrytis cinerea have been isolated from affected 
. , and are believed to be able to cause the 
_ disease. Artificial cultures of the fungus indicated a 
marked difference in virulence between different 
‘strains, which bears little or no relation to the host 
from which = strain — isolated. Thus strains 
from spruce and sugar-beet respectively proved more 
virulent in inoculations on pine Seodhons than did 
any of the strains originally isolated from pine. 
Losses often wrongly attributed to poor seed are 
‘caused by the fungus killing the seed or the seedling 
before it appears above soil; and some of the 
ft ro oem may continue to kill the roots of 
sdlings after they develop rigid stems, so that the 
plant does not fall over. The latter type of trouble is 
imes confused with’ damage caused by eéxces- 
‘sive heat or ess of soil. 
_ In the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture 
‘in India (Botanical Series, vol. ix., November, 1918) 
W. McRae gives a detailed account of a new fungus 
disease (Phytophthora meadii) of a rubber plant, 
Hevea brasiliensis. This species of Hevea is now 
ey. grown in the south-western region of 
1e | in peninsula. The most striking symptoms of 
the disease are the rotting of the fruit and the wilting 
‘and abnormal shedding of the leaves. Mr. McRae 
describes the external symptoms and the microscopic 
‘characters of the affected tissues, and also his experi- 
‘ments on inoculation; the structure and the life- 
history of the fungus are also fully described. The 
‘resting spores of the fungus are found ‘in the fruits 
_ of the plant, and as the fruits are therefore the chief 
_ means of propagating the disease, the possibility is 
_ suggested of the destruction of the flowers in order 
= de mabye tthe formation of fruit. This might be 
_done by mechanically removing the flowers or by 
piping them with a chemical that would kill them, 
F it up to the present neither of these means has 
_ been found practicable. 


a 


+ THE FISHERIES AND THE INTER- 

as NATIONAL COUNCILA 

ba , ees" iets ° > . I. 

ur LD, former communications* it was shown ‘how 
the pla 


ficant is the influence of man in affecting 
its, such as seaweeds and diatoms, abounding 
in the sea, and how little he can influence the lower 
_ marine animals; from microscopic elementary forms, 
_ through sponges, zoophytes, starfishes, annelids, shell- 
fishes, and cuttlefishes, up to fishes. It was further 
_ demonstrated in 1898 that the closure of the experi- 
mental areas (Forth, St. Andrews Bay, and Aberdeen 
_ Bay) had not affected the food-fishes, either as regards 
_ imcrease or diminution in numbers or size. Now it 
_ may be asked: Where have the melancholy anticipa- 
tions of the pessimists been: demonstrated; where has 
_ the serious diminution of any food-fish occurred; and 
_ where, have the principles enunciated in ‘The Re- 
_ ‘sources of the Sea” been traversed by the International 
_ Fisheries Council, :the most extensive, and certainly 
_ the »most expensive, combination of fisheries: authori- 
_ ties the world has seen, which owed its existence 


_ to opinions (viz. those of the impoverishment theory) | 
a = ‘From a lecture given in. Aberdeen on. March 4 by Prof. McIntosh, | 


-® Narurr, vol. Ixxvi., Pp. 30%, 1907. 
NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


diametrically opposed to those of ‘The Resources of 
the Sea”? 

In the lectures at the Royal Institution in 1907 
the uncertainty of the Fishery Board for Scotland in 
connection with the further closures than those re- 
mitted to it was pointed out, for it had oscillated 
between an increase and a diminution of fishes in the 
experimental areas, and its own statistics in sub- 
sequent years proved the safety of the Scottish 
fisheries, which have been dealt with elsewhere up to 
1912, when they were reviewed at the Dundee meet- 
ing of the British Association. No voice at that 
meeting was raised in support of the impoverishment 
of the sea, though Dr. Petersen, Dr. Mortensen, and 


Prof. Jungarsen from Copenhagen, and _ others 
specially interested were present. Indeed, Prof. 
Hulrecht, of Utrecht, also present, strongly sup- 


ported ‘‘The Resources of the Sea,’’ and stated that 
Prof. Huxley held the same views. Since 1912 similar 
prosperous records have been annually published by 
the Scottish Board up to 1913, the last year unaffected 
by the war, when the climax was reached, the value 
of the catch of fishes being no less than 3,997,7171. 
(or only 22831. less than four millions), the highest 
value yet attained in the fisheries of Scotland, though 
the catch of herrings that year had been 758,756 cwt. 
below that of the previous one. 

The same cause for satisfaction exists after a 
perusal of the captures, year by year, in such a bay as 
St. Andrews, where they have been under observa- 
tion for at least half a century, and in which the pulse 
of the North Sea is felt day by day and month by 
month each season, with perhaps varying regularity, 
producing its fishes in greater or less abundance. 

Before going ‘into the results of the costly inter- 
national scheme, it’ mav be well to recall the remit 
made to the Council of that body. It was, in the first 
place, to benefit the British fisheries, to clear up the 
discrepancies between ‘‘The Resources of the Sea” 
and ‘The Impoverishment of the Sea”’—in the words 
of Prof. Garstang: “It was the problem of all 
problems whether the conclusions in this book [* The 
Resources of the’ Sea’] were well or inadequately 
founded.’? The Council had also, to ascertain 
“whether the quantity and consumption of fish taken 
from ‘the North Sea and neighbourhood are in proper 
proportion to 'the production occurring ‘under the pre- 
vailing natural conditions, and whether any dispro- 
portion between production and consumption arises 
froma local over-fishing or from an injudicious em- 
ployment of the fishing apparatus at present in use.” 
The flat-fish grounds were also to be investigated ; 
annual results published; discoveries of practical im- 
portance to the fisheries made, such as ‘discovering 
the limit to which fishing grounds can be depleted 
without undergoing serious injury”; and, finally, 
recommendations for international action proposed. 


‘This formidable remit was, moreover, burdened by a 


heavy load of hydrograpvhical, physical, chemical, and 
meteorological observations. Yet some members of 
the Council guaranteed results for international action 
within two years—a fact which demonstrates how 
little the situation was understood. 

The earlier work of the International Council was 
dealt with on a former occasion, and ‘since then the 
following gives a brief note of its labours :— 

Reports on the quantitative distribution of the eggs 
and larve of the cod tribe and of the sardine and 
anchovy in the North Sea have been given by Hoek; 
on young salmon by Arwidsson; on the cod by Hoek; 
on the herring ‘by Hjort and Lea; on the eel by 
Schneider; and on the mackerel by Nilsson, all con- 
taining additions to our knowledge, though they do not 


‘bear on the main question submitted to the Tnterna- 


tional Council for solution. The Council was likewise 


356 


NATURE 


[Jury 3, 1919 


concerned about the capture of full-sized herrings by the 
ordinary trawl in daylight. A useful summary of the 
present knowledge of the mackerel fishery in Den- 
mark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, Scotland, 
England, Ireland, France, Southern Europe, and the 
North-West Atlantic came from Ehrenbaum, the usual 
variations occurring throughout. This variability was 
further emphasised by Dr. Hugh Smith, of the United 
States, in the decline of the fishery there from 
500,000 barrels in 1885 to 3000 in 1910; yet it had 
not been proved that the fishes had migrated to other 
grounds, such as western Europe, or had been deci- 


mated by the purse-seines.* Moreover, a_ similar 
experience had been met with in Norway. 
As the oft-repeated statements concerning the 


diminution of the flat-fishes (Pleuronectids) had at- 
tracted: public notice, the Council devoted a large 
amount of attention to this group. Thus Ehrenbaum, 
in two papers, took in hand the early stages from the 
eggs onwards, and their occurrence according to the 
months of the year; whilst Johansen discussed them 
in relation to the North Sea generally, a certain 
amount of duplication taking place. Ehrenbaum’s 
first paper, perhaps, was the less important, for the 
subject had in many respects been dealt with 
previously. In his second paper he groups the pelagic 
eggs according to the presence or absence of an oil- 
globule, and appends two plates, the figures on which 
had, for the most part, been published by other 
authors. Hefford describes the proportional distribu- 
tion of plaice in the North Sea, males slightly pre- 
ponderating in small plaice, whereas in the larger 
forms females are in the majority, vet in the breeding 
season in the south (December to February) the catch 
of males by trawlers greatly exceeds that of females. 
Masterman’s three reports on the late stages of the 
flat-fishes give much important information and note- 
worthy recommendations, but there is no indication 
of a serious diminution of any form. On the other 
hand, Johansen considers that the average weight of 
plaice in the Danish region of the North Sea has dis- 
tinctly decreased since 1888—a different finding from 
a much longer experience in St. Andrews’ Bay. 
Heincke (1933) is of opinion that the Danish and 
German investigations show a deterioration of the 
stock of plaice, and that, apart from over-fishing, the 
destruction of small plaice is in itself sufficient to 
render protective measures desirable. He has not, 
however, proved that the small plaice are reduced in 
number—a vital point—and this though he states that 
300,000,000 are annually destroved, irrespective of the 
capture of plaice from two to thirty years old for sale, 
only 1o per cent. of which have produced eggs. He 
therefore proposes the sole legislative measures which 
the sixteen vears’ costly labours of the Council have 
produced. viz.:° (1) Protection of the young plaice; 
(2) closed areas and seasons: and (3) a size-limit. 
The revival of the old: size-limit is’ interesting, but 
its apvlication is more than doubtful. especially when 
Heincke cannot prove definitely that plaice have 
diminished. Redeke concludes with an account of 
the local forms of plaice in Danish waters. 

The Council has. indeed. expended a great amount 
of labour on the plaice. and it is no lack of sympathy 
with the various authors of the memoirs which 
prompts the statement that no trustworthy conclusion 
as to its serious diminution can be drawn from them, 
and thev are in some respects duplicated. No author 
can definitely assert that the plaice is on the road to 
extinction. It is said that evidence to the effect that 
the diminution of the plaice ‘‘ was already made clear 
to the House of Commons in 1893, and that all 
authorities are agreed that this fish shows serious 
diminution.” ‘But the statistics of the Fishery Board 

3 ‘This fisherv has now largely improved. 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


on which I and others relied in 1893 were found by a ~ 
more stringent examination to be ‘in need of modifica. — 
tion, and in the history of the fisheries the plaice, as 
already mentioned, has of old been the subject of — 
pessimistic views, just as those accounting for the 
absence of large plaice in inshore shallow waters—by 
over-fishing—rest on a misapprehension of the life-— 
history of the species. The conjectures that only 
1o per cent. of the captured adults have produced — 
eggs, and that the removal of 20 to 40 per cent. 
from the North Sea annually is too great a loss’ ito 
be compensated by natural means, are not the clear 
facts demanded by science and the State. _ Plaice have 
been taken from the North Sea from time im- — 
memorial, and yet are distributed to-day over its 
entire area, whilst their tiny young swarm on every 
suitable sandy or muddy beach. Though it is to be 
regretted that the destruction of the small’ plaice 
crowding on the sandy flats of the Continental shores 
still goes on, yet there is no marked diminution in 
their numbers. Heincke’s suggestions for the protec- 
tion of the young are of doubtful practical utility; 
besides, as Masterman says, why i 
to the plaice when the other flat-fishes are likewise — 
supposed to be in need, and the round-fishes 
have an equal claim? Perhaps the pressure brought 
to bear on the Council to produce, after its 
lengthened labours, something tangible in the way of ~ 
legislative recommendations may have had some con-— 
nection with this step. <1 aan tape 
In ‘“‘The Analysis and Review of the English Plaice- 
marking Experiments,” published in 1916 by the 
Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, less ambitious 
views were promulgated, though it was thought that 
the transplantation of: plaice on a commercial scale 
might yield a profit. Many important papers have 
been issued by the English ‘Board, © such» as 
Masterman’s ‘report on the plaice fisheries of the 
North Sea, and the age, growth, and sexual maturity 
of this fish; Todd on the food of the plaice; Buchanan 
Wollaston on the spawning grounds of the plaice; 
Wallace on the age and growth-rate of the plaice, on 
the-ear-bones, and on the size and age of the plaice 
at maturity; whilst others by Booley, Lee and 
Atkinson, Garstang, Bygrave, and Matthews show 
the scientific zeal of the Board’s staff. The excel- 
lent work in. marine zoology and in ‘the fisheries 
which for more than thirty years has been carried on 
by the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth like- 
wise speaks for itself. : 
The work of the northern section, as undertaken 
by.the Fishery Board for Scotland, has also been 
reviewed up to 1907 in the second lecture at the Royal 
Institution. It was shown that, as a result of Hjort’s 
discovery of vast swarms of young Gadoids from Jan 
Meven southwards, there was little need for surprise 
at the immense hordes of young haddocks which, 
as last year, swarmed all along the east coast of 
Scotland, and as little need for doubting the resources 
of Nature in the sea. AVS ee 
Johs. Schmidt gives valuable information on_ the 
voung stages of the cod tribe, of the lings, halibut, 
long rough dab, and the torsk, and, along with | 
Petersen, describes the spawning ground of the eel 
in mid-Atlantic. H. M. Kyle produces two fapers on 
the literature of the ten principal food-fishes of the 
North Sea and a catalogue of the fishes of northern 
Europe. Jensen (Norway) writes on the ear-bones of 
fishes from the bottom of the deep polar sea, and 
shows that cod may frequent the upper regions of the - 
water and thus be overlooked. Johansen describes the 
history of the post-larval eel, and Petersen writes on 
the larval and post-larval stages of the ling, flat-fishes, 
eel, and on the fisheries of the Cattegat and Sweden. 
On the whole, the papers on the young stages of the 


_ Jury 3, 1919] 


NATURE 


357 


food-fishes (with the exception of Schmidt and Peter- 
sen on the eel) do not show much that is novel, for 
most of these had long before been worked out from 
the egg to a recognisable stage in Scotland. 
The third report of the northern section consists of 
a series of statistical tables of the round fishes from 
the Aberdeen trawl fishery, 1901-6, and a report of the 
fluctuations in the market price of fishes (Prof. D’Arcy 
Thompson). No conclusion is arrived at in regard to 
abundance or scarcity. The fourth report (1906-8) 
states that recent work has greatly added to our know- 
ledge, “‘though without bringing us within reach of 
_ a clear statement and comprehension of the whole 
_ case,” and this though results were guaranteed within 
_ two years. The report includes hydrographical in- 
_ Vestigations in the North Sea and Fardée-Shetland 
_ Channel, yeratures of the surface waters of the 
North Sea, salinity of the North Sea, and experiments 
with drift-bottles. The fifth report contains observa- 
_ tions on the plaice caught by the Goldseeker, supple- 
_mented by statistics from the Aberdeen market, by 
_ the same author. It is stated that large plaice have 
_ diminished by two-thirds between 1905 and 1gt1, 
whilst the ens of extra small plaice (8 in.) have 
__inereased threefold. No explanation is given as to 
_ Whether the ship worked on adult plaice graunds, or 
whether those in the fish market represented with 
any = it of trustworthiness the corresponding work 
ler 


of the earlier period; nor is it explai 
the , ; plained that the 
smaller forms are now saleable, whereas formerly 


they were not. In any case, the removal of the larger 
$4 ee ive fishing is the rule, but the ob oe 


hus made are filled later by the swarms of the 
smaller. Besides, it is not stated that the search for 
the large plaice was in the same or similar areas and 
_ on the corresponding dates in each period. As already 
% indicated, the wide distribution of the plaice over the 
North Sea is a safeguard. An able report by Dr. 
Fulton on the seasonal abundance of the flat-fishes in 

_ the North Sea follows. He concludes that turbot and 
_ brill are scarcer, halibut more numerous, large witches 
fewer, small witches less diminished, megrims less 

_ numerous, lemon-dabs (the decrease of which twenty 
years ago was a mainstay of impoverishment) have 
_ inereased, plaice have decreased, yet off Kinnaird 
_ Head, a chief trawling area, small plaice have rather 
_ increased, though less so than small lemon-dabs and 
_ witches. An interesting and laborious report is given 
_ by the same author on the marking of plaice in con- 
nection with their migration, growth, and _ other 
1 features. The adult plaice seemed to travel further 
oe than the immature, and often against the current 
% from the north, so that he was inclined to connect 
_ this with their reproduction, the eggs and larve being 
_ thus carried southwards; but such may be capable of 
_ other interpretations. At any rate, large plaice occur 
_ all along the eastern deep waters, and produce eggs 
_ and larvae which pass shorewards there. Other 
_ papers are on egg-production of numerous fishes by 
_ Miss A. Mitchell, statistics of trawled fishes landed 
at Aberdeen, and a report on hydrographical in- 
_ vestigations (1913).. The fishery statistics of the world 
for 1911 and 1912 were given by Prof. D’Arcy Thomp- 
son in 1917. though the relation of this compilation to 
a» the task set before the International Council is not 
_ ¢évident. The main fact is the prominence of Great 
_ Britain amongst the twelve countries selected. The 
preponderance of the total catch of fishes, moreover, in 

_ the North Sea is noteworthy, and bears out H : 
_ Kyle’s view that there has been no diminution in 
_ the yield of the North Sea between 1907 and 1912. 
_ It would have been interesting to compare these with 
i the fisheries of the United States and of the great 
a British Colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zea- 
land. Other statistical papers, such as those on the 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


a a Rat 


ties 


Aberdeen trawl industry, by the same author, and by 
Helland-Hansen on the cod and haddock, need only 
be mentioned. They do not affect the general 
question. 

The work of the trained scientific staff of the 
Fishery Board for Scotland, again, and independently 
of the International Council, has for many years been 
worthy of all praise. The researches of Dr. Fulton 
on the plaice and other flat-fishes, on the rate of 
growth and the food of fishes, their migrations, dis- 
tribution, fecundity, ovarian eggs, and spawning, are 
both numerous and important. His reports on trawl- 
ing, line fishing, herring fishing, and on the hatchery 
at Nigg still further add to our knowledge. The able 
work of Dr. H. C. Williamson is also equally credit- 
able to the Board, and ranges over the various food- 
fishes, adult and young, edible crabs and shell-fishes, 
as well as includes interesting experiments on the 
effect of cold in connection with the transportation 
of fishes’ eggs to distant regions, such as Australia. 
Dr. Thomas Scott ably took in hand the floating 
fauna, crustacean and annelidan parasites of fishes, 
the food of marine fishes, and the fauna of fresh- 
water lochs. Mr. Harold Dannerig managed the 
hatchery at Dunbar, and for a few years that at 
Nigg, until he left for an important fishery post in 
New South Wales; but, unfortunately, this trained 
fisheries worker perished with the fishery research 
ship of the Commonwealth. Besides these, the 
talented George Brook, Prof. Milroy, of Belfast, Dr. 
H. M. Kyle, J. T. Cunningham, Dr. A. G. Anderson, 
Mr. E. W. Shann, and Dr. Bowman have all con- 
tributed to our knowledge of the fisheries. ; 

In addition to the international work, the Danish 
Government carried cut, by means of its vessel Thor, 
various independent observations. Thus Johansen 


(1907) marked numerous plaice, and found that growth 


was most rapid up to the third year, but on approach- 
ing maturity it was slower. He thought adult plaice 
sought the shallow water in spring and autumn 
(which has not been verified as yet in Britain), and 
that their rate of progress was from two to six miles 
a day. Johannes Schmidt, again, marked many cod 
*n Icelandic waters, where they spawn chiefly off 
the south and south-west coasts in warmer water, for 
a polar current keeps the north and north-east shores 
cold through the year. In summer a branch of the 
warm current moves eastwards along the north coast, 
and he thinks it is important for young fish-life, since 
the young swarm in the fjords of the north and north- 
east, yet they pass the winter there, notwithstanding 
the temperature. He was of opinion that the mature 
plaice, which he also marked, migrated to reach 
warmer water for spawning, but he was uncertain 
of this in regard to the cod. He concluded by sup- 
posing that at the spawning period fishes generally 
require definite conditions of temperature and depth, 
whilst at other times they are indifferent to these. 
The same author describes the larval stages of various 
fishes, as also did C. J. Petersen. Semundsen 
(1913), from marking experiments, thought that both 
plaice and cod kept to Icelandic waters. Changes in 
the specific gravity of the floating eggs are noted by 
Jacobson and Johansen (1909); the latter also con- 
tributed several papers on the plaice, such as varia- 
tions in the frequency of young plaice in Danish 
waters (1908). He could not say definitely that a low 
salinity of surface water caused a deficiency of young 
plaice in 1004, and is not sure but that a low tem- 
perature might be prejudicial to egs¢s and young. 
Papers of outstanding merit are contributed by Johs. 
Schmidt on the metamorphosis and distribution of the 
larve of the eel. on the occurrence of young eels 
(Leptocephali) in the Atlantic west of Europe, and on 
the distribution and classification of fresh-water eels 


358 


NATURE 


[JuLy 3, 1919 


in. the Atlantic; and this able author’s experiences 
range to the marking of turtles in the West Indies. 
He. also furnished. an account of the European, 
American, and Japanese eels. Finding no racial 
differences in the. common, eel, he selected the vivi- 
parous, blenny to. illustrate this feature, those in the 
inner waters of a fjord having a reduced number of 
vertebrae, and the number of the rays in the breast-fin 
being increased from the mouth to the inner waters of 
the fjord. Kramp, again, reported on the eggs and 
larvee of common fishes collected by the Thor in the 
Belt Sea. Wingo (1915) regards locality as a factor 
in determining the value of the rings on the scales 
of the cod, and is of opinion that there is no great 
distinction between summer and winter rings, whether 
the examples come from, Danish or Icelandic seas. 
Struberg (1916), by marking experiments at the 
Farées, found that the cod at the end.of the first year 
were 16 cm. (about 63 in.) long, at the end of the second 
year 30-35 cm.. (about 12-14 in.), at the end of the 
third year 15 cm: (6 in.) longer, and the weight 
doubled and quadrupled; at the end of the fifth year 
an increment of only 5-6.cm. took place. The growth 
in all was distinctly retarded between October and 
January, but this varied according to locality. The 
cod remain in the neighbourhood, undergo no. great 
migration, and reach maturity at the fourth. year. 

This work. of the Danes is an example to the 
theoretical workers in other countries, since the: 
zoologists| were personally in touch with the sea and 
searched. Nature for themselves; and it would appear 
that, by the skilful adjustment of the resources of a 
single nation, more satisfactory advances might. be 
made than by any other means. Even international 
co-operation has its limits. 


(To be continued.) 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


Bristor.—With the concurrence of the Society of 
Merchant Venturers, the council has appointed Major. 
Andrew Robertson to the vacant chair of mechanical 
engineering. Prof. Robertson was demonstrator in 
engineering in the University of Manchester from 
1908 to 1912; Vulcan research fellow, 1912-15; lieu- 
tenant in the R.N.V.R., 1915, and for some time has 
been head of the mechanical. testing laboratory for 
the R.A.F. at Farnborough. The present occupant of 
the chair, Prof. J. Munro, has been granted the title 
of emeritus professor in mechanical engineering. 


Giascow.—The following. were among the degrees 
conferred on June 25:—Doctor of Laws (LE.D.): 
The Very Rev. Principal Sir John Herkless, 
St. Andrews; Prof. Magnus Maclean, the Royal 
Technical College, Glasgow; and H. F. Stockdale, 
director of the Royal Technical College, Glasgow. 
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.): J. W. Scott—thesis, 
**Recent Philosophy and Recent Social Movements.”’ 
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.): W. M. Alexander—thesis, 
““A Research in Egyptology: The Ancient Egyptian 
Canals between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, 
their Problems for the Sciences of Geology, Geo- 
graphy, Engineering, and History’’; J. M. Campbell 
—thesis, ‘‘Laterite: Its Origin, Structure, and 
Minerals’’; W. J. Goudie—thesis, ‘‘ Steam .Turbines 
(Text-book for .Engineering Students),’”” with. other 
papers; I. M. Heilbron—thesis, ‘“‘ A. Contribution to 
the: Study .of Semi-carbazones: Their Reactions and 
Spectrographic _ Examination,” 
R 


of H.M.S. Argus”; and H. G. Wigg—thesis, 
Balancing of Rotating Bodies.” 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


“The 


with other papers ;. 
G. A. Helmes—thesis, ‘‘ Design and Construction 


Lonpon.—Mr. Thomas. Baillie Johnston has been — 
appointed the first incumbent of the University chair: — 
of anatomy tenable at Guy’s Hospital Medical $ y 7 
Mr. Johnston. received his medical training at the — 
University of Edinburgh, graduating M.B., Ch.B., — 
with, First Class honours. In 1907 he was appointed — 
demonstrator, and in 1911 lecturer, in’ anatomy at — 
Edinburgh University. Since 1914 he has been lec- 
turer on anatomy at University College, London, and 
has also, acted as superintendent of dissections to, the 
Conjoint Board. } 

Dr. Alfred Joseph Clark has been appointed, as_ 
from September 1, 1919, to the University chair of. 
pharmacology tenable at University College. Dr. 
Clark was educated at King’s College, Cambridge, | 
and at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; was demonstrator — 
in pharmacology at. King’s College, 1911-125 assistant | 
in pharmacology at University College, 1912-13; and 
lecturer in pharmacology at Guy’s Hospital, 1913-14. 
Since December, 1918, he has been professor of 
pharmacology in the University of Cape Town. — 

The following doctorates have been conferred by the 
Senate :—D.Sc. (Engineering): Mr. O. S. Simnatt, an: 
internal. student of King’s College, for a thesis en- 
titled ‘‘ Thermo-dynamics of Metal Bars.” D.Sc. in 
Physics: Mr. F. L. Hopwood, an external student, 
for a thesis on acoustics. id ebay, 

The thanks of the Senate have been accorded to — 
Mrs. Row for her donation of roool. for the-depart- 
ment of zoology at King’s College in memory of her 
son, Harold Row, who was lecturer in zoology at the 
College from 1911-19. The income from this dona~ 
tion is to be devoted to the purposes of a scholarship — 
for the promotion of zoological research, to be called 


bay meas 


‘The Harold Row Scholarship.” 
The syllabuses for the : Intermediate Science 
Examination for external students were approved as’ 
-alternative syllabuses for the Higher School Examina- 
tion, and resolutions were passed regarding the award 
of the higher school certificates. bee ee Gs 


4 


-_ ER aed 28 BEA Agi 

Mr. W. Extiorr has been appointed principal of 
the Technical Institute; Rathmines, Dublin, in, suc- 
cession: to the late Mr: A. Williamson, cing cH Re 

Tur U.S. General Education Board has, says 
Science, made a grant of 100,000l. towards a fund of 
400,0001. to: be raised to endow a graduate school of 
education for Harvard University. The, new fund: 
will be’ named in honour of Dr. Charles’ W. Eliot, 
president emeritus of Harvard University. tate 
Mr. J. B. Roperrson, assistant in the chemistry 
department, University. of Edinburgh, has been 
appointed lecturer in chemistry in the South African: 
School of Mines, Tohannesburg.' Mr. A. E. Walden, 
also an assistant in the same department, has been 
appointed professor of chemistry in the Wilson College, 
Bombay. ae . ; ae ar “i 

Two scholarships of the value of 1sol. per annum 
each. and enable “for three vears, will be offered by 
the Institution of Naval Architects this summer, viz." 
the Cammell Laird scholarship in naval: architecture: 
and the Parsons scholarship in marine engineering. 
Candidates must be British apprentices in shipvard or 
marine-engine works, between the ages of nineteen — 
and twenty-five.. Entries close on August 17. Full — 
particulars can be obtained from the Secretary, 
Institution of Naval Architects, 5 Adelphi Terrace, 
London, W.C.2. — Oe ee ES 

Tue Gilchrist Trustees offer, through the _council. 
of the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medi- _ 
cine for Women, a special. scholarship, tenable, at the 
Medical School by a woman. who has served under 


es 
4 


an organisation directly connected with the war Tene 
' not. less than three years since August, 1914. e 


_ Jory 3, 1919] 


NATURE 556 


a 


scholarship is of the value of 5ol.. per annum) for. five 
years. Applications: must reach. the Warden and 
Secretary of the Medical School, 8 Hunter Street, 
Brunswick Square, W:C.1, not later than July ta. 


We learn from Science that the Washington School 
of Medicine, St. Louis, has been offered the sum of 
30,0001. by the General Education Board on condition 
that an equal amount be raised by subscription. This 
fund of 60,0001. js to: be used for the endowment of 
the ent of pharmacology. From the same 
source we learn that the board of trustees of the 
University of Tennessee have voted 20,0001. to the 
medical school to be used for a new laboratory build- 
§ to be erected in the rear of the Memphis City 
A al. The new building will’ have laboratories for 
) , bacteriology, chemistry, and: physiology. 


_ SOCIETIES, AND ACADEMIES. 

ee ak? Lonpon. 

Royal Society, June 19.—Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 
dent, in. the chair.—The Hon, R. J. Strutt: Ralcin 
: psy dee gst asd of the line-spectrum of sodium. as 
_ excrt ry 


Magy 


. 


uorescence. An improved form of sodium 
he aa , in quartz, was described, giving an 
ntensely bright. sodium, spectrum, admirably adapted 

sodium vapour to resonance. It is found 


for exciting) 

that excitation of sodium vapour by the second line of 
ie as series leads to the emission of both A 3303 
and the» 


the D line. On the other hand, as might be 
expected, excitation by the D line leads to the, emis-. 


sion of the D line only, without 3303. If only one of 
the components of the doublet 3303 is stimulated, both 
the D lines are emitted. When D light falls on sodium 
vapour of appropriate density, it is known that an 
intense surface emission occurs from the front layer, 
and a weaker one from succeeding layers. Analysis 
by_ absorption in an independent layer of sodium 
pour | s that the superficial emission is more 
attorhabie, and therefore nearer the centre of the 
D lines. The breadth of the D lines in superficial 
resonance has been estimated by interferometer 
methods. It is found to correspond. with the breadth 
conditioned: by the Doppler effect, calculated on the 
- assumption that the luminous: centre is the sodium 
atom. Polarisation could not be detected in the ultra- 
let resonance radiation, though, insaceordance with 
revious observers, it was readily observed in D reson- 
ee 
_ Mineralogical Society, June 17.—Dr. A. E. H. Tutton, 
past-president, in the chair. A; E. Kitson; Diamonds 
from the Gold Coast. The crystals and their occur- 
ce were described.—A. Brammall; Andalusite 
(chiastolite): its genesis, morphology, and inclusions. 


a In a survey of thermometamorphic ‘‘ spotted” rocks, 


evidence based on structural features, optical proper- 
ies, and microchemical, reactions is adduced to show 
at certain types of spots, convergent towards such 


minerals as chiastolite, andalusite, cordierite, mica, and. 


_ chloritoid, record arrested development, and that they 
are probably ontogenetically related. The spot is a 
complex system containing a volatile phase, water, 
and its development involves metamorphic diffusion 
and differentiation, controlled by changing conditions of 
temperature and stress, the tendency being towards the 
attainment of an equilibrium end-point in a metastable 

nineral. Thermal and stress conditions adequate to 
initiate the tendency may be inadequate to sustain 


it, the time factor also being involved; development 


may be arrested and abortive effort recorded as a 
mineral ‘“ spot,’’ the nature of which is determinable, 
but is often vague or wholly conjectural. The chemi- 
cal and physical characters of argillaceous sediments 


NO. 2592, VOL. 103] 


are considered, with special reference to. the genesis 
of chiastolite. Clays contain. a high proportion of 
hydrated silicates of alumina, readily soluble and in 
part probably colloidal. On rise of temperature 
diffusion effects the segregation of the primary clot; 
diffusion inwards of allied molecules and diffusion out- 
wards of alien substances tend to promote homo- 
geneity and reconstitution within the spot, the peri- 
pheral zone being maintained for a time in a relatively 
high state' of hydration. In this connection the 
peripheral, zone of yellow-brown, non-pleochroic, and 
isotropic stain is significant; microchemical tests show 
that it is due: to ferric hydrates, which are known to 
be liable to: spontaneous dehydration, and it is sug- 
gested that the ferric hydrate in the peripheral stain 
acts as a catalyst, assisting dehydration within the 
spot and! transmitting water to the base. For chiasto- 
lite (andalusite), a mechanism of formation is sug- 
gested to cover the observed facts, to explain the 
characteristic distribution of its opaque inclusions, and 
to aecount for crystals which have the superficial 
aspect of cruciform twins.—R. H. Rastall : The mineral 
composition of oolitic ironstones. In many oolitic iron- 
stones the ooliths contain more iron or are more 
highly oxidised than the matrix. Assuming that the 
iron-content of such rocks is introduced by metaso- 
matism of calcium carbonate, this. may be explained 
in the following way: Many ooliths and . organic 
fragments in limestones consist of aragonite, while the 
cement is calcite.. Aragonite is less.stable than calcite 
and more readily decomposed by iron-bearing solu- 
tions, which therefore attack the aragonite first, while 
the calcite is replaced later. Hence we have the: fol- 
lowing scheme in successive stages :— 


Ooliths. aragonite —> chalybite —> limonite. 
Matrix. calcite ——calcite —> chalybite. 


The ooliths are always a stage ahead of the matrix 
in replacement and oxidation. The origin of the green 
silicate of iron, found in many ironstones, requires 
further investigation.—L. J.. Spencer: Eighth list of 
mineral. names. 

Royal Anthropological’ Institute, June 17.—Prof. A. 
Keith, past president, in the chair.—J. Reid Moir: 
Flint implements from Glacial gravel north of Ipswich. 
This gravel is covered by a definite Glacial boulder 
clav, and is therefore of Glacial age. Mr. W. 
Whitaker states that the gravel is what is usually 
called ‘‘ Middle Glacial,” and this view is shared, by 
the author. As, however, Lower Glacial deposits do 


‘not: occur in the Ipswich. district. the use of the term 


Middle Glacial is deprecated. The flint implements 
comprise small platessiform specimens, verv similar 
in their outlines to some of the Early Chellian arte- 
facts, points, radoirs, and well-made scrapers. These 
and the numerous: flakes recovered, exhibit all the 
usual! characteristics of flints ascribed to human, work- 
manship. Quartzite hammer-stones and burnt flints 
occur in the gravel, and the deposit probably repre-. 
cents. im mart; a land surface broken up and. re- 
deposited by water resulting from. melting ice. It is 
not at present possible to correlate the: Ipswich gravel 
with others indifferent parts of the country containing 
similar implements, but further investigation may 
enable this to be done. 

Zoological Society, June 17.—Prof. E. W. MacBride, 
vice-president, in the chair.—J. T. Carter: Occurrence 
of denticles on the snout of Xiphias—Dr. C. W. 
Andrews : New species of Zeuglodons and a leathery 
turtle from the Eocene of Southern Nigeria.—E. 
Heron-Allen and A. Earland: Exveriments on the cul- 
tivation of Verneuilina polystropha. Reuss, in hyper- 
tonic sea-water and gem sand.—C. Morley: Equatorial 


360 


NATURE 


[JULY 3, 1919 


and other species and genera of African Ichneu- 
monidz.-—-G. A. Boulenger; (1) A list of the snakes of 
West Africa from Mauritania to the French Congo. 
(2) A list of the snakes of North Africa.—The. Rev. 
T. R. R. Stebbing: Crustacea from the Falkland 
Islands collected by Mr. Rupert Vallentin. Part iii. 


Linnean Society, June 19.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 
president, in the chair.—T, A, Dymes: Notes on the 
life-history of the yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus, Linn.), 
with special reference ‘to the seeds and _ seedlings 
during their first year. J. pseudacorus, Linn., is a 
plant of shallow swamps and wet pastures, occurring 
in many different kinds of soil. Its xerophytic adapta- 
tions and its contractile roots are a protection from 
some of the dangers of the physical world. Its actidity 
and astringency protect it from being readily eaten, but 
the larvae of some insects feed upon it, those of a saw- 
fly doing considerable damage; a few molluscs resort 
to it for food. It appears that wild-fowl eat the seeds 
and the very young seedlings; it is also attacked by 
a parasitic fungus. This plant hibernates, and the 
normal minimum for the seeds is about seven months, 
the maximum being not less than twenty. Flowering 
in its fourth year, the capsules begin to. dehisce in 
September. There are two kinds of seed, flat and 
round, and the difference between them has some 
significance both in dispersal and in germination. Un- 
injured seeds float for two years or more. The most 
important of the agents are diving wild-fowl, and the 
least is the wind; running water plays a very consider- 
able part.—S. L. Moore; A contribution to the flora 
of Australia. This memoir contains notices of rare 
and descriptions of new Australian plants preserved 
in the British Museum.—A. W. Waters: Selen- 
ariade and other Bryozoa. The paper deals 
with some cup-shaped or flat forms of Bryozoa, 
and while the zoarial shape alone is sufficient for 
generic. classification, an examination has been made 
to see how far other characters run through all or 
most species.—Dr.. E. Penard: Studies. on some 
Flagellata. The author gives the result of his ob- 
servations on some Flagellata from the vicinity of 
Geneva.—Dr. M. Tattersall: Report on the 
Stomatopoda and Macrurous Decapoda collected by 
Mr. Cyril Crossland in the Sudanese Red Sea. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Life and its Maintenance: A Symposium on Bio- 
logical Problems of the Day. Pp. viii++297. (London: 
Blackie and Son, Ltd.) 5s. net. 

George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements. 
By F. E. Leupp. Pp. xi+304. (London: J. Murray.) 
15s. net. 

Resources and Industries of the United States. By 
Prof. E. F, Fisher. Pp.’ ix+246. (Boston and 
London: Ginn and Co:) 3s. od. net. 


Heredity. By Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. Third 
edition. Pp. xvi+627. (London: J. Murray.) 15s. 
net, 

Woman: The Inspirer. By E. Schuré. Translated 


by F. Rothwell. Pp. vii+166. (London: The Power- 
Book Co.) 4s. 6d. net. 

A Practical Handbook of British Birds. Part iii. 
Pp. 129-208+2 plates. (London: Witherby and Co.) 
4s. net. ; f 

The Chemistry and Manufacture of Hydrogen. By 
Major -P..\L. Teed. Pp. viit+152. (London: E. 
Arnold.) 10s. 6d. net. 

On Longevity and Means for the Prolongation of 
Life. By Sir H. Weber. Edited by Dr. F. Parkes 


Weber. Fifth enlarged edition. Revised and partly 
rewritten. Pp. xxii+292. (London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd.) 12s. net. 


NO, 2592, VOL. 103] . 


The Metals of the Rare Earths. 
Spencer. Pp. x+279. 
and Co.) 12s. 6d. net. a 

La Tension de Vapeur des Mélanges de Liquides. 
L’Azéotropisme. By Dr. M. Lecat. Pp. xiit+319. 
(Gand: Hoste, S.A.; Bruxelles: H. Lamertin.) 
45 francs, “ 

Practical Vaccine Treatment for the General Practi- 
tioner. By Dr. R. W. Allen. Pp. xiit+308. (London: 
H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd.) 7s. 6d. net. gig} 
. Descriptive Geometry. ._By H..W. Miller. Pp. y+ 
176. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London : 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 7s. net. by 

Introductory Mathematical Analysis. By Dr. W. P. 
Webber and Prof. L. C. Plant. (New. York: J. eed 
and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd. 
gs. 6d. net. : . t 

Irrigation Engineering. By Dr. A. P. Davis and 
H. M. Wilson. Seventh edition. Pp. xxiii+64o. 
(New York: J. Wiley and .Sons, Inc.; London: 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 21s. net. oA 8S 

Annals of ‘tthe Philosophical Club of the Royal 
Society written from its Minute Books. By Prof. 
T. G. Bonney. Pp. x+286. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd.) 15s. net. fee 

Practical BUMS HORE: By C. W. Walker-Tisdale 
and T. R. Robinson. Fourth revision. Pp. 143. 
(London: Headley Bros. Publishers, Ltd.) 58 6d. 
net. eb Weed 

The Doctrine of Degrees in Knowledge, Truth, and 
Reality. By Viscount Haldane. Pp. 32. London > 


. Milford.) 2s. net. 
A he Bae By C. Thom and Prof. W. W. 


The Book of Cheese. \ 
Fisk. Pp. xvi+392. (New York: The Macmillan 


By Dr. J. F. 
(London: Longmans, Green, 


Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 8s. net. 


CONTENTS. 


Sir William Turner ..; 3-2... é 
Applied Physiology. By M.G... 
The Problem of Individuality, ....., 
Our Bookshelf nee 
Letters to the Editor:— Baer Screire g >. 
Dr. Kammerer’s Testimony to the Inheritance of 


Acquired Characters.—Prof. W. Bateson, F.R.S. 344 
The Food of Rats. —Thos. Steel .  . . . « « 345 
Some Recent Atomic Weight Determinations. By ~~ 

Sir T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S. {: terns ae 
The Peace Treaty and Mineral Fields, By H. L. . 348. 
Notes; 43.5731 Soe cafha Se celal le epee ae - 349 
Our Astronomical Column :— aie 

Nova Agus ao gre Stee otis 0, a &e ete eg ee ee 

The Parallax of the Orion Nebula... . «+++. 353 

Planetary Neébulee 2.0. fe Ns BS 
Medical Scienceinthe War ...... + 354 
Experimental Studies of Selection ..... >) Merks 354 
Fungus Diseases of Economic Plants. .... . 354 
The Fisheries and the International Council, I. 

By Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S. ... . «+++ «+ 35 
University and Educational Intelligence... . . 358 
Societies and Academies ....... Pee te ee ok 
Books Received: ee es ee ee 


- Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 
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Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 


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Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8820. 


ae ee 


ta NATURE 


361 


* “THURSDAY, JULY 10, ‘1979. 


he. =.) . PRODUCTIVE. DUALITY. 
.? «) Strife of Systems and Productive Duality: 
_+ . An Essay in Philosophy. By Prof. W. H. 


Sheldon. Pp. x+534-. (Cambridge, Mass. : 
} § Harvard University Press; London: Humphrey 
_ Milford, Oxford University Press, 1918.) 


: Liirion 158. net. 
i: % Self and Neighbour: An Ethical Study. By 
j eres ward W. Hirst. Pp. xx+291. (London: 
npeeeiian and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price tos. 
net. 


4 “HE idea, deeply ingrained in our intellectual 
: be “nature, that the constituents of reality, 
F “could we only discriminate them, would be found 
, # to be single and simple is atthe? borne: out nor 
€ pported by any actual research, scientific or 
_ phi sophical. We are for ever asking what 
BE EN hing is, and for ever surprised that the 
az nly answer we can get is in terms of what 
:: a thing does. Doing implies process, process 
Vie itieaiit activity, and the concept of activity 
involves the idea of opposition within the con- 
wa He itself. 
(1) Prof. Sheldon, in his interesting survey of 
_ the strife of systems, has made a bold applica- 
: bien of this fact to the problem of philosophy. 
__ He presents difficult problems in a pleasant, flow- 
3 ing: style which is itself a source of pleasure 
Pte the reader. The thesis which he defends 
is that the lack of unity in philosophy and 
- the tendency of philosophical systems __ to 
_ present sharp antagonisms, far from being, 
as is so often urged by critics, a scandal 
_ of reason, are the very conditions of progress. It 
no new doctrine; it is, in fact; the well-known 
Hegelian theory of the dialectic, according to 
vhich ‘the advance of thought is through contra- 
/and pure negation to new affirmation and 
higher synthesis. Prof. Sheldon proposes, how- 
* ever, a. bold application of the principle which 
ir - would bring within it the Hegelian philosophy 
* itself as one of the systems in strife. This. an- 
tagonism does not merely concern human systems 
of thought. “The deepest trait of reality, that 
which makes it the moving, productive thing 
it is, is just the marriage of two principles 
whose apparent hostility has constituted the con- 
tinual frustration of man’s effort to map the 
-universe.”’ 
_ (2) Mr. Hirst deals with this strife of systems 
__ in the ethical sphere. It is not difficult to under- 
_. stand why at the present time there is a lively 
interest in the ethical problem. Human society 
is undergoing a reconstruction so fundamental 
hat the chance seems now offered to reformers 
~ make actual and practical ideals which a few 
years ago seemed remote and visionary and pos- 
sible of realisation only by steady and persistent 
“perseverance in the course of generations. The 
‘illennium, it is true, loses its esthetic charm as 


+ NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


a vision when it becomes plain matter of fact; 
none the less, the widespread feeling at the 
present time that, whatever the outcome of our 
social reconstruction, we are at least enjoying an 
Opportunity such as few now living could have 
expected to see is setting its stamp on our specu- 
lative thought. 

Practical reformers are not usually tolerant of 
the speculative theorists, and the reason is not 
far to seek. If the science of political economy 
has earned for itself the epithet ‘‘dismal,’’ the 
science of ethics most certainly deserves the 
epithet “dull.”’ Nowhere in the whole scheme 
of philosophy and science does there seem to 
be such laborious effort combined with such 
discouraging flatness as in the sphere of 
speculative ethics, and yet. theoretically ethics 
is the culminating interest in philosophy. 
Mr. Hirst’s “Ethical Study ’’ cannot escape 
this condemnation, although it makes a brave 
attempt. It lacks vision and has no audacity. 
It discusses the problem along the well-worn lines 
of the attempt to reconcile egoism and altruism. 
{t contains a good deal of critical exposition of 
modern theories, particularly those of the late 
t. H. Green and the present Bishop of Down, and 
it is very sympathetic towards Dr. Rashdall’s 
“Theory of Gocd and Evil.’’ It is in the exfosi- 
tion of these writers that the ethical interest of 
the book centres. The criticism of the earlier 
classical writers is inadequate, and the quotations 
are so often at one or even two removes that an 
uncomfortable doubt creeps in as to the author’s 
acquaintance with the original. And when we are 
told that ‘““we owe to Plato one of the greatest 
literary works, in which he sketched the constitu- 
tion of an ideal society,’’ we wonder what class 
of readers the author has in mind! The one 
contemporary philosopher who really may be said 
to have raised the problem of ethics to a higher 
plane, Benedetto Croce, is not mentioned, and 
possibly the ‘Philosophy of Practice ’’ is as yet 
unknown to the author. Croce’s distinction 
between economic and ethical conduct in that 
treatise appears to the present writer to have 
placed the ethical problem in a new setting and 
altered the conditions on which it will in future 
be discussed. 

Mr. Hirst’s book is not confined to ethics; we 
are soon switched on to pure psychology, and then 
from psychology to pure metaphysics. The author 
is thoroughly at home in the most recent philo- 
sophical literature in England, and his work is 
extremely well-informed and instructive. Though 
he freely expresses his agreement or disagreement 
with the various theories he notices, we never get 
a clear expression of his own view developed inde- 
pendently. It is this we should like to have, and 
the disappointment with which we close the book 
in not having got it is perhaps the highest praise 
the author can wish for as regards the interest his 
book arouses. 

H.W. 


U 


362 NATURE 


[JULY 10, 1919 


TEXT-BOOKS. OF CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 


(1) A Systematic Course of Qualitative Chemical 
Analysis of Inorganic and Organic Substances, 
with Explanatory Notes. By Prof. Henry W. 
Schimpf. Third edition, revised. Pp. ix+ 187. 
(New York: John Wiley and Sons, Ine. ; 
London: Chapman. and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 
Price 7s. net. 

(2) Essentials of Volumetric Analysis: An Intro- 
duction to the Subject, Adapted to the Needs 
of Students of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. By 
Prof. Henry W. Schimpf. Third edition, re- 
written and enlarged. Pp. xiv+366. (New 
York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: 
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price 7s. net. 

(3) An Advanced Course in Quantitative Analysis, 
with Explanatory Notes. By Prof. Henry Fay. 
Pp. vi+111. (New York: John Wiley and 

_ Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 
1917.) Price 6s. net. 


(1) 7 ae volume is intended especially for 

pharmaceutical students, and the author 
has borne in mind the fact that such students can 
devote but a relatively short time to the study of 
analytical chemistry. Hence the endeavour has 
been made to confine the work to. those qualita- 
tive chemical reactions, both organic and: in- 
organic, which it is considered essential for 
students of pharmacy to master.. An ample course 
has been provided; but the book. is frankly 
didactic rather than educative. 

In carrying out the scheme, much use is made 
of “charts ’’ and tables of procedure, not only. for 
the analysis of mixtures, but also for examining 
simple salts. 
employment of equations in explanation of the 
reactions: this is a matter on which the average 
student is often weak. Although the ‘organic ’’ 
part of the work has been written in reference 
to the United States Pharmacopeeia, it will be 
found quite serviceable by students in this 
country.. The matter is both well arranged and 
well printed. 

In a work of this character there seems to. be 
no. sufficient reason for including a section dealing 
with elementary chemistry (atoms, valency, sym- 
bols, salts, etc.). The sixteen pages devoted to 
it cannot take the place of an ordinary chemical 
text-book; and that being so, they might be more 
profitably devoted to analytical matters. It may 
be noted that, in the chart on p. 72, sodium 
metantimonate, instead of the potassium salt, is, 
by an oversight, shown as the reagent to be used 
in testing for sodium. 

(2) Like the foregoing work, this volume is: also 
designed for the use of pharmaceutical students. 
Hence, in addition to descriptions of the general 
principles of volumetric analysis, chapters are 
included which initiate the user into methods of 
dealing with medicinal substances. Such methods 
are, for instance, those used in the estimation of 
alkaloids volumetrically, and in. the assaying of 
vegetable drugs and galenical preparations. With 


NO. 2593. VOL. 103| 


‘analysis. 


- volume. 


A useful feature is the plentiful 


these may, be. mentioned the processes used for 
the determination of phenols, nitrites, sugars, and 
alcohol; assays of drugs, such as chloral and 
resorcinol) and the examination of oils, fats, and 
waxes. The chapters in question will be found 
to be excellent introductions to. these parts. of the 
subject. 

The earlier chapters give good explanatiaas of 
the general principles and practice of volumetric 
They are provided with numerous 
worked-out examples to explain the calculations 
involved. . 

Whilst, however, the book, on the whalay will 
be found convenient and useful, it would be 
improved here and there by a revision of the 
wording.. Such sentences as “the sensitiveness 
of the indicators and its colour changes is ascribed 
to ’ (p. 21) do not well express the author’s 
meaning. The revision of proofs, too, might have 
been better done. Thus the statement that “ ‘oleo- 
margarin requires about. one mil of beef-fat ’” 
(p. 285) will be found rather cryptic by the 
student, until he realises that somehow or other 
 decinormial. allali,’” has been transformed into 
“beef-fat”’ during its passage through the press. 

(3) Work of a rather advanced fee suitable 
for students who have already gone through a 
good introductory course, is provided. in this third 
The subjects chosen are such as to 
afford experience in the methods used for assaying 
minerals and metals. The analysis of silicates is 
first dealt with, and. this is followed. by. that of 
spathic iron ore, pyrites, and titanium iron ore. 
After a few more exercises, including _ the 
proximate analysis of coal, the student is taken 
on to the analysis of phosphor-bronze and the 
determination of the numerous substances present 
in various kinds of iron and steel. These 
examples will indicate the nature of the experi- 
mental work to be carried out. Except as 
regards coal, the estimations. are concerned with 
inorganic substances only. 

A notable feature of the book is Prof. Fay’s 
explanatory notes, which will be found very help- 
ful, as will also the original references provided. 
The methods of analysis used are such as would 
be employed in actual working practice, and the 
book can be cordially recommended to. the notice 
of advanced students and their tutors. 


THE VALUE OF A’ GARDEN. 

A Garden Flora: Trees and Flowers Grown in the 
Gardens. at Nymans. By L. Messel. 1890-1915. 
With illustrations by Alfred Parsons. Fore- 
word by William Robinson. Notes by Muriel 
Messel. Pp. ix+196. (London: Country 
Life Offices and George Newnes, Ltd.; New 
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918.) hg 
ros. 6d. net.. 

ce HE garden at Nymans, Sussex, is without 

doubt a particularly favoured spot. It rises — 


_to some 500 ft. above sea-level, and has a good 


loam soil overlying sandstone. As might be ex- 


_/ Jury 10, 1919 | 


NATURE ‘363 


_ pected from such a soil, the garden contains a 
: wealth of rhododendrons and ‘heaths and other 
. _ interesting plants which only flourish where chalk 
_ is absent from the soil. 

The remarkable list of the plants grown in the 
& eae which the late Miss Messel has drawn up, 
to the memory | of her father, Mr. L. Messel, the 

_ founder | of the garden, is not only a splendid 

pes to one who took the keenest interest in the 

ivation of all that was rare and interesting, but 
it inks most valuable work for all true garden- 
oe a iy 
Ngee book ‘enumerates all the plants grown at 
Nee a ‘sufficiently remarkable collection to 
Senn  eouaaape and its value is much 
inced af the notes added by Miss Messel about 
Esha piesi: of more especial interest. Particulars 
as to the hardiness of numerous tender plants 
grown in ‘the garden are also given, and all those 
_ that are half-hardy or doubtfully hardy, as well 


as those grown under glass, are specially marked. 
2 - The 5. pps which is beautifully printed on 
r, is enriched by the drawings of 
Mr aie Pa arsons of plants hie have epee 
‘in the garden. So good are these that one would 
are omeoat some more from his accomplished 
ne reads through the lists of plants with envy, 
bak when the sizes of some of the more 
_ tender plants are noted. To find Embothrium 
- coecineum, Berberidopsis _corallina, Abutilon  viti- 
- folium, and and four species of Acacia, among other 
tender plants, flowering out of doors so near 
Bs lon is remarkable. 
; eason ‘of Mr. Messel’s success, with 
Pp s which are not usually considered hardy, 
was, way he grew such plants with some pro- 
. “tection » ‘during the winter, until they were large 
A ann and strong enough to plant in the open. 
they been put out as small plants the failures 
lh 1a ve been numerous. 
‘the appendix a list of the plants killed or 
ore " damaged during the winter of 1916—17 is 
On the whole, the casualties are remark- 
small, and iit is particularly interesting to 
x cies mlm somewhat en survivors of the 
“severe winter. 
It is with great regret that we have to record 
the death of Miss Messel in December last from 
influenza. 


‘OUR BOOKSHELF. 


‘Electro-Analysis. By Prof. Edgar F. Smith. 
Sixth edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. xiv+ 
344. (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son and 
Co., 1918.) Price 2.50 dollars net. 


AT one time electro-analysis did not find much | 
- r among chemists, because an analysis re-, 
quired too long a time, too complicated apparatus, - 
nd too much platinum. These objections have 
toa great extent been removed, largely through 
_ research by Prof. Edgar F. Smith, whose rapid 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


precipitation of metals by the method of the rotat- 


ing anode, introduced in 1901, has overcome the 
difficulty of time. Also of particular importance 
is his double mercury cup, the usefulness of which 
has. been greatly enhanced by recent improve- 
ments described in the present edition of this book. 
The principle of this double cup is the same as 
that of the Castner-Kellner caustic soda plant. 
Remarkable suecess has attended the application 
of this method, not only to the complete analysis 
of single salts, such as sodium chloride, but also 
to the effecting of certain difficult separations, 
such as that of the alkali metals from one another. 

Apart from a short chapter on “Theoretical 
Considerations,’’ this book is entirely devoted to 
practical details, which are very fully given. 
Nevertheless, the author speaks with the confi- 
dence of one who ‘has acquired his knowledge by 
actual experience, and has researched for more 
than forty years untrammelled by any electro- 
chemical theory, whether of ions or of potentials. 

The rareness among analysts .of familiarity 
with electricity still remains a serious obstacle to 
progress in electro-analysis, and will remain so as 
long as electricity receives the little attention at 
present given to it by the chemist-in-training. If 
we have in view both speed and accuracy the best 
procedure in analysis is neither purely chemical 
nor purely electrical, but comprises a judicious 
blending of the two methods, and for guidance 
in electro-analysis every chemist should have a 
copy of the present standard work. 

Francis W. Gray. 


The Journal of a Disappointed Man. By W.N.P. 
Barbellion. With an introduction by H. G. 
Wells. Pp. x+312. (London: Chatto and 
Windus, 1919.) Price 6s. net. 

THERE have before now been clever young men 

who by their own efforts have conquered circum- 

stance and won distinction in science, but, thank 
goodness, none of them has ventured to publish 
his high opinion of his own merits and his con- 
tempt for his neighbours, if not for the rest of 
mankind. ‘Had he kept his own counsel, like the 
rest of us, Barbellion would doubtless have 
passed for a ‘bright boy-naturalist, a student of 
zoology deserving all encouragement, and an 

amiable colleague when by hard work he won a 

post at the Natural History Museum. One would 

have recognised his brains, originality, and power 
of presentation, and one might have regretted to 
see another promising morphologist pinned for 
life to systematic entomology. His _ restless 
energy might have moulded to his own fashion 

that cramping environment, or might have raised © 
him above it, had it not been for the slow and 
fatal disease against which -he ‘was struggling 
from the ‘first. For ‘that tragedy, for his courage 
and humour, and for ‘his unquenched love of 

Nature, which here finds beautiful though rare 

expression, we can forgive shis self-love, self-pity, . 

and self-exposure, and place his journal on our 

shelf next that of Marie Bashkirtseff. 


304 NATURE [JULY 10, 1919 


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 ts 
taken of anonymous communications. | 


Military Camoufiage. 


ARTICLES on military camouflage have frequently 
appeared in both scientific and popular journals, but 
the picture drawn is invariably very different from 
the reality as seen by those who made the camou- 
flage. The following remarks attempt to correct some 
of these inaccuracies by setting out as clearly as 
possible the conditions under which the military 
camoufleur worked. 

Military information is obtained by horizontal 
observation from first-line trenches, by horizontal 
and oblique observation from kite-balloons, and 
by vertical observation from aeroplanes. — Hori- 
zontal observation has a limited field of a few miles, 
whereas vertical observation is limited only by the 
distance an aeroplane can cover and return. The 
latter is thus ‘of much the greater importance, 
especially because with the aid of photography very 
much greater detail can be obtained than by direct 
observation. th 

Even in forward areas open to horizontal observa- 
tion camouflage requires to be proof against aerial 
photography. What escapes the long-focus camera 
carrying rapid and fine-grained plates will be passed 
by the eye even aided by. optical instruments. 

An example will illustrate most of the governing 
factors. Suppose that it has been decided to conceal 
a machine-gun emplacement by an artificial haystack. 
Either it must take the place of an existing stack or 
recently cut grass must account for its sudden appear- 
ance in the photograph. The comparison of photo- 
graphs taken at different dates was a routine practice. 
The artificial stack must be of the size and form of 
haystacks of the neighbourhood; any defect in these 
respects would be recognised photographically by 
measurement of its cast shadow or by exaggerated 
stereoscopic examination. Any two photographs taken 
from about the same height suffice for stereoscopic 
examination, ie 

If the stack be made of artificial material, such as 
canvas, and matched in colour to the eve, it may be dis- 
covered by the use of colour-filters or plates sensitive 
to special regions of the spectrum. The Germans 
used a very rapid plate the sensitiveness of which 
was almost confined to the green region. To ensure 
that the colour composition of the artificial was not 
at fault, it is best to use hay or straw in its con- 
struction. This is best for another reason in order 
to copy so far as possible the texture of the natural, 
for under the changing angles of illumination in 
Nature it is not possible to match constantly a rough 
surface by a smooth artificial, and this difference is 
likely to be seen sooner or later bv the reader of aerial 


photographs. It is clear, therefore, that to defeat 


the aerial camera an exact copy is required. Amongst 


animals such concealment is comparable with that of | 


Kallima, the leaf-butterfly. What may be termed 
impressionistic methods commonly found in animal 
coloration are quite useless for the defeat of the reader 
of aerial photographs. For concealment against hori- 
zontal observation the same methods had to be em- 
ployed, as the object is constantly being scrutinised 
by many eyes, aided by binoculars, colour-filters, etc., 
exercising systematic observation. as well as being 
subject to vertical observation. An observation post 
in a sandbag parapet had to be concealed by a wire- 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


gauze screen modelled to resemble exactly the sandbag _ 
removed for the purpose. i Qari 
Many military objects were successfully concealed — 
by erecting flat covers over them, These were m ‘at 
of fish. or wire-netting threaded with strips of canvas 
painted green or brown, according as to whether ‘the © 
surroundings were grass or earth. The paints used 
were made to give as nearly as possible the same 
colour-composition as grass, earth, etc. The required 
texture was obtained by leaving the ends of the canvas 
strips long. The cast shadow was concealed by 
gradually thinning out the canvas strips towards the 
edge, so that no defined shadow was cast. Under 
such covers, and more especially on rough i pany 
guns and other military objects were successfully con- 
cealed. This is, again, a case of exact copying except 
for the cast shadow, which is concealed by thinning 
out the edge in a manner similar to the standing coats 
and serrated edges of some animals. di alse 
The difficulty of concealing guns was greatly in- 
creased because they could be located with consider- 
able accuracy by flash-spotting and sound-ranging, 
though to pin-prick them on the map detection by — 
aerial photography was required. Still, these other 
methods of detection narrowed down the area to be 
examined often to the size of a halfpenny. — ine 
Further, the reader of aerial photograp 
very skilled in detecting the presence of — 
objects from signs, tracks, moved earth, unusual agri- 
cultural activities, activities along roads and rails, and 
in many other places distant from the object, so that 
a camouflaged object was likely to be subject to the 
minutest examination and the smallest defect unli cely 
to be overlooked. pa Oak 
Meticulous care in the smallest detail was, therefore, 
essential, especially because a detected ag 
gave a false security. The degree in which accuracy — 
was necessary may be conveyed by the following: 
example. An attempt was made to represent a light- 
railway track by dark lines painted upon canvas, the 
canvas representing ballast. The painted rail : 


ar 


ed rail was not 

so dark in the photograph as the real rail. It was 
found essential to make a raised rail of rope and 
canvas in order to cast the same shadow as a steel 
rail. ai Beam Cs 0 | 

Unfortunately, especially during the early stages of 
the war, commanding officers often did their own 
camouflaging. This work almost invariably consisted 
of imitative painting, generally of an exceedingly 
childish kind, or, on the other hand, they succeeded —_ 
in making the object more conspicuous by the use of 
conventional patterns in gaudy colour. In fact, paint- 
ing for land camouflage was of no value except 
possibly to lower the reflection at night from, say, a 
hospital roof by the use of dark green or lee paint 
when no texture was available. It is from the work 
carried out without technical advice from the Camou- 
flage Corps that the public has been led astray, and 
‘t is to counteract this incorrect impression that the 
foregoing description may be of value. a 

ADRIAN KLEIN. 
J. C. Motrram. 


— \ 


Question Relating to Prime Numbers. | ff + 


Tue reply to Mr. Mallock’s inquiry in Nature of 
June 19 is that if m denotes the mth prime number 
(counting from unity), then the ratio of m to n/log, n 
tends to unity as m tends to infinity. It follows’ that’ 
an approximate expression for n is mlog.m. == 

These results (known as the prime number theorem) 
were conjectured by Legendre, and were first proved | 
about a auarter of a century ago by Hadamard and. 
by de la Vallée Poussin. References to the somewhat 


responds with the graph given on p. 


~ 


of papers is their catholicity. 


3 JuLy io, 1919] 


NATURE 


365 


extensive literature on the subject will ‘be found in 


Landau’s ‘‘Handbuch der Primzahlen.”’ 

It would be of interest if Mr. Mallock would con- 

‘struct the graph for the function mlog,m which cor- 

305. 

; G. N. Watson. 
The University, Birmingham. 


; LORD RAYLEIGH, O.M., F.R.S. 


*7T°HOUGH any adequate account of Lord 
“4 Rayleigh’s contributions to science will 


| ‘rec uire time and extend far beyond the limits of 


a short article, the loss of one who has so 
long been their leader cannot be passed over by 
‘physicists without some immediate attempt at an 


q appreciation and acknowledgment of the dis- 


a 


‘coveries he made and the services he rendered to 


rs 


ience 


& _ For more than fifty years Lord Rayleigh put 
forth without any interruption and without a 


race of diminution in quality or quantity a suc- 
cession. of researches covering almost every 
branch of the older physics. As the five volumes 
of the “Collected Papers,’’ which only include 
those down to 1910, contain 349 papers, he must 
during his career have published nearly 400 
papers; not one of these is commonplace, and 


_ there is not one which does not raise the level 


of our knowledge of its subject. Collected papers 
are apt to form a kind of memorial tablet in our 
libraries to men of science, but, if I may judge 
from my own experience, Rayleigh’s are a 
remarkable exception; there are few, if any, 
books which I consult more frequently than these 
volumes and from which I derive greater delight 
and benefit. No small part of this is due to the 
‘clearness and finish with which they are written. 


_ Rayleigh had, like Kirchhoff, the spirit and 


cone Spel the artist in the preparation and 
presentation of his papers. His mathematical 
analysis seemed to flow naturally into the most 
concise and elegant form, and, whatever might 
be the difficulty of the subject, it was never 


_ inereased by any obscurity or ambiguity as to the 
meaning of the writer. 
_ grained that it could resist the rush and excite- 
ment of a competition as keen as that of the 
_ Mathematical Tripos; for when he was Senior’ 
_ Wrangler in the Tripos for 1865 one of the 
_ examiners said: “Strutt’s papers were so good 
_ that they could have been sent straight to press 
- without revision.’’ 


This quality was se in- 


Another feature brought out by this collection 
The papers are 


_ indexed under the headings Mathematics, General 
_ Mechanics, 
_ dynamics, 
_ Theory of Gases, Properties of Gases, Electricity 
and Magnetism, 
_ there is such a goodly array under each of these 
_ headings that it is difficult: to decide in which 
_ branch of physics his work was the most import- 


Elastic Solids, 
Sound, 


Capillarity, 
Thermodynamics, 


Hydro- 
Kinetic 
and 


Optics, Miscellaneous; 


ant. Rayleigh once said to me that he some- 


_ times speculated whether he would not have done 
_ better to concentrate on a more limited field. 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


Probably, however, in these matters one’s mind 


| takes the bit between its teeth and chooses the 


path in which it can work to the best advantage. 

Whatever may be the subject of the paper, 
some characteristics are always apparent. One 
of these is the quite exceptional power Rayleigh 
possessed of seeing what was the essence of the 
question; he always went straight for the critical 
spot. Another—perhaps to a considerable extent 
the result of the last—-was the remarkable gain 
in clearness any subject acquired after it’ had 
passed through his mind, which was like a filter 
which cleared every subject passing through it 
from obscurity and error. He seemed to delight 
in encountering and clearing away difficulties, 
and had a high opinion of the value of difficulties 
in helping one to get a better grip of the subject. 
Once, in speaking to me about one of the extra- 
ordinarily few cases in which later investigators 
had arrived at results appreciably different from 
his, he laid great emphasis on this point, and 
said that the investigation in question was one 
of the very few in which from beginning to end 
he had not been conscious of any difficulty. 
Another characteristic was the soundness of his 
judgment. I question if in this respect he has 
ever been surpassed; his mind was crystalline, , 
not affected by any cloud of prejudice; he did 
not dislike or shy at an idea because it was new, 
neither did he think that because it was new it 
was necessarily better than the old. 

To pass to the discoveries and results con- 
tained in these papers, there are such a multitude 
of high peaks that it seems almost invidious to 
single out any for special mention. In optics we 
have the series of papers on the scattering of light 
by small particles, and the proof that the 
molecules of air are sufficiently large and 
numerous to account for the colour of the sky. 
The study of this subject Rayleigh resumed from 
time to time, and it has of late been taken up 
from the experimental side with great success by 
his son. Other noteworthy papers on optics are 
his researches on the resolving power of optical: 
instruments and on the nature of white light. His 
article on light in the ‘ Encyclopedia Britannica ”’ 
is remarkable for clearness of exposition and 
novelty of outlook. The paper on the resultant 
amplitude of vibrations of the same period and 
arbitrary phase, though written primarily for its 
optical application, has proved of great import- 
ance in connection with the scattering of rapidly 
moving particles and with the phenomena of 
viscosity and diffusion. 

In hydrodynamics we owe to Rayleigh the 
theory of the formation and: stability of jets; 
researches in capillarity of fundamental import- 
ance; the theory of the stability of motion in vis- 
cous fluids; the theory of the resistance experi- 
enced by a plane when moving through a liquid, 
with its application to the theory of flight, a 
subject in which he took great interest, and in 
which he was a pioneer. His book on _ the 
“Theory of Sound’’ may be said to have found 
the subject bricks and left it marble; it is ideal 


366 


NATURE 


[JuLy 10, 1919 


from the point of view of a text-book and also 
as a record of original research. In general 
dynamics we owe to him great extensions in the 
application of the principle of reciprocity, and re- 
searches on the general theory of vibrations of 
dynamical systems and on the partition of energy. 
All these researches present a perfect amalgama- 
tion of physical principles and mathematical 
analysis; the physics guides and directs the 
analysis, while the analysis gives definiteness and 
point to the physics. 

On. the more purely experimental side we recall 
Rayleigh’s classical determination, made mostly 
in co-operation. with Mrs. Sidgwick when he was 
Cavendish professor, of the absolute measure of 
the fundamental. units of electricity. Among the 
experimental researches is the one by which he is 
most. widely known and in which he_ perhaps 
opened up the newest ground—the discovery of 
argon. As an inadequate estimate of the part 
Rayleigh. took in this discovery is.not uncommon, 
it may be as well to recall the facts relating to 
it. In a letter to NATURE in 1892 he said he had 
been much puzzled by the difference between the 
density of the nitrogen obtained from. the air and 
that obtained: from: compounds of nitrogen. The 
, latter was always considerably lighter. He fol- 
lowed! this up by a. paper,, published: in 1894, in 
which he showed that there was no, variation in 
the density of nitrogen prepared from different 
nitrogen compounds, so that this must be 
regarded as true nitrogen, and that the heaviness 
of the nitrogen obtained from the air must be 
due to the presence of a heavier gas; it was 
shown in this paper that this gas could not be any 
of the gases known to chemists. This view was 
not universally accepted’ by chemists, convincing as 
the evidence was, for it seemed:to some of them in- 
credible that the atmosphere contained large quan- 
tities of a gas which had quite escaped dilution. 

In his search for this gas Rayleigh was for- 
tunate enough to secure the co-operation of 
Sir William Ramsay, and their joint work was so 
successful that at the meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation in Oxford: im 1896 they were able to 
announce the discovery that the air contained 
about 4 per cent. of a new gas, argon. This 
gas proved to have remarkable properties and 
to belong to a new family in the chemical 
elements, many other members of which were 
afterwards. discovered by Sir William Ramsay: 
Though both shared in running down the hare, 
it was: Rayleigh alone who started it, and this 
not by a happy accident, or by the: application of 
new and more powerful methods: than those at 
the disposal of his predecessors, but by that of the 
oldest of chemical’ methods—the use of the 
balance: 

A remarkable feature of Rayleigh’s experi- 
mental work was the simplicity of the apparatus 
with which the results were obtained’; it has been 
said of hiny that he needed nothing for his experi- 
ments but’ some: glass tubing’ and’ a few pieces 
of sealing’ wax: The many Continental and 
American physicists’ who visited Terling’ were 

NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


filled with amazement that such important results — 
could fave been obtained with such simple 
apparatus. His example shows that, provided 
you can ‘“‘mix your colours with brains,’’ there — 
are still regions in physics in which good: work — 
can be done with modest appliances; at the same 
time, it is true that there are other regions in 
which time would be wasted unless powerful and 
elaborate appliances were available. z 
Though Rayleigh’s activities were mainly 
engaged with research, he did very important 
work in other fields. He held from 1879 to: 1884 
the Cavendish Professorship of Experimental 
Physics at Cambridge—there seemed something 
peculiarly appropriate in his holding a peaieeaer 
ship with this title, for the work of Cavendish 
and Rayleigh had many _ characteristies in 
common. While at Cambridge he not only made 
the determinations of electrical constants already 
alluded to, but in conjunction with Glazebrook and 
Shaw he also organised the teaching of theoretical 
and practical physics, and made for the first time 
the laboratory take an integral part in the training 
of students of science. The writer, who was a _ 
pupil of his at Cambridge, remembers well the — 
assistance he gave to those working in the labora- 
tory, and how greatly a talk with him cleared up 
one’s notion of a subject and helped to overcome 
difficulties. ari nse 
Rayleigh was for eighteen years professor of 
natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, and 
was scientific adviser to the Elder Brethren of 
Trinity House. He had been secretary and after- 
wards president of the Royal. Society, and. since 
1908 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. 
He took the keenest interest in the formation and 
development of the National Physical Laboratory ; 
he was chairman of the executive committee from 
the beginning until a few months before his 
death, and his interest, advice, and influence 
have played a very large part in securing the 
success of that institution. He was a member of 
the Advisory Council for Scientific and Indus- 
trial Research, and. as. chairman, of the Committee 
for Aeronautics rendered great service to the 
progress of aviation. Throughout the war his 
advice was of much assistance to many com- 
mittees engaged in the applications of science to 
naval and military purposes, cunt 
Though. Rayleigh disliked. even more than most 
men the loss of time inseparable from attendance ~ 
at committees and meetings, he took his full 
share of such. work, and’ it has been a great thing 
for British science to be: able to. call to its councils — 
a man whose judgment was never influenced by — 
prejudice or by a shadow of self-seeking. 
Je Ju T. 


Joun Wintiamw Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, 


was born in Essex. on November 12, 1842, 
and’ succeeded his father in the title in > 
1873. He was educated at Trinity College, Cam- 


bridge, taking his degree as Senior Wrangler in 
1865. His immediate neighbours in the Tripos’ 
list were’ Prof. Alfred Marshall and’ Mr. H. M. 


e 


_. The Cavendish professorship of 
was established in 1871,. 


q 


_JULy 10, 1919] 


NATURE 367 


Taylor. The same year he obtained. the first 


3 Smith’s prize, and in 1866. became a fellow of his 


college. He married Evelyn, daughter of Mr. 
b lasinas Maitland Balfour, of Whittingehame, and 
sister of Mr. A. J. Balfour, the Foreign Secretary. 


_ Of his four sons two survive him—Robert, now 


rofessor of physics in the Imperial College of 
nology, who succeeds. to the title; and 
Arthur, who for a great part of the war was 
navigating officer on the flagship of the 1st Battle 
Squadron. They, with their mother, were present 


_ at their father’s. funeral, which took place at 


Terling on Friday. last. 

For some years after his marriage Lord 
Rayleigh lived at Terling. During this. period he 
‘wrote a number of papers, which at once secured 
for. him a position. as.a leader in physical. science. 
physics 
and; Maxwell became 
the first professor. On Maxwell’s death in 
1879 Lord Rayleigh was invited to return 
“to: Cambridge as professor and carry. on the 
work. of. equipping the Cavendish laboratory, 
which had been. built and fitted by the gene- 
rosity. of the seventh Duke of Devonshire, then 
Chancellor, and_of. establishing a school of physics 
in. the University. He had served as examiner 
in the Mathematical. Tripos of 1876, and. had been 
in touch with the developments then proceeding 
im Compodes He retained the professorship 
until 1884, when he resigned, and was. succeeded 
by Sir, J.-J:, Thomson. The same year he visited 
_ Montreal. as. president of the British Association 


on the occasion of its first meeting outside the 


British Isles. From 1887 to 1905 he was pro- 


Teese natural philosophy in the Royal. Institu- 


and from 1887 to 1896) secretary of the 
oyal. Society.. He held the office of president 
Se iaas. to 1908, and in the latter year suc- 
a the late (eighth) Duke of Devonshire as 
hancellor of the University of Cambridge, an 


e ae he: retained. until his. death.. 


he became scientific adviser to the 
Trinity. House. About the same time, as the 


pf result, in great measure, of discussions at the 


British, Association meetings at. Ipswich (1895) and 
_ Liverpool (1896), a scheme for a. National. Physical 
EP Actomatees took form, and. Lord Rayleigh became 


; chairman, of a. Treasury Committee appointed by 
the late Lord Salisbury to consider and report en 


the. question. The Committee reported in 1898 in 
_ favour of establishing the laboratory as a “public 


Ie institution for standardising and verifying instru- 


_ ments, for testing materials, and for the deter- 
_ mination, of physical constants.’’ Lord Rayleigh 
was appointed. by the Royal Society as chairman 
_ of the executive committee to. which the manage- 
_ ment of the laboratory was entrusted, and retained 
the office until a few weeks ago, when failing 
health. compelled him to resign. 

In. 1908. an, important International Conference 
on Electrical Units was held in London, and’ Lord 
| Rayleigh presided over its. deliberations, which 
a hwe since had very important results. 

About the same time the importance of research 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


in aeronautics began to be realised, and he was 
consulted by Mr. Haldane, then Secretary of State 
for War, as to the best method of enlisting the 
help of. men of science in promoting flight. The 
appointment of the Advisory Committee for Aero- 
nautics was the result; Lord Rayleigh became its 


first president in 1909, and continued to hold the 


office until very. shortly before his death. 

His advice was sought by successive Govern- 
ments on very various scientific matters. He was 
for some time a member of the Explosives Com- 
mittee ; he also held the appointment of gas referee 
for the metropolis. The Department of Scientific 
and. Industrial Research was established in 1917, 
and. Lord. Rayleigh became one of the first mem- 
bers of the Advisory Council appointed to advise 
the Minister in charge of the Department on 
scientific and technical questions. His work was 
recognised by his contemporaries both at home 
and abroad. He was. one of the first members 
of the Order of Merit and a Privy Councillor. 

In 1904. he: was awarded the Nobel prize. From 
the Royal Society he received; the Copley, the 
Royal, and the Rumford medals; he was. an 
honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
a doctor of science of many. universities, an 
Officer of the Legion: of Honour,. foreign member 
of the Institute of France, and an honorary, or 
corresponding memben of numerous other learned 
societies both. at home and. abroad. 

Such, is, the very brief record of the life of a 
great Englishman, by whose death, at the ripe 
age of seventy-six, the world has lost 
immensely. His earlier papers were published. at 
the beginning, of the seventies of last century; 
the Philosophical Magazine for May, 1919, con- 
tains what is probably his last paper—‘‘ On. the 
Resultant of a Number of. Unit Vibrations. over a 
Range not Limited to an Integral Number of 
Periods.”’ 

For some fifty years. Lord Rayleigh worked 
and added to the sum of human knowledge, 
and though he had. passed the allotted span 
of life and was approaching the age of four- 
score years, yet was his strength then not 
labour and sorrow, for he retained. to the 
full the power of clear thinking, the firm grasp of 
first principles, and the ability to appreciate almost 
at first sight the essentials of any problem. that 
appealed to him which had made him great. 
‘‘ The works of the Lord are great, sought out of 
all them that have pleasure therein,’’ is the motto 
he prefixed. to his five volumes. of collected papers. 
Few men have done more to seek out and make 
clear the laws of Nature; few have taken more 
pleasure in their task or helped more wisely to 
smooth the path. of those who follow in the search, 

This is not the opportunity to. give any 
detailed account of that work; perhaps it 
is. scarcely necessary. Lord Rayleigh’ S$ papers 
up to ng1o have. been collected. by the Cam- 
bridge University, Press. and issued under his 
own editorship im five volumes. It is, to be 
hoped another volume may be added to com- 
plete the work up. to the present day. This: is all 


368 : NATURE 


[JULY 10, 1919 


the more desirable as it will afford an opportunity 
of putting on record his work as president of the 
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Many of the 
investigations of the Committee have rested on’ the 
principle of similarity, which in its application to 
the problems of flight was first clearly explained 
by him in one of the earlier volumes of its reports. 

For the rest, reference may be made to 
two reviews of the volumes of “Scientific 
Papers’ which appeared in these columns for 
July 30, 1903, and October 23, 1913; in these 
and in the article published in the series of 
“Scientific Worthies ’’ in Nature of August 18, 
1904, some account of Lord Rayleigh’s work is 
given. A quotation from the first-named article 
may perhaps be made here. After referring 
to a paper dealing with. the measurement 
of electrical resistance, the article con- 
tinues: “The paper exhibits in a marked 
degree Lord Rayleigh’s great capacity for seeing 
distinctly the essential points of an experiment or 
a measurement, and keeping that clearly in view 
throughout. This, indeed, is the distinguishing 
feature of his experimental work, a main factor in 
his success. Those who knew the Cavendish 
Laboratory when the electrical measurements were 
going on or have since visited the laboratory at 
Terling, from which no less important work is 
continually being published, have sometimes been 
surprised at the makeshift character of much of 
the apparatus. Contrivances of wood and wire 
and wax do duty where most men would use ap- 
paratus elaborated with a quite unnecessary care ; 
but in Lord Rayleigh’s case, while the essential 
instrument on which the accuracy of the result 
really depends is as perfect as the skill of the 
workman can make it, and, in addition, has been 
thought out in all its details, so as to fit it best for 
the purpose immediately in view, for the rest the 
arrangement which comes first to hand is utilised 
without regard to appearances.’ 

The last of the great Cambridge mathebistiepbs 
of the past century, Cayley, Adams and Stokes, 
Maxwell and Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh was one of 
the famous men praised by the writer of the book 
of Ecclesiasticus : ‘‘ Leaders of the people by their 
counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet 
for the people, wise and eloquent in their instruc- 
tions. Their’ bodies are buried in peace; 
but their name liveth for evermore.’’ R. T. G. 


Ir is now nearly sixty years since the Hon. 
J. W. Strutt, eldest son of the second Baron 
Rayleigh, entered Trinity College, Cambridge, to 
study for the Mathematical Tripos. The Lucasian 
Professor of Mathematics, G. G. Stokes, was at 
the time engaged in working out the laws of 
fluorescence and in writing his report on ‘“ Double 
Refraction ’’ for the British Association; Prof. 
W. Thomson, of Glasgow, had _ published his 
great paper on ‘The Dynamical Theory — of 
Heat ’’; Prof. J. C. Maxwell, of King’s Coilege, 
London, was writing those ‘fundamental papers 

“ Electrodynamics ? which were incorporated 
in ag oe ‘Electricity and Magnetism ’’; and Balfour 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


Stewart, of the Kew Observatory, had laid the 
foundations for the modern laws. of radiation. 
The new undergraduate became Senior Wrangler 
and first Smith’s Prizeman in 1865, and next year © 
was elected to a fellowship. His first scientific 
paper, published in 186g, illustrated electro- 
dynamic laws by comparison with those of ~ 
mechanical models, a method much used by Max- 
well in his own papers. Next year his paper on 
“Resonance ’’ appeared, and this was the fore- 
runner of a long series of experimental and theo- 
retical papers on vibrations in general, which, 
when embodied in his ‘‘ Theory of Sound,” * made 
that work unique. | 

In 1871 the Cavendish Professorship of Experi- 
mental Physics was founded at Cambridge, and, © 
urged by Strutt, Maxwell became the first holder 
of the'chair. Jn 1873 Strutt succeeded his father 
as Baron Rayleigh, and on the death of Maxwell 
in 1879 became Cavendish professor. During the 
intervening years his scientific work had een 
chiefly in optics and hydrodynamics, and he had 
published important papers on waves. and on 
diffraction gratings, while at the Cavendish 
Laboratory his experimental work consisted 
mainly in a continuation of the determinations of 
electrical standards inaugurated-by Maxwell as a 
member of the Electrical Standards Committee of © 
the British Association. Working, in the first. 
instance, with Dr. Schuster, and afterwards with 
Mrs. Sidgwick, he showed that the B.A. ohm was 
I per cent. too small, and established values for 
the electrochemical equivalent of silver and for 
the electromotive force of the standard Clark cell, 
which have been confirmed by ‘more ' recent 
measurements. Under the instigation of Lord 
Rayleigh, other determinations of fundamental 
importance were made in the laboratory, such as. 
J. J. Thomson’s work on the number of electro- 
static units in the electromagnetic unit, and 
Glazebrook’s on the B.A. ohm. 

In addition to his work on electrical standards, 
Lord Rayleigh continued his acoustical observa- 
tions, and took up the subject of surface tension 
and its influence on the behaviour of jets. He 
resigned the Cavendish professorship in 1884, 
having during his five years’ tenure of the office 
contributed fifty papers to the advance of science. 
During the next three years his researches were 
mainly on optics and on electricity In 1887 he 
became a secretary of the Royal Society and pro- 
fessor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institu- 
tion, holding the former office until 1896, and the 
latter until 1905. His lectures at the Royal In- 
stitution invariably showed how thoroughly he 
was master of any subject he presented, and how | 
skilled he was in devising new and simple experi- 
ments to illustrate his statements. His work 
during these years was in the first instance mainly, 
on light, and included his “Wave Theory of 
Light ’’ contributed to the Be Encyclopedia Britan- ; 
nica’? in 1888. 

A little later Lord Rayleigh took up- the 
dynamical theory of gases and the question of the 
stability of the flow of fluids, then the densities 


4 


, a 


) JULY 10, 1919] 


NATURE 369 


of gases, and was led by this work to the dis-_ 
covery of argon. 


Later still he wrote on the 
constitution of the natural radiation from a heated 


_ body, on the sensitiveness of the ear, and on 
electric oscillations, in addition to taking up again 


a great number of questions on which he had pre- 
viously written, in order to complete the solution 
of some problem hitherto only partially solved, or 
to fill up gaps in our knowledge. 

It is impossible to look through the five volumes 
‘of Lord Rayleigh’s collected papers, which have 
already been issued, without being struck with 
the vastness of the field over which his labours 
extended, his thorough acquaintance with the 
work of others, and the facility with which he 


could bring together the loose threads of a series 
of investigations and weave them into the con- 
sistent fabric recognisable as part of Nature’s 
handiwork by 
therein.” The tale of his scientific work cannot 


“all them that have pleasure 


be completed from his published papers. His 


‘services on scientific committees have been innu- 


merable and invaluable, and there are very few 


of the younger men who came in contact with him 
who do not owe him a debt of gratitude for help 
and encouragement in the face of difficulties which 
seemed at the time insuperable. AG: aap Ogee 


PROF. ADRIAN J]. BROWN, F.R.S. 


§ Ae pat sudden tragic close of the life of Prof. 
_4 Adrian Brown on July 2, following the 
decease, only three days previously, of his 
wife, is a grievous shock to his many friends, and 
a great loss to chemistiy, on the biological side 
in particular, as well as to the brewing industry. 


We can ill afford to lose men of his quality; 
always rare, present-day conditions do not favour 


their production. 

__ A younger brother of Dr. Horace Brown, his 
early life was passed in Burton-on-Trent. He 
received his first lessons in chemistry from his 
brother, and was technically trained under 
Frankland at the Royal College of Science, which 
he entered soon after the school was established 
‘at South Kensington by the removal there, from 
Oxford Street, of the Royal College of Chemistry 
hag with most of the staff of the Royal 
School of Mines from Jermyn Street. 

' On leaving college he became private assistant 


to Dr. Russell at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 


1874 he was appointed chemist to Messrs. Salt 
and Co., brewers, of Burton-on-Trent. In 1899 
he accepted the charge of a new department of 
the University of Birmingham devoted to the fer- 
mentation industries—the first of its kind. ‘He 
filled this chair with conspicuous success, and was 


still in office at the time of his death in his sixty- 


seventh year. 

In the ’seventies Burton-on-Trent was a remark- 
able centre of scientific activity, and full of in- 
-Spiration for a young worker. Peter Griess was 
steadily laying the foundations of the azo-colour 
dyestuff industry, though nominally a brewing 

NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


-tive manner. 


chemist (at Allsopp’s); Cornelius O’Sullivan, who 
had accompanied Hofmann to Berlin, had re- 
turned to England to act as chemical adviser to 
Bass and Co., and was engaged on his pioneer 
investigation of the hydrolytic cleavage products 
of starch; and Horace Brown, at the brewery of 
Worthington and Co., was giving substance to 
the ideas communicated in Pasteur’s “ Etudes sur 
la Biére.’” These three men were leaders in an 
eminently alert society. 

Plunged into such an atmosphere, and influ- 
enced by heredity, Adrian Brown could not but 
develop, but he did so gradually and on individual 
lines; the scientific copyist was not then in vogue. 
Turning his attention, naturally enough, to the 
problems of fermentation, he specially studied 
the oxidising organisms and the influence of 
oxygen on fermentation. His first paper, dealing 
with the action of Bacterium aceti, was published 
in 1886; in a later communication he described 
the results obtained with another organism, 
B. xylinum. In both cases he was able to show 
that the organism influenced oxidation in a selec- 
In this work, which was entirely 
original, he was far in advance of his time, and 
its importance was not recognised—indeed, is not 
yet recognised, notwithstanding Bertrand’s later 
work on the subject. 

Adrian Brown was the first to suggest that in 
cases of hydrolysis by enzymes the catalyst enters 
into combination with the hydrolyte. 

In 1907 he began the publication of a series of 
remarkable observations made with a blue barley, 
showing that in the outer skin of the grain there is 
a differential septum impermeable by strong acids 
and alkalis and by most-salts but penetrable by 
weak acids, ammonia and a large number of 
neutral substances, such as the monohydric alco- 
hols, chloroform, etc. This work led to his elec- 
tion to the Royal Society in ror. 

Although a man of retiring habits and full of 
modesty, his personal charm of manner endeared 
him to all his friends. He exercised a wide influ- 
ence on account of his experience and judgment, 
being much respected in his industrial circle. As 
a teacher he was remarkably successful, owing 
to his sympathetic attitude, his unlimited patience, 
and his faculty of realising the difficulties of his 
students. H. E. A. 


Se a 


THE TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT OF THE 
R 34. 

DIRECT trans-Atlantic passage has been 
accomplished by the rigid airship R 34, 

which left East Fortune at 1.42 a.m. on July 2 
and arrived at Long Island, New York, at 2 p.m. 
G.M.T. on July 6. The total distance flown was 
approximately 3100 nautical miles, giving an 
average speed of 33 land miles per hour. This low 
figure is accounted for by the adverse winds which 
were encountered, and also by the fact that the 
commander, Major Scott, was sacrificing speed 
for safety. Some difficulty was experienced at first 
on account of the low altitude necessitated by the 


370 


NATURE 


[Juny 10, 1919 


great weight of fuel carried: Atmospheric dis- 
turbances were great at the mouth of the Clyde, 
near high hills. The weather was cloudy during 
the whole crossing, and only occasional glimpses 
of the sea were obtained to estimate the drift of 
the airship. Near Newfoundland the weather was 
very bad, and two electric storms were encoun- 
tered, during which the wind varied rapidly from 
10 to 50 miles an hour, and the airship: was so 
tossed about that the crew gave her up for lost. 
It was. after this trying period that Major Scott 
wirelessed for help, saying that his petrol was 
running short. Two destroyers were at once sent 
to render assistance, but Major Scott decided to 
attempt the completion of the journey under the 
airship’s own power. His decision proved a wise 
one, and the great airship safely reached her 
mooring-ground in Long Island, but with only 
sufficient petrol remaining for a further ninety 
minutes’ flight. The voyage was a very trying 
one for all concerned, and none of the: crew had 
more than a few hours’ sleep during the crossing. 

The commander and crew are to be heartily 
congratulated on their great feat,. and we can. but 
admire the splendid. pluck with which they carried 
on .in the face of such great difficulties. It is 
obvious that im fair weather the R 34 would. make 
the crossing with perfect ease, but it is also- clear 
that we have a long way to go before the com- 
mercial use of trans-Atlantic airships: is a reason- 
able proposition. The time taken when. adverse 
winds are met. is not very much less than; that 
occupied by the fastest liners, while the useful 
weight which can be at present carried is. €x- 
tremely small. It is likely that larger airships will 
overcome the latter difficulty, since the: gross lift 
of an airship varies as the cube of its. length, 
while the power required. for a given speed, varies 
as, the square. It follows that the larger ship 
has the greater percentage of its total lift avail- 
able for useful merchandise. The great endur- 
ance of the airship is well brought out by the 
present flight; for it is almost certain that no 
existing aeroplane could. have made the crossing 
under the same conditions. It is scarcely. fair to 
attempt. to form general conclusions as to. the 
future of the airship from. a pigneer flight made 
in. circumstances of. exceptional difficulty, and. it 
would. be wiser to wait until the feat has. been 
repeated several times, when the possibilities of 
a commercial service and the directions in which 
improvement is to be sought should become 
apparent. 


NOTES. 


In reply to a question in the House of Commons 
on July 8, Mr.. Cecil. Harmsworth. stated that the 
appointment of Major C. E. Mendenhall, professor 
of physics in the University. of Wisconsin, as Scientific 
Attaché to the United States Embassy has been 
notified to the Foreign’ Office by the United States 
Ambassador. No. steps: have as yet been taken by his 
Majesty’s Government to appoint a Scientific Attaché 
to Washington. We believe the appointment of Prof. 
Mendenhall was a war measure, and that it has yet 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


to be decided whether the post will be made per-— 
manent now that peace has been restored. It would 
be a progressive act on the part of our own Govern- 
ment to appoint Scientific Attachés to our chief 
Embassies, ee. 


Mr. J. W. Simpson, corresponding member of the 
Institute of France, has been elected president of the 
Royal Institute of British Architects in succession to 
Mr. H. T. Hare. a 


Tue Animals (Anzsthetics) Bill, which would make 
it an offence to perform certain operations on’ horses, 
dogs, cats, and bovines without the use of anesthetics, 
was read a second time in the House of Lords on 
July 7, and was referred to a Select Committee. 


Mr. E. S. Goopricn, Aldrichian demonstrat - of 
comparative anatomy in the University of ‘Oxford, 
has been elected membre-correspondant of the Société 
de Biologie of Paris, and also associé of the Académie 
Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts 
de Belgiaue. 1g er 


Two. John Foulerton studentships for original re- 
search: of medicine, the improvement of the treatment 
of disease, and the relief of human suffering will 
shortly be awarded by the Royal Society. The 
studentships are each of the annual value of 4ooll and 
tenable for three years, with. the possible extension to 
not more than six years. They are open to men or 
women. Further particulars and forms of applica- 
tion may be obtained from the Assistant Secrseary. of 


the Royal Society, Burlington House, W.1. ; 


Tue John Fritz medal of the four national societies 
of civil, mining, mechanical, and electrical engineer- 
ing has been awarded, says- Science, to. Major-Gen. 
George W. ‘Goethals for his achievement in the build- 
ing of the Panama Canal. ‘The presentation was 
made on May 22 by Ambrose Swasey, past president 
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 
Among those to whom the medal has been awarded 
in former years: are:—Lord: Kelvin, for his: work in 
cable telegraphy; Alexander Graham Bell, for the 
invention. of the telephone; George Weenna rouse 
the invention of the air-brake; Thomas A. Edison, 
for the invention of the duplex and quadruplex tele- 
graph and’ other devices; and Sir William H. White, 
for achievements in naval architecture. 


HavinG held its meetings at Taunton during the 
period of the war, the Somersetshire Archeological 
and Natural History Society had hoped ‘to hold’ its 
seventy-first annual meeting and excursions away 
from headquarters, but this has: been found impossible 
owing. to the difficulty of hotel accommodation:, How- 
ever, long excursions will be taken into Devon on 
this occasion, viz. to Hembury Fort, Cadhay House 
(1545-87), and Ottery St. Mary Church on July 30, 
and to Exeter on July 31. The annual meeting will 
be held at Taunton on July 29 under the presidency 
of Mr. Henry Balfour, curator of the Pitt Rivers 
Museum at Oxford, and: past-president of the Royal 
Anthropological Institute. The subject of his presi- 
dential address will be ‘‘ The: Doctrines of. General Pitt 
Rivers. and their Influence.’? The ourgeing. Penart 
is Dr. F. J. Haverfield, who addressed the society 
last year on ‘*The Character of the Roman Empire 
as Seen in West Somerset.’ The society now con- 
sists of between 900 and 1000 members, and owns: a 
large library and. the Somerset County Museum at 
Tauntom Castle. 


By the death, at the age of seventy-two, of Sir 
William Macgregor, G.C.M.G., the Empire has. lost 
a great Colonial Governor and science am ethnologii 


JULY 10, 1919] 


NATURE 


371 


and geographer of note. The son of an Aberdeenshire 
farmer, he was educated for the medical profession, 
and, like Cecil Rhodes, in order to save his life ac- 
cepted the appointment of Medical Officer at Seychelles, 
Mauritius, and Fiji. Sir William Macgregor’s oppor- 
tunity came in 1888, when he was posted to British 
¢ Guinea as Administrator. For eleven years he 
Was occupied in reducing the pagan savage tribes to 
’ , and while his annual reports gave a clear 


ccount of his novel experiences, ethnologists in 
: > were not slow to recognise the value of the 


material he had collected. He quickly realised the 
mporta of New Guinea as the place of contact 
een the Melanesian and Papuan cultures, and it 
largely due to his stimulus that valuable work 
‘Ss | carried out in this region by English ethno- 
sts—Haddon, Rivers, Seligmann, and Williamson. 
After Sir William Macgregor’s period of service in 
New Guinea he held in succession the office of 
Lieutenant-Governor of Lagos, Newfoundland, and 
land, retiring from the last position in 1914. 
te received the honorary degrees of LL.D. from the 
hiversities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Queensland, 
of ak from Cambridge, and he was a fellow of 
1 P rned societies. 
Gront earthquake which occurred on June 29 
few details wh 


e Mug Valley, near Florence, seems, ‘from the 
details. which have reached us, to have originated 
ganeas: Vicahic, fifteen, miles north-east of Florence. 
s village and eight others are said: to. have been 
destroyed. The shock was also severely felt at 
‘ e, Bologna, Pistoia, Pisa, and Pontedera. The 
Mugello: Valley is a well-marked seismic zone, though 
not very often in action. In 1542, 1597, and 1611 
: es causing considerable damage occurred in 
the nei of Scarperia, about seven miles 
north-west of Viechio, and a fourth in 1762 near Sant’ 
Agata, one mile farther to the north-west. In 1835 
an earthquake just strong enough to fracture walls 
originated: at or near Vicchio, and in’ 1843 and 1864 
others of the same or slightly greater strength at 
_ Barberino and Firenzuola. There can be little doubt 
that the recent shock is the strongest of those which 
- hhave occurred in the Mugello Valley during the last 
four hundred’ years With regard to the statement, 
however, referred to last week, that the earthquake 
is: the strongest experienced in Italy since 1895, Dr. 
Charles Davison informs us that the authority quoted 
must have been referring to the Florentine district. 
_ “Phe last earthquake there of importance occurred in 
pas gro then there have been far greater earth- 
quakes in Italy, such as the Messina earthquake of 
ig08 and the Avezzano earthquake of 1915,”’ 


Iw the Publications of the University of California 
on American Archeology and Ethnology (vol. xiv., 
_ No. 3) Mr. Llewellyn L. Loud publishes a memoir on 
the ethnogeography and archzology of the Wiyot 
Territory, lying on the shores of Humboldt Bay and 
the lower courses of the Mad and Eel rivers. Ex- 
cavations show that among this tribe earth-burial 
_ replaced cremation. Their relation to the more 


northern Indians is best illustrated by the implements 
known as “‘slave-killers,"” though it is still) uncertain 
whether these were actually used to kill slaves. From 
the little that is known of the culture of the Oregon 

_ [ndians, particularly those of the Columbia Valley, 
we are able to trace some cultural relationship between 
these two groups of tribes, and it may be expected 
that further investigations will reveal other re- 
 gemblances of these people to the Wiyot. 

Mr. R. F. Barton in his account of Ifugao law, 
in the University of California Publications on 
American Archeology and Ethnology (vol. xv., No. 1), 

NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


gives a valuable account of savage law. The Ifugaos 
of the Philippine Islands are a tribe of barbarian head- 
hunters, but,,at the same time, they have reached a high 
level of material culture. ‘Their system of terrace cultiva- 
tion is specially noteworthy. One example, of which 
a photograph is given, is 12 km. long without a break 
in its continuity, and some of the terrace-walls are 
60 ft. high. There is, of course, no written law 
literature, but their traditional social rules are most 
elaborate. As Mr. Barton. writes:—‘‘This people, 
having no vestige of constitutional authority or 
government, and therefore living in literal anarchy, 
dwell in comparative peace and security of life and 
property. This is owing to the fact of their homo- 
geneity, and to the fact that their law is based entirely 
on custom and taboo.’”? He adds that, before the 
American Government was established, the loss of life 
from violence of all descriptions was not nearly so 
great as in civilised communities. 


In the April issue of the Journal of Mental Science, 
under the title of ‘‘ Psychoses in the Expeditionary 
Forces,” Capt. O. P. Napier Pearn: describes the 
differences. and similarities in the actual. insanities 
(psychoses) found. in military and civil practice respec- 
tively. Of such, cases he has. personally investigated 
2000 at the Lord Derby War Hospital, Warrington, 
which. up.to- April, 1g19, had. admitted 6000. All these 
had. seen, some form of service with an expeditionary 
force. He: has collected and tabulated, the facts re- 
lating to 200. cases which made a sufficiently good 
recovery to) warrant their being returned to: duty, as 
being those concerning whom. it is easiest to» obtain 
some. form, of after-history. Capt. Pearn’s, article is 
welcome as. affording material with which to compare 
our’ much. more extensive data of the military psycho- 
neuroses, i.¢: those functional. mental and nervous: dis- 
orders which) do not constitute actual insanity. He 
points, out how, while at the onset of a mental disorder 
in civil life the friends and relatives. usually co-operate 
with the sick person in. shielding him from medical 
advice, such a patient in the Army, owing to exi- 
gencies of discipline, is much, more likely to receive 
attention from his medical officer at an early stage. 
The effect of this early care is that these cases 
respond to treatment in a very gratifying way. The 
author insists that the patient’s mental re-adaptation 
must be aided by therapeutic conversations, giving 
him insight into his mental make-up in order that 
when he meets again with difficulties in the outside 
world he will be more able to surmount them. The 
article, while laying claim to no new discovery, lays 
additional emphasis. upon the urgency of the early 
treatment of mental disorders. 


In a note recently received from Prof. J. Mascart a 
striking cloud phenomenon seen in north-east France 
on July 8, 1918, is described. At 7.25 p.m. (S.T.) 
a wide belt of thin cirro-cumulus cloud had formed 
over the sky, and in this belt was traced out in the 
course of a few seconds a looped curve consisting of 
a roughly circular loop with two arms extend: 
ing from it. The shape somewhat resembled the 
figure 6, but with the end of the ring continued out 
to the left hand. The curve, of a width of about a 
semi-lunar diameter, was. mark by a _ complete 
absence of cloud in the otherwise uniform cirro- 
cumulus sheet, clear blue sky being visible throughout 
its length. The circular ring, which was somewhat 
flattened, was. of about 20° diameter, and at an eleva- 
tion. of about 60-70° above the western horizon. The 
phenomenon remained visible for twenty-five minutes 
until the cloud-sheet evaporated. During this period 
the cloud drifted slowly from south-west to north-east, 
and the looped curve appeared to maintain its, position 


372 NATURE 


[JULY 10, 1919 


unchanged relative to the cloudlets. Prof. Mascart 
puts forward the interesting suggestion that the clear 
path through the cloud which formed the curve was 
caused by the passage of a small cyclone or whirl in 
the upper layers of the air, which by mixing caused 
the cloud-particles to evaporate. It thus left a track 
through the cloud similar to that which a_ tornado 
marks out for itself on the earth by its path of 
destruction. A drawback to this hypothesis is the 
great speed at which the curve was generated. 


MONTHLY results of magnetical, meteorological, and 
seismological observations for several recent months, 
and the Annual Report for the year 1917, of the Royal 
Alfred Observatory, Mauritius, show the maintenance 
of considerable activity under the directorship of Mr. 
A. Walter. Information of the probable state of the 
weather over the surrounding area of the southern 
Indian Ocean to a distance of five hundred miles is 
supplied to shipping in the harbour daily between 
November and May, and during the cyclone season 
information, when necessary, is telegraphed to Mada- 
gascar, Réunion, and Rodrigues. From May to 
September cablegrams are sent weekly to the Director- 
General of Indian Observatories in connection with 
the monsoon predictions. Daily observations of rain- 
fall are received from about 150 stations in different 
parts of the island. During 1917 the logs of seventy- 
six voyages trading in the neighbourhood were copied 
under the auspices of the Meteorological Society of 
Mauritius. This work, being carried on during the 
period of the war, may afford valuable information to 
the British Meteorological Office. The report states 
that ‘‘the glass ball of the old sunshine recorder 
having become discoloured, a new instrument was 
ordered"’; its registers have since been used. This 
defect suggests extreme caution in using the sun- 
shine values of recent years. The monthly results of 
observations give hourly values for most of the 
elements, and these show great precision. In Septem- 
ber, 1918, there is no single day without the double 
occurrence of maximum and minimum atmospheric 
pressures, whilst other data, such as the velocity of the 
wind, exhibit equally regular periods. 


A NEW uniaxial hydrous magnesium aluminium 
silicate, styled colerainite, is described by Messrs. 
Poitevin and Graham in a paper on *‘ The Mineralogy 
of Black Lake Area, Quebec’’ (Canada Geol. Surv., 
Museum Bulletin No. 27, 1918). Analyses are given 
of the fine crystals of vesuvianite from the Montreal 
chrome pit and neighbouring localities. The varia- 
tions in their habit seem connected with their colour, 
which ranges from colourless through yellow and 
emerald-green to lilac. The minerals of the district, 
including chromite and chrysotile, are constituents of 
the great belt of serpentine that extends discon- 
tinuously from Vermont across the province of 
Quebec. We wish it were not too late to protest 
against the American use of the verb ‘‘intrude’’ in 


‘ an active sense without a succeeding preposition. We 


thus read in a few lines: ‘‘ These igneous rocks are 
found intruding sediments’’; ‘‘ Devonian strata are 
not intruded’’; and ‘‘the igneous rocks were prob- 


ably intruded in pre-Devonian time.”” The second 
and third of these passages cannot both be correct, 
and the third seems the only one that should be 
accepted by geologists who write in English. 


Statistics of the mineral production of India for 
the year 1917 have been published in the last volume 
to hand of the Records of the Geological Survey of 
India, vol. xlix., part ii. These show that the Indian 
mineral industry is so far in a satisfactory con- 
dition in that ‘the value of the products has risen to 
13,351,364l., an increase of about 125 per cent. on 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


the value in 1916. In some cases this increase in 
value is due to a rise in the price of the commodity, 
which has been sufficient to compensate for an occa- 
sional falling off in the output. Nearly one-half of 
the total increase is due to coal, which contributes 
nearly one-third of the total value of the output, and 
in this instance it is satisfactory to note that 

production has gone up by nearly a million tons to 
18,212,918 tons. There was again a decrease in the 
output of gold by about 24,000 0z., the total yield 
being 574,293 0oz., the decrease being almost wholly 
in the Kolar goldfield in Mysore. The production of 
manganese ore, too, has fallen from 645,204 tons in 
Ig16 to 590,813 tons in 1917. Similarly there has 
been a falling off in the production of petroleum, 
namely, from 297,189,787 gallons to 282,759,523 gal- — 
lons. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that 
the output of monazite in Travancore has inereased 
from 1292-5 tons in 1916 to 1940-3 tons in 1917. The 
Bawdwin silver-lead mines in Burma have also in- 
creased their output, the lead produced having risen 
from 13,790 tons to 16,962 tons, and the silver from 
759,012 0z. to 1,580,557 oz. There was a very trifling 
increase in the production of iron ore, ip Bh 
Tata Iron and Steel Co. and the Bengal Iron 
and Steel Co. were actively engaged throughout 
the year. Upon the whole, having regard to the » 
difficulties under which the mineral industry laboured, 
the outlook for this industry in India appears to 
be very promising. i eet 


THE publication in March, 1917, of the regulation 
for preventing the misuse of the title of ‘ engineer” 
in Austria has aroused great interest in Germany, 
where for many years abortive efforts have been ma 
to achieve the same results. In Austria the title is 
now reserved for those who have studied at a technical 
college and passed both State examinations or taken 
the doctorate. The affiliation of the technical colleges 
to the universities was regulated by the law of April 13, 
1go1, giving such schools the right to confer the 
degree of doctor. The Austrian Society of Engineers 
and Architects has agitated for this protection 
for twenty-seven years (Zisch, des Vereins deutscher 
Ingenieure, October 23, 1918), but the war has 
brought matters to a satisfactory head. In Germany 
it is thought a way out could be found by conferrin 
the title ** Dipl. Ins.’ (‘engineer holding a diploma") 
or Engineer by Examination. The writer in the 
journal quoted, however, does not hold this view, 
and considers that no person unless properly qualified 
shoyld be permitted to use the title “ engineer.” 


A REPORT about to be issued by the U.S. Depart- 
ment of Commerce shows the great development of 
the electric light and power industry of the U.S.A. 
in the periods 1907-12 and 1912-17. The output of 
electric energy by the lighting and power stations in- 
creased at a considerably greater rate, and their ex- 
penses at a slightly greater rate, than their income. 
The total number of establishments in 1917 was 6541, 
4224 being private and 2317 municipal undertakings. 
According to U.S. Commerce Report. No, 84 (1919) 
(from which this note is taken), the total primary 
power in 1917 amounted to nearly 13,000,000 h.p.—an 
increase of 70:8 per cent. as compared with 1912. Of 
this power about two-thirds was derived from steam 
and about one-third from water, the slight surplus being 
obtained from internal-combustion engines. The total 
dynamo capacity in 1917 was, roughly, 9,000,0co kw., ; 
74-3 per cent, more than in-1912; while the output of 
energy aggregated 25,500,000 kw.-hours, an increase 
of 119-9 per cent. for the period 1907-12. It is stated, 
incidentally, that incandescent electric lamps are 
rapidly exceeding arc lamps for street lighting. 


q 
ae 


| Jury 10, 1919] 


NATURE 


373 


‘In a r published in the June issue of the 
_ Journal of the Franklin Institute Gen. Squier describes 
ee - oe made on the use of trees as antennz in 

radio-telegraphy and radio-telephony. He discovered 
in 1904 t certain trees, especially eucalyptus trees, 
uld be usefully employed as antenne. Owing to 

» dryness of the season and the nature of the soil 
his camp in California, the regular Army “buzzer ” 
egraph and telephone sets were inoperative. When, 
Fe wever, they were connected to a nail driven into 
__ the trunk or roots of a tree they worked satisfactorily. 
_ During the war experiments were made on_ the 
iency of growing trees as antenne. With modern 
nsitive amplifiers it was discovered that it was 
ible to receive signals from the principal European 

tations by simply laying a small wire netting on 
the gr Seal benenth a tree and connecting it by an in- 
_ sulated wire to a nail driven in near the top of the 
tree. Instead of the wire netting, a few insulated 


a res buried a few inches in the ground were found 
_ to answer perfectly. Interesting tables are given 
_ showing the resistance and capacity of the conductor 


rious heights of the nail, and also by indirect 
ds—the open-circuit voltage—induced in the con- 


a ee 

E Proceedings of the Physical Society for June 15 
iS as an appendix, which has been 

y, a report of the discussion on metrology 
n the industries which took place at the meeting of 
the society at the end of March. The discussion was 
opened by Sir Richard Glazebrook, and many manu- 
facturers and others who had been concerned in the 
use of gauges in testing the accuracy of munition 
work turned out during the war took part in it. One 
of the most important facts brought out in the dis- 
cussion was that many works which, by the use 
of gauges, were enabled to turn out work of a 
much higher order of accuracy than they had ever 
2 ikea were now reverting to the old rule- 


methods. Since quantity production and 


~e 


iter Seability are likely to prove essential features 
of the work of the future, it was suggested that this 
‘eversion should be so far as possible prevented by 
the issue of gauges in which the difference of size 
the “go” and “not go" was considerably greater 
than in those used in first-class work. By this means 
the valuable principle of working to gauge could be 
retained seven for the rougher work, and any future 
increase of accuracy which might be necessary would 
iwolve nothing more than a change of the gauges 
| Tue interesting new method of X-ray analysis 
initiated by Debye and Scherrer has been employed by 
A. J. Byl and N. H. Kolkmeyer to investigate the 
_ structure of ordinary white tin and the second variety 
_ of this metal known as grey tin, and an account of 
their work is published in the Proceedings of the 
_ Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam (vol. xxi., 1918). 
The method is‘eminently suitable for metals not avail- 
_ able as single crystals, and for micro-crystalline sub- 
_ stances in general. An X-ray tube with copper anti- 
_ cathode was used, the rays leaving the tube by an 
aluminium window. They passed thence through a 
marrow aperture in a thick leaden screen into a 
cylindrical camera. The tin lay in the axis of the 
cylinder in the form of a narrow bar, in one case of 
_ white hammered tin, and in the other of compressed 
_ grey tin. A photographic film, on which the inter- 


been produced, was stretched against the wall of the 
camera. The interference lines resulting with gréy 
tin showed at once that this variety of tin is also 
crystalline, and that the crystals belong to the cubic 


N.. 2593, VOL. 103] 


issued 


t 


_ ference lines were found after development to have | 


| 
| 


system. There appear to be eight atoms of tin to an 
elementary cube, which corresponds with the same 
structure as that of the diamond, and also with that of 
silicon. The tin in this form is obviously tetravalent. 
Ordinary white tin. according to Miller’s measure- 
ments with electrolytic crystals, is tetragonal, and this 
fact is confirmed by the interference lines found in 
the experiments with the bar of this variety of tin. 
There appear to be three atoms to the elementary cell 
of the space-lattice, an atorn lying at each corner of 
the tetragonal cell and one in the centre of each of 
the four prism faces of the cell, but none in the 
centres of the two basal-plane faces. This structure 
corresponds with atoms exhibiting prominently two 
valencies only. It would thus appear that grey tin 
possesses a structure corresponding with the exercise of 
the full tetradic valency of tin in the stannic salts, 
and ordinary white tin a structure corresponding with 
~ exercise of its dyadic valency in the stannous 
salts. 


THE first number of a new chemical journal, the 
Chemical Age, was issued on Saturday, June 21. The 
journal is to appear weekly, and to be devoted to 
industrial and engineering chemistry.. It is now 
nearly five years since the Chemical World, a 
journal with corresponding intentions in regard to 
chemistry and chemical engineering, ceased to exist 
after the production of three volumes. Many people 
regretted its demise, for it was full of interesting 
matter and well got up, but the cause of its early 
failure was probably the fact that there was only a 
monthly issue, and something was wanted to keep 
pace with the current of events, rapid even before the 
war. This is more than ever true at the present 
time, when it may be said that the British manu- 
facturer and the British public are at last waking up 
to the necessity of associating science with industry. 
The new journal has a larger page than the Chemical 
World or any of the other technical chemical journals, 
and is brought out at the moderate price of 21s. per 
annum, or 6d. a week. The first issue contains a 
number of interesting expressions of opinion from 
public men, including Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Lord 
Sydenham, and well-known experts, including Sir 
Edward Thorpe, Col. Brotherton, Mr. James Swin- 
burne, and others, in regard to the future of British 
chemical industry. On this subject there can be little 
difference of opinion, if only the same energy and 
skill already displayed continue to be employed 
and foreign competitors are excluded, at least for a 
time. The issues of the Chemical Age which have 
appeared so far contain matter of importance to every 
practical man connected with chemical industry, and 
we wish the new venture full success. 


SOME analyses and tests of rigidly connected re- 
inforced concrete frames are given in the University 
of Illinois Bulletin (vol. xvi., No. 8). The author, 
Mr. Mikishi Abe, derives formule for a number of 
such frames by the method of least work. Test 
frames were then designed according to the formule, 
and the experimental results were compared with 
those obtained by calculation. It was found that the 
elastic action of the frame and the manner of stress 
distribution agree fairly well with the analyses; that 
the locations of the points of inflection agree closely 
with the calculated positions; and that in carefully 
designed frames there need be no anxiety as to the 
rigidity of the joints, since effective continuity of 
members was found in the tests. There is a number 
of other deductions from the results which will be 
of service in design, and it would appear that the 
formulz derived by analysis may be applied to a 
variety of forms of frames and are 6f wide applic- 


374 : NATURE 


[Juny 10, 1919 


ability. Altogether, this bulletin constitutes a. valu- 
able contribution to our knowledge of reinforced 
concrete frames. 

Messrs. Bailliére, Tindall, and Cox are adding to 
their Industrial Chemistry Series ‘‘ Animal Proteids,”’ 
H. G. Bennett; ‘‘ The Carbohydrates,’ Dr. S. Rideal; 
and ‘‘The Industrial Gases,” Dr. H. C. Greenwood. 
The Cambridge University Press will shortly publish 
‘“An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Natural 
Knowledge,” Prof. A. N. Whitehead, which will be 
divided into four parts, dealing respectively with the 
Traditions of Science, the Data of Science, the Method 
of Extensive Abstraction, and the Theory of Objects. 
Messrs. G. G. Harrap and Co, are publishing imme- 
diately ‘‘ Physical Chemistry,” Prof. A. T. Lincoln, 
and ‘*An Introduction to Chemical German,” E. V. 
Greenfield, with an introduction, notes, word-lists, 
and a vocabulary of German chemical terms. Messrs. 
Longmans and Co. have in the press ‘‘ Elements of 
Vector Algebra,’’ Dr. L. Silberstein. Sir Isaac Pitman 
and Sons, Lid., have just begun the publication of 
‘*Pitman’s Technical Bookshelf.’’ It is a record of 
their forthcoming and recent publications in science 
and technology, and contains also brief abstracts of 
articles from the technical Press. We learn from it 
that the following books may be expected shortly :— 
‘*Gas and Oil Operation,’ J. Okill; ‘‘ Storage-Battery 
Practice,’? R. Rankin; ‘‘A Preparatory Course to 
Machine Drawing,’ P. W. Scott; a new edition, the 
fourth, of ‘‘ Whittaker’s Electrical Engineer’s Poclket- 
Book,’’ edited by R. E. Neale and completely re-written ; 
and a new and enlarged edition of ‘ Poole’s Practical 
Telephone Book.’ Messrs. J. Wheldon and Co. have 
nearly ready ‘“\A Svnoptical List of the Accipitres or 
Diurnal Birds of Prey,’’? part i. (Sarcorhamphus to 
Accipiter), H. Kirke Swann. The edition is limited 
to 200 copies, only 1co of which will be offered for 
sale. Messrs. Witherby and Co, have in the press 
part i..of ‘‘A Geographical Bibliography of British 
Ornithology ’’? (arranged under counties) from. ‘the 
earliest times to the end-of 1918, W. H. Mullens, 
H. Kirke Swann, and the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain. 
The work will be completed in six parts. 

THE catalogues of Messrs. J. Wheldon and Co., 
38 Great Queen Street, W.C.2, are always worthy of 
perusal. The latest one (new series, No. 87) is 
especially so, being a very complete and classified list 


of nearly three thousand books in zoological science — 


arranged under the headings of Protozoa and Rotifera ; 
Annelida; Hydrozoa, Polyzoa, Spongia; Echinoder- 
mata; Crustacea; Insecta; Mollusca; Marine Biology; 
Parasitology, etc. ; Pisces (including Fisheries); Reptilia 
and Batrachia; Aves; Mammalia (faunas); Cetacea and 
Pinnipedia; Domestic Animals; Primates (and Man); 
General Zoology; Natural History; Biology, Anatomy, 
etc.; and Evolution, Heredity, Hybridity. Many very 
scarce works are included. The catalogue is certainly 
one to be consulted. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


THe EciipsE AND WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.—It will 
be remembered that a programme of observation was 
arranged to detect possible effects of the eclipse of 
May 29 on ‘the ‘transmission of Hertzian signals, and 
an interesting experience of this nature is reported 
by the French military radio-telegraphic authorities. 
There is at the observatory at Meudon :a_ wireless 
reception apparatus, which on the day of ‘the eclipse 
was arranged to receive the special signals sent from 
the Island of Ascension. It'has been found that wire- 
less messages from ‘that place can be heard by night, 
though not by day, but during totality, when the 
shadow projected by ‘the moon passed between 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103| 


Ascension and Meudon, the signals from Ascension 
were heard strongly. They then decreased in inten= — 
sity, and ceased completely when the eclipse ended. 

Tue PaRatiax or THE PLEIApES.—Prof. Kapteyn has _ 
proposed (Contributions Mount Wilson One 


No. 82) an indirect method of finding the mean 


parallax of the stars of a cluster by counting the 
number of stars of different magnitude it contains. 
The method requires a knowledge of the law of dis 
tribution of stars of different luminosity or absolute 
magnitude in the cluster, but if this is known, since 
apparent magnitude is a function of luminosity and 
parallax, it is possible to evaluate the latter from 
the data by formula. Dr. W. J. A. Schouten, of 
Aalten, Holland, is applying this principle to find the 
distance of star clusters, and gave thirteen of his 
results in the Observatory for March, the parallax of 
Preesepe being 0-024", and the largest of the re- 
mainder 0-004”. He continues this in the June issue 
by giving details of his research on the Pleiades, and 
incidentally gives a valuable list of existing catalogties 
of the group. From the counts of stars of different 
magnitudes in five of these, in combination with a 
luminosity curve formed by Prof. Kapteyn, he deduces 
five values of the parallax which are in close accord- 
ance, and give a mean value 0-036", with a pro 


error +0010". Former determinations by ay rof. 
Kapteyn and Prof. Plummer by other indirect ~ 
methods, gave 0-018" and 0-024" respectively. Dr 


JL sete oP 


Schouten is encouraged to think that the comparative 
accordance of the results is some confirmation of his 
method. meh ada 
PaInTING THE Corona.—On the occasion of the total 
solar eclipse of June 8 last year (1918), which was 
observed with some success from stations in. 
the United States, an unusual effort was made to 
obtain a picture of the phenomenon in its true colours. | 
Mr. E. D. Adams, of New York, a benefactor to 
science, who joined the U.S. Naval Observatory 
eclipse party, took the responsibility for this, an 
as colour photography was out of the question, en-_ 
listed the services of Mr. Howard Russell Butler, a_ 
portrait painter of repute, who has developed a _short- 
hand method of noting both form and colour. Having — 
prepared a drawing card with circles, radii, and 
angles marked, and having made himself mentally 
familiar with the kind of picture that might be seen, — 
Mr. Butler utilised the 112 seconds of totality at his 
disposal ‘by making a rapid sketch of the corona and 
prominences as he saw them, and wrote numbers on — 
points and regions to indicate their colour according 
to his numerical colour-scale. The artist’s first 
drawing was afterwards amended as to contours of 
luminositv ‘by comparison with photographs, and then — 
completed. The painting, which shows not only the 
prominences and corona, but also the sky around, 
was exhibited at the American Museum of Natural 
History, and a copy forms the frontispiece to Natural 
History, the journal of the museum, for March ~ 
last. “er Berteniy be) 


THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS 
EXHIBITION. < 

6 gan second British Scientific Products Exhibition 
promoted ‘by the British Science Guild was . 
opened at the Central Hall, Westminster, on Thurs- _ 
day, July 3, and it will remain accessible to the public 
until August 5. It will be remembered that the first 
exhibition was held in King’s College last August, 
but owing to the arrangements of ‘the college, due to , 
demobilisation, it was found impossible to ‘hold ‘the. — 
present exhibition there. Last year’s exhibition was — 


_ eminently successful in carrying into the provinces a 
%y knowledge of the recent achievements of British 
science and industry. bray) 
_ This year’s exhibition was declared opened by the 
Marquess of Crewe in the presence of a representative 
company of scientific and technical workers. In his 
_ Opening address Lord Sydenham, who occupied the 
_ chair, referred at some length to the important part 
_ played by British science and industry in the victory 
_ whieh has so recently crowned the Allied efforts. We 
roved ourselves superior to the enemy in every 
technical art, and but for the splendid co-operation of 
é leaders of science and industry our Army would 
. have fought in vain. ‘ 
In deelaring the exhibition opened the Marquess of 
__ Crewe emphasised the difference between the present 
___ exhibition and the one held at King’s College last 


f the war was still doubtful, although the tide of 


iumphs of British industry in the arts of peace, and 
ae ee one. to the general public the importance of 
the relationship between science and industry, and 
also between education and research. 
In this connection Lord Crewe dwelt on the desir- 
ability of introducing definite industrial courses for 
university students in technology, such courses to be 
_ taken im vacations at suitable works connected with 
_ the particular study the student is undertaking. Such 
an arrangement has worked with great success in the 
___United States. The institution of industrial fellow- 
_ ships: for post-graduate students attached to one or 
other of the universities would also have an important 
influence in keeping industries in touch with modern 
_ scientific developments, and, in addition, provide the 
country with highly trained technologists. The 
_ Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is 
endeavouring to do something on these lines by 


Pe) 


_ associations which will carry on research in some par- 
ticular technical branch. 
_ The exhibits themselves are almost bewildering in 
their comprehensiveness. Practically every phase of 
ritish industry is represented, the various exhibits 
ng divided into the following eleven sections :— 
anical Science, Physics, Textiles, Electrical 
_ Appliances, Medicine and Surgery, Paper and Iilus- 
tration, Agriculture, Chemistry, Aircraft, Fuels, and 
Metallurgy. Naturally, it is impossible to do more 
‘than touch superficially on the different groups. 

In the Mechanical Science section G. Cussons, Ltd., 
of Manchester, are exhibiting various types of pro- 
jection apparatus for testing form, profile, and serew- 
thread gauges. These instruments were devised at 
_ the National Physical Laboratory, and thev have 
played an important part in the accurate and rapid 
testing of gauges which is so essential in the quantity 
production of machined parts. The Foster Instrument 
Co., of Letchworth, shows some interesting testing 
machines, including a modification of Dr. Stanton’s 
impact testing apparatus, and also a_notched-bar 
machine which yields a graphic record giving the 
history of the breaking of the specimen. A model of 
the first vessel to be fitted with Parsons marine tur- 
bines is shown by the Parsons Marine Turbine Co., 
and also a model exhibiting the interior of an engine- 
room of a two-shaft arrangement of Parsons geared 
turbine machinery. 
In the Phvsics section Messrs. Hilger show some 
beautifully designed apparatus, including  spectro- 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


Vat 


Pips 


year. The latter took place at a time when the result — 


ng the establishment of industrial manufacturing 


‘July 15, 17; 22, 24. 26, 29, and 31. 


Jury 10, 1919 | NATURE 375 
_ afterwards transferred to Manchester, and it proved | scopes, polarimeters, and interferometers. The 


Meteorological Office has an exhibit of some excellent 
photographs. and diagrams, and, in addition, some 
recently designed instruments for the determination 
of meteorological data. There are also some note- 
worthy exhibits of optical glass, and the items in the 
photographic section deserve more than _ cursory 
examination. 

The latest thing in’ range-finders is shown by 
Messrs. Barr and Stroud, of Glasgow. The 30-ft. 
instrument is a triumph of both mechanical and 
optical skill. In something less than three seconds 
a range of ten thousand yards, with an error of iess 
than twenty-one yards, can be signalled to the gun. 
For the direct reading of the range in these instruments 
some very fine gears have been designed. ‘The anti- 
aircraft range-finder, where height, distance, and 
angle have to be determined rapidly, is a marvel of 
ingenuity and workmanship. The submarine peri- 
scopes, the watertight-door electric indicators, and the 
optical glass exhibit of this firm also call for special 
attention. 

The Electrical section embraces the whole range 
from electric’ cooking to wireless telephony. Messrs. 
Marconi show a portable direction-finder and a small 
wireless telephony set; Messrs. Vickers show their 
magnetos, which have played such an important part 
in our aerial supremacy; and Everett, Edgcumbe, 
and Co. display a very fine selection of electrical 
measuring and controlling apparatus. 

The Chemistry section bears eloquent testimony to 
the fact that in. this branch of industry we have little 
now to learn from Germany either on the scientific or 
industrial side. We can produce our own) laboratory 
glassware, our own filter-papers, our own analytical 
reagents, our own indicators, and our own drugs. 
Levinstein’s, Ltd., again show the remarkable pro- 
gress we have made in the dye industry, and quite a 
number of firms prove what can be done in the pro- 
duction of organic and inorganic compounds. The 
exhibit of the South Metropolitan Gas Co. emphasises 
the importance of coal-tar in the chemical industry. 

The A.I.D. exhibits a representative collection of 
metallic and non-metallic materials employed: in air- 
craft construction, together with a range of aero- 
nautical instruments and equipment, models, and 
testing apparatus. The most interesting feature, 
perhaps, is that showing the most recent developments 
of the all-metal aeroplane. The instrument section 
is also of great importance, and, perhaps. more than 
any other branch, shows the necessity for the trained 
physicist in industry. 

Examples of recent developments in both ferrous 
and non-ferrous products are to be found in the sec- 
tion devoted to Metallurgy. Some interesting furnaces 
for heat-treatment purposes are also shown. In the 
refractory material: section. the Morgan Crucible Co. 
shows what can be done in the manufacture of the 
latest types of crucibles. Messrs. Hadfield exhibit a 


model of the largest armour-piercing shell in the 


This is of 18-in. calibre, and weighs- about 
13 tons. The same firm shows a 17-in. hardened steel 
roll for the cold roliing of metals. This imvortant 
key industry has now been entirely captured from 
Germany. 

Displays of kinematograph films of scientific and 
technical interest are being shown at the exhibition 
from 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. on the following dates :— 
The films 
illustrate (1) aircraft construction and _ utilisation, 
(2) the making of a big gun, (2) the water powers 
of Canada and their industfial utilisation, (4) wireless 
telegraphy and telephony, and (5) magneto construc- 


world. 


NATURE 


[ JULY 10, 1919 


376 
tion. On Monday last a lecture on Chemistry 
in Reconstruction, was. given by Sir William 
Tilden, and yesterday Prof. W. H. Bragg lec- 


tured on Sound under Water and its Applications. 
The following lectures will be delivered at 5.39 on 
the dates named :—July 11, Coal Conservation, Prof. 
H. E. Armstrong; July 14, Progress in Range-finders, 
Prof. Archibald Barr; July 18, Explosives, J. Young; 
July 21, Progress in Aviation during the War Period, 
L. Bairstow; July 23, How the Cotton Plant Feeds 
as well as Clothes Us, S. E. de Segundo; July 25 
(6 p.m.), A Few Thoughts on the Development of 
London, Raymond Unwin; and July 28, Scientific 
Lighting and Industrial Efficiency, L. Gaster. 
STRONG ELECTROLYTES AND 
IONISATION. 
T is well known that the behaviour of strong electro- 
lytes is very difficult to reconcile with the usually 
accepted theory of ionisation, in that the change of 
the degree of ionisation with the concentration is 
completely at variance with the requirements of the 
law of mass action. The abnormality of this very 
important group of substances is discussed in a series 
of papers by J. C. Ghosh (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1918, 
vol. cxiii., pp. 449, 627, 707, 790), who contends that 
the fundamental idea underlying the Arrhenius theory 
is not applicable to strong electrolytes. In place of this 
theory the author puts forward the view that the strong 
electrolytes are completely ionised, and that there is 
no question of the existence of non-ionised molecules 
in the usually accepted sense. The relations between 
the ions are controlled by the electrical forces, the 
magnitude of which corresponds with a_ certain 
potential which is characteristic of a given solution 
of an electrolyte. This potential affords a measure 
of the work which is required to free the ions from 
the influence of their mutual forces. Kinetic con- 
siderations suggest that the ions become “ free ”’ 
when their velocity exceeds a certain critical value, 
the fraction of the ions in this condition at any 
moment being shown by the ratio of the conductivity 
of the electrolvte in the given solution to the con- 
ductivity at infinite dilution. Assuming that the mar- 
shalling of the ions in solution corresponds with the 
arrangement of the atoms in the crystallised electro- 
lyte, the author derives an expression for the charac- 
teristic potential in terms of the ionic charge, the 
dielectric constant of the medium, and the dilution of 
the solution. By introducing the Clausius virial 
theorem, the connection between the proportion of 
free ions and the osmotic ratio is deduced, and this 
relation differs notably from the well-known equation 
based on the Arrhenius theory. Experimental data 
relative to the influence of concentration, temverature, 
and solvent on the conductine power of strong 
electrolvtes are showm to be in accord with’ the 
author’s hypothesis, which is developed in the last 
paper of the series so as to account for the abnormally 
hich speeds of the hydrogen and hydroxyl ions, for 
which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. 


THE FISHERIES AND THE INTER- 
NATIONAL COUNCIL.! 
Tl. 
E now come to the consideration of the hvdro- 
graphical, meteorological, and physical work of 
the International Council in relation to the fisheries 
problems put before it. Out of a total of seventy 
fascicules of the ‘t Publications de Circonstance,” no 
1 From a lecmmre given in Aberdeen on March 4 by Prof. McIntosh, 
F.R.S. Continued from p. 358. 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103 | 


fewer than thirty-one belong to this section, and this 
in an inquiry specially devoted to the food-fishes. 
Besides, there is a great bulk of large quarto hydro- 
graphic and planktonic volumes which far exceeds 
anything else in the Council’s publications. The special 
value of these to hydrographers does not concern the 
present. criticism, but considerable dubiety surrounds 
the attempt to connect, for instance, oceanic currents 
with the eggs, larve, and young of the fishes, 
especially when, in their own words, such gives ‘‘ some 
notion of how very complicated the question of the 
passive movements of the pelagic stages under the 
influence of the currents really is, and how it assumes 
a different form in each species.’’ This view takes 
for granted that the larvae and young are as passive 
as the eggs—a supposition dealt with long ago. 
Secondly, in other words, there are special currents 
which keep and carry the eggs and larvae of the 


; 


ee ar 


haddock annually to deep water, and others which | 


bear with unfailing regularity the young cod shore- 
wards; likewise others, with similar annual rhythm, 
sweep the larval and post-larval frog-fishes from their 
floating ribands of gelatincus mucus to deep water, 
along with such vagrant larve of the skulpin as 
have been hatched near the shore; still others which 
take the young plaice during the change of the eye 
to the beach and. with nice discrimination, leave the 


long rough dabs and a number of dabs in deep water 


in the neighbourhood of their birthplace. eet SS 

It would be interesting to inquire for the special 
currents which distribute the young of the viviparous 
Norway haddock in the open water, or for those which 


; pass by the voung of the viviparous blenny in the 


rock-pools, or, by wav of variety, for those motionless 
waters which leave the young herrings, like a carpet 
of threads, over square miles of the inshore waters, 


and for those special currents which invariably plant — 


the young wolf-fishes, after their escape from the 
huge masses of large adhesive eggs, on rough ground. 
The hydrographers have, moreover, overlooked the 
‘currents’? which carry fishes and invertebrates 
hatched on the bottom to the surface of the water. 
and those, when they are older, which carry them 
down again. They have missed those discerning 
currents which, in the case of the ubiquitous pelagic 
eggs of the rocklings, convey some shorewards and 
send others to the deeper water. Moreover, they have 
forgotten the variable action of the winds in modify- 
ins the currents. Bare 

Briefly, each species would thus appear to have a 
current to itself and adapted to its special needs—a 
supposition which cannot be accepted. The case of 


-the North Sea Bank is given, in illustration, as a 


spawning area from which the small larva are dis- 
tributed over the whole deep part of the Skageralx, the 
Norwegian channel and sea. It is stated that “ typical 
tidal movements have been demonstrated in the North 
Sea, the resultant movement of which is often different 
in the different depths. This might possibly be suffi- 
cient to separate the eggs in one layer from those 
in the other. For the rest, this disposition is naturally 
very different in the different parts of the North Sea.” 
Such uncertain groping for an anchorage of an im- 
portant science in the fisheries is unworthy of it. 
Supvort is drawn by the Council from Johs. Schmidt’s 
observations in Teeland, already mentioned, but these 
might readily be interpreted otherwise. An interesting 
local case, however, is that of the Atlantic current in 
the Baltic Sea, where it forms an intermediate one 
between the ton and the bottom. and. it is said, the 
eggs of plaice have alone been found in it as far as 
Bornholme. The adults pass higher un. but it is 
suggested that thev come back to spawn there. These 
observations would require confirmation, and, in anv 
case, cannot hold for the plaice of the North Sea 


_ Jury 20, 1919] 


NATURE a7 


generally, though it is stated that a similar condition 
_ exists in the southern North Sea. 
The notions about fishes tending to accumulate 
about ‘‘the meeting of the waters,” the spreading of 
water of low salinity from the Baltic over the North 
Sea, and the entrance of a little of the Gulf Stream 
at either end may be interesting, but it is more or 
tess fanciful to say: ‘* The direct influence of this system 
of currents on the life of the fishes is immense, for by 
_ its means their floating eggs and young are dispersed 
or disseminated broadcast. In the south those of the 
f plaic and sole are carried over to their nursery 
s on the flat Danish shore, and in like manner 
eggs and fry of the cod are drifted from the 
stern coasts round the north of Scotland, and in 
/ again to the sea of Norway.” Unfortunately 
or this romance, the eggs and young of the spawning 
plaice of our eastern shores float, drift, and swim in 
_ myriads to the tidal margin there. The eggs and 
i ie of the spawning cod off the Isle of May 
follow a similar course, the young appearing in 
imbers amidst the tangle-forests inshore in June, 
st the eggs and young of the haddock seek the 
water offshore, the young only appearing in- 
rhen 5-6 in. in length. Again, the eggs and 
the sole find another home than that on 
nish shore, and for hundreds of years have 
. and swarm now, 
es and other parts of the southern coasis. All 
and much more, takes place irrespective of the 
S _text-figures of currents—circling as well as 
ou! ; and straight—and also of endless columns of 
ratures and salinities, the production of which 
bsarbed so large a share of the time and funds 
= of e International Council. 
e day has not yet come for so simple a solution, 


a 


aa. loreover, oes not fit in with the herring 
‘either i in its larval, post-larval, young, or adult ‘condi- 
tion. High hopes sprang up in some quarters from 


the so-called * clasaical * instance of the herring in 
the Sikagerak and Kattegat, the abundance or scarcity 
of which, as well as of the fisheries generally of 


southern Sweden. was said to depend on the ebb and 
flow of a layer of cold salt water; but these compara- 
narrow entrances differ much from the North 
Se "yt as en ont herring differs from that of the 
ou phe dixteen igh hopes have not been realised 
ake Bdieon j fone labours of the international 
workers in the North Sea. Currents, temperatures, 
ate tog and oe cannot alter the original 
4 instinets of a food-fish 
a “western waters of Scotland, again, differ from 
those of the eastern shores, and the fish-fauna is sup- 
to differ considerably in the two areas; yet 
herrings: frequent both, as likewise does the green 
_ cod, whilst the common wrasse represents in the east 
_ the swarms of the same group in the western lochs. 
_ Both are frequented by the salmon, by the conger, 


iH many fishes in common. 

____The sum-total of the labours and heavy expenditure 
~ of the hydrographical department up to daté, and in 
3 ~ relation to the task entrusted to the International 
_ Council, is very much as it was in 1907, but it is only 
_ right to state that the several reports from which the 
~ Council drew its conclusions all display the energy 
. and resource of the observers in carrying out their 
_ tasks in the North Sea. The criticism applies to the 
. ‘summary of the Committee. 


- national Fisheries investigations, and with the most 
_ generous interpretation of the labours of the various 
Bp ets. who have in many cases advanced our 
general knowledge of the life-histories and distribu- 
tion of the food-fishes, it cannot be said that they 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


in the estuary of the 


on the multitudes of the younger forms. 


and bv. the dog-fishes, and the littoral belts have 


rom a survey of the whole work of the Inter-. 


have settled the main questions (already stated) they 
Were appointed to solve, viz.: ** Whether the quaittiee 
and consumption of fish taken from. the North Sea 
and neighbourhood are in proper proportion to the pro- 
duction occurring under the prevailing natural condi- 
tions, and whether any disproportion between produc- 
tion and consumption arises from a local over-fishing 
or from an injudicious employment of the fishing ap- 
paratus at present in use.” They areas uncertain now, 
notwithstanding all the official ‘explanations, as they 
were at the beginning ; whilst during those sixteen years 
the views of some have been kaleidoscopic, and ever 
calling for longer time and for further investigations. 
It is true that fewer large plaice are caught. on an 
oft-trawled area, as has frequently been pointed out, 
but the swarms of young which the same records 
demonstrate are a suiticient guarantee for the future. 
After these labours to combat the views expressed in 
1898, the Council concludes with but a single recom- 
mendation, viz. protection of the plaice, as detailed 
on p.. 7. It observes: ‘*(1) It is very probable that 
the density of the plaice shoals has decreased in a 
notable manner, and the absolute size of the plaice- 
stock thus diminished; (2) that the diminution of the 
plaice-stock has not affected all size-classes in an equal 
degree, but especially the larger and older plaice. 
This appears in the catches and landings from a 
relative reduction in the number and weight of the 
large, and increase in the small, plaice, as well as 
from a decrease in the average size of the plaice.” 

In other words, all that can be said is that plaice 
are not less numerous, but, according to the methods 
of the Council, they are smaller—a finding which 
leaves the plaice in safety. The larger plaice frequent 
the deeper water, where it is less easy to capture 
them, and that a sufficient number survive to keep 
up the stock of the smaller plaice the Council freely 
admits in every case by the mention of swarms of 
young, even on the oldest fishing areas. Besides, many 
years’ longer experience of typical plaice grounds on 
open borders shows that the efforts of man—by net, 
hook, and trawl—fail to make any serious impression 
Similar 
experience may be found in the older official 
records, and, further, years of decrease of the plaice- 
fishing have been followed by years of substantial” 
increase; so that the steps” for what was called ‘ con- 
certed international action’? were arrested. ‘The idea 
that the North Sea can be fished out is chimerical, 
for even if it were all gone over thrice or more fre- 
quently a year, such could not produce depletion or 
exhaustion of its fisheries—plaice included. Besides, 
13 per cent. of its area cannot be trawled, and, with 
the northern and other increments, that is sufficient 
to maintain its resources. 

For sixteen vears the answer to the problems sub- 
mitted to the International Council has been waited 
for, and yet it is as far distant as ever; nor does it 
appear that anything more definite will arise from 
these expensive experiences—-which do not seem to be 
even salutary. 

If the able international investigators had, indeed, 
searched the various areas in the North Sea them- 
selves, or if the Council had completed an arrange- 
ment for the uniform collection of fishery statistics 
by all the countries bordering on the North Sea, a 
great advance would have been made. Further, it 

may be asked: What has the Council done ‘‘to dis- 
cover the limit to which fishing grounds can be de- 
pleted without undergoing serious injury’; in proving 
that in a given area the larger forms are permanently 
diminished by constant trawling; in discovering 
whether in such areas the fishes become more wary ; 
in showing that the shoals are thus driven from a 
particular ground; in Auieceinenadta the effects of 


378 NATURE 


[JULY 10, 1919 


sudden changes in the methods of capture; and in 
deciding as to the value of sea-fish hatcheries? The 
expenditure of ‘more than 100,000l. by this country 
alone has not enabled the Council to grapple with 
the constantly recurring complaint about the decadence 
of the sea-fisheries, or to fulfil the promises which 
heralded its appointment; yet the expenditure con- 
tinues, and, to judge by the character of the pub- 
lications forthcoming, the fundamental facts required 
are still in abeyance, ‘though, it is true, the im- 
poverishment of the sea is now seldom mentioned, 
whilst the facts in relation to the soundness of the 
views in ‘‘The Resources of the Sea’ have been 
augmented. That at least is a gain. 

The foregoing views as to the safety of the sea- 
fishes of our country have long been held, and from 
a different point of view, by such distinguished men as 
Prof. Huxley, Lord Eversley, and Sir Spencer Wal- 
pole, besides others of more modern date. Lord 
Eversley’s recent papers are a sufficient answer to 
those who wrongly asserted that Prof. Huxley, his 
old colleague, changed his opinions. 

If but a fraction of the great expenditure had been 
devoted to marine laboratories, where personal con- 
tact of the workers with the sea and its fisheries 
would have laid a sure basis for original work in this 
and cognate departments of marine ‘research, there 
can be little doubt that the country would have been 
better served. It seems a paradox that a Secretary 
for Scotland, the same who in 1898 refused an offer 
for the repetition on the same areas of the trawling 
experiments of 1884, should challenge and withdraw 
an annual sum of less than tool. for the upkeep of a 
marine laboratory where much of the pioneer scientific 
fishery work in this country was done, and ‘yet coun- 
tenance this costly international enterprise which has 
ended in results so uncertain and so disappointing in 
many respects to the nation, and gave facilities to 
the Germans for familiarising their seamen with the 
coasts of the North Sea for other than fishers’ work. 

Finally, the day will soon come, if it has not already 
done so, “when ‘such crude notions as to the impoverish- 
ment of the sea-fisheries will utterly lapse, and, whilst 
safeguarding the vield of the sea by every reasonable 
measure, the authorities and the public owill place 
implicit confidence in the resources of the ocean and 
the ways of Nature therein; and these conclusions 
apply, not only ‘to ‘the North Sea, but also, in the 
main, to all the great sea-fisheries of the world, includ- 
ing those of Canada, the Cape, Australia, India, New 
Zealand, the United States, France, Japan, Russia, 
Norway, Sweden, and, with modifications, to those of 
the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. The 
closure of large areas of the sea rests :on no scientific 
basis. though it may be politic in the interests of 
certain classes of fishermen; and there can be no 
doubt that the public, by such closure, is deprived 
of a large and perennial supply of fishes of easy 
capture—for instance. from the Moray Frith. If a 
small bay like that of St. Andrews can defy the local 
and immigrant fishing-vessels of all kinds, and hold 
its own even on a narrow strip, what permanent effect 
can the mere scraping of about three-fourths of the 
North Sea (Moray Frith included), with its 140,000 
square miles, a few times a year have on ‘its fish- 
fauna, especially when it has a considerable area of 
untrawlable ground, not to allude to the belt within 
the three- mile limit, or to the vast increment of young 
fishes it receives from the north, and more sparingly 
from the south? The stability of ‘‘The Resources 
of the Sea” as regards food-fishes does not rest on a 
single fact, but on all the facts, and on an ‘unbroken 
chain from the simplest plants and animals through 
all the various grades up tothe food-fishes; and ‘this 
stability remains «unshaken after the efforts of the 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


‘international disadvantages ; 


International Council and its investigators, some of 
whom still continue to pin their faith to the mechanical — 
manipulation of statistics of the catches.at various ports. 


What was said in 1907° has additional force to-day, — 


viz. it is indeed fortunate for this and other nations 


that the unbroken chain of circumstances combines 


to render the sea-fishes so capable of holding their 


own, not only in former geological periods, when, 


for instance, the gigantic fish-eating Ichthyosauria 
traversed the seas from pole to pole, but also to-day. 
For what alternatives are before us? 

Artificial hatching, while admirable in fresh-water 
and anadromous fishes, has not been proved (and this 
is said with all deference to the efforts of the Ameri- 
cans, our own countrymen, and others) to be of actual 
service in marine fishes, the young of which are every- 
where so numerous. Besides, the heavy expenditure 
would ill be borne by the taxpayers when the fireen 
fishermen share equally with their own. 

Transplantation could readily be carried out, 
especially with flat-fishes, though under the same 
yet Nature in the sepen 
waters needs little aid in this respect. 


More might be said in favour of a sizedieit but 


that more has much of sentiment in it; for whilst the 


‘ordinary fisherman dare not sell his small fishes, cand 


could not eat them, many—indeed, almost all ‘those 
hooked, and a larger or smaller proportion in the trawl 
—would perish. 


sell nor to eat the small fishes ? Moreover, it is hollow 
legislation which imposes a penalty in the case of 
small flat-fishes, and is purblind to the destruction of 
small round-fishes. shits 

To him who revives and nurses the barren fears 
and doubts of many centuries, and to the disciple of 
“The Impoverishment of the Sea,’”’ there is thus little 
comfort ‘in ‘the sound of alternatives. — 

On the other hand, the plenitude and the. endurance 
of the sea-fishes are marvellous, vet true. Nature 
is even prodigal in their vast abundance and variety. 
Indeed, it is by no means certain whether the com- 
bined destruction caused by invertebrate marine 
animals, from the democratic jelly-fish (Pleurobrachia) 
to the predatory cuttle-fish; by the food-fishes them- 
selves, many eating their. smaller. brethren or the 
young of their neighbours, even the herring swallow- 
ing dozens of the floating eggs of the white fishes 
with its food; by voracious fishes like sharks, dog- 
fishes, and skate ; by the vast army of piscivorous birds ; 
bv the multitude of whales, single and social; and by 
the seals—I repeat, it is by no means certain ’ whether 
this combined destruction does not equal, if not 
exceed, in numbers at least, that of man ‘himself. 

Let:us then be chary of futile international or other 
expenditure in search of a phantom, but at once 


organise the scientific staff of each centre of the. 


kingdom on a ‘medern (i.e. apart from agriculture), 
effective. yet not costly footing, and, whilst vigilant 
in guarding the national trust and in checking any 
avoidable waste of fish-life, let every well-conducted 
method of capturing the sea-fishes be free from un- 
necessary restrictions. The unparalleled services of 
both liners and trawlers to the country during the 
late crisis merit no less. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. ; 


BirMINGHAM.—The following degrees in science have - 


been awarded :—Doctor of Science : J... Coates, 

C. K. Brain, Blanche Muriel Bristol, Nellie Carter, 

Alfred John Grove. Leslie Herbert Lampitt, and C. M. 

Walter. Master of Science: Daisy Louisa Sarita 
2 Lecture Il., Royal Institution, p. 19. 


But what would the Legisl ture . 
‘make of the destructive shrimper, who cares neitl er to 


ae Principal Officer. 


| ~ ‘ Christ Church, Oxford. 


JULY 10, 1919 | 


NATURE 379 


Helena Charlotte Chance, C. A. F. Hastilow, R. H. 
Humphry, A. M. Mehrez, Abd El Rahman El Sawy, 
and Mostapha El Sayed. 

The a eat appointments to vacant chairs have 
been made:—Dr. John Robertson as professor of 
hygiene and public health, Dr. John Shaw Dunn as 
professor of pathology, and Mr. Leonard Gamgee as 
professor of surgery 

rof. Haslam has 
a | anatomy. 
‘Peter Thompson has resigned his office as 


been appointed lecturer in 


a Dean ve the faculty of medicine, ‘and Prof. Haslam 


_been appointed to succeed him. 
. William Haywood has been appointed lecturer 
in Faeieolnming. 

‘Mr. B. T. Rose has been appointed demonstrator 
of anatomy, and Miss Hilda Walker lecturer in 
physiology. 

Campripce.—Mr. C. T. R. Wilson has been ap- 
pointed reader in electrical meteorology. 


_bonvon. —The foliowing have been appointed to 
in the subjects indicated, tenable at Uni- 
ge ey at oe Mr... 5... C. 

| (percholog), E. Salisbury (botany), 

aas (plant Satie and Dr. Francis W. 
0 (medical chemistry). Faculties of Science 

Y ce Mr. H. T. Davidge (applied mathe- 

s). Faculty of Engineering: Mr. C. C. Hawkins 


WBE 
~~ 


rical design). 
‘The Senate of the University has instructed the 


o Principalship Committee to proceed to recommend 


one or more persons for appointment to the position 
In 1915 the University adver- 
_tised the appointment and certain applications were 

but the Senate did not then proceed to fill 
up the vacancy. Applications already received, 
together with any other names which may be brought 
to the notice of the Senate, will be considered by the 
Principalship Committee. 


APPLICATIONS are invited for a Lee’s readership in 
chemistry (with special reference to the inorganic and 
physical sides of the subject) at Christ Church, 
Oxford. The stipend to begin with will be 45ol. 
annually. Applications for the appointment must be 
_ received before September 10 by Mr. R. E. Baynes, 


ae APPLICATIONS for not more than three Ramsay 
oy memorial fellowships for chemical research will be 
by the trustees at the end of the present 
+ The value of each fellewship will be 250. 
4 annually, with the possible addition of not more than 
a for expenses. The fellowships will be tenable 
for two yeas normally, and may be extended to three 
years. Applications must be made to the organising 
_ secretary of the Ramsay Memorial Fund, Uni- 
versity College, ‘Gower ‘Street, W.C.1, not later than 
July 14. 
‘Tue Merchant Venturers’ Secondary School, which 
has been conducted for many years as a part of its 
_ technical college by the Society of Merchant Ven- 
turers, an ancient Bristol guild, will at the end of 
the present term be ‘transferred to the Bristol Educa- 
tion Committee, and will become a municipal school. 
_ The Merchant Venturers conduct in their college the 
~ faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol, 
and the urgent need for additional space for this 
rapidly growing faculty has made it impossible for 
them to continue to house the secondary school. 


THE special feature of the July issue of the 
‘Readers’ Guide,” published by the Norwich Public 
Library (post free 2d.), is a classified and annotated 


NO. 2593, VOL. 103] 


list of books and articles on the important subject of 
coal and the nationalisation of .coal-mines, which 
should .be of much practical, use at the present time. 
The list comprises a representative selection of the 
principal writings on the subject, and is-divided under 
the ee headings :—Bibliography; Natural His- 


tory ; Legislation; General and Economic, with a sub. 
division “ Books for Juveniles” Conserv: ation; 
Statistics; Reports of Royal idee etc. ; 


N ationalisation ; and Mining. 


Lonpon will now come into line with the newer 
universities in having a faculty of commerce, which 
it is proposed ‘to open on October 1. The general plan 
for degrees in commerce was first put forward about 
a ‘year ago, and the scheme which is about to be put 
into operation is the result of long deliberations. be- 
tween prominent City men and the University authori- 
ties. For ‘the present, provision ‘has been made for 
granting ‘two degrees—the B.Com. and the M.Com. 
Certain subjects will be compulsory for the former, 
viz. economies, ‘banking, currency, trade and trans- 
port, finance, geography, and a modern foreign 
language. Different classes of students will be ex- 
pected to specialise in addition in subjects which have 
a particular interest for their calling. Bankers, for 
instance, would take world-history, with special refer- 
ence to the nineteenth ‘century; other students might 
take accounting, and soon. The B:Com. will neces- 
sitate three years’ work, and-one of ‘the strong ‘features 
of the course will be the attention paid to a modern 
language. The choice is undoubtedly ample, for, 
besides Fren¢h and German, ‘the list will include 
Polish, Czech, Rumanian, modern Greek, and the 
great Eastern languages. For ‘the M.Com. two years’ 
practical commercial experience will be required. The 
underlying idea here is to regard work ina merchant’s 
office as equivalent to the practical work of ‘the 
medical student in a hospital or of the engineering 
student ‘in a workshop or factory, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, June 16.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair.—MM. A. Lacroix and Tilho: A geological 
sketch of Tibesti, Borkou, Erdi, and Ennedi. The 
sedimentary formations.—G. Bigourdan : Work of the 
Naval Observatory. Historical account of observa- 
tions made between 1752 and 1796.—H. Deslandres : 
Remarks on the constitution of the atom and the 
properties of band spectra.—C. Guichard: Jsothermal 
surfaces.—E. Ariés: The saturated vapour pressures 
and latent heats of evaporation of propyl acetate at 
various temperatures. From the equation of state 
developed in earlier communications, formule are 
deduced and applied to the calculation of the vapour 


pressures and latent heats of evaporation of propyl 


acetate; the figures are compared with the experi- 
mental results of S.. Young with very satisfactory 
agreement.—M. E. Mathias was elected a_ corre- 
spondant in the section of general physics in suc- 
cession to M. Georges Gouy, elected non- resident 
member.—E. Kogbetliantz : Trigonometrical series.— 
G. Reboul: The phenomena of luminescence accom- 
panying the oxidation of potassium and sodium. This 
effect appears to be due to the formation and rupture 
of a skin of hydroxide; the presence of moisture is 
essential.—H. Abraham and E. Bloch: The mainten- 
ance of mechanical oscillations by means of lamps 
with three electrodes.—G. Baume and M. Robert: A 
glass ‘manometer with elastic walls. The instrument 
described and figured consists of a thermometer with 
a-bulb made with thin flat walls. This is surrounded 


380 


NATURE 


[ JuLy 10, 1919 


with a glass envelope containing the as the pressure 
of which is to be measured. The apparatus can be 
utilised as a null instrument by connecting one side 
to an ordinary mercury manometer, or can’ be used 
directly after calibration. A set of measurements of 
the pressures of nitrogen peroxide at different  tem- 
peratures is given as an example of the application of 
the manometer.—A. Joannis: Some properties of the 
acid phosphates. An account of the action of liquid 
anhydrous ammonia on the mono- and di-alkali phos- 
phates.—J. Guyot and L, J. Simon: The action of 
dimethyl sulphate on the sulphates of the alkalis and 
alkaline earths. A mixture of methyl sulphate and 
potassium sulphate in equi-molecular proportions 
when heated to 200° C. reacts quantitatively to form 
potassium pyrosulphate and methyl ether. The action 
of sodium or lithium sulphate is similar, but the re- 
action is not complete.—Ch. Audebeau Bey: The 
lowering of the north of the Egyptian delta since the 
Roman “Empire. —S, Stefanescu: The structure of the 
plates of the molars of Elephas indicus, and_ the 
different origin of the two species of living elephants. 
A study of the molars leads to the conclusion that the 
origin of Elephas indicus is quite different from that 
of Elephas africanus.—aA. Baldit : Certain cases of 
diminution of the wind velocity with altitude.—M. 
Mascré: New remarks on the réle of the nourishing 
layer of pollen.—S. Posternak : Two crystallised salts 
of the phospho-organic reserve principle of green 
plants. The two salts, details of preparation and 
purification of which are given, have the composi- 
tions) -C.HyOnP,.CaiNa, and » "€ (Hh: :OnP, Nagel. 
Amar: The hamatopneic coefficient.—P. Woog: The 
variable persistence of luminous impressions on 
different regions of the. retina.—A. Robin; The 
soluble and insoluble nitrogen in the tissue of can- 
cerous liver; new conception: of the genesis of 
cancer.—H. Bierry : Proteid sugar.—-H. Coutiére: The 
limb of the Arthropods.—-E, Sollaud: The embryonic 
development of the Palamonida.—P. C. de Baillon ; 

The existence in locusts and crickets of an organ 
serving for the rupture of the chorion at the moment 
of eclosion.—M. Baudouin: Mode of ossification of 
the great trochanter in man of the polished Stone 
period. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Text-book on Practical Astronomy. By Prof. G. L. 


Hosmer. Second edition. Pp. ix+205. (New York: 
J. Wiley and Sons, .Ine.; London.: Chapman and 
Hall, Ltd.) os. 6d. net. 


The Preparation of Substances important in Agri- 


culture. By Prof. C. A. Peters. Third edition. 
Pp. vii+81. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 
London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 4s. net. 

Australia: Problems and Prospects. By the Hon. 
Sir Charles G.. Wade. Pp. 111. (Oxford: At the 
Clarendon Press.) 4s. net. 

Vicious Circles in Disease. By D J. B. Hurry. 
Third and enlarged edition. Po. fe: (London : 


J. and A. Churchill.) 

The Nile. Projects. 
Pp. xvi+184+plates. 6. 
Spon, Ltd.) 


15s. net. 
By. Sir William Willcocks. 
(Londons ~ E;-.and RoO.N: 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 


MONDAY, Jury 14. 

Farapay Society, at 8.—L. A. Wild: A Method of Measuring the Mag- 
netic Hardness of Ferrous Metals and its Utility for carrying out Research 
Work on Thermal Treatment.—K. Honda and H. Tak kagi: A Theory of 
Invar.—W. E. Forsythe: The Disappearing Filament Type of Optical 
Pyrometer.—Dr. A. W. Porter: The Equation for the Chemical Equi- 
librium of Homogeneous Mixtures. 1. Equilibrium at Constant Tem- 


NO. 2593. VOL. 103] 


perature.—F, H. Jefferey: The Electrolysis of Solutions of Sodium 
Nitrate using a Silver Anode.—I. Langmuir: The Mechanism of the 
Surface Phenomena of Flotation.—E. A. Ashcroft: Some Oe ue 


Reactive Alloys. 
TUESDAY, Jury 15 
SociETy oF CHEMICAL INDusTRY (at the Manton House), at rr a.m. 
Annual General Meeting. Address by the President, Prof. Henry mea 
—At 3.30p.m.—Conference. Sir William J. Pope: Tater- Allied Chemical _ 
Pedareien —Prof. C. Moureu: ‘‘ Sir William Ramsay.” 


WEDNESDAY, Jury 16. ae 
Socrety oF CHEMICAL InpusTrRy (at the Clothworkers Hall eMincin Lane, ; 
-C.), at 10.30 a.m.-1 p.m., and 3~5 p m.—Conference on the Pr ‘action 
and Consumption of Sugar within the British Empire. uf pena a Major — 
oy e, Sir Richard Garton, Sir Daniel Hall, Martincay De 
J. Russell, Sir George Sutherland, and ots Souchen —At 
Salers Hall, St. Swithin’s’ Lane, E. G +, at "10,30 a.mi-r p.m., and — 
3-5 p.m. —Conference on Power Plant. in Chemical Works, pt. & te 
Goodwin.: Waste Heat Boilers and Pulverised Fuelin Chemical F § 
—A. H. Lymn: Modern Gas Producer Practice for Power P. — 
J. L. Hodgson : Differential Pressure Meters Na pions edakeg esnin 
and Air Flow.—Prof. W.:A. Bone and P. St. G. Kirke: Recent Develop: 
ments in Surface Combustion Boilers, —P. Parrish : A Modern Chem’ 
Works Power Plant and the Production of Steam from Low Grade Fuel. 
—Prof. J. W. Hinchley: Notes on the Operation of a Chemical Works 
Power Plant.—H. Martin: E. lectrical Supply i in a Chemical Was 


THURSDAY, Jory’ fk 
Society or CHEMICAL INDUSTRY (at the Salters’ ital, St. Swithin’s Fas 
.), at 10.30 a.m.-1 p.m., and 3-5 p.m. —Conference on Dye Sai 
Synthetic Drugs, and Associated Products. Dr. Herbert Levins tel 
Progress in the British Dyestuff Industry.— James Morton : Dyestuff: 
British Textiles —Prof. G. T. Morgan: Certain Colour-producing eae 
mediates.—E. V. Evans: The icra Seis of Rigen ie 
Carr: The Manufacture < Svnthetic Drug R. Innes: to: 
graphic Chemicals.—Dr. M. O. Forster : ‘The Bway Pre ae oe of 
Laboratory Chemicals. —At the Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster EC. 
10.30 a.m.-1 p.m.—Conference on the Chrome Tanning © adits 
Prof. D. McCandlish: The Development. of the. conne ee 
Industry in the United States of America.—M. mb : 
Progress of the Chrome Tanning Industry in Chanel ritain.— 
Gordon Parker: The War Services of the Chrome’ Tanning Tedateycrs, 
At. 3-5 p.m.—Conference on Recent Developments in the Fermenta- 
tion Industries. Sir Frederick Nathan : ‘The Manufacture of . _ 
Amos Gill: The Acetone Fermentation Process and its Technical ppl 


cations.—A. Chaston Chapman :-The Employment of Micro 
the Service of Chemical Industry—A Plea for a National ite of 


Leates 


Micro-biology. 


CONTENTS. a 
Productive Duality. By H. WiC ieee hey wt GOR 


Text-books of Chemical Analysis. .....:. . 362 
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Strong Electrolytes and lonisation . 376 
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By Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S. «baa age zee 
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NATURE 


381 


_ THURSDAY, JULY 17, 1919. 


THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 


The Earth’s Axes and Triangulation. By J. de 
Graaff Hunter. (Survey of India Professional 
Paper, No. 16.) © Pp. viii+219+vi charts. 
{Published by order of the Government of 
India. Dehra Dun: Printed at the Office of the 
Trigonometrical Survey, 1918.) Price 4 rupees 
or 5s. 4d. . ( 

Lh Survey Department of India has long 

_ been labouring under a disadvantage which 
attaches to pioneers in that the fundamental con- 
stants employed as the bases of its computations, 

_ and upon the accuracy of which its final results 

depend, are now, and have been for a long time 

past, known to be in substantial error. The axes 
of the earth hitherto used are those derived from 

Everest’s early work, and in view of the enor- 

mous amount of geodetic data accumulated since 

they were formulated, their values naturally re- 
quire considerable correction in order to fit in 
with more recent knowledge. Furthermore, owing 
to the magnitude of the local attraction at Kalian- 
pur, the point taken as the origin of the co- 
ordinates of the survey, the absolute position of 
this origin, and hence of every other point de- 
duced from it, requires a further correction on 
this account. This correction in the case of 
longitudes is a constant quantity of the same 
magnitude at every point, and in the case of lati- 
tudes a varying quantity, depending, first, upon 
the absolute change in the assumed latitude of 
the origin, and, secondly, upon the changed dis- 
tance between origin and point due to the 
changed spheroid. 

To recompute the whole triangulation with the 
new origin and new axes would have been a piece 


_ of numerical work of altogether prohibitive mag- 


nitude, and the primary object of Mr. Hunter’s 
research was to derive a formula for ascertaining 
the necessary corrections without repeating the 
whole calculation. This is not quite such an 
_ elementary problem as it appears. It might pos- 
» sibly be thought that it would be easy to compute 
_ the correction at a number of symmetrically situ- 
_ ated points, say the intersections of each degree 
_ of latitude and longitude, and thence to derive the 
_ correction at any other point by interpolation. 
This, however, cannot be done in any simple and 
direct way. To derive the proper value of the 
_ correction, the “route ’’ along which the position 
. of the point was determined has to be considered, 
and if, for example, assuming the position of the 


_ origin as 0°, o°, we thence determine the cor- 


| rection at the point 1°, 1°, the value will be dif- 
_ ferent according as we proceed along the parallel 
from 0°, 0°, to o°, 1°, and thence’ along the 
_ meridian to 1°, 1°, or conversely along the meri- 
dian to 1°, 0°, and thence along the parallel to 
1°, 1°. This discrepancy arises from the fact 
_ that the original observations were “adjusted ’’— 
_ i.e. constrained to fit a particular spheroid—and 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


' nation. 


will consequently not fit a different spheroid with- 
out distortion. There must therefore always 
remain a degree of uncertainty in the computed 
corrections, and in the final results it is claimed 
by Mr. Hunter, apparently with full justification, 
that these residual errors are of magnitudes such 
as to be negligible in the most precise geodetic 
survey. 

The whole question of the adjustment of the 
errors of a triangulation is fully discussed, and 
a new method of considerable practical import- 
ance set forth. The volume embodies the 
results of a most laborious research, and reflects 
great credit upon the author and upon the Survey 
of India. A perusal of it brings home, however, 
with great force a question much to the fore 
lately upon which a definite solution appears at 
length to be in sight, viz. the imperative necessity 
of establishing a geodetic institute in this 
country. Many of the problems opened up in this 
volume are applicable to geodetic surveys 
wherever they may be undertaken, and it is 
scarcely an ideal state of affairs that the great 
responsibility for laying down new methods, and 
for all practical purposes deciding upon their | 
validity, should rest on the shoulders of one survey 
department, often, moreover, on those of one man. 
These general questions should be fully investi- 
gated by all concerned who are in a position to 
help, and an institute which will co-ordinate the 
higher survey work of the whole British Empire 
will be in a position to assist individual survey 
departments in all questions of general and funda- 
mental importance to the science of geodesy. 

E 


PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. 

Life Movements in Plants. By Sir J. C. Bose. 
(Transactions of the Bose Research Insti- 
tute, Calcutta. Vol. i., parts 1 and 2, 1918.) 
Pp. xxiv+251+xv. -(Calcutta: Bengal Gov- 
ernment Press, 1918. Published by the Bose 
Research Institute, Calcutta.) 

rs addition to a series of scientific papers, the 

volume before us contains administrative 
details of the Research Institute and an inaugural 
address delivered by Sir J. C. Bose on Novem- 
ber 30, 1917, when the institute was opened. 

India is to be congratulated upon the foundation 
and generous endowment of an institute of this 
character, which is intended to include depart- 
ments for physics, plant physiology, animal physi- 
ology, and psycho-physics, as well as_ their 
applications to agriculture and medicine. 

The address outlines the events leading up to 
the organisation of the institute. It is pointed 
out that the two ideals before the country are 
complementary and not antagonistic. ‘‘ There is 
first the individualistic ideal of winning success in 
all affairs, of securing material efficiency and of 
satisfaction of personal ambition. These are neces- 
sary, but by themselves cannot secure the life of a 
The weakling who has _ refused 
the conflict, having acquired nothing, has nothing 
x 


/ 


382 


NATURE ' 


[JuLy 17, 1919 


to renounce. He alone who has striven and won 
can enrich the world by giving away the fruits 
of his victorious experience. . . . The ideal of 
giving, of enriching—in fine, of self-renunciation 
in response to the highest call of humanity, is the 
other and complementary ideal.’’ 

The scientific papers are divided into two 

M4 “ a Le) 
groups: parti., “Response in Plant Organs, and 
part ii., ‘‘ Growth and its Responsive Variations.”’ 
In many of the papers Sir J. C. Bose was assisted 
by his research students. 

Ever since the days of his clumsy efforts to 
induce preparations of frogs’ nerves and muscles 
to perform their movements with military preci- 
sion, the present writer must confess to a dislike 
to all dealings with smoked glass plates and trac- 
, ings thereupon. The records upon which the con- 
clusions of the Calcutta laboratory are based are, 
however, on an entirely different level. In these, 
skill in manipulation and the most ingenious clock- 
work and electrical devices have been combined 10 
evolve methods whereby the minute movements. of 
response to carefully regulated stimuli have beer 
recorded on the same chart as their time relations. 

In order to cut out errors arising from the 
variation of factors other than the one under 
consideration, the observations are in most cases 
made only for a very short period of time. This 
is possible with the aid of the great magnification 
employed; the latter is obtained by a combination 
of levers coupled with the disturbance of equili- 
brium in a magnetic field due to the motion of the 
steel lever in it. 

The massed attack of the workers in the Bose 
Institute has in a very short time cleared up much 
that was obscure in the phenomena of response. 
It may be noted, howeyer, that the papers contain 
very few references to current literature, but this 
is perhaps owing to the novelty of the methods 
used. In particular, the recent work upon the 
transmission of a stimulus through a glass tube in 
the absence of all protoplasmic connection is of 
interest in relation to certain of the Calcutta ex- 
periments. W.R. G. A. 


ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY AND 
EDUCATION. 


Echo Personalities: A Short Study of the Con- 
tributions of Abnormal Psychology towards the 
Solution of some of the Problems of Normal 
Education. By Frank Watts. Pp. 111. 
(London : George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1918.) 
Price 4s. 6d. net. 


ANY readers of the voluminous literature 
upon mental and nervous disorders pub- 
lished almost weekly in our own country must 
have been struck by the vast stores of informa- 
tion for the educationist which these writings con- 
tain. The significance for education of ‘much of 
this information lies chiefly in the fact that it tells 
the teacher what to avoid, but an almost equal 
amount is grist of the finest quality for his own 
particular mill; for many of the painstaking and 
NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


minute analyses of these states of mental twisted- 
ness are but the prelude to a subsequent process 
of re-education. Here, if anywhere, may the 
educator of the normal child help and find help- 
While, as we said, many persons must have felt. 
all this, few have ventured upon the task so cour- 
ageously undertaken by Mr. Frank Watts, that 
of refracting the rays of light from the dense and 
clouded medium of psychopathology into the 
somewhat clearer atmosphere of normal educa- 
tion. And if one feels, here and there, that an 
important ray fails to get through, there is little 
justification for grumbling at the properties of 
our prism, for it is almost the only one we have. 
Mr. Watts has read widely ; he leads us from the 
early giants of rational mental treatment, Pine? 
and Esquirol in France, and Conolly in England, 
to our contemporaries—whose height we cannot 
yet measure, perhaps because they stand too close 
to us—Janet of Paris, Freud of Vienna, and Jung 
of Zirich. In his chapter on “Psychopathology 
and Personality,’? which seems to us the best in 
the book, he gives clear little sketches of the 
typical ‘‘nervous’’ disorders, never forgetting 
that the blessed word “abnormal’’ does not 
exempt him from the obligation of showing their 
near relationship to ‘“‘normal’’ eccentricities and 
weaknesses. ria : 
In his chapter on ‘“‘The Crowd at School’’ he 
boldly acknowledges the existence of a fact—often 
protectively coloured, but nevertheless angular 
and unyielding when one strikes against it—that. 
suggestion is the means by which most of the 
child’s beliefs are inculcated. He draws from this 
the obvious conclusion that the teacher’s duty is 
to understand the mechanism of suggestion and. 
thereby to utilise its advantages and avoid its 
pitfalls. It is good to see Mr. Watts making use 
of that salutarily disquieting book by Mr. Trotter, 
“The Herd Instinct in Peace and War,’’ But we 
feel that a still more extensive use of Mr. Trotter’s © 
explanation of the present unfashionableness of 
rational opinion and of his suggestions for making 
it fashionable in the future might have-strength- 
ened, this chapter still more. Perhaps, however,. 
the trouble about Mr. Trotter’s ‘‘ Herd Instinct ’’ 
is that the title would be improved if he avoided 


the term ‘“instinct’’ and used another word in- 


stead of “herd.’’ Which brings up the subject of 
Mr. Watts’s own title. On buying the book, one. 
may understand what the title means. But is not 
this a reversal of the.usual process? 
_The final chapter, on “The Psychology. of the. 
Defective Mind: its Influence upon Teaching . 
Methods,’’ deals in a very up-to-date way with 
the subject. One paragraph may be offered to the 
reader here as food for thought : ey 
“One may perhaps draw attention here, in 
passing, to the popular modern educational ideal 
of self-realisation as the ultimate good. Séguin 
occupied himself, like Froebel and Rousseau ~ 
before him, wholly with the problem of the per- — 
fecting of human personality, but a sane study of 
abnormal psychology should prevent us adopting 
the unfortunate heresy that personality is the most 


_ Jury.17, 1919] 


NATURE 


383 


sacred of all the good things with, which the 
umiverse teems.”’ _ 

In his book Mr. Watts has probably attempted 
too much. But ample justification for this is his 
readiness to share his knowledge with others. 

wads Rak 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


The Human Skeleton: An Interpretation. By 
Prof: H:. E. Walter. Pp. xv+214. (New 
_. York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price ros. net. 
‘Tue human skeleton has been the favourite text 
of anatomists for many a day, but never before 
has an author couched his discourse in more racy 
and picturesque phraseology than that employed 
_ by Prof. Eugene Walter. Indeed, it is the author’s 
‘method of treatment which justifies his book, for 
the theories and opinions which he sets forth are 
those with which medical students have been fami- 
liar for a past generation. The book is designed 
‘to appeal to the layman rather than to the profes- 
sional student. ‘‘The ordinary layman seems, 
subconsciously at least, to regard a consideration 
of his ‘insides’ as something rather impertinent 
and indelicate, a subject, in truth, unavoidable 
whenever complications set in, but quite barren 
and forbidding to one simply in quest of pleasant 
stimulating intellectuai adventures.’’ . Prof. 
Walter’s aim is to represent the human skeleton 
as “‘a very wonderful and animated piece of 
architecture, full of beauty and inspiration for one 
who looks upon it with a seeing eye and considers 
its age-long evolution with a comprehending and 
‘sympathetic mind.”’ 
_ To elucidate the subject of his discourse the 
author culls facts from the whole realm of the 
animal kingdom, both preserit and past, and cites 
examples from standard works on embryclogy and 
anthropology. A living internal skeleton, such as 
vertebrate animals are provided with, represented 
“*a brand-new idea of far-reaching evolutionary 
significance,’’ whereby ‘‘ Thermomorphs lifted tons 
of flesh into the air upon majestic bony scaffold- 
_ ings.”’ Hair and epidermal structures are de- 
scribed as “‘ relics of a byzone age.’’ The human 
_ skeleton illustrates the “thrift.and resourcefulness 
_ . of Nature,” the ‘‘ chequered career ”’ of irdividual 
‘structures, and, in many of its parts, ‘‘a com- 
plicated series of makeshifts.’’ Here and there, 
however, one observes that the author’s statements 
are loose and scarcely accurate. His statement 
on p. 74 that “‘ the odontoid process rocks back 
and forth and from side to side upon an articular 
surface within the ring of the atlas, thereby al- 
_ lowing lateral movements of the head,’’ is one 
which would prove fatal to a candidate in an ex- 
amination in elementary anatomy, and unfortu- 
nately there is a considerable number of similar 
misstatements of fact. One regrets that the 
‘author has not taken more trouble to become ac- 
-curately acquainted with the human skeleton, for 
he possesses a very happy power of exposition. — 
NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


Manual de Fabricantes de Azucar de Cafia y Qui- 
micos Asucareros. By Dr. Guilford L. Spencer. 
Traduccién Autorizada de la 6* Edicién In- 
glesa. By Dr. Gaston Alonso Cuadrado. 
Pp. xvii+617. (New York: John Wiley and 
Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 
1918.) Price 23s, net. 


Dr. SPENcER’s “Handbook for Sugar Manufac- 
turers and their Chemists ’’ is well and favour- 
ably known to sugar technologists. In the sixth 
edition, of which the volume under notice is the 
authorised Spanish. translation, the principal new 
feature is a chapter on evaporation, written by 
Prof. W. H. P. Creighton, of Tulane University, 
New Orleans. In this the scientific principles 
which govern the concentration of sugar juice by 
heat are elucidated at some length, and their 
practical applications ‘to vacuum evaporation ex- 
plained. 

Speaking generally, the section. devoted to 
manufacturing processes gives a good account of. 
sugar production as carried out according to the - 
best American practice in Louisiana and Cuba. 
In the earlier part, dealing with crude sugar, 
descriptions of various modern improvements are 
included, such as the “Norit’’ carbon process of 
decolorising, the use of Hind-Renton grooved 
rollers in the mill, and the Bach “sulphitation ”’ 
process as employed in Java. Mr. G. P. Meade, 
superintendent of a Cuban sugar refinery, con- 
tributes an interesting chapter on refining. The 
analysis of sugars and the general chemical con- 
trol of the manufacture are fully explained, a 
good collection of tabulated data being provided. 

Like the original English work, the translation 
is in a handy, compact form, suitable for carrying 
in the pocket. Its six hundred pages will be 
found close-packed with sound and well-arranged 
information. 


Prothése Fonctionnelle des Blessés de Guerre. 
Troubles Physiologiques et Appareillage. . By 
Dr. Ducroquet. Pp. xi+235. (Paris: Masson 
et Cie, 1919.) Price 5 francs. 

THE equipment of soldiers who have been per- 

manently lamed or maimed with appliances which 

will mask or make good their defects tasks to 
the utmost that department of surgical endeavour 
known as prosthesis. Dr. Ducroquet’s “Func- 
tional Prosthesis ’’ is entirely concerned with de- 
fects and injuries of the arm and leg, and hence 
the problems he has to solve are those relating to 
the kind and degree of movements which occur at 
the various joints of the limb. A very clear and 
accurate account is given of the mechanism of 
walking and of the manner in which defects can 
be made good by the use of appliances. Both 
surgeon and anatomist will find much that is new 
in Dr. Ducroquet’s pages, particularly regarding 
the position and direction of the axes of the 
various joints of the limbs. This book has a value 
which extends beyond the immediate needs of the 


military surgeon. 
A. K. 


384 


NATURE 


[JuLy 17, 1919 


’ 


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.] 


Electro-Atomic Phenomena in the Magnetic Field. 


I HOPE you will grant me the opportunity of 
making some brief observations on an article which 
appeared in the issue of Nature for April 3, in which 
the anonymous reviewer ‘‘N. R. C.” delivers a judg- 
ment of exceptional severity on one of my publications, 
‘‘ Electro-atomic Phenomena under the Action of the 
Magnetic Field,” and for that reason very different 
from the other judgments which have come to my 
notice. 

I shall limit myself to a few points with the -aim, 
not of inducing the reviewer to change’ his opinion, 
but of facilitating somewhat an equitable estimate by 
readers of Nature, which is so widely diffused and 
read by so many cultivated persons who are not 
occupied in any particular way with physics. ; 

The reviewer seems unwilling to take into con- 
sideration the fact that my book was written with the 
sole purpose of bringing together and co-ordinating 
my recent very numerous new experiments, of not 
one of which (and this seems to me something im- 
portant) has he been able to place the perfect validity 
in doubt. Hence he has confined himself to attack- 
ing the hypotheses proposed by me to account for the 
new facts. He declares that he is occupied only with 
the theory put forward to explain the facilitated ionisa- 
tion by shock which I have demonstrated to take 
place through the influence of the magnetic field. He 
says, in fact: ‘‘This matter has been discussed less 
thoroughly than the theory of magnetic rays.’? By 
this he evidently intends to convey to the reader the 
conviction that the latter theory has been destroyed by 
the courteous objections of some physicists, to whom 
I believe I opposed exhaustive, and not less courteous, 
rectifications. 

The theory under examination at present consists in 
this: Under the action of the field a gaseous molecule 
tends to orient itself in such a manner that the force 
due to the field, and acting upon a satellite electron, 
acts towards the outside of the atom, and therefore 
facilitates the liberation by shock of the electron itself. 
If the atom has one single satellite electron, certainly 
it will act in this manner, because it will be para- 
magnetic according to the accepted theory. And the 
behaviour of the air, which was the gas experimented 
-upon by me, is paramagnetic. 

Hence no one can succeed in understanding what 

the question propounded by the reviewer means: 
“How Prof. Righi arrives at a result so directly con- 
trary (?) to that on which Langevin’s theory of dia- 
magnetism is based? According to the new theory, 
all atoms must be paramagnetic.” As if I had de- 
clared that I had obtained my results by experimenting, 
not only on air, but also on diamagnetic gases, it 
being granted that for the latter that objection 
would have a serious value.. It is well to direct 
attention to the fact that the reviewer seems to 
believe that a diamagnetic substance orientates itself, 
and in a sense opposite to a paramagnetic, in a 
uniform field. 
_ It is a method of polemic unhappily sometimes 
adopted. (although rarely in scientific questions), this 
of combating assertions which were not made; un- 
fortunately, such a method can leave an unfavourable, 
although unjust, impression on the great majority of 
readers. 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103| 


‘which case I should protest with all my 


Furthermore, if (and this is not at present the case) 
there should some day be presented any facts con- 
travening the theory of Langevin, it need not be 
necessary to choose between this and another theory ; 
so long the ‘nature of the connections, in virtue of 
which the tendency of the trajectory of an electron 
to orient itself in.a given manner influences the 
orientation of the entire atom, remain still indeter- 
minate. 

I refrain from noticing the final hint on the typo- 
graphical quality of my book. It is not clear whether 
this constitutes an unjust estimate of the sacrifices 
undergone by my country during the recent war—in 
: soul—or 
whether it is nothing but a witticism in’ somewhat 
questionable taste, intended to raise a contrast between 
the external aspect of the book and its contents—in 
which case I would leave the judgment to readers of 
NATURE. Aucusto RIGHI. 

Bologna (Italy), April, 1919. ° 


I aM certainly sorry that Prof. Righi should regard 
my review as of ‘‘exceptional severity.” It is true, 
of course, that more space is occupied in it by 
criticism than by the expression of approval; but this 
is simply due to the fact, familiar to every reviewer, 
that while the good features of a work can often be 
described in a single sentence, many sentences are 
usually necessary to explain why a less favourable — 
view is taken of other features. It was not my inten- 
tion to imply that the book is without value, and I 
cannot help thinking that Prof. Righi has—uninten- 
tionally, of course—adopted the practice which he 
deprecates of ‘‘combating assertions which were not 
made. ’’ ' 

I am not at all ‘‘unwilling to take into considera- 
tion the fact that the book was written with the pur- 
pose of co-ordinating very numerous new experiments.” 
I stated, and I repeat, that Prof. Righi “has recorded 
a large number of interesting and as. geoid facts, 
which deserve the close attention of all students of 
physics.’”” What more could I say, unless I proceeded 
to give an account of these facts—a_ task which is 
entirely unnecessary and obyiously impossible in any 
reasonable space? Again, when I said that “this 
matter has been discussed less thoroughly...” I 
“intended to convey’ nothing but a bare statement 
of fact which provided a reason for the choice of one 
portion of the work rather than another for more 
detailed discussion. So far as I can ascertain by an 
examination of the literature, there are much fewer 
papers dealing with Prof. Righi’s theory of magneto- 
ionisation than with his theory of magnetic rays. If 
I have overlooked some of the literature, I apologise; 
but if I have not, it is not my fault that one of the 
theories has received more attention than another. 

No useful purpose would be served by a further 
elaboration of my criticism of Prof. Righi’s theory. 
A reviewer is surely not only entitled, but in duty 
bound, to record his difference of opinion from the 
author on any matter which is essential to the work 
reviewed ; in doing so he does not condemn the author, 
but merely invites those interested in the matter to 
read the work and to judge between the conflicting © 
opinions, Prof. Righi has expressed his opinion in 
his book, and I have indicated mine very briefly in 
my review; if there is to be further discussion, it had 
better take place in the normal manner in technical 
journals. 

But perhaps I may add a few words in further 
explanation of my reference to Prof. Langevin’s 
theory. According to that theory, when a revolving 
electron is introduced into a magnetic field, the radius | 
of the orbit is unchanged, but the angular velocity is 


: v Jury 17, 1919] 


-. fields most bodies are diamagnetic. 


NATURE 385 


a a 


altered in such a manner that the change in magnetic 


field due to the electron is opposed in direction to the 
magnetic field in which it is placed. The orbit thus 
behaves like a diamagnetic body, and on this fact is 
based Prof. Langevin’s theory of the fact that in weak 
On the other 
hand, if I understand rightly, according to Prof. Righi 
the effect of introducing the orbit into the magnetic 
field is to change the radius, but not the angular 
velocity, and in such a manner that the change in the 
field due to the orbit is in the same direction as that 
of the field in which it is placed. The orbit behaves 
like a paramagnetic body, and it would seem to follow 
that all bodies should be paramagnetic. The two 
views are irreconcilable, and—again unless I have 
misunderstood Prof. Righi—either he or Prof. Lange- 
vin must be wrong. I suggested that if he thinks 
Prof. Langevin is wrong, he should have explained 
why he thinks so; or if he thinks his view is not in- 
consistent with that of Prof. Langevin; he should 
have told us how he removes the apparent incon- 
sistency. 
Im self-defence, perhaps I may add that I do not 
think that a diamagnetic body orientates itself in a 
uniform field, and that I never suggested in any way 
that I thought so. ; 
~ J must refrain (in the same manner as Prof. Righi) 
from noticing his last paragraph. I cannot imagine 
why he should read into my words such implications. 
I meant nothing but» that the style of the book was 
admirable, that it was very refreshing to see a well- 
produced book once more, but that, in my opinion, 
the excellence of the production did not compensate 
for-the absence of an index. 

And as for mv anonymity, I venture to believe that 


‘most English physicists would identify me from my 


initials; at any rate, they would recognise that 

the writer was not one of the small and distinguished 

band who could claim scientific precedence of Prof. 

Righi. But in order that any doubts as to my com- 

petence or incompetence may be removed, I beg leave 

now to sign mvself NorMAN R. CAMPBELL. 
Kettlewell, May. 1919. j 


- 


The Collection and Presentation of Public Statistics. 


It is a matter of common knowledge to all who 
have had occasion to use official statistics, whether 
pees or Departmental, that the national and 
mperial equipment for obtaining and publishing 


statistical data is very imperfect in its scope and 
inadequate in its machinery. 


Further, the efforts made are Departmental, are 


‘under no common controlling or directing authority, 


and suffer very gravely from lack of co-ordination. 
There is no need to adduce proofs of these state- 

ments, or to enumerate the various efforts, fruitless 

in the main, which have hitherto been made to remedy 


these defects. 


The council of the Royal Statistical Society has 


‘appointed a special committee to deal with the sub- 


ject in the belief that the time is now ripe for a new 
movement in the direction of reform, and that the 
consciousness of the existing defects is present to the 
minds of his Majesty’s Ministers, Members of Parlia- 
ment, and Civil Servants, as well as to others in- 
terested in statistics. 

- It is proposed to petition his Majesty’s Government 
to set up a Parliamentary Committee to examine the 
whole question of the collection and presentation of 
public statistics, and to report on means of improve- 
ment. It is believed that this method of procedure 
is more likely to be effective than the pressing of 
specific proposals on his Majesty’s Ministers. 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


The officers of the local government and other 
public bodies, as well as of scientific societies, are 
being invited to bring the matter at once before their 
councils. Moreover, publicists and others who are 
known to be interested are being approached directly. 

We ask the courtesy of your columns to lend sup- 
port to this movement, and we invite your readers to 
help with their influence and signatures. The council 
will be glad if ali who are disposed to sign such a 
petition would communicate with the Secretary, 
Official Statistics Committee, Royal Statistical 
Society, 9 Adelphi Terrace, W.C.2. A copy of the 
petition will then in due course be sent to them for 
signature. GEOFFREY DRaGE, 

Chairman, Official Statistics Committee. 

Royal Statistical Society, 9 Adelphi Terrace, 

Strand, London, W.C.2, July to. 


THE FISHERIES AND SCIENTIFIC 
RESEARCH. 


M bests has been quite unexpected confusion 

of counsel with regard to post-war reorgan- 
isation of the fishing industry. The collapse of 
the German submarine campaign about the middle 
of last year left everyone grateful to the fishermen 
and wondering what ought to be done for them 
in the future. That feeling “created an atmo- 
sphere,’’ and a number of inquiries began. First 
of all, the English trawler owners anticipated the 
end of hostilities, and had a scheme of recon- 
struction ready by the time the Armistice had 
been granted.» This attracted the attention of 
Lord Ernle, but did not succeed in impressing 
the War Cabinet (who had by then “other fish 
to fry’’). The Scottish Steam Drifters’ Associa- 
tion was equally ready with its scheme, and about 
the same time appeared the report of the Haldane 
Committee on the Machinery of Government, with 
its proposals for the creation of a State Depart- 
ment of Research, which was to take account of 
fisheries. Next came an inquiry by.a committee — 
of the British Science Guild, and then the delibera- 
tions of the National Sea Fisheries Protection — 
Association (which are still going on). The sub- 
committees of the association began to prepare 
proposals for scientific research, education, and 
codification of the law. Following that, the 
Development Commissioners appointed a com- 


mittee to advise them as to the best way in which 


research could be promoted. As if all this were 
not enough, the International Research Council 
has now arranged to meet in Brussels on July 18, 
and it is expected that interesting matters 
with relation to the exploration and fisheries of 
northern seas will be discussed. 

Meanwhile, the conditions are very much what 
were anticipated in the memorandum presented to 
Lord Ernle last year. Fish is scarce and dear in 
the retail shops, and abundant and cheap at the 
ports of landing, for the means of transport have 
largely broken down. Exporting has become 
difficult even with Government guarantees. There 
is no scientific research yet, and no simplification 
of the administrative procedure. Nothing has 
been done for the fishermen, the Admiralty scheme 


386 


NATURE 


[JULY 17, 1919, 


of co-partnery in the vessels built as patrols 
during the war having been opposed by the 
trawler owners because of its financial unsound- 
ness. The vessels themselves are now offered for 
public sale. The situation obsesses anyone who 
has anything to do with it, and has become in- 
tolerable—if not farcical. 

It is to be hoped that the confusion is only the 
means towards some satisfactory solution of the 
difficulties, that the time will come when every- 
body will be thinking alike—a psychological 
moment, as the phrase goes—and that then the 
problem will resolve itself. Anything that is pub- 
lished at the present time is interesting in view of 
this consummation, and several utterances of late 
seem to help a little. The report of the Executive 
Committee of the British Science Guild presented 


to the general meeting on June 17 last, Prof.. 


Herdman’s report to the Lancashire Fisheries 
Committee, recently issued, and.a lecture by Prof. 
MelIntosh, published in the columns of NATURE 
of July 3 and io, all have interest in this con- 
nection. The guild’s report will be received with 
general approval by men of science, though it 
-may offend the Philistines in Government offices 
and in the industry. It agrees with the recom- 
mendations of the Machinery of Government 
Committee, regards thought and investigation as 
desirable preliminaries to action, and urges that 
the organisation of scientific and industrial 
research should be the task of a State Department 
presided over by a Minister. Investigations con- 
trolled by administrative officials, the report 
suggests, are likely to be narrowed in scope and 
abandoned if they should not prove to be “ prac- 
tical.’’ Probably this is true, but one seems to 
notice that fishery administration is becoming less 
important than it was, while scientific and indus- 
trial research is much more so, and is attract- 
ing a greater share of public attention. Develop- 
ment can be helped very much by investigation, 
but is only likely to be hampered by restrictions 
and regulations (which have been the motives of 
the “administration ’’ of the past). Governmental 
and other fishery authorities are, therefore, 
unlikely to neglect scientific and industrial 
research in the future. 

Probably both the administrative people and 
the researchers will approve of Prof. Herdman’s 
summary of the situation. There are, he says, 
two categories of fishery research, one having 
practical administrative, and the other specula- 
tive, value. And yet there are not two categories, 
but only one, for the same mechanism of research 
can, and does, achieve both kinds of results. 
Practical results raise questions of _ strictly 
scientific interest, while speculative results may 
at any moment become of practical importance. 
So also there might be two ways of controlling 
and organising research, one by a Department 
of State, which might only think and suggest, 
and the other by the administrative authorities 
making the universities their instruments. To 
deprive the authorities of the privilege of doing 
research would tend to sterilise their activities, 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


while to create a Government Department quite | 


out of touch with the industry would tend to 
set up a kind of Olympic pedantry. So these two 
means of controlling research must also be one. 
In short, Prof. Herdman adopts the methods of 
Athanasius, and in seeking to reconcile the 
intransigents suggests a way out from the con- 
fusion. 

Lastly, Prof. McIntosh, after a/long life spent 
in marine biological research and a greater experi- 
ence of fishery investigation than anyone else, 
seeks to summarise his views as to what has 
been achieved by the International Council for 
Fishery Investigations during the last dozen years 
or so. That research was instigated, on 
one hand, by the ‘melancholy anticipations of 
the pessimjsts,’’ and, on the other, by the far 
sounder motive of seeking to discover the reasons 
for seasonal physical and metabolic changes in the 
ocean and in its inhabitants. Pessimism as to 
the future of the fisheries was well expressed by 
Prof. Garstang in his paper on “The Impoverish- 
ment of the Sea,’’ and a vigorgus optimism was 
proclaimed by the doyen of marine biologists in 
his book “The Resources of the Sea.’’ There 
were thus two opposed theses, one that the 
exploitation of the fishing-grounds was exceed- 
ing their recuperative power, and the other 
that fishing operations were carried on on too 
small a scale to make any appreciable difference. 
Now nobody is quite sure which thesis is proved, 
and anybody who is asked to give an opinion will 
certainly be inclined to hedge. 

This back-number controversy, of which Profs. 
McIntosh and Garstang were the protagonists, 
has not so much interest for us just now. Some 
time must elapse before fishery operations: will 
attain, much less surpass, their pre-war intensity ; 
it will be a long time before the transport 


systems of Europe will be able to take fish every-- 


where that it is required, and so long as the 
prices of inferior categories of fish remain high 
not so much complaint of impoverishment of the 
superior categories will be heard from the entre- 
preneurs. But it is certain again to arise, and 
as we ought to possess the means of closuring it 
we cannot afford to scrap the mechanism of inter- 
national investigation or kill the germ of inter- 
national regulation. 
that the cherished fear of progressive impoverish- 
ment is a real one, that would be a result of 
exceedingly practical importance, for we might 
then be enabled to scrap the machinery of regula-~ 
tions, restrictions, prohibitions, and policing, all of 
which is expensive to maintain, and intolerable if 
it is unnecessary. But even then there would 
arise. questions as to means of rendering this 
superabundance of food available on a_ greater 
scale by developing methods of preservation and 
utilisation in ways not yet attempted. And since 
man does not live by food alone, an international 
organisation will have much to do in the promo- 
tion of purely oceanographical discovery, which - 
may be regarded as quite properly a part of the 
activities of civilised communities. Mig 6 


4 


Even if it should be proved 


» 
b 
k 


j 
: 


men. 


| Jury 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


387 


‘AN UNDEVELOPED ASPECT OF 
ENGINEERING TRAINING. 


A SURVEY of the careers of students who 
enter the engineering profession after a 
technical training at a university reveals the fact 
that in very many cases the student, within a 
comparatively short time of his leaving the uni- 
versity, finds himself in need of knowledge which 
his training has neither provided nor even sug- 


_ gested would in time be required. This fact was 


emphasised in a paper recently presented to the 
Institution of Electrical Engineers by . Lt.-Col. 
W. A. J. O’Meara, who urged the inclusion in 
the training of engineers of courses of instruction 
relating to non-technical subjects, such as book= 
keeping, custodianship, administration, law, etc. 
Further emphasis is given to this point of view 
by the considerable amount of published matter 
relating to various aspects of management in con- 
nection with industrial affairs, with much of which 
the engineer is nowadays directly concerned. 
In’ most of the British universities having 
faculties of engineering, technical studies repre- 
sent the outstanding feature of instruction, and 
it must be admitted that such studies will always 
be the real backbone of an engineer’s training. 
At the same time, with changing industrial 
conditions, technical instruction . alone—pre- 
supposing that this will be followed by a period 
of practical training—is not an adequate pre- 
liminary equipment for an engineer. Consider, 
for instance, a student who enters a manufacturing 
branch of the engineering industry—a branch 
which offers the widest scope and attracts prob- 
ably the greatest numbers of technically trained 
Such a student will, after his works train- 
ing, find that his natural interests lie in the direc- 
tion either of the commercial, technical, works 
administration, or research department of the 
organisation. In any one of these departments it 
is of fundamental importance that he should have 
a thoroughly sound grasp of the principles of 
industrial economics, since a cardinal feature of, 
all manufacturing effort is to produce economi- 
cally, and this is not possible if the basis on 
which costs are computed and compared is not 
fully underst An engineer will be a better 
designer, for instance, if he can discuss intelli- 


_gently with the works management details of 


manufacturing cost. \Similar ability is of value 
to the commercial engineer, and wilk enable him 
to appraise correctly the strong and weak features 
of competitors’ efforts. Such knowledge is not ‘at 
present available in most of the courses of in- 
struction for engineers, although many universi- 
ties and colleges are paying attention to the 
matter. In some large works this instruction is 
given to members of the staff, including the tech- 
nically trained apprentices, who can make best 
use of the knowledge, but it is important that 
works costing and accounting should occupy a 
much more definite position in the regular in- 
struction of the engineer. 

In viéw of the already overcrowded courses, 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


the main principles underlying these studies could | 
be taught to the student before he enters the 
university, and he might receive instruction in 
their practical application, either in- post-graduate 
courses in the university, or by systematic in- 
struction in the works into which he ultimately 
proceeds. 

Another most important subject is that broadly 
covered by the term “industrial administration,’’ 
comprising modern methods of management. 
Shortened hours and increased wages, together 
with the burdens of taxation imposed by war, 
emphasise the necessity for increased and more 
efficient. production, and bring to the fore the 
importance of the prevention of waste, whether re- 
lating to time, effort, or materials; a study of 
the periods of working that will result in optimum 
effort; factory conditions as regards lighting, ven- 
tilation, the supply of food, and everything that 
conserves the health and vitality of the workers; 
the selection of workers so that the job is adapted 
to their characteristics rather than that they should 
be forced to adapt themselves to fixed conditions 
imposed by the character of their work; and 
means for improving the collective efficiency of 
workers and management by ensuring harmonious 
relations between them. Related to this subject is 
the all-important one of the education of both the 
juvenile and the adult worker, the former being 
particularly pressing in view of the new Education 
Act. : 

We should like to see the principles of indus- 
trial administration laid down in the university 
courses in so far as this can be done without 
jeopardising the value of the present curriculum. 
In this connection it is interesting to note that at 
the Municipal College of Technology, Manchester, 
a directorship in industrial administration has 
been set up, which not only provides public 
lectures to which managers and others interested 
in industry are invited, but also affords a full- 
time course of instruction to young men who 
desire to prepare themselves for managerial posi- 
tions in industry. 


RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS. 


HE Ministry of Reconstruction is issuing a 
series of pamphlets which deserves to be 
very widely read by the public, as they bring 
briefly and yet clearly to notice a number of con- 
siderations of great importance, though probably 
not familiar to everyone. Two of these pamphlets 
bear the titles ‘‘The Classics in British Educa- 
tion’’ (No. 21) and “Natural Science in British 
Education ’’ (No. 26). 

It is remarkable, notwithstanding the discus- 
sions which have been going on during the last 
forty years or more on the conflict between litera- 
ture and science in education, how much con- 
fusion still exists, even in the minds of fairly well 
informed people, as to the aims of the two parties 
in the controversy. It is a misfortune that the 
word “science ’’ has become perverted from its 
original meaning to such an extent that it now 


388 


NATURE 


[JuLy 17, 1919 


‘seems to connote something mysterious and apart 
from ordinary modes of thought or practice, 
whilst, as Huxley pointed out long ago, science 
is just common:knowledge, but exact and purified 
from error whether in observation or inference. 
In the words of the pamphlet, science should be 
“treated as one of the humanities or a record of 
the progress of human thought applied to the 
solutions of the problems of Nature.’’ 

Sir Joseph Thomson’s Committee, the report of 
which is largely the theme of this publication, 
states: “We are by no means sure that the 
popular interest in science is as great to-day as it 
was thirty years ago.’’ This is a point which 
might well be regarded as debatable, in view of 
the constant talk about the marvels of modern 
scientific discovery and invention, but that ignor- 
ance still prevails in unexpected quarters is quite 
true. It seems necessary that the education of 
those especially who are likely to become members 
of the ruling class should be so far rectified that in 

. the next-generation it can no longer be said that 
the Ministry of the Crown is from top to bottom 
ignorant of the most rudimentary ideas in this 
direction. 

As concerns the subject of the other pamphlet 
under notice, there is much here that .deserves 
careful thought.. We may agree that “the real 

-enemy of education is want of faith in its value,”’ 
and deplore the general tendency to look for 
purely utilitarian results. We may agree that “‘ if 
there is one thing more certain than another it is 
that the Allies won the war because their moral 
ideals were higher than those of Germany,”’ 
while we may demur to the assumption that these 
arise to any preponderant extent out of the study 
of the Greek and Latin classics. 

The pamphlet is composed in a laudable spirit 
of liberality towards other studies, and it is well 
that each side should remember that “one mind 
responds best to one stimulus and one to 
another,’’ but it remains clear that a mind 
nourished on purely literary material, while care- 
less of the physical universe, is not only deprived 
of one great source of delight, but is also in- 
capable of perceiving many of the influences which 
are at work in shaping human destinies. 


THE RETURN OF R 34. 


Bc rigid airship R 34 has successfully accom- 
plished the return flight from New York to 
“Pulham, in Norfolk, where it landed safely on 
July 13, having left Long Island on July 10. As 
might have been expected from the direction of 
the prevailing winds, the return journey was made 
in considerably less time than the outward cross- 
ing, occupying only 75 hours, as against 108 for 
the previous flight. The highest speed recorded 
on the return crossing was 72 knots, or nearly 
83 miles per hour. One of the engines broke 
down completely in mid-Atlantic, but this did not 
seriously hamper the airship, the full power of 
which was only used when severe head-winds 
were encountered. Major Scott’s account of the 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


voyage seems to indicate that thick fogs are the 


airship’s worst enemy, preventing, as they do, __ 


the observations which are required to determine 
the course. A dead reckoning by compass and 
air-speed indicator is still possible in a fog, but ~ 
this only gives the course relatively to the air, 
and takes no account of the motion of the air 
relatively to the earth. 

The start homeward was hurriedly arranged to 
prevent the airship being caught in a gale at her 
moorings, and the strong westerly wind which 
was blowing at the time enabled R 34 to make 
rapid headway on her course eastwards. Weather 
conditions on the homeward passage were very 
similar to those prevailing over the Atlantic 
during the outward voyage, but the more 
southerly route followed on the western side of 
the ocean led to the avoidance of much bad 
weather. Anticyclonic conditions have prevailed 
over the open Atlantic for some time past, but 
a change may reasonably be expected soon. After 
the summer weather conditions have broken up, 
Atlantic flight by any class of machine will prob- 
ably be in abeyance for several months. The 
Times of July 15 says :— : 


Some remarkable wireless signals were exchanged 
during the voyage of the R34. The Royal Air Force 
station at Dundee exchanged signals at tooo miles. 
The R34 sent messages at 1100 miles that were read 
by the Air Ministry and by Wormwood Scrubs at 
1135 miles, and by: Ballybunion at 1600 miles. In 
one case, when the _R 34 was approaching America, a 
signal was sent to her from the Air Ministry through 
Clifden, and a reply received via St. John’s, Glace 
Bay, Clifden, and Marconi House, and then to the 
Air Ministry, all in twenty minutes—a very fine 
example of wireless telegraphy work. 


The double crossing of the R34 must be 
regarded as a very great achievement in the 
history of aeronautics, a flight of 7600 miles in 
two stages being an enormous advance on previ- 
ous records. The airship has also abundantly 
proved its capability to withstand fairly severe 
weather without mishap. The possibility of com- 
mercial trans-Atlantic airships seems to be mainly 
governed by the question of speed. The cost of 


transport is at present very much higher for air- — 


craft than for even the most rapid means of land 
and sea communication, and it is only in virtue. 
of high speed that aircraft will find their use in 
the commercial world—at any rate for the next 
few years. The question is further complicated 
by the fact that airships may meet adverse winds 
having velocities equal to, or even greater than, 
their own maximum speed, whereas the ocean 
liner has only to contend against currents of very 
low velocity compared with its own steaming 
speed. The airship, like the steamship, is most 
economical to run at low speeds, and analogy 
would lead one to expect that only by greatly 
increasing the size of airships can high speed 
and commercial success be attained, exactly as 
has been the case with the ocean liner. What- 
ever the future may hold in store, we cannot fail 
to admire the wonderful achievement of the R 34, 


( 


pein 


JuLy 17, 1919] ° 


‘ NATURE 


389 


the first aircraft to journey from the Old World 
to the New and back again, and we extend our 
heartiest congratulations to Major Scott and his 
crew on the unqualified success of their remark- 
able flight. 


NOTES. 


On July 11—the eve of his seventieth birthday— 
Sir William Osler, Regius professor of medicine in 
the University of Oxford, was presented with a col- 
lection of essays contributed by representative members 
of the profession on both sides of the Atlantic— 
yhysicians, surgeons, physiologists, anatomists, patho- 
ogists, and historians—to the number of one hundred 
and fifty. The presentation was made before a large 
audience at the house of the Royal Society of Medicine 
by Sir Clifford Allbutt, Regius professor of physic in 
the University of Cambridge, who said that though 
the last years had been a time of war and desolation, 


_ yet through the clamour. and destruction Sir William 


Osler’s voice among the voices in the serener air of 
faith and truth had not failed; nor had he grown 
weary in labouring for the sufferings of others. In 
Sir William Osler was to be seen the fruitfulness of 
the marriage of science and letters and the long in- 


‘heritance of a culture which, amid the manifold forms 


of life, had survived to inspire and adorn a civilisa- 
tion which so lately had narrowly escaped the fury 
of the barbarian. Sir William Osler, in reply, said 
that two circumstances deepened the pride he felt at 
this demonstration of affection by his colleagues on 
both sides of the Atlantic; one, that amid so much 
mental and physical tribulation his friends should have 
had the courage to undertake this heavy two-volume 
task, and the other that this honour was received at 
the hands of his brother Regius professor, a friend 
of more than forty years. He had deeply appreciated 
the loyal support of the large circle of men with whom 
his contact had been through the written word, the 


_ general practitioners of the English-speaking world. 


Alister, was carried by acclamation. 


A vote of thanks to Sir Clifford Allbutt, moved by 
Sir D’Arcy Power and seconded by. Sir Donald Mac- 
The volumes 
have not yet been issued to the subscribers, and sub- 
scriptions may still be sent to the English publishers, 
H. K. Lewis and Co., 136 Gower Street, W.C.1. 

By the death of Sir John Brunner on July 1 the 
world has lost, not only a great industrial leader, 
but also a man famed for his wide sympathy with, 
and his practical support of, national schemes for the 
improvement of the conditions of labour, no less than 
for the development of scientific education and re- 
search. It is no small thing in this country that a 
man of wealth should endow the university of his 


native city with three professorial chairs in. physical 


‘chemistry, in economic science, and in Egyptology. 
Born at Everton in 1842, Sir John Brunner was 
trained in the Unitarian school which his father, son 
of a Protestant minister at Zurich, had opened in 
Liverpool. At fifteen he began his business career in 
a’ shipping office, and at twenty entered the chemical 
works of Messrs. Hutchinson and Earle at Widnes. 
Here he began that association with Dr. rep 
Mond which was destined to revolutionise the allali 
industry. Convinced of the economic advantages of 
the Solvay systemi, the two joined forces and started 
making soda by the ammonia-soda process in 1873 at 
Winnington, Cheshire. How “Brunner, Mond’s”’ 
overcame its first difficulties owing to the business 
capacity and the chemical genius of the partners, and 
how the firm absorbed neighbouring works at Lostock- 
Gralam, Middlewich, and Sandbach, which, adding 
their output to that of their ever-growing parent at 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


Winnington, gradually made it the largest in the 
world, makes one of the romances of industrial 
science. If before the war Sir John Brunner preached 
reduction of armaments at home and a friendly under- 
standing with Germany abroad—and his critics have 
not failed to remind the world of the fact—it is fair 
to record that in the war no firm was in a finer posi- 
tion to turn its magnificent resources to the supply of 
high explosives, and no firm made a more wonderful 
or more successful effort te do so than the firm 
founded by Sir John Brunner. 


Tue Civil List pensions granted during the year 
ended March 31 last, under the provisions of the 
Civil List Act, 1910, includes the following :—Mrs. 
Edith Harrison, in consideration of the _ services 
rendered by her late husband, Col..W. S. Harrison, 
in connection with inoculation against enteric and 
typhoid fevers, 50l.; Mrs. Cash, in view of the con- — 
tributions of her late husband, George Cash, to the ‘ 
study of Scottish topography, 50/.; Mr. William Cole, 
in view of his contributions to the study of natural 
history and to scientific education, 50l.; Mrs. R. O. 
Cunningham, in view of the services of her late hus- 
band, Prof. Cunningham, as naturalist on board 
H.M.S. Nassau during the survey of the Straits of 
Magellan and the west coast of Patagonia, and as 
professor of natural history in Queen’s College, Bel- - 
fast, 5ol.; Mr. Benjamin Harrison, in view of his 
devotion to scientific work (in addition to his pension 
of 26l. a year), 251.; Mrs. E. A. Mettam, in view of 
the distinction of her late husband, Prof. A. E. 
Mettam, as professor of pathology and bacteriology, 
and of his contributions to veterinary science, 751. ; 
Miss Helen Tichborne, in view of the late Prof. Tich- 
borne’s scientific discoveries in chemistry and pharma- 
cology, 6ol.; Miss Eliza Standerwick Gregory, in view 
of her eminent services to botanical science, 6ol.; and 
Lady Eleanor Charlotte Turner, in view of her late 
husband, Sir George Turner’s services in the in- 
vestigation and prevention of rinderpest, and in con- 
sideration of his death through contracting leprosy in 
the public service, 5ol. 


Tue Ministry of Ways and Communications Bill 
was read a third time in the House of Commons on 
July 10. Sir Eric Geddes, the Minister-Designate, 
announced the names of the prospective heads of 
departments as follows:—Civil Engineering: Sir 
Alexander Gibb, Civil Engineer-in-Chief, Admiralty, 
1918. Mechanical Engineering: Lt.-Col. L. Sintpson, 
R.E., Chief Mechanical Engineer in Charge of Rail- 
way Equipment and Rolling-stock of the British 
Armies in France. Consultant Mechanical Engineer: 
Sir John Aspinall, president of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers. Traffic Department: Sir Philip Nash, 
K.C.M.G. Finance and Statistics: Sir J. George 
Beharrell. Development Department: Rear-Admiral 
Sir Charles Martin de Bartolome, K.C.M.G. Public 
Safety and Labour: Sir William Marwood, K.C.B., 
Joint Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade. 
Roads Department: Brig.-Gen. Sir Henry P. May- 
bury, K.C.M.G. Secretarial and Legal: Sir R. 
Francis Dunnell, K.C.B. 


Capt. H. J. Pace has taken up the appointment of 
research chemist and head of the chemical department 
of the Research Station and School of Horticulture of 
the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, Surrey, on 
his release from military service. Capt. Page is an 
1851 Exhibition research scholar of University Col- 
lege, London, and was formerly on the staff there. 


Tue Joint Committee of the Board of Agriculture 
and Fisheries and the Road Board appointed to con- 
sider the question of alleged damage to fisheries from 


399 


NATURE 


[Jury 17, 1919 


the washings of tar-treated roads has selected Mr. 
A. J. Mason-Jones as biologist and observer to assist 
with experiments, which will be commenced in the 
near future. Mr. Mason-Jones has had a distin- 
guished ‘academic career and considerable experience 
as naturalist on the staff of the Marine Biological 
Association. He has recently been engaged in a study 
of the biological conditions of fresh-water streams. 


Tue third annual meeting of the Association of 
British Chemical Manufacturers was held on July to, 
The chairman, Mr. R. G. Perry, reported a member- 
ship of 145 firms, representing a capital of about 
70,000,0001. In addition, seven kindred associations 
are affiliated, to the association. During the year 
much useful work has been ‘accomplished in con- 
solidating the industry and strengthening the position 
of its various branches. The chairman pointed out 
that we are only on the threshold of a great dye 
industry in this country, and the council of the asso- 
ciation has paid close attention to this question. A 
strong commission of the association, representative 
of all branches of the industry, has recently returned 
from, and reported comprehensively upon, its visit, 
under Government auspices, to the chemical factories 
in the occupied area of Germany. Chemical industry 
has derived great benefit from the activities of the 
association since its formation in 1916. 


Tue death of Mr. Albert Vickers, formerly chair- 
man of Vickers, Ltd., occurred at Eastbourne on 
Saturday last. Mr. Vickers resigned his chairman- 
ship last September on.attaining his eightieth birthday. 
He was born in ‘Sheffield, and entered his father’s 
business in 1854. After a few years in the United 
States he returned to this country, and took charge 
of the commercial side of the business. The success 
with which the firm has met the enormous demands 
made upon it during the war is striking testimony to 
the soundness of the policy pursued by Mr. Vickers. 
The construction of guns began with the intro- 
duction of Mr. (afterwards Sir Hiram) Maxim in 
1883, and orders for large guns were secured from 
the Admiralty in 1888, as well as orders for armour- 
plate. A further development took place in the direc- 
tion of enabling the firm to carry out the complete 
construction of products, e.g. battleships, instead of 
furnishing steel, etc., to other constructional firms for 
this purpose. The Naval Constructional Works. at 
Barrow-in-Furness were absorbed in 1896, and» the 
Maxif-Nordenfelt Works in 1897. Others followed 
until the company became independent of outside sup- 
plies, and the capital increased from 155,o00l. to more 
than eight millions sterling, and the workers from 
1ooo to more than 100,000. 


WE are glad to note that the publication of the 
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology has 


been resumed after suspension during the past year. | 


The editors announce that it is intended that the 
journal shall now again appear regularly. Of the 
eight papers in the present issue (vol. xii., No. 2, 
May, 1919) we have space to note only certain con- 
clusions in one. 
suprarenals of the young adult female white rat are 
normally some 4o per cent. heavier than the supra- 
renals of male animals of the same body-weight, and 
that the adrenalin content of the suprarenals of the 
female white rat is rather more than twice that of 
the suprarenals of the male animal of the same size. 
The larger suprarenals and adrenalin content of the 
female white rat are associated with sex differences 
in the other endocrine glands and organs of the body 
(e.g. thyroid and pituitary). 

CRAWLING medusa, or jellyfish, with their tentacles 
modified to form what mavy fairly be called legs, 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103| 


Prof. P. T. Herring finds that the’ 


have long been known, but they are rarely met with, 
and the discovery of a new species at the Cape of 


ig 


Good Hope is a matter of considerable interest to 


zoologists. Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist describes this 
species under the name Cnidonema capensis (Quar- 
terly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. Ixiii., 
part 4), instituting a new genus for its reception, and 
associating with it generically four other southern 
species previously known. The medusa, which first 
appeared in a tank at the Marine Laboratory near 
Cape Town, is very small, usually less than 1 mm. in 
diameter. Its numerous tentacles divide, as usual in 
the crawling medusz, into two branches, one of 
which is modified for ‘“‘ walking,” while the other is 
provided with batteries of thread-cells and curves over 
the back of the animal. It is produced by budding 
from a small hydroid form, with a vertieil of three 
capitate tentacles around the mouth, and a second 


verticil of six non-capitate tentacles lower down, 


which was also found in the aquarium. 


Mr. J. Runnstr6m has made at Monaco and at 
Bergen some very careful observations on the move- 
ments and physiology of sea-urchin larva, now pub- 
lished in Bergens Museums Aarbok, 1917-18. Loco- 
motion is generally in spirals or in large curves, 
accompanied by a revolution of the larva, so that 
the course reminds one of the moon’s orbit. This is 
effected by the cilia, chiefly of the processes and 
epaulettes, but also of the general body-covering, and 
the curves are due to greater intensity of action on 
one side or the other. The direction of motion is 
affected by light, and by chemical or other stimuli. 
The course of the ciliary currents which convey food 
to the mouth is also studied, and they are found to 
have some selective power, not, however, free from 
error. The  food-particles when they reach the 
cesophagus are retained by a slimy secretion, and are 
carried further by ciliary currents, the course of which 
is described. In his remarks on the action of 
the larval water-vascular’ system, Mr. Runnstrém 
mentions that the hydropore is at first on the left, but 
closes, and a new hydropore opens on the median line. 
There are many other points in this detailed study 


which should be of interest to general physiologists 


as well as to students of Echinoderms. . 


Two areas in the forest-lands of eastern Canada, 


easily accessible from the growing cities to the south, 
have been recently described by the Geological Survey 
of Canada. In Memoir 95 Mr. W. H. Collins deals 
with the Onaping map-area, and describes some 
interesting rocks from the pre-Huronian  schist- 


complex, including what he believes to be the first . 


discovery of variolite in Canada. He refers the cliff- 
bordered linear valleys of the district to faulting, and 
Mr. M. E. Wilson, in Memoir 103, on Timiskaming 
County, Quebec, comes to the same conclusion. These 
valleys are pre-Glacial, and are probably due to a 
Pliocene uplift. It may be remarked that similar 
valleys of recent origin in Finland are also ascribed 
to earth-movement acting on the hard pre-Cambrian 
rocks. The cliffs are thus uneroded fault-scarps, On 
both shores of Lake Timiskaming the passage from 
the Lorrain granite to a quartzite of the Cobalt series, 
through an arkose that represents the soil-surface 
early Huronian times, is an interesting feature of 
the region; exploration is as yet practically confined 
to the waterways. The first hint of the mineral 
wealth of Canada was given when the veins of galena 
on the lake-side at Anse de la Mine were indicated 
on a map published in 1744. 


Persia’s mineral wealth is great, but the greatest 
yet discovered is mineral oil, the exploitation of which 
will shortly be commenced (Allgemeine Oesterretchische 


“ 


Jury 17, 1919] 


391 


Chemtker- und Techniker-Zeitung, December 1, 1918). 
Deposits of unknown value underlie the extensive oil- 
field of the Irak districts. Trial borings have shown 
an oil-bearing tract of more than 1000 sq. km., ap- 
arently capable of yielding a larger output of oil 
thal the Baku wells, and of better quality. The 
northern limits of the oil zone lie in the province of 
Kermanshah; to the east it reaches to near Ispahan, 
runs diagonally across Arabistan, continues along the 
border hills of Dashti and Dashtistan behind Bushehr, 
the most important of the Gulf ports, and ends in the 
neighbourhood of Banda-Abbas, the terminus of the 
great caravan-route, Meshed-Kirman. Borings made 
in 1890 proved the existence of rich oil deposits in the 
Island of Kishem, off the coast. Since that date great 
sa has been made in developing the industry. 
ersian oil is said to be superior to the American; 
it contains a large percentage of benzene and kerosene. 
A wRITER in Zeitschrift fiir Instrumentenkunde 
(November, 1918) describes a series of tests made on 
a Benedick galvanometer of the differential type to 
determine the cause of variations in its zero reading. 
The instrument is of the d’Arsonval type, the moving 
coil being suspended by a quartz fibre and the current 
led in and out by four thin metal ligaments. Tests 
show that the sensitiveness depends on the curvature 
of the pole-faces, and an analysis of the results with 
the aid of the equations of motion of the movement 
shows that the change is due to an alteration in the 
restoring force. As the suspension was unaltered 
during the test, it follows that the effect is due to 
magnetic action. This action is caused by the presence 
of traces of iron in the copper winding. This assump- 
tion is borne out by tests, which are described, show- 
ing the change in sensitiveness due to varying the 
ition of the moving coil in the field. There is an 


_after-effect causing a permanent motion of the zero 


of the instrument in the direction of the last deflection. 


A PAPER by Messrs. F. B. Silsbee and R. K. Hona- 
man, of the United States Bureau of Standards, 
which appears in the Journal of the Washington 
Academy for May 4, summarises the results of their 
work during the last two years on the relative merits 
‘of the various insulating materials used in sparking- 
plugs. Cup-shaped vessels of the materials were 
tested between 200% and go0° C. in an electric furnace, 
the resistivity being determined from the fall of poten- 
tial between the molten solder inside and that outside 
when a measured current passed through the cup. 
Measurements with direct currents were found to be 
useless owing to the polarisation produced, but with 

ing currents of 60 cycles per second the re- 
sults for the same specimen were always consistent. 
At 500° C. the resistivities of a few typical materials in 
megohms. per cm. cube are :—Fused silica 340, best por- 
celain 80, typical mica 70, aeroplane plug porcelain 4o, 
motor-car plug porcelain o8. A minute quantity of 
impurity in the material appears to reduce the re- 
sistivity considerably. The change of resistivity with 

ature is given by log,,.R=c—bT, where R is 


‘the resistivity, c is a constant between ‘1o and 12, 
and b a constant between 0-0065 and 0-0085. 


In the science reports of the Tohoku Imperial Uni- 
versity, vol. vii., No. 3, there is an account by 
Murakami of an investigation of the structure of 
ferro-catbon-chromium alloys. By utilising methods 


of magnetic analysis and microscopic examination, 


alloys containing less than 6 per cent. of carbon have 
been systematically investigated, and a structural and 
constitutional diagram of their normal states has been 
obtained. The author confirms the existence of a 
compound Cr,C, having a hexagonal crystalline form 
as put forward by Moissan. 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


NATURE 


The influence of this | 


carbide on the A, change in steels has been investi- 
gated. Above this point the carbide dissolves in 
austenite, and, on heating to a high temperature, it 
dissociates as follows :— 
2Cr,C=Cr,C,+5Cr. 

During cooling the reverse change takes place only 
slowly, and this influences the position of the trans- 
formation point. On one hand, if the rate of cool- 
ing is sufficiently slow, the change occurs at about 
7oo° C.; while on the other, if it is quick,.the trans- 
formation point is very conspicuously lowered, and in 
extreme cases completely suppressed. A specimen 
having a normal transformation point shows a 
pearlitic or troostitic structure, one having a lowered 
transformation point a martensitic structure, and 
when the transformation is suppressed an austenitic 
structure. The self-hardening of a chromium steel is 
related to the lowering, or, in extreme cases, the sup- 
pression, of the A, transformation, and’ hardness is 
caused by the solid solution of the carbide Cr,C, in 
iron and chromium. The author has come to the 
conclusion that’ there are three ternary compounds, 
namely, a, 8, and y double carbides. The micro- 
graphic and magnetic characteristics of these com- 
pounds have been investigated by him. 


THE results of some interesting tests on locomotive 
piston-valve leakage are given in Engineering for 
July 4. The tests were conducted by the test depart- 
ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona, and 
have extended over several years; a specially arranged 
testing plant was employed. The results were erratic, 
and the following abstract of some of the results takes 
account only of all that appeared normal. With a 
standard two-ring valve, 12 in. in diameter, in plain 
bushing, the leakage at each end of the valve ranges 
between 171 lb. and 183 Ib. per hour with saturated 
steam; between 194 Ib. and 210 lb. with steam at 
100° superheat; between 181 Ib. and 197 Ib. with 
steam at 200° superheat; and between 122 lb. and 
132 lb. with steam at 300° superheat. For the bush- 
ing with ports a leakage between 302 Ib. and 326 lb. 
per hour occurred with saturated steam; between 
425 Ib. and 448 Ib. per hour for 100° superheat; and 
between 383 Ib. and 414 lb. per hour for 200° super- 
heat. The length of valve-travel, when it ranged 
between 2 in. and 6 in., was found to have but little 
effect upon leakage. The speed of the valve-(stroltes 
per minute) had no appreciable effect upon leakage. 
As much as 15 h.p. was required to drive the valve 
in tests at 300 revs. per minute. 


Messrs. George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., have in pre- 
paration ‘Defective Housing and the Growth of 
Children,” by Dr. J. L. Dick. Three lectures recently 
delivered before the University of Cambridge are an- 
nounced for publication by the Cambridge University 
Press. They are “Science and War”? (the Rede lec- 
ture), by Lord Moulton; ‘ Italian Studies : Their Place 
in Modern Education,’’ by Prof. T. Okey; and the 
Leslie Stephen lecture on Pope, by Dr. J. W. 
Mackail. ‘The same publishers also promise a revised 
edition of Dr. A. Harker’s “ Petrology for Students.” 
Messrs. Longmans and Co. announce for publica- 
tion in the autumn a new book, limited to 105 copies, 
by A. Thorburn, entitled “‘A Naturalist’s Sketch- 
Book,’’ containing 60 plates, 24 in colour and 36 in 
collotype. It will form a companion volume to the 
same author’s ‘British Birds.’’?. Among other books 
in the press for appearance by Messrs. Longmans we 
notice ‘An Introduction to General Physiology,” 
Prof. W. M. Bayliss; ‘The Principles of Child 
Physiology, Pure and Applied,” Dr. W. M. Feldman; 
‘“The Physiology of Muscular Exercise,” Prof. F. A. 
Bainbridge; ‘*Cement,” B. Blount; ‘Applied Aero- 


4 


392 


NATURE 


dynamics,’’ L. Bairstow; ‘Aeroplane Structures,” 
A. J. S. Pippard and Capt. J. L. Pritchard; ‘‘ The 
Design of Propellers for Aircraft,’ H. C. Watts; 
‘‘Telephonic Transmission, Theoretical and Applied,” 


J. G. Hill; ‘Principles and Practice of Electrical 
Testing as applied to Apparatus, Circuits, and 
Machines,” R. G. Allen; ‘‘Engineering Machine 


Tools and Processes,” A. G. Robson; and ‘ Efficient 
Boiler Management,’ C. F. Wade. 


ErrATUM.—We regret that in the article on “Some 
Recent Atomic Weight Determinations ’’ in Nature for 
July 3, p. 346, the name of Prof. T. W. Richards was 
incorrectly given as ‘‘Theodore Williams,’* the sur- 


name being omitted. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


THE MOvEMENT OF THE EarTH’s PoLE.—The issue 
of Scientia for July contains an article by the Astro- 
nomer Royal on this subject, which comprises a con- 
cise statement of the movement predicted by Euler, and 
of suggestions that have been made to show why the 
observed movement does not conform to this. The 
Eulerian principle enunciates that the axis’ round 
which the earth would turn, assuming it to be a 
rigid body set spinning about an axis other than 
the axis of figure, would always point in the same 
direction in space (i.e. among the stars) within a very 
little, but would describe a cone in the earth in a 
period of 305 days, the radius.of the circle described 


’ by the wandering pole being about, 10 metres. Ob- 


servations show that the movement is compounded of 
two circular motions of periods of a year and of 
432 days respectively. Sir Frank Dyson writes that 
the dynamical causes underlying these movements are 
probably to be found in the changes of distribution 
of matter on the earth, and quotes Newcomb, who 
thought the amplitude of the Eulerian movement was 
increased or diminished irregularly by meteorological 
changes. Mr. Harold Jeffreys has lately shown that 
a shift of matter symmetrical about the earth’s axis 
will not have any effect in shifting the earth’s axis 
of rotation, and looks for the cause in an unsym- 
metrical increase of mass, such as is caused by the 
high barometer over Siberia in the winter, which, 
however, is not sufficient of itself to produce the 
observed effect. The lengthening of the free Eulerian 
period from 305 days, on the assumption of a rigid 
earth, to 432 days supplies information as to the 
possible amount of elasticity of the earth. 


Tue Masses or Binary Stars.—There' is a well- 
known formula by which the total mass of a binary 
system can be found if the parallax is known, as well 
as the elements of the orbit. The modern method 
of deducing stellar parallax by examination of the 
spectrum therefore provides much data for determina- 
tion of mass, and Prof. Aitken, of Lick Observatory, 
has lately (Pub. Ast. Soc. Pac., June) used the 
parallax of twelve binaries taken from Messrs. Adams 
and Joy’s list to find their masses. These had been 
already found by help of the trigonometric parallax, 
and though considerable discordance was shown for 
individual systems, the agreement of the mean mass 
of the twelve binaries, which was 1-61 times that of 
the sun by the one method and 1-67 times by the other, 
showed that the new parallaxes might be considered 
trustworthy for mean results. Prof. Aitken, there- 
fore, determined the mass of seven other stars which 
are common to the list above cited and his own list 
of binary systems. These, with Sirius and a Cen- 


tauri and the twelve before mentioned, make a list | 


of twenty-one systems the. mass of which is known. 
They range from o21 to 7:21 times that of the sun, 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103| 


the mean value being 1-88; and though some of the 


near to us are about twice as massive as our sun. 


It may be noted that five stars of classes K and M © 


are, on the avérage, only half as massive as the 
sixteen stars of classes A_ to 
average, nearly four magnitudes (absolute) fainter. 


SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY. 


LECTURES AT THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC PRopucTs 
EXHIBITION, é 

IR WILLIAM TILDEN, in his lecture on 
‘‘Chemistry in Reconstruction’? at the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition on July 7, remarked 
that a visitor to the exhibition could not fail to 
experience the comforting conviction that British 
chemical manufacturers are now quite capable of 
holding their own in regard to quality and variety of 
products. 


individual mass-values must still be regarded as un- a 
certain, the mean result may be taken as confirmatory — 
evidence that the short-period visual binary systems — 


G, and are, on the © 


[Jury 17, 1919 A 


ee Ie 


They will undoubtedly be able to supply — 


the wants of this country if they continue to exhibit’ 


the same skill, energy, and resource which have been 
gradually developed during the last five years, and 
to be protected for a time from foreign imports. 
With regard ito trade outside the United Kingdom, 
it is too soon to indulge freely in optimism. 
Prime Minister, in his recent speech in the House of 
Commons on the Peace Treaty, pointed to the condition 
of German territory, which has not been damaged or 
disturbed to any ‘appreciable extent by the operations 
of the war, and still retains the famous chemical 
establishments with plant and machinery in working 
order, and even increased in power by the material 
stolen from ‘Belgian and French factories. Moreover, 
Germany has the services of a very large body of 
technical chemists of great skill and experience. Ger- 
many will, surasiys make greater efforts than ever 
to penetrate into foreign markets. Then there is 
Switzerland, with good schéols of chemistry and an 
already established chemical industry. The United 
States of America during recent years has’ vastly 
extended the chemical departments of its universities 
and technical schools, and devoted huge sums to 
the development of chemical manufactures. Japan 
also with a well-equipped university and many natural 
products, combined with cheap labour, will certainly 
appear in the field. 

All these will undoubtedly prove very formidable 
competitors in the race in which the British chemist 
will have to enter. In this country also there is still 
a great deficiency in the number of well-qualified 
chemists available for the service of industry. The 
manufacturer has too long been satisfied with the 
services of the laboratory boy, who can be taught to 
perform routine testing without any knowledge of 
more than the most elementary chemical principles. 
We require a large number of well-educated men 
equipped with the fullest possible knowledge of 


modern chemistry in every branch. Lord Crewe 
referred at the opening of the exhibition to the several ° 
methods which have been. so far employed for con- — 


verting the academic into the industrial chemist. 
There can be little doubt that this is best accom- 
plished in the works, and in the long run manufac- 
turers will find it pay best to employ the academic 
chemist thoroughly drilled in the practice of analysis 
and well acquainted with all the methods of research, 
who must be assumed also to possess common sense, 
and give him facilities for gaining that knowledge of 
constructive materials and elementary engineering 
which is requisite for his work. 


The exhibition contains a most instructive and 


The - 


ee Jury 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


393 


encouraging collection of definite products, the manu- 
facture of which on a large scale has been made 
possible in the British factories during the last five 


years, when the chemical skill and energy available were 


scale. 


ool nS ae aha in the business of making explosives 
and other war material. This is very satisfactory, but 
the applications of chemistry, apart from the manu- 


facture of definite products, must not be overlooked. 


Examples of such application are to be seen on every 
side, in metallurgy, in agriculture, in physiology and 
medicine, in the treatment of water, and in sanitation. 

Sir William Tilden concluded his lecture by point- 
ing out that one great feature of modern chemical 
manufacture is the production by synthetic processes 
of compounds which hitherto have been derived from 
natural sources. Of these the most remarkable is the 
production of ammonia by combination of hydrogen 
with atmospheric nitrogen, which, notwithstanding the 
physical difficulties, is likely to proceed on a very large 
Another case of a different kind is the pro- 
duction of rubber which has been going on in Ger- 


“many during the war. There can be no doubt that in 


available at a sufficiently cheap rate. 


‘soundless world below the waves. 


a few years this substance will appear on the market 
provided the initial material, at present acetone, is 
Synthetic 
rubber now obtainable in the laboratory costs about 
twenty times as much as the natural article from the 
plantation. 

In his lecture on July 8 on the subject of trans- 
mitting and picking up sounds in water, Prof. W. H. 
Bragg first made clear the great difference between 
the noisy air-world above the sea and the quiet, almost 
This is all the more 
remarkable in view of water being a much better 
carrier of sound than air. Being specially engaged 
during the war on an investigation of submarine 
sounds, he had visited the Zoo to study fishes and their 
hearing or sounds produced by them, Their powers 
were, however, found to be so deficient as to suggest 
that lack of noise in their movements under water 
had rendered acute hearing valueless to the fish in its 
struggle for existence, either as the hunter or the 


hunted. By means of gramophone records, lent by 


* 


deaf ear in one direction. 


the Admiralty, Prof. Bragg showed how the silent 


submarine world was disturbed by the movements of 
ships or by the breaking of waves on the coast, and 
how difficult it was, among the loud noises made by 
neighbouring propellers, to distinguish the faint sounds 
caused by a’submarine. The hearing of these was the 
real object in view, and a record of the German sub- 
marines entering Harwich was used to show their 
special character. 

' Some of the means used for locating the source of 
the sounds were also described, and a_ full-sized 
“hydrophone ”? was shown, consisting of a diaphragm 
carried in a heavy iron ring and shielded on one side 


by a special plate of xylonite enclosing several air- 


cells, which so blocked the sound-waves coming in 
that direction as to form the equivalent of turning a 
Lantern-slides were shown 
taken from kinema-films which illustrated graphically 
the vibrations received by a microphone placed at the 
centre of such a shielded diaphragm. Prof. Bragg’s 
explanation of the films led to a most interesting 
deduction as to the post-war value of these investiga- 
tions.. He showed a film on which’ appeared six 

irallel records of receiving galvanometers represent- 
ing the conditions at six different stations. Each 
station was equipped with such a hydrophone and 


‘connected up electrically to the galvanometer, which 


recorded their vibrations on the film as lines, which 


“$n this case remained perfectly even until a destroyer, 


sent straight out to sea for the purpose, exploded a 
depth-charge. As the sharp sound-wave sent out 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


thereby reached each hydrophone, the corresponding 
line broke up into oscillations, and the moment at: 
which thesé oscillations began was clearly indicated 
to a thousandth of a second by their position on the 
film, giving the exact time of arrival of the sound- 
wave at each hydrophone. The speed of sound in 
water being also well known, the position of the ship 
at the time of each explosion could therefore be ascer- 
tained. ; 

The sai distance recorded on the film was 
seventy-five miles, but the undiminished accuracy of 
its indications proved, that the method of locating 
ships at sea would be successful at much greater dis- 
tances, and at the present time it has been developed 
up to a range of 230 miles, with no sign of falling off 
in its efficiency. On shorter distances it has been 
found possible to signal with a simple detonator 
instead of the 4o-lb. charge used in the first experi- 
ments. These preliminary successes open up a most 
promising field of practical applications, especially in 
coastal surveys and the exact location of rocks and 
shoals. At present it is being largely used in the 
North Sea, several stations being at work on the 
east coast of Britain. It has also been successfully 
sy for the exact location of ships and aircraft during 
og. ’ 

The lecture on ‘*Coal Conservation’? given by 
Prof. H. E. Armstrong on Friday, July 11, was a 
protest. against the legislation foreshadowed in the 


Electricity Supply Bill now before the House of * 


Commons as, both premature and narrow, and a plea 
for a complete inquiry into the uses of coal, with the 
view of co-ordinating the various interests and the 
ultimate comprehensive treatment of all the industrial 
issues. Prof. Armstrong favours the production of a 


smokeless fuel, with the object of abolishing the | 


smoke nuisance and also of saving the valuable vola- 
tile products which are wasted in burning raw coal. 
He would therefore have the use of raw coal entirely 
disallowed in the near future; in view of the prospec- 
tive world-shortage of petroleum, it will be criminal 
folly if we fail to produce all the oil-fuel that it is 
possible to obtain by subjecting coal to a preliminary 
distillation at a relatively low temperature. He is an 
advocate of the establishment, at least in the larger 
towns, of fuel and power centres charged with the 
supply of all the forms of fuel and power required by 
the public within their areas. Coal should be car- 
bonised at these centres in such a way as to secure the 
recovery of the maximum proportion of by-products, 
which might be in part distributed and in part 
further utilised at the centre in generating electric 
current. 
easily combustible solid fuel instead of gas as a 
domestic heating agent were insisted upon. In the 
subsequent discussion this recommendation was 
strongly supported by Prof. Bone, who spoke against 
the suggested provision of gas-heating appliances alone 
in the improved dwellings which it is contemplated to 
provide for the use of the masses. Whilst suitable for 
kitchen and occasional use, gas is not only much 
more costly than solid fuel but also a far less healthy 
means of heating dwelling-rooms over any consider- 
able period. The scheme suggested would render pos- 
sible the supply of a heating gas of higher qualitv 
than is now contemplated by the gas interests; for if 
the whole of our bituminous coal were carbonised at 
a low temperature, a large amount of rich gas would 
be 
gas ’? and yet be superior as a calorific agent to that 
which the gas companies can provide in existing 
circumstances. The advantages the scheme has are 
such that, ere long, electricity should entirely supplant 
gas as an illuminating agent. 


The advantages attending the use of an. 


produced which would bear dilution with ‘ water-: 


-and forms the subject of many investigations. 


394 


NATURE 


[Juny 17, 1919° 
“4 


AMERICAN ASTRONOMY. 


1X the year 1840 the Dana House Observatory of 
Harvard College was established by the aid of 
public funds and private ‘subscription, with William 
Cranch Bond as director. It was not the first college 
observatory in America, and other eminent American 
astronomers had lived earlier in the century, but the 
date. may be taken as the beginning of systematic 
astronomical observation in the Western continent. 
The U.S. Naval Observatory was established in 1844, 
and the present Harvard Observatory founded, largely 
by generous help from private benefactors, in 1846. 
Other institutions of the period might be named where 
the science of astronomy of position was pursued, and 


‘this, with the splendid work on planets, satellites, 


comets, asteroids, nebulz, and the astronomy of the 
solar system generally done at Harvard by W. C. Bond 
and G. P. Bond, and afterwards by Winlock, is to 
be considered representative of the astronomy of the 
United States in the succeeding forty years. The 
accession of the late Prof. E. C. Pickering to the 


directorate of the Harvard Observatory in 1877 marks 


the beginning of the astronomical era in which we 
now live. Spectroscopy, stellar physics, and stellar 
statistics are the principal features. Prof. Pickering’s 
work was stellar photometry on a wholesale scale. 
Stellar spectroscopy and the determination of the 
radial velocity of stars by its means had been begun 
by Huggins in 1864; the photographic plate came into 
general use as an adjunct to the astronomer’s equip- 
ment in the decade 1880-90, and these three items 
have formed the basis of the work of the American 
observatories of recent creation. The Lick Observa- 
tory, with the 36-in. telescope, was completed in 1887 
at the expense, as everyone knows, of an American 
‘business man. The Yerkes Observatory came into 
existence in 1897, and the observatory at Mount 
Wilson in 1904. These things are recalled at this 


moment because, during the past week, English astro- 


nomers have been gratified by: a visit from a delega- 
tion of astronomers from across the Atlantic who 
were on their way to take part in the establishment 
of an International Astronomical Union at a con- 
ference now being held in Brussels (July 18-28). 

At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on 
July 11, specially arranged for the purpose, the visitors 
spoke in turn of the work on which they. are each 
engaged, and the contrast between the astronomy of 
to-day and of sixty years ago is apparent. The abso- 
lute magnitude of a star or its actual luminosity 
independent of its distance is now a id pean 

er- 
tain peculiarities of spectrum have been correlated 
with the absolute magnitude in cases in which the 
latter is known, and, generalising from this, a method 
has been devised for finding from the spectrum the 
absolute magnitude, and therefore the parallax, of stars. 
Prof. W. S. Adams, to whom this conception is due, 
was constrained to say that the data on which his 
first list of parallaxes was based are capable of im- 
provement, but this research is as yet in its early 
stages. Dr. Seares, also of Mount Wilson, has 
devised new photographic methods for determining the 
colours of stars, and a correlation between colour, 
spectral type, and absolute magnitude is being estab- 
lished. Prof. Benjamin Boss, of the Dudley. Observa- 
tory, whose name is associated more with geometrical 
astronomy than. with physical, had. some interesting 
facts to tell about the difference in direction of motion 
of the classes of stars known as the Giant and Dwarf, 
which is a distinction depending on luminosity. 

Dr. Schlesinger, of Allegheny, and Prof. Joel 
Stebbins gave details of their workin determining the 
variation of brightness of variable stars, the method 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


of the photo-electric cell used by the latter being a — 
very, recent adaptation of physics to astronomy not — 
unknown in England; whilst Prof, Campbell, director — 
of the Lick Observatory and president of the delega- 
tion, refrained from speaking of his well-known 
observations of radial velocity, but told his audience 
of the observations of the Lick Observatory party on 
the occasion of the eclipse of June 8, 1918. An 
attempt, was made to detect the Einstein effect, or a 
light-displacement effect from any cause, by compari- 
son of a photograph of the stars round the sun with 
a photograph of the same field in the night sky, but 
the comparison failed to show any displacement of 
“this nature. It is regrettable that the Harvard Ob- 
servatory was not represented owing to the recent 
death of Prof. E. C. Pickering. aes 
This brief sketch of the proceedings at this meeting 


It was impressing to see so many men, comparatively 
young,, who are devoting themselves to abstract 
science. That there is similar progress on this side of 
the Atlantic reference to recent volumes of the 
Monthly Notices will. show. Here, as counterpart to 
the. brilliant invention of new methods of attack by 
observation above recorded, we have development by 
ts agers theory and the statistical discussion of 
results. 


THE MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION. 


 ithihes thirtieth annual conference of this associa- 
tion, held at Oxford on July 7-10, under the 
presidency of Sir Henry Howorth, showed the return 
of peace conditions in a particularly large attendance. 
An important discussion was opened by Mr. E. E. 
Lowe on a recent recommendation by the Adult 
Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruc- 
tion that the control of municipal museums (including 
art galleries) should be transferred to the local educa- 
tion authority. While this recommendation was sup- 
ported by two officials of the Board of Education, who 
spoke in their private capacity, it was opposed by all 
the museum curators and .by several members of 
museum committees, some of whom also served on 
education committees. Though museum authorities 
are, as they long have been, anxious to co-operate 
fully and intimately with schools and other educa- 
tional institutions, they feel that many of their im- 
portant functions cannot properly be described as 
educational, and they deprecate any form of control 
that would obscure this fact. On the other hand, 
they would welcome assistance and inspection by a 
separate museum department that should link up all 
the museums of the country and be directed by men 
familiar with museum work. A special committee 
was appointed to draw up a statement on behalf of 
the museums, and, if possible, to arrange conferences 
with the Government Departments concerned. 
For some years the association has been trying to 
induce British manufacturers to provide for museum 
purposes glassware of a quality equal to _ that 
previously procurable only from Germany. Under 
war conditions no great success has attended its 
efforts, but Messrs. Standley Belcher and Mason, 
Ltd:, of Birmingham, now submitted a small flat- 
sided jar which appeared suitable. Trial orders were 
solicited, and, to attain a reasonable price, it is im- 
portant that museums and laboratories should support 
the association in this matter. Communications may . 
be addressed to Mr. E. E. Lowe, Leicester Museum. 
In this connection it was of interest to learn fromr 
Mr. Renouf, of Rothesay, that when he wanted some 
trimmed glass squares he was told that there was no 


glass-planing machine in Great Britain. There are 


{ 


is sufficient to show the trend of modern astronomy. — : 


_. changing under present conditions. 


_ Jury 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


39S 


lg oa 2 we must have, and we do not want to 
be driven back to Germany for them, but our manu- 
facturers must wake up. , 
These glass squares were for mounting marine 
animals in formalin under large watch-glass covers— 
a mode of exhibition that had proved effective and 
durable. Mr. Renouf also explained a method of 
cutting large holes in glass with a screw-tap, and 
recommended Steubner’s waterproof ink for injecting 
fine blood-vessels. Mr. Rowley described an exhibit 
for children in the Exeter Museum; Mr. Lowe 
showed a revolving frame for exhibiting coins; Mr. 


_ Carline discussed open-air folk-museums; and Prof. 


Myres advocated the preservation of objects rapidly 
Profs. Poulton, 
Sollas, rne, and Bowman vied with Messrs. 
Balfour, Hogarth, and Leeds in demonstrating the 
riches and methods of their respective museums and 

William Martin Conway was elected president 
of the association for the.coming year, and the new 
secretary is Dr. W. M. Tattersall, Manchester 
Museum 


THE NORTH-EAST COAST INSTITUTION 
OF ENGINEERS AND SHIPBUILDERS. 


yee the view of honouring some of those who 
helped to win the war, of recording the work 
done on the North-East Coast for the war, and of com- 
memorating those members of the institution who fell 
during the war, the North-East Coast Institution of 
Engineers. and Shipbuilders held a Victory meeting at 
Neweastle-upon-Tyne on July 8-11. The honorary 
fellowship of the institution was presented to the 
Hon. Lady Parsons, ‘Marshal Foch, Sir David Beatty, 
Sir Douglas Haig, Lord Weir, and Sir Joseph Paton 
Maclay. ee 

Lady Parsons read a paper on women’s work in 
engineering and shipbuilding during the war. The 
record of skilled work done by women given in the 
a controverts the impression which many people 

ve that women are only capable of doing repetition 
work on fool-proof machines. There is no doubt that 
many women developed great mechanical skill and a 
real love of their work. The engineering industry is 
again barred to women by an agreement made 
between the Treasury and the trade unions, with the 
result that women wealth-producers are scrapped: 
The meéting agreed with Lady Parsons’s condemna- 
tion of the Labour Party, which, while demanding full 
political v pore etl women and their right to sit in 
the House of Lords and to practise at the Bar and 


as solicitors, will not grant to women equality of 


industrial opportunity. 
Mr, A. H. J. Cochrane gave a short record of the 


-work of the principal industries of the North-East. 


Coast during the war. There have been two im- 
portant developments in marine engineering for which 
the war period is partly responsible. These are the 
increased and increasing use of speed-reduction gear- 
ing in turbine-driven sets—the output of gearing by 
one firm during 1915-18 amounted to 2,830,000 shaft- 


- horse-power—and, secondly, the high standard of 


accuracy which has been reached in the design, con- 
struction, and installation of turbine machinery. This 
efficiency has enabled the Admiralty to dispense with 
exhaustive preliminary trials of machinery. Probably 


the most remarkable case cited in the paper is that 


of the destroyer Nonsuch, which, under conditions of 
emergency, actually raised her full power within seven 
minutes of leaving the piers. It is also of interest to 
note that the total stoppages of work due to raids 
and raid-alarms amounted to 47 hours 24 minutes 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


during the whole war period of 221 weeks. The total 
output was 1130 vessels, with a tonnage of 3,324,912, 
which gives an average of five ships per wéék. 

A long paper on developments in aircraft design 
and application during. the war was read by Lord 
Weir. The section: dealing with future developments 
is of special interest. An outbreak of war should see 
us with the very best designs of engines and aircraft, 
tried and tested, and with a manufacturing nucleus 
on which war production may be readily expanded. 
In civil aviation the more immediate problems of inter- 
national and domestic aerial legislation have been 
provisionally solved by the International Aerial Con- 
vention and by the Civil Aviation Act, and it is 
gratifying that in both these directions Great Britain 
has taken the lead and shown the way. In another 
direction much remains to be carried out quickly. 

e possess fleets of aircraft of trustworthiness and 
of great performance possibility, but our navigational 
facilities are still almost non-existent, and herein lies 
one of the main fields of action of our new Depart- 
ment of Civil Aviation. The two qualities of out- 
standing merit in the new form of transport are speed 
and independence of action as against land transport 
requiring roads or rails. Speed in transport is asso- 
ciated with high cost, and speed will always command 
a high value. Early action should be taken in regard 
to a few main routes, especially in countries with 
equable weather conditions, and in new countries 
backward in> rail development. 
routes would be Egypt to India, and Egypt to South 
Africa. 

Lt.-Com. Norman Wilkinson gave some interesting 
particulars regarding his methods of dazzle-painting 
of ships, from which it appears that the object was 
not to secure invisibility, but. to perplex submarines 
in the attempt to determine the precise course of the 
‘dazzled? ship. The author, who is a marine painter 
of long experience, does not consider it possible to 
secure invisibility at sea. Success in submarine 
attack depends upon the attaining of a position which 
enables the attack to be made, and if a. submarine 
once fails to secure the favourable position it is not 
likely to have a second opportunity. Reports from 
other ships bear striking testimony to the value of 
dazzle-painting :—'‘ The vessel, at a distance of two or 
three miles, appeared as a wreck.’’ ‘At four miles?’ 
distance I decided it was a tug towing a lighter.” 
“JT was on the point of stopping my engines and 
going full speed astern to avoid a collision, when I 
discovered that she was altering course to starboard. 
After passing the vessel it was almost impossible to 
say how she was steering.” ig 

Sir Dugald Clerk gave a paper on the limits of 
thermal efficiency in Diesel and other internal-com- 
bustion engines. The author considers that conditions 
all point to ultimate success in the construction of 
large gas-engine units composed of many cylinders 
geared to a common shaft. Large cylinder engines, 
such as had been developed in Germany before the 
war, do not permit of very large unit powers except 
at an extravagant weight and cost, and have no chance 
of competing with the steam turbine. 

The paper on ship repairing by Messrs. M. C. 
James and E. Smith contains many interesting 
photographs and descriptions of extraordinary and 
urgent repairs executed during, the war. 

One of the most valuable papers of the meeting was 
that on science and its application to marine problems 
by Prof. J. C. McLennan. Reference iis made to the 
development of listening devices in the submarine 
campaign. An echo method consists in the use of a 
beam of sound-waves used in a manner analogous to 
the use of a searchlight. If an object of sound such 


Two such main 


“ 


396 


NATURE 


[JuLy 17, 1919 


as a submarine happens to come within the beam, 
the sound-waves are reflected and echo effects are 
obtainable. Success has been obtained in the picking 
up and closing on a submarine situated more than a 
mile away. _ A very important application of an electro- 
magnetic effect is the Leader gear. A cable is laid 
on the bottom of the sea along the course of a narrow, 
tortuous channel leading into a harbour or through a 
minefield. Alternating currents passed through the 
cable can be detected on the ship by aural or visual 
indications, and by these indications the ship can be 
guided in safety in fog or darkness at speeds as high 
as twenty knots almost with as much precision as a 
tramear over a railway. In water of suitable depth 
experience shows that it is a simple matter to apply 
this method for distances as great as fifty miles or 
longer. 

Invisible signalling by polarised light, or ultra-violet 
and infra-red radiations has been employed where it 
is not advisable to use wireless communication. In 
wireless methods, by the use of oscillating thermionic 
valves especially, great progress has been made. 
Some extraordinary advances have been made in the 
measurement of the pressure of explosive waves. 
Changes which take place in 1/100,000 of a second 
have been recorded by the method suggested by Sir 
J. J. Thomson and applied by Mr. D. A. Keys, in 
which the inertia of a beam of cathode-ray particles 
is made use of; such rays are deflected by electro- 
static and magnetic fields. The advances made in the 
production of helium warrant the opinion that, had 
the war continued after November 11, 1918, supplies 
of helium at the rate of 2,000,000 cubic ft. per month 
would have been produced within the Empire and the 
United States, and helium-filled aircraft would have 
been in service. 

It is impossible within the limits of our space to 
deal adequately with Prof. McLennan’s paper, both as 
regards what science has done in marine problems 
during the war and the large number of suggestions 
he makes regarding the application.of what has been 
discovered to peace conditions. 


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF. THE CEREBRAL 
CORTEX. 


N the series of Croonian lectures delivered at the 
Royal College of Physicians (June 12, 17, 109, 
and 24) Prof. Elliot Smith claimed that much of the 
obscurity concerning the meaning of the structure 
and functions of the cerebral cortex was due to the 
failure on the part of biologists and physicians to face 
the fact that the cortex is the organ of intelligence, 
and its chief significance of a psychical nature. It is 
no more possible to understand the cerebral cortex 
without recognising to the full its real purpose than 
it would be to explain the mechanism of an aeroplane 
if the investigator ignored the fact that the machine 
was made to fly. 

The aim of these lectures was to discuss the means 
whereby the cerebral cortex acquired its supreme 
powers as the organ of intelligence. Dr. Henry 
Head’s researches have given us a new vision of the 
meaning of nervous and mental processes, and have 
provided all workers in neurology with a new 
generalisation which compels them to review their 
own work in the light of the new illumination. 

Much that was dark and unintelligible in the evolu- 
tion of the cerebral cortex acquires a definite. signi- 
ficance when the facts are examined in conjunction 
with the results of Dr. Head’s clinical work and 
Prof. Sherrington’s experimental researches. 

The mammalian cerebral cortex, i.e. the neopallium, 
is the repository of past impressions, and these sensory 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


‘of the odour as the pursuer moves about. 


dispositions profoundly modify the effect produced 
the arrival of fresh impylses. But Dr. Head 


in sensation is to endow it with spacial relationships, 


with the power of responding in a graduated manner 
to stimuli of different intensities, and with those 
qualities by which we recognise the similarity or 


difference of objects’? that appeal to the senses. On 
the other hand, the appreciation of the affective side 


of experience, the pleasantness or unpleasantness, and 


the crude awareness, are functions not of the cortex, 
but of the thalamus. ° 

Since the discriminative functions of the cortex are 
particularly associated with the neopallium, which is 
found in a fully developed form only in mammals, the 


first inquiry must be directed towards an understand- 


ing of the psychical activities of the classes of verte- 
brates other than mammals; and from such investiga- 
tions the nature of the circumstances which called the 
neopallium into being must be determined. 

The fundamental fact in the evolution of intel- 
ligence is the significant part played by the sense of 
smell. In the primitive generalised vertebrate it pro- 
vided the animal with information of varied kinds, 
but of direct and obvious psychological meaning, by 
which behaviour was determined in respect of most 
of those activities that affect the preservation of the 
individual and the species, namely, the search for 
food and the appreciation of its quality, the recogni- 
tion of friends and enemies, as well as of sexual mates 
or rivals. 

One factor which added to the dominating influence 
of smell and emphasised 'the directness of its appeal 
was the result of the circumstance that in an animal 
living in the water the sense of smell was very nearly 
akin to that of taste. When such an animal scented 
food it got, so to speak, a foretaste of the satisfying 
consummation of the experience when the food was 
seized, tasted, and swallowed with a feeling of intense 
satisfaction. The whole incident, from ‘the first 
anticipation of the pleasure in store until the satisfy- 
ing consummation, was under the dominance of the 


sense of smell, which became more and more intensely 


stimulated as the animal approached its quarry, until 
it culminated in the gratification and the appeal to 
the sense of taste. The affective tone of the sense of 
smell linked into a connected series all the incidents 
of this experience, and the psychical integration that 
resulted formed the basis of the appreciation of time 
and space, of memory, the recall of the earlier inci- 
dents of the episode, and of anticipation, the end- 
result and the joyful consummation. 


In the course of the pursuit of its prey the animal 


by 
shown that, in addition, “the function of the cortex 


soli intac Aela 


yeeas oie 


prey bs te 


is subjected to the influence of many other circum- 


stances that appeal to the senses of vision, touch, 
pressure, temperature, etc., and affect the organs of 


equilibration; and the effects of all these events tend 


to become involved in the process of psychical integra- 
tion. When such information as is collected by these 
other sense-organs acauire some biological signi- 
ficance to the animal, the visual, tactile, acoustic, 
and other sensory tracts make their way into the 
cortex in increasing numbers: and ‘they stimulate the 
growth and differentiation of such special receptive 
areas as the hypopallium and neopallium. But this 
does not happen until the reptilian stage of develop- 
ment is reached. 

When, attracted bv its scent, the primitive verte- 
brate (such as an Elasmobranch fish) is impelled to 
pursue its prey, it circles about in the search because 
at first it has no more exact indication of the position 
of the object of its pursuit than the relative intensity 
( But when 
it comes within visual range it acquires a more precise 


ot ee 


_ Jury 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


397 


knowledge of its prey’s exact position and movements 
in space; then it can direct its own course with 
greater directness and precision to its goal. 

At first vision conveys little or no affective feeling 
or psychological meaning; it acquires this secondarily 
from the sense of smell. But the visual mechanisms 
in the brain control’ the direction of the animal’s 
movements; and the receptive centre for the optic 
nerve (the tectum of the mid-brain) is put into direct 
connection with all the motor nuclei to effect this pur- 
pose. ‘So far as influences from the outside world 
are concerned, smell determines the animal’s be- 
haviour, vision directs’ it, and the vestibular 
mechanism (cerebellum) provides the means by which 
the actions of the muscles can be co-ordinated to 
perform the movements in an orderly and useful way. 
As the result of these events the influences of all 
these other experiences are integrated with sensations 
of smell. Not only are vision, touch, the sensation 
of movement, etc., thus afforded the opportunity of 
participating in the mental life, but a_ fuller 
appreciation of spacial relations also is acquired by 
the animal as these other senses add their quota to 
the creature’s knowledge, and obtain a fuller repre- 
sentation in the cerebral cortex as the means towards 
this end. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

ABERDEEN.—Prof. A. Findlay, professor of chemis- 
try, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, has 
been appointed to the chair of chemistry in succession 
to Prof. Soddy. 

Birmincuam.—Mr. Humphrey F, Humphreys has 
been appointed lecturer on dental anatomy and physio- 
logy and curator of the Odontological Museum in suc- 
cession to Mr. John Humphreys, who has resigned. 

The Ingleby lecture for 1920 will be delivered by 
Mr. Beckwith Whitehouse. 

Dr. B. Muriel Bristol has been awarded an 1851 
Exhibition scholarship of the value of 200l. as a result 


of the excellence of her work on the alge of soil, 


carried out in the botanical department during the 
past three years. 

Dr. Nellie Carter has been awarded 1sol. for the 
next session by the Department of Scientific and 
Industrial Research on the condition that she con- 
tinues her research work under Prof. G. S. West in 
the University botanical department. 

The Counci oF agi accepted from the famil 
of the late Mr. W. H. Wilkinson, of Sutton Cold- 
field, a very valuable gift for the herbarium of the 
botanical department, consisting of a collection of 
lichens and the associated library collected by the late 
Mr. Wilkinson. The Council has received a further 


-very valuable gift from Prof. West of the collections 


of mosses, hepatics, and lichens made by his father, 
the late Mr. W. West, of Bradford. This, combined 
with Mr. Wilkinson’s collection, will give the Uni- 
versity one of the finest collections of lichens in 
Britain. 
Bristot.—The University has made the following 
appointments to the professorial chairs mentioned :— 
Botany: Dr. Otto Vernon Darbishire, lecturer in 
botany in the University. Education: Dr. Helen 
Marion Wodehouse, Principal of the Bingley Training 
College, Yorkshire. Henry Overton Wills Chair of 
Mathematics: Dr. H. Ronald Hassé, late fellow of 
St. John’s College, Cambridge; senior lecturer in 
mathematics in the University of Manchester. 
Mechanical Engineering: Major Andrew Robertson. 
Henry Overton Wills Chair of Physics: Dr. Arthur 


‘Mannering Tyndall, acting head of the department of 


physics in the University during the war. 


Henry 
NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


Overton Wills Chair of Physiology: Dr. George A. 
Buckmaster, assistant professor of physiology in the 
University of London. 


LivERPOOL.—A course of lectures on oceanography, | 
open to the public, without fee, will be delivered by 
Prof. W. A. Herdman during the autumn and Lent 
terms, commencing on October 14. 

Dr. Leonard Doncaster, F.R.S., has been appointed 
to the chair of zoology in the University. He is a 
fellow of King’s College, Cambridge; was lecturer in 
zoology, Birmingham University, in 1906-10; special 
lecturer in heredity and variation at Cambridge in 
1909; and University lecturer there in zoology, 
IQII-I7. 


Dr. Appison, Minister of Health, has provisionally 


‘promised to deliver the inaugural address at the open- 


ing of the session at the London (Royal Free Hos- 
pital) School of Medicine for Women on Wednesday, 
October 1, 


To a private deputation from the Education Com- 
mittee of the Parliamentary Labour Party, who urged 
upon him the desirability of an inquiry into the 
organisation and financial position of the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge, Mr. Fisher has made the 
important announcement that the Government has 
decided to appoint Commissions to inquire into the 
position of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
At both Universities the existing resources have proved 
inadequate to meet the increased cost of maintenance 
of the various departments, and a few months ago 
the authorities of each independently applied to the 
Government for financial aid. In reply to these 
requests Mr. Fisher, on behalf of the Government, 
stated that such grants out of Parliamentary funds 
could be sanctioned only on the condition that in due 
course comprehensive inquiries into the whole re- 
sources of the Universities and their colleges and the 
use made of them should be instituted by the Govern- 
ment. The Cambridge Senate on May 31 authorised 
the Vice-Chancellor to inform Mr. Fisher that the 
University would welcome a comprehensive inquiry 
into its financial resources, and at Oxford a similar * 
decision was taken by Convocation on June to. 


Tue President of the Board of Education has 
appointed a Committee to inquire into the organisa- 
tion of secondary education in Wales, and to advise 
how it may be consolidated and co-ordinated with a 
view. to the establishment of a national system of 
public education in Wales, regard being had to the 
provisions of the Education Act, 1918, and to the 
recommendations of the Royal Commission on Uni- 
versity Education in Wales. The members of the ° 
Committee are as follows :—The Hon. W. N. Bruce 
(chairman), Mr. W. R. Barker, Mr. J. N. Davies, Sir 
Owen Edwards, Miss M. L. Faithfull, Mr. William 
George, Mr. Thomas Griffiths, Miss E. P. Hughes, 
Prof. Ramsay Muir, the Rev. Prebendary Prosser, 
and the Rev. D. H. Williams. The secretary will 
be Mr. T. O. Roberts, to whom all communications 
on the subject should be addressed at the Board of 
Education, Victoria and Albert Museum, South 
Kensington, S.W.7. 

Tue Surveyors’ Institution offers annually four 
scholarships, two of Sol. per annum and two of 5ol., 
for intending land agents, valuers, building surveyors, 
municipal surveyors, etc. Each scholarship is tenable 
for three years at any university or affiliated college 
selected by the candidate successful in the competi- 
tive examination and approved by the council of 
the institution, subject to the scholar satisfying the 
authorities of his university or college in regard to 
progress and conduct. Each scholar, on election, must 
become a ‘member of the university or college selected, 


398 


NATURE 


and must sign an agreement, with the concurrence of 
his parents or guardians if a minor, to enter the office 
of a surveyor approved by the council with the view 
of practising as a surveyor in the future, or as an 


alternative to engage in advanced research work in 


subjects approved by the council as of value to the 
profession, and in due course to sit for the inter- 
mediate and final examinations of the institution. 
Election to the scholarships will be by competitive 
examination conducted by the Oxford and Cambridge 
Joint. Examination Board. In the examination candi- 
dates will be required to write an English essay 
chosen from four subjects set by the examiners and to 
present themselves for examination in either (a) lan- 
guage, (b) mathematics, or (c) science. If (a), not 
more than two of the following: Latin, Greek, 


French, German; if (b), mathematics only, or mathe-. 


matics and.one science subject; if (c), not more than 
two of the following: physics, chemistry, botany, 
physical geography, and elementary geology. The 
next examination will be held about the end of 
January. Entries should be addressed to the Secne- 
tary of the Surveyors’ Institution, 12 Great George 
Street, Westminster, by December 15 next. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LonpDoNn. 

Royal Society, June 26.—Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. A. E. H. Tutton: Monoclinic 
double selenates of the cobalt group. This memoir 
deals with the four double selenates of the. series 
R,M(SeO,),.6H,O, in which M is cobalt and R is 
potassium, rubidium, casium, and ammonium. <A 
complete crystallographic and physical investigation 
has been carried out on parallel lines to the work 
previously published concerning the magnesium, zinc, 
iron, and nickel groups, and to that concerning the 
complete analogous series of double sulphates, The 
results are in full accord with those derived from the 
previous investigations. Two dominant facts emerge, 
namely, (1) the progressive order of all the crystallo- 
graphic and physical properties, following the progres: 
sion of the atomic numbers (and therefore atomic 
weights) of the interchangeable alkali metals con- 
cerned, potassium, rubidium, and cesium; and 
(2) the almost perfect isostructure—that is, con- 
gruency, coincidence, and equality of dimensions of 
the elementary cells of the monoclinic space-lattices— 
of the crystals of the ammonium and rubidium salts 
of the group. The progression with atomic numbér 
referred to under (1) is completely explained by the 
operation of Moseley’s law, governing the progres- 
sive. structural complexity of the atoms in accordance 
with the sequence of the atomic number.—Hertha 
Ayrton: A new method of driving off poisonous gases. 
—Dr. F. W. Aston: Experiments with perforated 
electrodes on the nature of the discharge in gases at 
low pressure, Experiments are described on the dis- 
charge between electrodes of a large flat form per- 
forated with a long narrow slit, the charge passing 
through the slit being collected and measured in a 
Faraday cylinder. Direct measurements made with 
the Faraday cylinder behind the cathode and at the 
same potential seem to indicate that about half the 
total current in the discharge is brought up to the 
cathode by positive ions. Attempts to discover the 
distribution of velocities in this stream show that this 
is not directly determinable, owing to the very high 
ionisation in the region of the slit and other reasons, 
which are discussed. Using a perforated anode, it is 
found that as the distance from the cathode is in- 
creased arithmetically the current carried “by the 
cathode rays into the Faraday cylinder decreases geo- 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


metrically when the current is constant._-Ma 


and Prof. Karl Pearson: De Saint-Venant solution for 4 


the flexure of cantilevers of cross-section in the form 
of complete and curtate circular sectors; and the 


influence of the manner of y4iss the builiin“enaeaa 


the cantilever on its deflection.— 


sure, A. classification of some six hundred wind ob- 
servations over the North Sea, according to their 
velocities and directions, showed that the most stril- 
ing feature of the resulting values was their asym- 
metrical frequency distribution. From’ the fact tha 


this was noticeable in nearly every class, it was 
inferred that it could be produced only by variation in 


turbulence or systematic contortion of the isobars, on 
a scale too small to be recorded on the weather 


The latter cause, however, and also such variations in _ 


turbulence as keep the coefficient of eddy viscosity the 
same at all heights, would lead to strong correlations 
between S/G and a, which are not observed. Hence 
it is concluded that the principal cause of variation 
in the relation of the surface wind to the gradient is 
variation in the vertical distribution of turbulence; and 
it is shown that such variation could give the effects 
actually observed.—Prof. H. O’Donoghue: The 


blood vascular system of the Tuatara, Sphenodon — 
punctaius.—G. H. Livens: The fundamental formula- . 


tions of electro-dynamics. The object aimed at in this 

paper is the removal of certain difficulties and dis- 

crepancies which exist in the usual formulations of 

electro-dynamic theory. After a brief statement of 

the differential theory in which a new equation, 
dB_dH 


al 
mg = pre op ate +47 Curl [Iz], 


is introduced to express the time-rate of change of 
the magnetic force H when the magnetic media are in 
motion with a velocity v, a general formulation of 
the theory based on the principle of least action is 
developed, in a manner which leads directly to ex- 
pressions for the intrinsic energies of the polarised 
media, for the forces per unit volume on the polarised 
and charged media, and, finally, for the lete 
electro-motive forcé on the moving electrical elements. 
—Dr. A. E, Oxley: The influence of molecular con- 
stitution and temperature on magnetic susceptibility. 
Part iv,: Further applications of the molecular field. 
The main paper is a continuation of the work pub- 
lished in Roval Society Transactions, A, vols. ecxiv. 
(1914), and A, ccxv. ON and Royal Society Pro- 
ceedings, A, vol. xcv. (1918). It deals with the addi- 
tional applications of the local molecular forcive in 
crystalline and vitreous media. It is shown that the 
change of volume on crystallisation can be interpreted 
as a magneto-striction effect of the molecular field. 
The molecular field is assumed to be proportional to 
the local intensity of magnetisation, the coefficient of 
proportionality. being the reciprocal of the limiting 
susceptibility under field strengths equal to the respec- 
tive molecular fields at different temperatures. A 
discussion of the nature of the molecular field is given, 
and the conclusion is reached that the forces of 
crystallisation are of a magnetic nature. The large 
value of the local magnetic forcive suggests that they 
may» play an important part in chemical combination, 
and further evidence is given for the existence of the 
magneton in diamagnetic media.—A. Mallock; Dif- 
fusion of light by rain, cloud, or fog. In this note 
attention is directed to the similarity between the 
diffusion of light by small drops and the diffusion of 
heat by conduction. The drops under consideration 
are supposed to have, at least, diameters of many 


[Juty 17, 1919 


: r. H. Jeffreys: The — 
relation between wind and the distribution of pres- — 


‘t 
+; 
Ry 


& 


wave-lengths of the light scattered by them, so that ~ 


peculiarities of diffusion dependent on the relation of 


~ Rain, cloud, and fog are formed of such drops. 


. 


: Jury 17, 1919] 


NATURE 


399 


diameter to wave-length do not affect the results. 
The 
opacity of a space containing a number of drops in- 
sufficient completely to obliterate objects on the far 
side depends on the lowering of the contrast between 


light and shade brought about by the light scattered 


by them, and not on any blurring or lack of defini- 


tion. The amount of direct light which reaches the 


eye from a source within a fog or shower is 
to 2-™, where ml is the distance of the 


pro- 


portional 
source from the eye, and / is the thickness of the 
-. stratum which reduces the direct light by one-half. 


- Normally, these are slightly inclined rocks. 


The reduction to one-half will be caused by such a 
mumber of drops as would, if placed side by side in 
a plane to which the ray is normal, cut off all the 
direct light; but when the same number of drops are 
distributed at random in a volume of thickness | in 
the direction of the ray, they allow half the direct 
light to pass, in consequence of the probability that 


‘some of them screen others, and thus leave space for 
direct radiation. 
rate of rainfall (1 in. per day=1/86,000 in. per second) 
and the opacity of a shower. 


A relation is shown between the 


Physical Society, June 13.—Prof. C. H. Lees, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. Balth. van der Pol, jun.: 
Comparison of the wave-form of the telephone cur- 
rent produced by a thermal detector and by a rectifier 
in heterodyne reception.—Profs. E. Wilson and E. F. 
Herroun: The magnetic properties of varieties of 

ite. The magnetic properties of certain varie- 
ties of magnetite as exhibited by crystallised, com- 
pact, Or massive specimens and detached particles 
ave been examined. In each case the susceptibility 
has been found to vary with the magnitude of the 
magnetising force after the manner of iron, the rela- 
tive variation being much more pronounced in the 
ease of those specimens having the higher suscepti- 
bility? The maximum susceptibility in the specimens 
examined occurs at a force ranging from 13 C.G:S. 
units in the crystal to 368, its magnitude varying 
from 3-12 to 0-127 C.G.S. units. The effect of heating 
has been greatly to increase susceptibility in some 
cases, and in others a negative effect has been pro- 


duced. In the case of a specimen of Penryn mag- 
‘netite, the large increase in the susceptibility was 


traced to the conversion of ferrous carbonate and 
ferric oxide into magnetite. Very high susceptibility 
in magnetite is never associated with high coercive 


‘force or retained magnetisation, the greatest values 


for the latter exhibited by specimens having an inter- 


“mediate value of susceptibility of the order of 0-3 or 
0-4. Lower susceptibility may be associated with high 


coercive force, but naturally the retained magnetisa- 
tion is not very great, owing to the lower maximum’ 


of induced magnetisation. 


Geological Society, June 25.—Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, 


: ident, in the chair—A. E. Kitson: Outlines of 


the geology of Southern Nigeria (British West Africa), 
with especial reference to the Tertiary deposits. The 


oldest rocks in Southern Nigeria comprise a series of 
-quartzites, schists of various kinds, blue and white 


marble, grey limestones, altered tuffs and lavas, amphi- 
bolites, and gneisses. They may be classed provisionally 
as pre-Cambrian.. So far as they have been observed, 
there is a great hiatus between the pre-Cambrian and 
the next known sediments, the Upper Cretaceous. 
Flanking 
the Udi plateau on the south and south-east, and 
extending thence over the southern part of the great 
valley to the Cross River, is a series of Eocene 
estuarine shales, clays, and marls, with septarian 
nodules and pieces of coal and resin, and a rich fauna 


_ consisting principally of mollusca, but including frag- 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103 | 


| mentary remains of whales, birds, fishes, and turtles. 


A thick series of sandstones, mudstones, shales, and 
seams of brown coal forms a large portion of the 
basin of the Niger, west of the Udi plateau. In the 
Ijebu Jebu district are bituminiferous sands and clays 
with Pliocene estuarine shells. Extending over prac- 
tically the whole of the country south of lat. 7° 10’ N., 
and west of the great valley of the marine Cretaceous, 
is a varying thickness of (usually unstratified) clayey 
sands, probably late Pliocene—the Benin Sands series 
of Mr. J. Parkinson. Along the coast-line and ex- 
tending for considerable distances up the Niger and 
Cross Rivers are fluviatile, deltaic, littoral, and swamp 
gravels, sands, and muds of Pleistocene and Recent 
age. In the Cross River basin, intruded into the 
marine Cretaceous, are volcanic necks of decomposed 
agglomerate, and sills (?) and dykes of olivine- 
dolerite. These are probably pre-Eocene. The 
Yorubaland crystalline rocks contain magnetite in 
considerable quantities, while these and the crystal- 
line rocks of the Oban Hills show smaller quantities 
of cassiterite, gold, monazite, and columbite.—J. B. 
Harrison and C.-B. W. Anderson: Notes on the 
extraneous minerals in the coral-limestones of Bar- 
bados. Characteristic representative specimens of the 
fossil reef-corals and of the beach-rock of the high- 
level and low-level limestone terraces of Barbados 
were examined chemically and microscopically in 
order to ascertain the, composition, nature, and origin 
of their extraneous mineral contents. | Chemical 
analyses of the residua were made, and the results 
of these and of the microscopical examinations. are 
tabulated in the paper. The extraneous minerals 
present were found to be apparently fresh and largely 
unaltered fragments of wind-borne volcanic minerals 
and glass. It was found that the volcanic minerals 
enclosed in the reef-corals on which they fell have 
been protected from change; those in the clastic 
limestone or bed-rock show signs of detrition and 
weathering prior to the consolidation of the lime- 
stone. Similar minerals separated from clay normally 
formed -and accumulated in a pothole in the lime- 
stone supply evidence of. weathering changes after 
being set free from the rock. It is shown that the 
composition of the sedentary residual soils on the 
higher limestone-terraces of Barbados corresponds in 
its essential parts with the residua separated, either 
naturally or artificially, from the limestone. The pro- 
portions of magnesium carbonate present in the coral- 
rock are briefly discussed, and complete analyses of 
the high-level and the low-level limestones are given. 


DUBLIN. . 
June 23.—The Most Rev. J. H. 


Royal Irish Academy, I 
the chair.—A. Henry and Miss 


Bernard, president, in 


larch, Larix eurolepis. This tree is raised in large 
uantities from the seed of ten Japanese larches (L. 
leptolepis) growing at Dunkeld in the vicinity of 
numerous European larches (L. ewropaea), from which 
pollen is wafted by the wind. The seedlings are 
intermediate between the two parents, as shown by 
microscopical examination of the sections of the 
leaves, by the colour é 
scales of the cones, and by the colour of the twigs, 
leaves, etc. The hybrid seedlings, of which more than 
roo acres have been planted on the Dunkeld, Athol, 
and Murthly estates, are very vigorous. Attention 
is directed to the function of the papilla on the surface 
of the leaf, which are constant in L. leptolepis, absent 
in L. europaea, and only present on a few cells in the 
case of the hybrid. Reference is also made to other 
hvbrid conifers, including L. marschlinsit, Coaz, 
| which has recently appeared in Switzerland; L. pen- 


M. G. Flood: The history of the Dunkeld hybrid , 


and form of the bracts and . 


400 


NATURE 


[Juty 17, 1919. 


dula, Salisbury; and Tsuga jeffreyi, A. Henry. The 
last is a peculiar hemlock spruce, originally raised at 
Edinburgh in 1851 from seeds collected by Jeffrey. It 
has recently appeared again at Cowichan Lake, Van- 
couver Island, from which locality a single plant has 
been sent to Knapton, Abbeyleix, Ireland. 


CaLcurta. 

Asiatic Society of Bengal, June 4.—N. Nath Sen: 
Interaction of phosphorus halides and arsenious and 
arsenic compounds.—H. H. Haines: Some -new 
species of plants from Bihar and Orissa.—H. C. 
Das-Gupta: Notes.on the Panchet reptile. In part i. 
a few bones of the celebrated Panchet reptile ob- 
tained from the neighbourhood of ‘Asansol are 
described, and in part ii. the question of the sys- 
tematic position of the reptile is reviewed, as of late 
doubts have been raised regarding its Dicynodont 
nature. An examination of all the materials available 
shows the author that though, without the discovery 
of an entire skull, the zoological position of the 
Panchet reptile cannot be definitely settled, there is 
no reasonable ground to suppose that Lydekker was 


_™mistaken when he placed the Panchet reptile under 


his new generic name Ptychosiagum = Ptychognathus, 
Owen. The only other genus, with which some of the 
Panchet bones agree is Oudenodon, but the presence 
of tusks shows that it cannot be assigned to that 
genus.—H. C. Das-Gupta: Note on a mammalian 
fossil from [Bhavanagar (Kathiawar). In this paper 
the author has described a mammalian humerus ob- 
tained at Hathab. The fossil is fragmentary, and 
no generic determination is possible. It is, how- 
ever, interesting as being the first record of a G4j 
mammal obtained in Kathiawar. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 
A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu 


Languages. By Sir H. H. Johnston. Pp. xi+8rs. 
(Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1919.) “4 35. oe 
Eugenics and* Environment. By Prof. C.  L. 


Morgan, Pp. 82. (London: John Bale, ‘Sons, and 
Danielsson, Ltd., 1919.) 2s. net. 

The Problem of Sex Diseases. By Major A. 
Corbett-Smith.. Second edition. Pp. xv+107. 
(London: John Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, Ltd., 


191g.) 2s. 6d. net. 
Salt and the Salt Industry. By A. F. Calvert. 
Common Commodities and Industries 


(Pitman’s 
Series.) Pp. viit1g1. (London: Sir Isaac Pitman 
B 


and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) 2s. 6d. net. 
The Return to Oxford: A Memorial Lay. By W. 
Garstang. Pp. 14. (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1919.) 


»Is. net. 


The Mechanism of Evolution in Leptinotarsa. By 
W. L. Tower. (Publication No. 263 of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington.) Pp. viii+384+ 19 plates. 
(Washington : Carnegie Institution, 1918.) 

_History of the Theory of Numbers. Vol. i., Divisi- 
bility and Primality. By Prof. L. E. Dickson. (Pub- 
lication No. 256 of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington.) Pp. xii+486. (Washington: Carnegie 
Institution, 1919. 
_ The Adolfo Stahl Lectures in Astronomy. Delivered 
in San Francisco, California, in 1916-17 and 1917-18, 
under the auspices of the Astronomical Society of the 
Pacific. Pp. xiv+257+liii plates. (San Francisco: 
Astronomical Society of the Pacific.) 2.75 dollars. 

Problémes Scientifiques d’Alimentation en France 
pendant la Guerre. Bibliographie Analytique des 
Travaux Francais publiés pendant la Guerre (1914-18). 
Par R. Legendre. Pp. 160. (Paris: Masson et Cie, 
1919.) 6 francs net. 


NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 


Government Printing, India, 1919.) 


Number Stories of Long Ago. By Prof. D. E. 
(Boston, Mass., and London: 


Smith. Pp. vii+136. 
Ginn and Co., I919.) 2s. 3d. net. 

Number Puzzles before the Log 
Given in the ‘‘Number Stories of Long Ago.”’ 
Prof. D. E. Smith. Pp. iv+14. 
and London: Ginn and Co., 1919.) 6d. net. 

Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. 
Smallholders. No. 3: Co-operation for Small Pro- 
ducers. Pp. 15. (London: Secretary of Board, 
3 St. James’s Square, London, S.W.1, 1919.) 2d. 

Board of Scientific Advice for India. Annual Report 
for the Year 1917-18. (Calcutta: Superintendent, 
14 annas, or 
Is. 3d. 


DIARY OF SOCIETIES. . 


THURSDAY, Juv 17. ; f 
Society or CuEemicat Inpustry (at the Salters’ Hall, St. Swithin’s Lane, 
aC), at 10.30 a.m.-r p.m., and 3-5 p.m.—Conference on Dye Stuffs, 
Synthetic Drugs, and Associated Products. Dr. Herbert Levinstein : 
Progress in the British Dyestuff Industry.—James Morton : Dyestuffs and 
British Textiles.—Prof. G. T. Morgan: Certain Colour-producing Inter- 
mediates.—E. V. Evans: The Manufacture of Intermediates.—F. 
Carr : The Manufacture of Synthetic Drugs.—Dr.. W. R. Innes: Photo- 
graphic Chemicals.—Dr. M. O. Forster: The Organised Preparation of 
Laboratory Chemicals.—At the Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, E.C., at 
10.30 a.m.-t p.m.—Conference on the Chrome Tanning Industry. 
Prof. D. McCandlish: The Development of the Chrome Tanning 
Industry in the United States of America.—M. C. Lamb: The 
Progress of the Chrome Tanning Industry in Great Britain.—Dr. 
Gordon Parker: The War Services of the Chrome Teas Industry. — 
t 3-5 p.m.—Conference on Recent Developments in the Fermenta- 
tion Industries. Sir Frederick Nathan: The Manufacture of Acetone.— 
Amos Gill: The Acetone Fermentation Process and its Technical Appli- 
cations.—A. Chaston Chapman : The Employment of Micro-organisms in 
the Service of Chemical Industry—A Plea for a National Institute of 
Micro-biology. 


CONTENTS. PAGE 
The Figure of the Earth. By E.H.H. ...... 381 
Plant Physiology. By W.R.G,A...... . 381 
Abnormal Psychology and Education. By T. H. P. 382 
Our. Bookshelf) 20) <0. 3 a 383 
Letters to the Editor :— 

Electro-Atomic Phenomena in the Magnetic Field.— 
Prof. Augusto Righi, For.Mem.R.S. ;. Dr, 
Norman R. Campbell. ... . oe Cae ae 

The Collection and Presentation of Public Statistics. 
—Geotfrey Drage ... «.. & ws oh: ee ee a eee 

The Fisheries and Scientific Research. ByJ.J. . 385 
An Undeveloped Aspect of Engineering Training . 387 
Reconstruction Problems. 6.200 1) 2. ie ee 387 
The Retugn of Rigg 0.5. oy eae : . . 388 
Notés {o.asnus. eee J OTRO gee . 389 
Our Astronomical Column:—_. : 
The Movement of the Earth’s Pole . . .... + + 392 
The Masses of Binary Stars ...... Die woe 
Science ‘in Industry:, Lectures at the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition ......... 392 
American Astronomy. ...... PHRND Peae Cy ky 394 
The Museums Association ......... : 394 


The North-East Coast Institution of Engineers 
and: Shipbuilders ?../2)...... 05.0) co), Se oe ee 395 
The Significance of the Cerebral Cortex ..... 396 


University and Educational Intelligence... . . . 397 
Societies and Academies. ...... os Ce ae tear, <a 
Books Received. . PE PED ANI 400 
Diary. Gf SOCMptGB aos. 5 os se oe ee a eke 400 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON,. W.C.z2. | 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 


Publishers. 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusis, Lonpon. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. ‘ 


Fire : Being those. 
By 
(Boston, Mass., 


Guides to 


NATURE 


401 


THURSDAY, JULY 24, wo. 


A GUIDE TO LENS CALCULATIONS. 

‘Applied Optics: The Computation of Optical 
Systems. Being the ‘Handbuch der ange- 
wandten Optik ’’ of Dr. Adolph Steinheil and 
Dr. Ernest Voit. Translated and edited by 
James Weir French. Vol. ii. ‘Pp. vi+207+Vv 
plates. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 

_ 1gtg.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 


a E introductory section of this volume ! con- 
tains an explanation of the ‘symbols em- 
ployed and of the sign conventions adopted, to- 
gether with extensive tables of formule designed 
to cover the trigonometrical calculation of rays 
through a series of centred refracting surfaces. 
The system described is probably far more exten- 
sively employed than any other’ by practical 
opticians. It is constructed throughout with a 
view to convenience in logarithmic computation, 
and only minor improvements have been effected 
since it was first published. Its popularity has 
not been seriously affected by the introduction of 
the calculating machine into the workshop. 
After a chapter on the measurement of refrac- 
tive indices and the calculation of achromatic 
prisms come three chapters on achromatic doublet 


objectives, which include fully worked: examples 


of the application of the formule given earlier. 
The authors set out to record their experience in 
designing optical systems, and to this end have 
tabulated the results obtained with series of objec- 
tives corrected for spherical and chromatic aberra- 
tions. They have not indicated which zone of 
- the objectives should be corrected to yield the 
_ most satisfactory performance, nor the maximum 
amount of the aberrations present for uncorrected 
zones, but, owing to the care with which the 
_ objectives have been calculated, the results given 
are of sufficient value to ensure for the book a 
place on the reference shelf of the optical com- 
puter. In finding the forms for the lenses the 
authors have been guided by a number of prin- 
ciples derived from the calculation of rays through 
‘a series of single lenses (see vol. i.). Of these, 
that relating to the influence of the lens form on 
spherical aberration may be singled out as of para- 
mount importance in designing doublet objectives. 
' The principle states that the spherical aberration 
of a single lens is a minimum when the deviation 
of a ray is divided equally between the two sur- 
faces, and subsequent developments show that 
this is regarded as an exact law rather than as 
a rough approximation. This conclusion is 


_ decidedly surprising, as the spherical aberration 


has previously been found to be less when the 
deviation is divided in the ratio 3: 2 than when 
it is equally divided. It is not difficult to prove 
that, for minimum aberration, the deviation at 
the first surface must be greater or less than that 
at the second according as the dimensions of the 


‘ 1 A review of the first volume was published in Nature, September 26, 
1918, vol. cii., p. 61. ° 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


object are greater or less than those of the image. 
The extent of the difference involves the refrac- 
tive index as well as the magnification, and cases 


‘| may easily arise in which the supposed law leads 


to serious errors. The forms given for the lenses 
with flattest possible flint components are incor- 
rect, owing to this error of principle. 

It may be noted that some conclusions which 
were correct at the time the book was written do 
not necessarily apply if types of glass produced 
within the last thirty’ years are employed. 

The original German edition was not free from 
a number of important errors, and most of these 
are present in this translation. In a second 
edition the formule should be carefully revised, 
and errors in the constructional data of the objec- 
tives corrected by recalculation. The original 
text is not always adhered to, and the new defini- 
tion for the sign of the deviation gives the wrong 
result for a ray below the axis. The awkward + 
sign, which occurred frequently in the original, has 
generally been avoided. Changes have been 
made in the symbols, but m is retained as a vari- 
able angle. The table of differences between arcs 
and sines, intended for use in removing small 
residuals of spherical aberration, has been 
omitted. The appendices by Steinheil and Seidel 
on the determination of the best mean dispersion 
ratio, and by Seidel on the derivation of the 
formule for tracing a general ray, have been in- 
cluded in this volume. 

The translator has written a clear English text. 
The book is very well printed, and the thickness 
of the paper will be appreciated by those who 
require to refer to it frequently. One of the most 
serious omissions of the original has been reme- 
died by the inclusion of a very complete index. 
No pains have been spared to make the volume 
worthy of the position it is intended to take as 
a standard book of reference for the optical com- 
puter. Ais 


COLLOID-CHEMISTRY. 


A Handbook of Colloid-Chemistry. The Recogni- 
tion of Colloids, the Theory of Colloids, and 
their General Physico-Chemical Properties. By 
Dr. Wolfgang Ostwald. Second English 
edition, translated from the third German 
edition by Prof. Martin H. Fischer. With 
numerous notes added by Emil Hatschek, 
Pp. xvi+284.. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 
1919.) Price 15s. net. he 

es increasing recognition of the importance 

of a study of colloidal matter, both for 
physical theory and for industrial practice, has led 
to a growing demand for text-books dealing speci- 
ally with this branch of science. Hitherto this de- 
mand has been chiefly met by works in the German 
language or by translations of these, and of such 
works the one before us has for a number of years 
occupied a foremost. place. This, doubtless, is 
due in no small measure to the marked activity 
of the author both as an investigator and as 

e4 


402 NATURE [JULY 24, 1919 
editor of the Kolloid-Zeitschrift. | Wolfgang | somewhat haphazard ~ manner. “Molecular a 


Ostwald possesses in no small degree the literary 
facility of his father; and although this facility 
leads sometimes to an over-wordiness of expres- 
sion, the author has had considerable success 
in directing the attention of wide circles of 
workers to the importance of the study of 
colloids. 

Although the third German edition, from which 
the first English translation was made, was pub- 
lished in 1912, the translation was not published 
until 1915. It will be understood, therefore, that 
the publishers and translator were placed in a 
position of some difficulty when they had to meet 
the demand for a new edition of the English 
version of the work. To issue merely a reprint 
would have meant the continuance for some years 
of a book which at the time of its first appearance 
was already somewhat out of date; and to obtain 
a revision of the book by the author was impos- 
sible owing to the existence of a state of war. A 
compromise was therefore adopted, the co- 
operation of Mr. E. Hatschek was obtained, and 
an attempt was made to revise and bring up to 
date the original translation. The translators 
have sought to meet the situation “by leaving 
entirely untouched those large portions of -the 
volume which contain the author’s individual 
views, to correct errors in’ quotation and in 
mathematical formule, and to add’’ (by the pen 
of Mr. Hatschek) ‘numerous paragraphs intended 
to bring to the reader various important advances 
in colloid-chemistry which have been made since 
1912, especially such as have to do with the 
mechanical properties of colloids, more particu- 
larly their viscosity.’’ The reviewer must confess 
that he is not impressed by the success of: the 
attempted revision. 

It is to be regretted, in the first place, that the 
translators have not indicated more clearly the 
additions which have been made, but it would 
appear, from such comparison with the first 
edition as the reviewer has been able to carry out, 
that the additions are confined, essentially, to two 
sections on “Rate of Shear and Viscosity of 
Emulsoids ’’ and “Theory of Viscosity of Emul- 
soids.’’ These two sections, by an active worker 
in this domain, are valuable and have been satis- 
factorily incorporated in the work. Sentences 
have also been added here and there, but the 
book, as a whole, can scarcely claim to be up. to 
date; and it is to be regretted that the translators 
did not seek more fully a way out of their diffi- 
culties by more numerous footnote references to 
the recent literature. Apart from those in 
the new sections added by. Mr. Hatschek, the 
reviewer has noticed only about half a dozen refer- 
ences to literature published since the date of the 
first edition. “The translation has, in several par- 
ticulars,. been improved. “Dispersion medium,” 
for example, has been substituted for “ dispersion 
means,’’ but it seems a pity to retain the expres- 
sion “internal friction ’’ for ‘“‘viscosity,’’ and a 
still greater pity to make use of both terms in a 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


kinetic ’’ 
substituted for 
mental “results 


“‘moleculo-kinetic, ”’ 
would be more pleasing, to an 


” 


English ear at least, than experimental “finds” 


ings. 

Apart from the criticism which has been offered, 
the book is a very useful one both for the specialist 
student of colloids and for the large number of 
workers in the various domains of science and 
industry in which colloids are now: recognised as 
playing an important part. A survey of the more 
important features of colloid-chemistry is here 
presented in an interesting and readable, although 
sometimes rather too diffuse, form; and the book 
furnishes a good introduction to a more detailed 
and special study of the subject. The work does 
not, however, claim to be exhaustive; and the 
translators, by rendering “ Grundriss ’’ as “ Hand- 


book,’’ give a somewhat false idea of the scope 
of the book. Ay Pi 
PHYSIOLOGY FOR STUDENTS AND 


PRACTITIONERS, 


A Text-book of Physiology. By. Dr. Martin Flack 
and Dr. Leonard Hill. Pp. viii+ 8oo. (Londoe> 
Edward Arnold, 1919.) Price 25s. net. 


HE authors of this text-book demave. 

hearty congratulations on having treated the 
subject in a somewhat unorthodox way 
which is decidedly interesting. Whether the work 
will appeal to the rather whimsical tastes of the 
medical student or teacher remains to be seen, 
since, on one hand, it may be regarded as 
departing, in certain respects, too much from the 
beaten track of examination requirements, and, 
on the other, cannot by any means be 
regarded as a cram-book for rapid revision, It 
is, nevertheless, written expressly for the use of 
medical students and practitioners, to the latter 
of whom it should appeal strongly. 

The authors, as teachers of long experience pod 
wide repute, have a right to record their general 
attitude to the subject in the form of a text-book, 
but it is almost certain that many teachers will 
disagree with them regarding the balance of the 
various sections of the work. Among the best 
features of the book are the clearness of the tables 
and schemes, and the great wealth of illustrative 
detail drawn from the most’ varied sources 
(pp. 500, 633, 771, for instance). The chemical 
parts are treated with brevity, and contain 
some statements that will not be generally 
accepted. Thus (p. 31) colloids are said to exert 


no osmotic pressure; again (p. 85), it is ques- 


tioned whether amino-acids are normal constitu- 
ents of blood plasma; on p. 93 the chemistry of 
formation of methemoglobin is unorthodox, — 
One of the most fully treated sections is that 
dealing with the circulation; there are, however, 
some errors in this portion—for instance, in the 
description of the heart-lung preparation and im 


"could, with advantage, be everywhere 
and experi- 


———. oe ee 


SS all Ue”, ee 
: : 4 , 7 


don: Chapman and Hall, 


ee ee eee ee ee ee ee ee? UU, 


_ much increased its value. 


Jury 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


403 


the account of the cardiometer (Fig. 68); it is 
also unfortunate that reference is not made to 
the term ‘ “Premature contraction ”’ as an alterna- 
tive to “extra systole,’’ as. the latter is 
objected to by some authorities. These small 
points are chosen as illustrating the kind of thing 
which can be readily altered in subsequent 
editions. The question of the general balance of 
the book is largely a matter of opinion, and prob- 
ably no two readers will agree as to the chapters 
which might be considered as _ inadequately 
treated; to the present reviewer those on the 
central nervous system, the kidney, and _ the 
physiology of muscle and nerve appear to require 
expansion. Histological considerations are 
omitted, no doubt in order to save space, but, 
nevertheless, there are a large number of illus- 
trations; some of these (52, 53, 336, 391-393, 
399, 400) might perhaps have been omitted with- 
out much loss, though the excellence of the illus- 
trations is one of the strong features of the book ; 
few of them are likely to be familiar to students 
from perusal of other text-books. 

The book should be much appreciated by 
advanced students on account of the treatment of 
some of the sections in a manner new to students’ 
books, and by elementary students owing to the 
interesting manner in which the subject is treated. 


EE a ee eee 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


Hiiiemeal Catalysts in Life and Industry. 

Proteolytic Enzymes. By Prof. Jean Effront. 
_ Translated by Prof. Samuel C. Prescott, 
assisted by Charles S. Venable. Pp. xi+752. 
ae (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; Lon- 
Ltd., 1917.) ’ Price 
235. net. 


‘tae’ name “biochemical catalysts ’’ is used by the 


author as an alternative for the more usual name 


of “enzymes,’’ and has the advantage of calling 
to mind the fact that these are only a particular 
class. of catalysts. The present work is devoted 
to those enzymes which act on proteins and their 
degradation products. It includes also a_ dis- 
cussion of the phenomena of immunity, as well 
as of the processes of coagulation of the blood 
and milk, processes with regard to which some 
doubt may be felt. as to their being catalytic. 
Urease is also described. 

An excellent and complete account of the 
subject is given up to the date of the original 
French work, which appears to be not later than 
1912. It is somewhat unfortunate that the trans- 
lator has not added supplementary notes to bring 
the book up to date, an addition that would have 
Indeed, scme may be 
inclined to wonder why the mere translation of 
the original book was considered necessary. All 
readers interested should be able to. read the 
French edition. The date of the original work 
ress accounts for some statements which are 

no longer correct. For ¢xample, it is said that 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


enzymes are proteins, and the existence of true 
anti-bodies to enzymes is accepted. , In this con- 
nection it may be mentioned that British and 
American work is rather meagrely referred to. 
On the whole, however, the book will be found 
a useful one, especially in that part dealing with 
those industrial processes in which proteolytic 
enzymes play an important part. Such are brew- 
ing, cheese- and bread-making, tanning, and their 
use in therapeutics. The fixation of nitrogen by 
the soil and the question of the value of amino- 
acids as exclusive nitrogen food for animals are 
discussed in some detail. 

An interesting introductory section will be 
found. We may note that the author is inclined 
to favour the theory of surface action rather than 
that of the formation of intermediate compounds 
of a chemical nature. W. M..B. 


Formulaire de l’Electricien et du Mécanicien. By 
Hospitalier et Roux. Vingt-neuviéme édition 
(i919). By Gaston Roux. Pp. 11+1485. 
(Paris: Masson et Cie, 1919.) Price 20 francs. 


Tue older generation of electricians are well 
acquainted with the earlier editions of this work; 
and much of our standard nomenclature, as well 
as many of the symbols in everyday use, is due 
to Hospitalier. Nowadays numerous other pocket- 
books partially fulfil the functions of a book of 
reference for electricians, but not any of them 
are so complete or so well arranged as this book. 
We are. inclined to grumble at its size—it con- 
tains now nearlv 1500 pages—but it is difficult 
to find anything that might be cut out with advah* 
tage, and there are many subjects, like wireless 
telegraphy and telephony, which one would like 
tc see included. 

The first 500 pages are on purely academic 
subjects—mathematics, physics, dynamics, etc. 
and enable the engineer to refresh his memory 
of his college studies. The next 600 pages are 
on electro-technical subjects, and the remainder 
of the book contains French official documents, a 
comparison of which with our own Board of Trade 
regulations is very instructive. A gomnles index 
is given. 

In several places theorems have been abbrevi- 
ated in order to save space, with unfortunate 
results. For instance, the theorems on the design 
of networks are almost unintelligible. On p. 856 
we cannot understand what Santarelli’s theorem 
is. In the first theorem by Bochet there is a fairly 
obvious misprint in the, final formula. In the 
second it is not stated what condition the © 
conductors have to fulfil in order that their mass 
may be a minimum; the formule. given, there- 
“fore, may well be misleading. -From the 1909 
edition we find that the condition they must satisfy 
is that the sum of the voltage drops is constant. 
This is quite unpractical. The real. condition is 
that the power expended in them should be a 
minimum when the.maximum voltage drop is 
fixed. The solution of this problem. does not 
agree with’ that given on p. 857. A. R. 


bree 
i..O04 


404 


NATURE 


~ [Jury 24, 1919 


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 ts 
taken of anonymous communications.] 


Research and Service. 

THERE appeared in Nature for February 13 last 
a criticism from the pen of Prof. F. Soddy of an 
attitude expressed by me in my book entitled ‘* The 
Twin Ideals.’? As there seems to be some possibility 
of misunderstanding, owing to the form of the work, 
may I briefly express the position I endeavoured -to 
indicate? Those who indulge in the monastic attitude, 
who withdraw from the world and prosecute re- 
search of a recondite character, are outside reasonable 
criticism provided the work is done at their own 
expense. If, however, this work is to be supported 
from public funds, justification is necessary, and the 
justification has appeared to me to be twofold. In 
the first place, few people have the inclination or 
capacity for research, and it is therefore an attitude 
that should be encouraged. In the second place, prac- 
tical discoveries of value are at times made inci- 
dentally to research of ‘the kind. It appears to me, 
however, that much damage is done by the assump- 
tion on the. part of such researchers that their efforts 
are the only line of research worth considering. I 
have never been able to satisfy myself that research 
conducted with a definitely practical end in view 
would not be equal to, if not more valuable than, the 
monastic form. lf have, therefore, simply asked that 
in their attitude to the world at large those who prefer 
the life of the scientific recluse should recognise the 
equal ‘value of the work of those whose inclinations 
take them in a practical direction, and that they 
should not seek to divert bright young intelligences 
into their own channel of activities when they tend to 
develop:.in the opposite direction. 

Furthermore, there seems to me to be a moral 
obligation on all men of science to take practical steps 
for the diffusion of the knowledge gained, so that 
anything of practical value may be utilised by 
humanity in general. It has seemed to me that the 
monastic habit in researchers, together with indiffer- 
ence to the immediate requirements of the world and 
with the disposition to regard their own set of agtivi- 
ties) as paramount, is apt to produce results that are 
beneficial neither to the individuals: concerned nor to 
the nation. James W. Barre&TT. 


Sir James Barrett reiterates in his letter the views 
he has expressed in his book ‘’The Twin Ideals,”’ 
which I reviewed in Nature, but I fail to see how 
they have been or can be misunderstood. He says 
that at times practical discoveries of value are made 
incidentally to researches pursued for their own sake, 
apart from practical ends, and that such investigators 
assume their efforts to be the only kind of research 
worth considering. It would be more generally agreed, 
I think, that all the great practical advances of the 
present scientific era owe their origin to purely 
theoretical investigations pursued for their own sake, 
and that such work is as different from the pursuit 
of practical discoveries of value as scientific explora- 
tion is from prospecting for gold, minerals, or specific 
commodities. To ask whether researches conducted 
with a definite practical end are not equal, if not 
superior, to those concerned with the advancement of 
the boundaries of knowledge seems like asking 


whether the fruit of a tree is not of equal or superior ' 


value to its root. To suggest that those pursuing 
NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


researches of a recondite and academic character, who 
find it necessary for their work to withdraw largely 


from the practical world of affairs and politics, are 


only outside reasonable criticism if their work is 
pursued at their own expense seems as unreasonable 
as to deny nourishment to the roots of a tree because 
of their recluseness, their indifference to the imme- 
diate requirements of the world and inability to sur— 
vive being hauled out into it. FREDERICK SODDY. — 


Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larve. 

In the literature on mimicry and protective colour- 
ing, many writers have claimed that both the larva 
and imago of the currant moth (Abraxas grossu- 
lariata, Steph.) are protected by colouring and an 
acrid flavour, in 
usually rejected by wild birds. That the larvae of 
certain moths are distasteful to birds has been proved 
by actual experiment, but I have considerable doubts 
as to the inclusion of the currant moth in this 
category. 3 

In my work on the food of wild birds I have found 
the imagines, and more often the larvae, of Abraxas 
in the stomach of the song thrush, missel thrush, 
blackbird, great tit, whitethroat, house sparrow, 
yellow bunting, and cuckoo; and in 1918 large num- 
bers of the larva were found in the stomachs of the 
song thrush and missel thrush over a period of seven 
consecutive days. 

In the case of the song thrush, the parent birds 
were observed collecting these larva during the first 
five or six days after the young were hatched, and 
were seen to bring the same to the nest, where they 
were readily devoured by the young birds. Indeed, 
a very large proportion of the food fed to the nestlings 
during this period consisted of the larva of Abraxas. 
Then the parent birds suddenly ceased to feed upon 
them. 

Knowing that the supply was by no means exhausted, 
the currant bushes were examined and numerous 
larve observed. Forty-one specimens were collected 
and placed on fresh leaves in large glass dishes, 
but not one of the larve reached 
From this collection we hatched out fourteen masses 
of cocoons of Microgaster and twenty-seven specimens 
of Exorista. AM 

Although the currant bushes were very badly in- 


fested with the larvz, we failed to find any pupz in — 


the soil beneath them, although it was collected and 
most carefully searched ; moreover, during the present 
season not a single larva of Abraxas has been found 
on these bushes, and there must have been thousands 
of them during 1918. 

Here, I think, we have an explanation of why the 
thrushes ceased to feed upon the larva, viz. because 
they were parasitised, and also an excellent example 
of two natural agencies—wild birds and insect para- 
sites—practically exterminating what would un- 
doubtedly have been a plague this year. 

It is well known that the larve of Abraxas are fre- 


quently parasitised by the two above-mentioned in- 


sects. Is it not possible that the parasitised larve 
alone are rejected by wild birds, and only the non- 
parasitised specimens fed from? 
Watter E. CoLiince. 
The University, St. Andrews. 


Science and Salaries. - 
Tue issue of Nature for July 11 contains a large 
number of advertisements of vacant posts of which 


details as to salary are stated in seventy-five cases. A 


few advertisements, which have been omitted from 
the following calculation, made no mention of salary. 


consequence of which they are 


e pupa stage. 


ee ee 


ee a vv 


PS ee oe 


Bi I is i a ti 


. then found, with the following result :— 


ei ie te an” ee ee et es a ees 


purchasing power previous to the war. 
- 2001 


_ JuLy 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


405 


Of the seventy-five, some said nothing ebout annual 


_ increment, a few gave the initial salary only, several 


gave both initial and maximum salaries, and some 
sufficient data to find the true average value of the 
Salary over a number of years. This information has 
been used to deduce reasonable estimates of the 
pieret of advancement in other cases where the 

ll data were wanting. 

The posts were classified into three divisions, which 
comprised, roughly, (A) professorships, (B) lecture- 
ships, and (C) demonstratorships, or the équivalent 
of these, though of necessity a certain amount of 
discretion was used in the process. The average of 
the mean (not the minimum) salary in each class was 


Class Number of vacancies Siete tl 
‘a Ue 16 ok 620 

is 22 ae 385 

nae : 37 eae 234 


The posts of the first class were nearly all at fixed 
salaries ; those of the second started at, roughly, 
320l., rising to 450l., per annum; those of the third 
went from an initial salary of about 2001. to 27ol. 
These salaries probably give a fair idea of the value 
placed by eel bodies on the trained brain 
at the present day. They are undoubtedly higher than 
would have been the case in pre-war conditions, at 
least in the lower and middle of the two classes; but 
if the best brain-power of the nation is to receive 
full encouragement—and if labour difficulties are to 
disappear, production increase, and British civilisation 
advance, this can come only from full encouragement 
—these salaries are still far from adequate. Money 
has to-day little, if any, more than 45 ver cent. of its 
Salaries of 

ool. and 600l. to-day bring their possessors no greater 
shares of economic goods than gol. and 27o0l. in 1914. 

It is ie eg to be recognised—it is already recog- 
-nised in the United States—that the elevation of the 
general level of prices is now more or less permanent, 
and that a return to a lower level, at least in this 


he - eagaee ih is. improbable, even if it should be desir-- 


. The class of manual labourers has had_ its 


_ wages increased almost, if not quite, in proportion to 


the rise in prices. The mercantile community, work- 


fi aves it does on percentage margins, has made 


nary profits commensurate with that rise, and, in 


_ addition, has obtained unearned profits resulting from 


the rise itself. The class of fixed salary earners, 
which comprises the brain-workers of the nation, the 
professional class, has borne the brunt of the rising 
prices without anything like an adjustment of salary 
corresponding with the rise. It is the hardest hit 
of all by the war, and yet this class, perhaps more 


_ than any other, has contributed to winning the war. 
' Hitherto patriotism has kept it silent. 


Now, how- 
ever, the time has come when the scale of the pro- 
fessional man’s salary must be revised. Incomes such 
as those found above do not admit of the upbringing 
and education of a family as befits its inherited 


ability; of the expenses inevitable if a man is to keep 


abreast of his profession; and of saving and insurance 
against sickness. age, and death. 

“In war-time,’’ writes the Economist of July 12, 
in a ‘‘business note”’ on British and German science, 
““we make full use of our men of science. If we did 
so in peace they might be as useful for production 
as they have been for destruction.’’ The first step 
is to see that they get what, for them, is a living 


salary, else there will be no men of science to use. 


The second step is to see that their teachers get 
adequate remuneration, else there will be no training 
to make men of science of them. Cc. 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


MODERN SINGLE-OBSERVER RANGE- 
FINDERS. 
“pew years ago the War Office asked for 
a rangefinder for field service that would 
measure ranges to within 4 per cent. at 1000 yards 
—that is, 40 yards at 1000 yards, or 160 yards at 
2000 yards. A _ single-observer rangefinder of 
3e in. base was designed to fulfil these require- 
ments. In 1892 a naval rangefinder was required 
that would work within an error of 3 per cent. at 
3000 yards, which is equivalent to 1 per cent. at 
1000 yards. This demand was met by a range- 
finder of 4 ft. 6 in. base. Whereas in 1895 the 
effective range of naval gunnery was between 2000 
and 3000 yards, the effective range in 1904 was 
6000 yards. For this service a rangefinder of 
g ft. base was introduced. 

At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, firing com- 
menced at a range of more than 20,000 yards, and 
although the makers had already constructed 
rangefinders of 15 ft. to 35 ft. base, the majority of 
the Service rangefinders were still of 9 ft. base, tne 
Fifth Battle Squadron alone having been equipped 
with 15 ft. base rangefinders capable of measuring 
a range of 20,000 yards to within 170 yards, an 
error equivalent to 18 in. at 1000 yards. The 
30 ft. base rangefinders exhibited by Messrs. Barr 
and Stroud, Ltd., at their stand at the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition are designed to 
work within half this error (Fig. 1). - 

Thus in the development of single-observer 
rangefinders during the past thirty years, the un- 
certainty of observation has been reduced from 40 
yards at 1000 yards to the equivalent of g in. 
at 1000 yards; that is, the accuracy has been in- 
creased 160-fold. . 

This increase of accuracy has been obtained by 
increasing the base length about 12-fold and the 
magnification about 3-fold, thus accounting for a 
36-fold increase. The remainder of the increase 
has been attained by refinements in the design and 
construction of the optical and mechanical ele- 
ments based upon the results of research work 
conducted continuously during many years by a 
large staff of scientifically trained observers. 

The accuracy of observation when using a co- 
incidence rangefinder is ultimately dependent 
upon the accuracy with which the eye can. detect 
a want of alignment between the partial images 
of the object in the field of view, and this largely 
depends upon the manner in which the images are 
presented for observation. As a result of much 
experience and many experiments on the align- 
ment of images as presented in the Barr and 
Stroud rangefinders, it would appear that, under 
ordinary good conditions of observation, a want of 
alignment between the images can be detected 
when they subtend at the eye an angle of about 
12 secs., #.e. o'0000582 in circular measure, 
although frequently a much smaller angle can be 
resolved. 

If B is the base of the rangefinder, M the 
magnifying power, and R the range, then. 


§ R=o'0000582 R*/MB. 


405 


NATURE 


[JULY 24, 1919 


Irom this formula it will be seen that, to decrease 
the error 6R at a particular range, either the 
magnification M or the base length B must be in- 
creased. In practice the magnification is limited 
by the permissible size of the optical parts and the 
necessity to provide for range-taking in dull light, 
by the quality of the optical glass, and by external 
circumstances such as mirage due to the interven- 
ing atmosphere. At the present time a magnifica- 
tion of more than 30 diameters is not desirable. 
When this maximum magnification is provided, 
the.required accuracy of observation is then ob- 
tained by increasing the base length. 

At the commencement of the war no British 
battleship carried a rangefinder of greater base 
than 9 ft. This base had been decided upon in 
1904, when the maximum effective range for the 


l Left (Scale) Eyepiece. Sao 
LAdjvater IMwminating Switen. EY Th 
ZTerminala for Desiccating and Window Cleaning Apparatuns.__ 2 
4 Cradie _ ~~ 
S.Left Bearing. 5. 
6. Stop for Rollers. 6. 


fe Se Ss 
> a 


~ 
13. Rangefinder Window. Bl Ue . oe 
‘ 14. Supporting Bracket. Mw” fe Sta idee ee et 
“15. Elevating Handle. | RE ede Ye ks 
16, Rangetakey's Seat ee es Ri 


{7. Azimuth Traung Gear. 
1B. Pedestal. 


Notwithstanding the use of g ft. 
in association with guns, the power of which has 


been so greatly developed during the last twelve 


years, the British Fleet at the Battle of Jutland 
defeated the German ships, which there is good 
reason to believe were equipped with rangefinders 
of 20 ft. base and, probably, to some extent 33 ft- 
base. In such circumstances it is not surprising 


that the German rangefinding was excellent : it is: 


more surprising that it was not very much better 
and that its excellence was confined to the Heat 
stage of the action. 

It should be observed that, for a given gun, the 
longer the range the more necessary it is to know 
the range accurately, on account of the greater 
angle of descent of the projectile—that is to say, 
an error of soo yards in range has a much: greater 


_,2 7. Right Eyepiece (3 power) 
ee oe Adjusting Heads 
J pn ~% Scale Conversion Gear. 

’ 


ee 7 AL Right Bearing. 
RAs C/T. Siecine Roller. 


Fiu, t.—Naval rangefinder type F.X. with uniform range scale accessories. 


Base length 30 ft. ; Magnifications 16, 20, and 28; acuta of 


observation under good conditions 330 yards at 40,000 yards range. 


opening of fire was generally assumed to be 
not greater than about 6000 yards. In the Battle 
of Jutland fire was carried out at ranges above 
20,000 yards. The Iron Duke, which carried 
only 9 ft. rangefinders, opened fire at 12,000 
yards. The rangefinders were, therefore, called 
upon to perform a duty at least four times as 
onerous as that for which they were originally 
designed. 
tion on existing ships of the larger types of range- 
finders available involved extensive structural 
alterations that could not readily be carried out, 
and it is only within very recent years that the 
importance of rangefinding has been recognised 
as being sufficient to justify the ships being de- 
signed for the accommodation of rangefinders 
most suitable for the guns. 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


It will be understood that the substitu-— 


effect on the ‘percentage of hits at 24,000 yards 
than at 6000 yards—but a rangefinder gives errors 
varying according to the square of the distance. 
The problem of finding a range of 24,000 yards 
within 100 yards is. sixteen times as difficult as the 
finding of a range of 6000 yards within the same 
limit. . 

The modern rangefinder differs from the earfier 
types in the size of the optical parts and, conse- 


quently, of the mechanical parts, and in the pro- 


vision of internal adjusting devices and of such 
accessories as variable power eye-pieces, light- 
filters, and apparatus involving complicated conical 
gearing for the conversion of the reciprocal scale 
into a uniform scale of ranges. 
provements have been effected in the mountings, 
which are necessarily designed to suit particular 


ae alas a MAA * > 


rangefinders. , 


ea 


Considerable im- 


ee ee ee tor 


JuLy 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


407 


requirements and the structural arrangements of 
the ships. Provision is now generally made for 
three operators, namely, the rangetaker, who also 
controls the rangefinder in elevation; the trainer, 
who is provided with a special sighting periscope ; 
and the scale reader, who transmits the ranges to 


‘the fire control station. 


. The advent of aerial craft has necessitated the 
use of special combined range and height finders 


_ which automatically determine the height of the 
_. target from its range and elevation. 


In the case 


of naval anti-aircraft instruments, the vertical 


from which the elevation is reckoned is defined 

means of a damped pendulum device. Anti- 
aircraft height finders for land purposes have the 
advantage of a steady platform, and in some 
respects the problem is simpler, as the horizontal 
can then be determined with sufficient accuracy 
by means of a good spirit level provided upon the 


_ mounting. 


Whereas the range of an approaching aero- 
plane changes so rapidly as to make the operation 
of maintaining the coincidence of the partial 
images in the field of view of a rangefinder a 
matter of some difficulty, the height of the aero- 
plane remains comparatively constant for consider- 
able periods. It is generally more convenient, 
therefore, to measure the height, from which the 
setting of the gun can be readily adjusted in rela- 
tion to a suitably engraved gunsight scale. As the 


range is a function of the elevation when the 


_ height is constant, an arrangement has been de- 


_ operation of following the target. 


’ 


i 


‘finders. 


vised whereby the partial images of the moving 
aerial target are kept in coincidence by the simple 
For this pur- 
pose, the. elevating gear’is arranged to act upon 


a the deflecting prism of the rangefinder through the 
intermediary of conical spiral géars, 
a Soe te to cams of the requisite form. 


which are 
If the 
height alters, the partial images can be brought 


= again | into coincidence by independent direct 


operation of the working head. Both heights and 
ranges are indicated by the instrument, the latter 


being better suited to gunnery purposes when the 


aircraft appears at a long distance over the 
horizon. 
The problem of hitting enemy aircraft at long 


_ ranges is greatly complicated by the necessity of 


taking account not only of the interval that must 
elapse between the finding of the range (or height) 
and the setting of this upon the gun-sights and the 
laying of the guns, but also of the greater 
interval between the time of firing of the gun and 
the arrival of the shot at its destination. The gun 
has to be sighted and laid, not for the ascertained 
position of the target, but for the position that it 
may be expected to occupy after an interval, it 
may be of thirty seconds or more, during which 
time the target may have travelled 1000 or even 
2000 yards from the position that had been deter- 
mined. The new and difficult problems thereby 
involved have already been solved, more or less 
completely, by the invention of predicting instru- 
ments closely associated with the range and height 
James WEIR FRENCH. 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


THE BOURNEMOUTH MEETING OF THE 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
Edie. eighty-seventh meeting of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
will this year be held at Bournemouth, under the 
presidency of the Hon.. Sir Charles A. Parsons, 
K.C.B., F.R.S., on September 9-13. The last 
meeting was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1916, 
the 1917 and 1918 assemblies having been aban- 
doned owing to obstacles brought about by the 
war. This was the first break in the annual meet- 
ings of the Association since its inception in 1831. 
With the return of peace and happier conditions, 
it is anticipated that the Bournemouth meeting 
will be a successful and memorable one. 

A strong local executive committee, with the 
Mayor as chairman, has been energetically at 
work for some months. The preliminary arrange- 
ments are well advanced, and every effort is being 
made to ensure the complete success of the meet- 
ing. So far as organisation is concerned, nothing 
is likely to be lacking, and it only remains for 
those interested or engaged in scientific work to 
take full advantage of the opportunities offered to 
them. Already the number of applications for 
election as annual members and asscciates is con- 
siderable, and doubtless as the date of the meeting’ 
approaches it will increase rapidly. 

The Association will find a kome in the 
Municipal College, a fine building, centrally situ- 
ated, which was erected shortly before the war. 
Practically the whole of the college rooms will be 
placed at the disposal of the Association for the 
week, and will afford ample and conveniently 
centralised accommodation for its. many ‘and 
varied activities. Only the large public assemblies 
—the inaugural general meeting, at which the 
president’s address is delivered; the discourses by 
Sir Arthur Evans, F.R.S., and Mr. Sidney G. 
Brown, F.R.S.; and the usual conversazione— 
will be held elsewhere. The Winter Gardens 
Pavilion, which is capable of seating an audience 
of upwards of 1200, will be the scene of these 
functions. 

The programme of work is very full, and the 
week will be one of great activity. For the seri- 
ous worker there will, as always, be many in- 
teresting papers and discussions, while the 
rumour that hitherto carefully guarded secrets of 
the work of men of science in the war will be 
made known for the first time is sufficient to 


‘appeal to the imagination of the general public 


and to focus attention upon the meeting. 

Social functions will not form a marked feature 
of this meeting. The only official entertainment 
on a large scale will be the conversazione at the 
Winter Gardens on September 10. But Bourne- 
mouth is widely famous for its manifold attrac- 
tions, and members and associates will have no 
difficulty in finding numberless opportunities for 
relaxation and amusement in their leisure hours. 

In a popular seaside resort in September the 
pressure on the available accommodation will 
probably be great. Those attending the meeting 


408 


NATURE 


[Jury 24, 1919. 


are therefore advised to make their hotel or lodg- 

ing arrangements without delay. The local execu- 

tive committee is doing everything in its power 

to help them in this direction, and inquiries ad- 

dressed to the Local Secretaries, Municipal Build- 

ings, Bournemouth, will bring prompt and _ full 
information on the subject. 


NOTES. 


Tue visit of the King and Queen to the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition at the Central Hall, 
Westminster, on Tuesday, is a mark of Royal ap- 
proval which will be highly appreciated, not only by 
the British Science Guild, which is responsible for 
the enterprise, but also by all who are working for 
the advancement of science and the extension of its 
industrial applications. Their Majesties, who were 
accompanied by Princess Mary and Prince Henry, 
were received by the Marquess of Crewe, president 
of the exhibition, and several members of ‘the 
organising committee. They remained in the exhibi- 
tion for about an hour and a half, and took the 


keenest interest in numerous machines, instruments, : 


and products displayed, particularly in the exhibits 
of optical and laboratory glass and instruments, dyes 
and fine chemicals, radium, high-speed telegraphic 
printing, magnetos, Hadfield steels, potash salts from 
blast-furnace dust, seed-testing, and fruit and vege- 
table preserving. Both the King and Queen expressed 
much, satisfaction that so many objects in the exhibi- 
tion represented things formerly obtained chiefly or 
entirely from abroad, and congratulated the organisers 
of the exhibition upon the educational and practical 
value of this display of British productions. Their 
visit was a most encouraging sign of Royal concern 
for national activities which receive little official or 
public attention, though they are of prime import- 
ance; and it will doubtless induce many people to see 
for themselves what is really a stimulating display of 
scientific and industrial achievement. 


A FUND is being raised in the medical profession to 
present Sir Clifford Allbutt with his portrait. ‘Sir 
Clifford Allbutt has been, above all things, a great 
clinical teacher, first in Leeds and, after his appoint- 
ment to be Regius professor of physic in 1892, in 
Cambridge. He was one of the first to show the 
value of the ophthalmoscope in the diagnosis of 
diseases of the nervous system, the kidney, and certain 
other general disorders; his volume on this subject 
was published in 1871. During the years 1896-99 he 
edited a great ‘“‘System of Medicine,’’ which had a 
success so immediate that a second edition was almost 
at once demanded. In the preparation of this, which 
appeared at intervals from 1905 to 1910, he was asso- 
ciated with Sir Humphry Rolleston. Sir Clifford Allbutt 
was elected president of the British Medical Associa- 
tion in July, 1914, and has retained that position 
throughout the war. The council of the British 
Medical Association, therefore, has taken the lead in 
asking for subscriptions to the fund to present Sir 
Clifford Allbutt with his portrait, to be painted by an 
eminent artist. From the portrait it is intended to 
commission a mezzotint engraving, which subscribers 
to the fund will be able to purchase for their own 
collections. - Subscriptions, which are limited to one 
guinea, should be made pavable to the “Sir Clifford 
Allbutt Presentation Fund,” crossed London County, 
Westminster, and Parr’s Bank, and addressed to the 
Treasurer of the British Medical Association, 429 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


Strand, London, W.C.2. A large number of subs — 
scriptions have already been received, and it is pro- 
Sra) oh 
British - Association recently 
instructed a deputation, consisting of Prof. Arthur 
and Prof. A. Wh | 
Kirkaldy, to wait upon the Ministry of Pensions in — 


posed to close the fund at the end of this month. 


THE council of the 
Keith, Sir Edward Brabrook, 


order to urge the utilisation of anthropometric and 
kindred data collected by the disbanded Minis ae 
National Service. The deputation was received on 
behalf of the Minister of Pensions by Col. ArthGr 
L. A. Webb, Director-General of Medical Services, 
Ministry of Pensions, who explained that the medical 


statistical department of the Ministry of National ~ 


Service, of which Dr. H. W. Kaye was in charge, 
and the data collected by that department, had been 
taken over by the Ministry of Pensions. er t 
Ministry of Pensions Dr. Kaye had not only to direct 
the compilation of medical recruiting statistics, but 
also to organise a special branch ~to deal wi 

medical data connected with the Ministry of Pensions. 
It was thus impossible for Dr. Kaye’s department to 
give its undivided attention to the preparation of 
returns relating to the physique of recruits in the 


various areas and trades of the country. At the 
to Grade IV. men> 
_ were being examined and compiled.- Col. Webb also 


present time all the data relatin; 


explained that Dr, Kaye’s department was endeavour- 
ing to obtain data for comparison from Canada, New 
Zealand, and the United States. The 
before withdrawing, thanked Col.. Webb, and urged 
the early publication of results, which are now needed 
by all who are studying problems connected with the 
present physical condition of our population. i 


_ Tue council of the Institution of Electrical Enginee +s 
has issued a pamphlet on the Electricity (Supply) Bill, — 
1919, now before a Committee of the House of — 


Commons. It is pointed out that great injury to the — 
national interest has resulted from ill-considered elec-— 
trical legislation in the past, and naturally electricians 
intment of | 


are anxious about the future. The 
Electricity Comnftissioners is welcomed provided that 


these Commissioners give whole-time service and 
appoint an Advisory Council, membership of which is _ 


restricted to persons possessing expert qualifications. 


The proposal that the Commissioners undertake and~ 


promote research also is approved. ‘There is opposi- 


tion to the proposed terms for the purchase of 


generating stations. Parliament is urged not to break 
faith with those who have invested their c 


tion. Having regard to the fact that practically every 
industry in the country is concerned directly or in- 


directly with electricity supply, it is more fitting that 


the Electricity Commissioners should be responsible to 


Parliament through the President of the Board of. 
Trade, and should not be under the Ministry of Ways — 


and Communications. This point is strongly em- 
phasised, ; ; 


Tue death is announced, at sixty-seven years of age, 
of Prof. Emil Fischer, professor of chemistry in the 


University of Berlin, foreign member of the Royal 


Society, and Nobel laureate in chemistry in 1902. 


- Tue death is announced, in his seventy-fourth year, 


of Dr. Elwyn Waller, who from 1885 to 1893 was 


professor of analytical chemistry at the School of 
Mines, Columbia University. From 1872 to 1885 Dr. 
Waller was chemist to the New York Health Depart- 
ment. He was the author of several text-books 0 
chemistry. . 


Under the | 


deputation, © 


neers" 


apital on- 
the strength of the powers conveyed by earlier legisla- 


ch a ig a yy Sd Se ely 


on 


ot, 


preps 


a 


b> 


~ 


f 


| Jury 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


409 


: -« Mrs. MEnNtErtH ~Ocitvir has presented to the 
_ Natural History Museum the fine collection of British 


_bird-skins formed by her late husband, Dr. Menteith 


- Ogilvie. It consists of nearly 1800 specimens, many 
of the species being represented by large series. The 


_ collection is in a very good condition, each bird being 


: corehaly 
_ birds o 
are 


_ is a somewhat rare spring and summer visitor. 
_ is a very large series of the sparrowhawk, showing 


~ 


x 


_ the war, the number is again increasing. 
_ lection and publication of rainfall data will not be 
interrupted by the changes consequent on Dr, Mill’s 
_ retirement. 


- phenological, and geological topics, and the whole 
series has had his meticulous editorial care; and his 
sturdy Yorkshire shoulders carried a good deal more 
_ than the local society. The admirable County Museum 
at St. Albans arose from his proposal, and he was 
the originator of the annual conference of delegates 
from 
with the British Association. 
_ years he had been secretary 


shipbuilding. 


‘indebted for the following particulars. 
born in 1842, the eldest son of Anthony Inglis, who 
- founded the firm-of A. and J. Inglis in 1837. 
educated at the Glasgow Academy and at Glasgow 
University, where he came under the influence of the 
brothers Thomson, Lord Lister, Rankine, Blackburn, 
_and others. 
yard at twenty-five years of age. He was amongst 
the first to adopt the principle of: progressive-speed 
trials on the measured mile and of careful study of 
the results achieved. Dr. Inglis was associated with 
Dr. Froude’s method of tank experiments with models 


x NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


identified and labelled, with full data. The 
prey are particularly well represented. There 
three examples of the hen harrier, a decreasing 
British species, and seven of Montagu’s harrier, which 
There 


change and phase of plumage from the nestling 


every 
- in its various stages to the adult bird. There are also 


good series of the great crested grebe from Norfolk 


; and Suffolk, of the Slavonian grebe, and of the little 
_auk, also from Norfolk and Suffolk. 


Dr. H. R. Mitt has retired from the position of 
~ director of the British Rainfall Organisation and from 
the editorship of ‘British Rainfall” and Symons’s 
Meteorological Magazine, which he has carried on 
- since 1901. 
_ sequent on overwork led Dr. Mill to make arrange- 


Serious impairment of eyesight con- 


ments for retiring in 1914, when the outbreak of the 


é war caused him to postpone the step; he now finds 


his health unequal to the strain of adapting the work 
to post-war conditions. The association of voluntary 
rainfall observers in all parts of the British Isles 


' numbered 3500 nineteen years ago; it had reached 


5500 in 1914, and, after falling to about 5100 during 
The col- 


_ Tue sudden death on July 5 of Mr. John Hopkinson 


at his home in Watford is a sad loss to the pursuit 
of natural 
wi 


knowledge, both in Hertfordshire and in 
Ids. It was so far back as 1875 that Mr. 


: Hopkinson founded the Watford (now Hertfordshire) 


Natural History Society, and for more than forty 


_ years the promotion of its interests had been his chief 
concern. The eighteen volumes of Transactions are 


evidence of the success of his efforts; to 
contributed frequently on meteorological, 


sufficient 
1 he 


provincial scientific societies held in connection 
For some fifteen 
of the Ray Society, and 
always the helpful friend of naturalists of all kinds. 
‘Mr. Fiaikinson was active to the last, and few men 


have made better use of seventy-four years. 


_ By the death of Dr. John Inglis on July 13 the 
Clyde loses one of its best known pioneers in scientific 
An account of Dr. Inglis’s career 
a rs in Engineering for July 18, to which we are 
( He was 


He was 


He became manager of the shipbuilding 


of different forms and with comparative screw pro- 
pellers.. He was the first on the Clyde to carry out in- 
clining experiments on completed vessels with the view . 
of determining their stability and of assisting towards 
accurate loading. He was also a pioneer in the deter- 
mination of longitudinal stresses, and conducted many 
experiments on a practical scale. He was _ vice- 
president of the Institution of Naval Architects, and 
president of the Institution of Engineers and Ship- 
builders in Scctland in 1893, and of the Institute of 
Marine Engineers in 1898. Much of his private time 
was devoted to the advancement of the national 
organisations and institutions in Glasgow. In 1898 
the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred ‘upon 
Dr. Inglis by the University of Glasgow. 


As a result of the establishment of the Ministry of 
Health, the medical staffs of the Local Government 
Board and of the National Health Insurance Commis- 
sion have been brought together to form the main por- 
tion of the medical staff of the Ministry, but on a newly 
organised system and with considerable additional 
posts, The Minister has appointed Sir George New- 
man as Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry, with 
status corresponding with that of a Secretary of the 
Ministry. By arrangement between the President of 
the Board of Education and the Minister, Sir George 
Newman is to retain his position as Chief Medical 
Officer of the Board of Edlication. Five new posts of 
Senior Medical Officer have been established, and to 
these the following appointments have been made :— 
Dr. G. S. Buchanan, Dr. Janet M. Campbell, Dr. 
F, J. H, Coutts, Mr. A. W. J. MacFadden, and Mr. 
J. Smith Whitaker. The whole of the rest of the 
established medical staff of the’ Ministry will be in 
one grade to be known as Medical Officers. The 
following appointments have so far been announced :— 
Miss Irene C. D. Eaton, Dr. Major Greenwood, Miss 
Florence B. Lambert, and Dr. Jane H. Turnbull. 
Besides this regular ‘staff, arrangements have been 
made whereby the Ministry may secure the services, 
from time to time, of specialists and others on a part- 
time basis. Amongst these are included at present the 
following :—Dr. Maurice Craig, Col. L. W. Harrison, 
and Sir David Semple. 


By direction of the President of the United States, 
the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal has been awarded 
to Lt.-Col. S. J. M. Auld, Royal Berkshire Regiment, 
British Army, *‘‘ for exceptionally meritorious and dis- 
tinguished services rendered the United States Army 
while serving as Liaison Officer between the British 
and American Chemical Warfare Services.’’ Col. Auld, 
who is professor of agricultural chemistry at Uni- 
versity College, Reading, commanded the British Gas 
Warfare Mission to the United States, other well- 
known members of which included Major H. R. Le 
Sueur and Major H. W. Dudley. This Mission put 
before the Americans everything about gas warfare 
ab initio, and Col. Auld was responsible for organising 
the American Chemical Warfare Service, which 
developed into the largest gas service of all the com- 
batant armies. When the armistice was signed the 
United States were manufacturing nearly twice as 
much gas as all the other combatant nations (including 
Germany) put together. The American respirator was 
an improved copy of the British box respirator. The 
field training was also based on British experience. 
The exchange of manufacturing, design, and research 
experience between the two nations was absolutely 
complete, the relationship between the two Chemical 
Warfare Services being closer than in any other 
branch of the Service, and doing much to consolidate 
the cordial understanding already existing between the 
chemists of the two countries. 


4106 


NATURE 


[Jury 24, 1919 


Mr. R. A. Smirn describes in the issue of Man for 
July a discovery of flint implements from Victoria 
West, in the heart of the Great Karroo, South 
Africa. Among them are examples of what are 
known as ‘“tortoise-cores,”’ best known in Europe 
from Northfleet, in Kent, and from Montiéres, near 
Amiens, and dating from the period of Le Moustier, 
to which they are probably confined. The core was 
prepared with the object of getting an ovate flake- 
implement from the upper face by a final blow on the 
faceted bulb. ‘This, if successful, was a special case 
of the Levallois flake, Those from Victoria West are 
rather pointed at one end, and generally struck 
from. the left edge near the point; in a few cases 
the detaching blow was struck on the right of the 
point. 


In a paper entitled ‘‘ Customs Connected with Death 
and Burial among the Roumanians,’’ published in 
the June issue of Folk-lore, Mrs. A. Murgoci has col- 


lected much interesting information less known than 


it deserves to be in western Europe. The accounts 
of the death feasts are curiousy still more the custom 
of disinterring the dead seven years after burial; 


when a death feast is given for the last time, the. 


bones are washed in wine, put in a smaller coffin, 
and reburied. At present the priests are  over- 
burdened with work, for not only have they an 
unusually large number of deaths to deal with, 
but they are now. beginning to be occupied in 
digging up those who died before the war. On the 
Monday after Easter Monday women put the red 


shells of the Easter eggs into water in the hope that 


they may be thus conveyed to the Blajini, the good 
men who live in some other world and are ignorant 
of what passes in this. When they see the egg-shells 


floating within their view, they know that Easter has — 


come, and they, too, rejoice. 


Tue South London Entomological and Natural 
History Society takes a high place among associations 
of the kind for the thoroughness of its work and for 
the excellence of its published Proceedings. The 
activities of the society are chiefly entomological, and 
the contributions of many of its members to our 
knowledge of the morphology and ontogeny of native 
insects are of great value. The last published volume 
of Proceedings contains a well-written summary of 
recent work in economic entomology, both British 
and foreign, delivered as his annual address by the 
president, Mr. Stanley Edwards. A careful analysis 
of variation in the wing-markings of Epinephele 
tithonus, compared with other species of Satyrid 
butterflies, and illustrated by two excellent photo- 
graphic plates, is contributed by Mr. Wheeler. 
Other elaborate studies of variation in Lepidoptera are 
furnished by Mr. H. J. Turner and Mr. A. Sich. The 
reports of meetings, with notes of discussions and 
the exhibition of specimens, are adequately given, and 
accounts are ineluded of various excursions and visits, 
including one to the John Innes Horticultural Insti- 
tute at Merton, and another to Wimbledon Common, 
where the natural features of the site appear to have 
suffered less interference of late years than might have 
been expected. There is a brief notice of a lecture 
by Prof. A, Dendv on sponges, and an abstract of a 
lecture by Miss G. Lister qn the Mycetozoa. Alto- 
gether there is reason to congratulate the members on 
the healthy condition of their society, and we should 
not omit to mention that a full index much enhances 
the value of the present volume. 


THE Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, vol. xvii., 
No. 1, for this year contains. an important article on 
the cocoa production of the Empire. : The quantity of 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


/interest. From the account there’ given it is clear | 


grown flax has been tested at Belfast, and has been 


cocoa produced in British countries in 1913 was more — 
than three times the amount consumed in the United 
Kingdom, yet this country obtained only about one- — 
half of its supply from these sources. Large quanti- — 
ties of prepared cocoa and chocolate were also being — 
imported from foreign countries which had been manu- — 
factured there from British-grown cocoa. During — 
the war the position improved, and about 86 per 
cent, of the total imports came from British posses- — 
sions in 1917. The money value of the imports in — 
1916 was 62 million pounds sterling, so that the im-— 
portance of the matter can readily be realised. Two — 
points) are worthy of special mention: first, the re-— 
markable’ growth of the cocoa industry on the Gold — 
Coast, which colony started to export cocoa in 1891; 
and, secondly, the enormous increase in the consump- — 
tion of cocoa in the United States in recent years. © 
The consumption has trebled since 1913, and about — 
one-half of the total quantity produced in the world | 
now goes to the States. Aes ; 


- % 

Tue possibility of growing New Zealand flax — 
(Phormium tenax) on a commercial scale in the British — 
Isles has for many years been under consideration, — 
and the publication of an important paper on the — 
subject in Kew Bulletin, No. 4, is of considerable 
that in south-west Ireland, south-west Scotland, — 
and possibly in the south of England, the successful — 
cultivation of New Zealand flax is a definite possi- — 
bility. The article, which mainly consists of an ac- — 
count of Lord Ventry’s successful experiments in co, 
Kerry, is illustrated by several photographs of New ~ 
Zealand flax under cultivation in Ireland showing a re-— 
markably vigorous growth. The fibre of this Irish- | 


found almost as good as ‘‘ Good-fair ’’ imported fibre 
from New Zealand, which was valued in July, 1914, at — 
321. per ton, As paper-making material, the leaves 
have also been very well reported on by the Irish 
Paper Mills Co. near Dublin. The great value 
of New Zealand flax, however, is its fibre, which is 
used for making binder twine and high-grade string 
and cord. As the demand’ for this is a very heavy — 
and rising one, the possibility of growing New Zealand 
flax for the purpose in the British Isles is of Consider- — 
able importance. It is pointed out in the article that 
only certain parts of the United Kingdom are suitable — 
for the growth of New Zealand flax as a commercial | 
undertaking, but as the results so far obtained are 
promising, it is to be hoped that every encourage- — 
ment will be given to the enterprise, which promises _ 
to yield a sound financial return to the impoverished — 
farmers in the south-west of Ireland in particular. 4 


ae 


= 


Tue U.S. Bureau of Standards Technologic Paper — 
No. 128 (copies of which may be obtained on applica- — 
tion to the Bureau) deals with the effect of solar — 
radiation upon balloons from the thermal point of — 
view. After discussing the characteristics of radiation — 
from the sun and the effects of its absorption by 
balloon fabric, the authors give the results of reflec- — 
tion and. transmission measurements on nineteen — 
different samples with Coblentz’s apparatus, using ~ 
light from, the sun and from a nitrogen-filled tungsten _ 
lamp with copper chloride filter. With a model air- — 
ship 12 ft.x 3 ft. the temperatures of the fabric and — 
of the contained gas were determined in sunlight; the — 
temperature-rise of the upper fabric was found to be — 
proportional to the cosine of the angle between the i 
sun’s rays and the normal to the surface; the mini- 
mum ‘temperature occurred just below the shadow — 


line, and not at the bottom. In the lower half of the — 


. 


re 
y, 
ae 
3 


Spey and the gas temperature at the top. 


and convenient read 
aeeary over the present library room. 


Book,” by A. Thor 


_ JuLy 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


411 


“balloon the temperature of the gas was uniform, 


although there was a difference of 25° G. between 
It is cal- 
culated that in still air as much as 80 per cent. of 
_the total heat loss from the upper surface of the model 
Coe be due to radiation from the fabric. For 
obtaining the minimum heating effect on an airship 


; in sunlight the use of aluminium-coated fabric is 


recommended, since this also affords good protection 
oe actinic light. 


Se: view of the successful round voyage of the naval 
R34, great interest is attached to a fully 

| here account of this vessel which appears in 
Engineering for July 18. The vessel has a length 
of 645 ft. over all, and a maximum diameter of 
7B ft. gin. Its Gas capacity is about 2,000,000 cub. ft., 
Alte a oc ift of 60 tons under standard condi- 
he disposable lift is just under 30 tons. The 
is “of fine stream-line form, and is constructed 
ve main transverse frames spaced 10 metres apart, 


ip and built in the form of a polygon with thirteen sides. 


es are joined at each angle of the polygon by 
: gitadinal girders, and there are intermediate frames 
. each space, both transversely and longitudinally. 
hes ester polygon of twenty-six sides thus formed 
the outer cover stretched over it.. The girders are 
ed of duralumin. There are risa Sag) gas- 
5 each of high quality single-ply cotton 

ae. tic, lined with rubber on the Stopes ar On 
this surface goldbeaters’ skins are stretched and 


_ secured with rubber solution, and the whole is then 
' peared over. 


Each gas-bag has an automatic relief 
There are five cars, one for navigational pur- 
The five 


valve. 
poses, and all the others contain engines. 


y engines are of 270 h.p. each, and give a speed of 
~ 58 knots in still air. 


The photographic illustrations 
of the ship. under construction and in flight are 
b Rctlewlerty interesting, and give very clear views of 
me details of construction. 


“Messrs. Hopper anp SroucHton have in the press 
oh New Teaching Series, which has been arranged 


Shoot demands in education as to method and 


cu The subjects of .the volumes in hand 
ud Doe haswistry from the Industrial Viewpoint, 
pplie _ Botany, Industrial Geology, Geography of 
and Industry, Chemistry and Bacteriology 


‘wae Aoncniene, Everyday Mathematics, Mathematics 


of Engineering, Foundations of Engineering, Mathe- 
matics of Business and Commerce, and Industrial 


‘sie 


eee H. K. Lewis anp Co., Lrp., have removed 
_ their publishing, wholesale, and advertisement depart- 
ments to 28 Gower Place, W.C.1. The change not 
eed provides larger and more convenient accommoda- 
tion for publishing work, but the space vacated 
in the old premises affords much needed’ additional 
~ room for the library and bookselling business. A new 
ing-room is to be added to the 


~ ‘MEssrs. LONGMANS ask us to say, in correction of 


a an announcement in last week’s NATURE, that though 


the edition on large paper of “A Naturalist’s Sketch 
burn, which they will publish in 
the autumn, will be limited to 105 copies, the ordinary 
_ edition of the book will not be limited in number. 


Tue offices of the Imperial Mineral Resources 


’ 5 Gliese have been moved from 14 Great Smith Street 


to 2 Queen Anne’s Gate Buildings, Westminster, 


| | S.W.1. 


_ NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


A Bricut MetTgor.—A large meteor with unusually 
slow motion’ was observed at Bristol on July 20, 
11.2 G. -M. T.; it had a double nucleus, and passed 
over 42° of the sky in 12 seconds. The observed path 
was from 37°+47° to 4°+154°. The meteor was of 
a red colour, like Mars, and probably from a radiant 
in Leo at about 155°+25° It is curious that the 
great fireball seen in “America on July 20, 1860, had a 
radiant point in the same region of the sky, and may 
be assumed to have been derived from the same: 
cometary system. Further observations of the meteor 
of July 20 last would be valuable, and Mr. W. F. 
Denning, 4 44 Egerton Road, Bristol, will be glad to 
receive any. 


Tue Licut or THE AURORA AND THE AURORAL LINE. 
—Observation of the brightness of the background of 
the sky by various observers has shown that it must 
be due to some other cause than the diffused light of | 
the stars themselves, and the suggestion has been 
made that this is the effect of the existence of a per- 
manent aurora. In the Astrophysical Journal for May 
Prof. Slipher publishes an account of some spectro- 
graphic observations which have a direct bearing on 
the point. He says that during three and a half years 
something like one hundred spectrograms were made 
of the night sky, and every one of them recorded the 
chief auroral line, so that during this period of time 
auroral illumination of the sky was found to be present 
on every night that an exposure was made for detect- 
ing it. Incidentally, Prof. Slipher made a determina- 
tion of the wave-length of the green auroral line, 
which he finds to be longer than the generally accepted 
value, 45571. Prof. Frost, in an editorial note, cor- 
roborates’ the fact from inspection of one of the 
spectrograms that the green line falls at a point of 
greater wave-length than the solar line 45573, and it 
appeats that the wave-length of the auroral line is 
substantially A 5578-05. 


Tue Sprrat NesuLtz#.—A reprint from the Journal 
of the Washington Academy of Sciences for April 19 
gives an abstract of a lecture delivered by Prof. H. D. 
Curtis, of the Lick Observatory, on certain modern 
theories of the spiral nebula. The author forms the 
opinion that these nebulz are island universes, and 
not part of our galactic system, a line of argument 
adduced to show this being as follows :—The spiral © 
nebula have large radial velocities shown by the 
spectroscope, their average speed being nearly five 
hundred miles a second, but by repeating photographs 
taken about thirteen years ago and comparing them 
with the earlier ones, Prof. Curtis finds no evidence 
of proper motion or motion at right angles to the 
line of sight which it is to be expected these objects 
should have, since their space velocity is high. The 
conclusion to be drawn is that the cross-motion does 
not show because the nebulz are very remote, so 
remote that they must be far outside the generally 
accepted limits of the bun-shaped figure known as 
our stellar system. An argument in favour of the 
island universe theory, drawn from the appearance of 
Novee, may be repeated. The brighter Nove of the 
past have almost invariably been located in or close 
to our Milky Way, and therefore have evidently been 
part of our stellar system. In the course of a few 
years a dozen Nove have been found in spiral nebula, 
all very faint, and the life-history of these has been 
essentially the same as that of the brighter Novae. 
There is thus a presumption, though not a very rigid 
proof, that the phenomena of the spirals are similar 
to those of our galaxy, and therefore. that they them- 
selves are galaxies. 


412 


NATURE 


[Jury 24, 1919 


CHEMISTS IN CONFERENCE. 


f i HE Society of Chemical Industry held its annual 

meeting in London on July 15-18, and, in order 
to emphasise the fact that its outlook is industrial 
rather than academic, the conferences took place in 
the City, and not, as hitherto, in South Kensington. 
The opening meeting was held at the Mansion House, 
and the society was welcomed by the Lord Mayor; 
other conferences were held at the Salters’ Hall, 


Goldsmiths’ Hall, and Clothworkers’ Hall, and the. 


foreign delegates were privileged to lunch in the pic- 
turesque and old-world hall of the Girdlers’ Company. 

It has already been announced in these columns 
that an Inter-Allied Chemical Council has been formed 
for the promotion of co-operation between the chemists 
of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, and the 
United States. During the last year or so there has 
also grown into existence an International Research 
Council, which has met in Rome and Paris, and is 
this week holding an important conference in Brussels. 
This council contemplates the organisation of research 
and publication in all branches of science and in all 
countries, except Germany and Austria, and there was 
a good deal of discussion among the British and Allied 
chemists at their conferences last week as to how 
the Inter-Allied Council could fit into the scheme of 
organisation contemplated by the International Re- 
search Council. It was at length decided to announce 
that the Inter-Allied Chemical Council was of opinion 
that this body should be the chemical section of the 
International Research Council, and should do all the 
work of organisation and publication which was 
required in connection with chemistry, both pure and 
applied. A deputation was sent to Brussels to express 
this view and to co-operate with the other savants 
there assembled. Amongst the delegates to Brussels 
we may mention Prof. Chavanne, Dr. Lucion, and 
M. ‘Timmermans, representing Belgium; Profs. 
Moureu and Béhal, representing France; Sir William 
Pope and Dr. Ruttan (of Canada), representing the 
British Empire; and Lt.-Col. Bartow, Dr. Parsons, 
and Dr. Washburn, representing the United States. 
It is understood that Canada and Poland have ex- 
pressed a wish to be represented on the Inter-Allied 
Chemical Council, and are now admitted as such, and 
that the other Allies who have signed the Treaty 
of Peace will be asked to become _ constituent 
bodies. 

Among the papers read at the Mansion House on 
July 15 was a very eloquent and interesting apprecia- 
tion of the late Sir William Ramsay by. Prof. 
Moureu, the president of the Inter-Allied Council. 
Prof. Moureu described the researches of the late 
Lord Rayleigh on the density of nitrogen, and gave 
an’ account of the excitement produced at the British 
Association at Oxford in 1894 when Lord Rayleigh 
and Sir William Ramsay announced their discovery of 
argon. He mentioned as characteristic of Sir William 
Ramsay the speed with which he followed up a hint 
given in a letter from Sir Henry Miers as to a 
gas contained in cleveite and detected by Hillebrand: 
This led to the discovery of helium, which, was 
spectroscopically detected in the sun so long ago as 
1868 ‘ be 
Prof. Moureu gave some account of his own original 
work on the occurrence of helium in fire-damp and in 
the gases given off by underground springs, and 
sketched the history of the discovery of neon, krypton, 
and xenon. Only those who have paid attention to 
the recent publications are aware that helium occurs 
to the extent of 6 per cent. in the gases given off by 
the spring at Maiziéres, in the Céte d’Or, and to the 


_ extent of 10 per cent. in the gas of the spring: at:! 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


Santehay, also in the Céte d’Or. Moreover, krypt 
argon, xenon, and neon are usually found in the su 
terranean gases, and the relative proportions of these 
four gases are fairly constant. The explanation is sug- 
gested that these gases, being chemically inactive, 
have remained in a constant proportion since the days — 
when our globe was a nebular mass without form and — 
void. It was Sir William Ramsay himself who pre-— 
dicted the use of helium for filling balloons—a predic-— 
tion which has been recently verified by the work — 
done in the United States under the superintendence — 
of Dr. Cottrell. cn ae 
An important conference on the production and — 
consumption of sugar within the British Empire was — 
held at the Clothworkers’ Hall, the Earl of Denbigh 
being in the chair. A number of experts took part ~ 
in the discussion, and a voluminous report is now — 
being prepared for publication. Hogigge > a 
A group of papers on power plant in chemical — 
works occupied a whole day; these included a paper 
on waste heat boilers by Capt. C. J. Goodwin and 
a paper on surface combustion boilers by Prof. W. A, 
Bone and Mr. P. Kirke. Several speakers directed — 
attention to possible economies in the use of fuel—a — 
matter which is now of the utmost importance to the 
whole nation. a eee 
The conference on dyestuffs was largely attended, — 
and a paper by Dr. Herbert Levinstein on the inti- — 
mate connection between the German dye manufac- ~ 
tures and the supply of explosives and poison gases — 
should make our politicians think furiously. Ger- — 
many, notwithstanding the Treaty of Peace, is left in — 
the position that she can easily, at a few hours’ — 
notice, commence the manufacture of explosives and 
poison gas on a very large scale. In this country we — 
have at the moment no manufacture which can pro- 
ceed during peace and at once be switched on to war- — 
like purposes. Mr. E. V. Evans, in his paper on the “ 
manufacture of intermediate products in the dyestuff — 
industry, showed how desirable it is to conduct the © 
manufacture of these in a few works on a large scale — 
rather than, as now, the manufacture on a small — 
scale in many works. in 
There were good papers on other topics dealing, — 
perhaps, with rather technical matters, and a number 
of papers on chrome tanning and on recent develop- 
ments in the fermentation industries, including one — 
by Sir Frederick Nathan on the manufacture of — 
acetone. aki 
Industrial chemistry is becoming too large a sub- ~ 
ject for any individual to master, and the tendency. to — 
specialise is manifested, not only in the grouping of — 
a number of cognate papers into one conference, but — 
also in the activities of the recently formed chemical 
engineering group of the society. On the whole, the 
papers were of considerable importance, and show 
that, though the chemists may be tired by their 
war-work, they are not exhausted. 


PHYSIOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS. __ 


A JOINT session of the Aristotelian Society, the — 
British Psychological Society, and the Mind 
Association has been held annually, though more or 
less informally, since 1908. This year an attractive 
and more extended programme was provided on 
July 11-14, and hospitality was offered by Bedford 
College, the most delightfully situated and admirably 
appointed of the University of London colleges. The. _ 
result was a very large increase in the membership ~ 
and a sustained interest in the session. Members were 
furnished in advance with the whole of the written 
communications constituting the Proceedings. This 


Sr 


i _ Jury 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


413 


had the advantage that at every meeting the papers 
_ Were taken as read, and the leaders of the discussions 
_ could concentrate at once on the important points in 
_ theory or criticism of theory which they had set forth. 
_ The subject of discussion at the first meeting was 
_ **Propositions: What They Are and How They 
_ Mean.” The paper was by Mr. Bertrand Russell. 
It was the outcome of a philosophical research into 
_ the tenability of the behaviourist theory in psychology. 
The neutral monism which forms the basis of this 
- theory had proved very attractive to Mr. Russell, and 
_ he put forward as his own view that it is true in so far 
as that the psychical and the physical are not distin- 
gat by the stuff of which they are made, but by 
_ the order of the causal laws to which they are amen- 
_ able. He parted from behaviourism, however, on the 
_ question of ‘‘images.’’ So far as he had been able to 
- go at present, he was convinced that there are images, 
and he could see no way of interpreting them in 
physical terms. An interesting discussion followed, led 
_ by Dr. G. E. Moore, who presided. 
The second meeting attracted the largest audience 
_-of the session. The subject was a symposium on 
_ “Instinet “and the Unconscious,’’ to which Dr. 
_ W. Hz. R. Rivers, Dr. C. S. Myers, Dr. C. G. Jung 
(of Zurich), Prof. Graham Wallas, Dr. J. Drever, and 
_ Dr. W. McDougall contributed. Sir Leslie Mackenzie 
_ presided. The interest of this discussion centred round 
the neurological and psychological discoveries in regard 
to war-neuroses. Dr. Jung received a warm welcome, 
_ and surprised everyone by the ease and fluency with 
_ which he expounded his theory in English. The 
_ theory created a lively impressicn. At ‘a subsequent 
_ meeting its more philosophical aspect, particularly its 
_ relation to Bergson’s doctrine of a vital impulse, was 
the subject of a discussion opened by Mr. J. W. Scott. 
The third meeting was a symposium on ‘Space, 
_ Time, and Material: Are They, and if so in what 
_ Sense, the Ultimate Data of Science?’’ Sir Joseph 
Larmor presided. Sir Oliver Lodge, who had con- 
tributed one of the papers, was unavoidably absent, 
and a reply to a criticism of his thesis was read. 
- The other contributors were Prof. A. N. Whitehead, 
Prof. J. W. Nicholson, Dr. Henry Head, Mrs. Adrian 
_ Stephen, and Prof. Wilf@on Carr. Two problems 
_ emerged in the dizecussion: the physical problem of 
continuity and the physiological problem of the nature 
of the mechanisms and neurological contrivances 
_ which condition conscious experience. Prof. White- 
head contended that the first chapter in science, 
i.e. in the systematisation of Nature, must deal with 
an event. Process is the fundamental fact which 
_ reguirés explanation; there is no element in experi- 
ence prior to and simpler than an event. 
The fourth meeting was devoted to the metaphysical 
problem of the relation of the finite to the infinite, 
or, in the terms of the symposium, ‘Can Finite 
_ Minds be Included in the Mind of God?’’ Lord Hal- 
dane presided. The papers were by the Dean of Car- 
lisle, Dr J. H. Muirhead, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, and 
the Bishop of Down. 
_ The fifth and final meeting was a symposium. on 
“Is there ‘Knowledge by Acquaintance’?’ The 
Dd s were by Prof. G. Dawes Hicks, Dr. G. E. 
Be More. Dr. Beatrice Edgell, and Mr. C. D. Broad. 
_ Prof. W. R. Sorley was in the chair. 
' The dominant note in the discussions was, to most 
of those taking part, the physiological problem. Dr. 
_ Head’s description of his researches, based on the 
treatment of war injuries, into the function of the 
cerebral cortex, and his theory of the survival of older 
_ responses beneath the superposed control of the higher 
' centres, though freely criticised, was felt to have im- 
portant consequences both for psychological and 
_ epistemological theory. Also. 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


‘ 


it left the impression. 


of a new and unsuspected approach to one another 
of science and philosophy. 
_ The meeting in 1920 is to take place at Oxford, and 
it is intended to invite the participation of the Société 
Francaise de Phitosophie, 


A LEAGUE OF. UNIVERSITIES, 

CONFERENCE of Universities was held at the 

Imperial Institute on July 18. It was con- 
vened in order that representatives of British uni- 
versities, including such members of the universities 
of the King’s Dominions overseas as are still in 
England in connection with the war, might take 
counsel with their colleagues from the U.S.A. Not- 
withstanding the difficulties created by Peace Day, 
especially in regard to finding hotel accommodation, 
the conference was well attended. The subject for 
discussion was the contemplated extension of the 
activities of the Universities Bureau. Representatives 
were invited to give expression to their views regard- 
ing the ways in which the Bureau might be of greater 
service to the universities. 

The chairman, Sir Donald MacAlister, was able to 
announce that, the Treasury having, on the advice of 
the President of the Board of Education, promised to 
the Bureau a non-recurrent grant of 5o0ol., provided 
the universities made adequate provision for its main- 
tenance, almost all the universities of the United 
Kingdom had already adopted a proposal made at the 
last meeting of the conference for each to contribute 
a sum of tool. per annum to the Bureau funds, 
and two of the university colleges had promised 
5o0l. each. The Treasury grant is intended to enable 
the Bureau Committee to acquire and furnish premises 
suitable for the accommodation of the staff and for 
the reception of visiting professors and immigrant 
students from the Dominions and foreign countries. 
Probably in a short time it will be possible to announce 
the address of the new headquarters. 

When the delegates who attended the congress of 

Ig12 decided that it was desirable that a ‘‘clearing- 
house ’’ for universities should be established, .thev 
were thinking of it chiefly as an agent for promoting 
co-operation amongst. the universities of the Empire, 
although its international relations were not absent 
from their minds. No one then could have foreseen 
that during the autumn of 1914 and the year which 
followed, the secretary of the Bureau would be in 
correspondence with all the universities and colleges 
of the United States and other neutral countries, 
or sending them parcels of State papers, books, 
and pamphlets on the causes of a great war, 
the responsibility for it, and the moral issues which 
it raised. Nor could anyone have foreseen that, 
as an outcome of the war, there would be an urgent 
demand for co-operation amongst the universities of 
the Allied and neutral countries, and especially for 
the interchange of teachers and graduate students, on 
a scale which will appreciably affect our knowledge of 
one another’s ways of thought and trend of senti- 
ment. 
All who look to the League of Nations as the only 
guarantee of peace recognise that cne of its strongest 
supports would be a League of Universities. In illus- 
tration of what may be done to promote such a league, 
the nine representatives of the universities of the 
United Kingdom and Cavt. Holme, who represented 
the universities of Australasia, gave an account of 
their experiences and of the impressions which they 
received during their recent visit to France as guests 
of the French Republic, and Dr. Fish, on. behalf of 
Dr. Duggan, the director, who was detained in 
France, described the aims of the new American 
Institute of International Education. 


414 


NATURE. 


bite 
a 


[JuLy 24, 1919 


SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY. 


LECTURES AT THE BritisH SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS 
EXHIBITION. ; 


Le the course of his lecture on ‘‘ Explosives’’ at 
the British Scientific Products Exhibition on 
July 18, Mr. James Young, Royal Military Academy, 
said that during the war ammonal was found to be 
very suitable for use in military mines and in trench- 
warfare weapons, being safe and powerful, and having 
a moderate velocity of detonation. It is equally suit- 
able for industrial use, and the expensive constituent 
—aluminium—can be reduced to 3 per cent. Blastine 
was also much used for the same purposes, and as the 
main constituent, ammonium perchlorate, is now 
made by electrolytic processes, it has a promising 
future in industry. It is much more sensitive than 
ammonal, and therefore not so safe to the users. The 
invention of amatol, a mixture of T.N.T. and am- 
monium nitrate, was of great value, and doubled our 
resources of shell high explosives. As compared with 
picric acid (lyddite), it is safer to handle, costs about 
one-third, but is not so shattering, owing to the lower 
velocity of detonation. It is also suitable for indus- 
trial use* and mixtures with as little as 1o per cent. 
of T.N.T. are effective. 

Referring to the important subject. of a national 
factory for the fixation of nitrogen, Mr. Young 
pointed out that’ our industries’ are dependent on 
national security, -which again .devends on an 
Army and Navy provided with an adequate supply 
of explosives, so that if some industries are key indus- 
tries, explosives are a master-key. The materials for 
these should, so far as possible, be home products. 
Now, nitrates are the foundation of nearly all our 
military explosives, and most of the others in use, and 
practically all our nitrates, come from far overseas. 
If we had been cut off from our supplies during the 
war it is doubtful if our chemists could have filled 
the gap in time, for the new artificial processes for 
the fixation of nitrogen require much experience for 
their efficient working. A great national factory for 
the fixation of nitrogen should be established.in Eng- 
land without delay. We are already behindhand. 
The Germans, with more experience, were able to 
make their own nitric acid for carrying on. the war. 
America has already’ established a’ national factory. 
Millions are to be spent on airships, with problematic 
results, but, with experience, good returns from such 
-a factory should be a certainty. It would have unique 
advantages. The principal raw materials are air and 
water. Nitrates and ammonium compounds are in 
great demand as fertilisers. In peace the main pro- 


-duction would be used as fertilisers and. for industrial | 


explosives, and be ready to be switched on to war, if 
war should come. It would at the same time increase 


‘the security of the nation and its agricultural 
prosperity. 
Mr. L. Bairstow pointed out, in his lecture 


on July 21, that the record of some of the striking 
‘developments in aviation in the war period has. been 
presented in such a way as to form an indicator of 
further progress. In forming the Advisory Committee 
for .Aeronautics in 1909 the British Government 
showed a wise foresight, for in the hands of a body 
of men of-science inquiries have been systematised and 
coherence given to a literature which has had a pro- 
found, influence on British aviation. Attention was 
directed to specific cases of valuable experimental work 
both on the model and full-scale.. In many ways the 
use of models under carefully controlled laboratory 
conditions forms the best means of attack on a new 
problem. There are scale effects which reduce ‘the 
accuracy of direct application to the full scale, but 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


-at 4.30 p.m. Lord Moulton’ will preside, and among 
Si 


many.of them are known, particularly those for 4 
main parts. A diagram was given which illustra 
the extremely close relation between tests on large 
small wings; the experiment is one possessing 
considerable degree of accuracy, and the distrib 
of pressure is sensitive to changes of angle 
incidence. The agreement is probably complete withi 
the accuracy of the full-scale experiments, and a com-- 
mittee formed to discuss the value of model experiments 
concluded by saying :—‘‘It is of great importance that 
such. information should be increased and its use 
extended by further svstematic full-scale research.” 
In dealing with stability, records were shown of the 
disturbed motions of aeroplanes. Easily obtained, 
these records show whether an aeroplane is stable o 
unstable and the degree of its stability. Several tvpes 
of disturbance were shown, including those of an 
aeroplane which tends to turn upside down, one which 
‘‘hunts,” i.e. shows an increasing oscillation, a 

others which are stable. The motions indicated by the 
records are calculable on the mathematical basis given 
by Prof. Bryan if use be made of the resistance deriva-- 

bea a 


tives found in the aerodynamical laboratories. 
in the collection of the latter from specially ¢ 
experiments that the immediate future holds— 
important research work. te 

A conference on ‘‘ Patents in Relation to In 
will be held at the exhibition on Thursday, July 31 


those who will take part in the discussion are 
Robert Hadfield, Mr. W. S. Reid (chairman 
council of the Institute of Inventors), Mr. Wee) 
Bousfield, Mr. Douglas Leechman, Mr. W. 
Mordey, Mr. James Swinburne, and Sir G. [ 
Marks. Brier y 


i te 


COTTON AND COTTON-SEED 
INDUSTRIES. = 


1% an address delivered by invitation before the 
Manchester Textile Institute on May 28, Mr 
E. C. de Segundo discussed the interdependence of — 
the cotton and the cotton-seed industries. Until abo 
1860, cotton-seed from the plants yielding the cotton 
imported to Lancashire was a waste product. The value, © 
to the United States alone, of this once waste pro-— 
duct was, just before the war, with an average cotton- 
seed crop, from twenty to thirty millions sterling. — 
Some 95 per cent. of the seed now utilised retains. 
however, residual fibre to the extent of from 2 per 
cent. in lightly fibred Indian seed to 12 P pce apaine 
the seed-weight in American Upland, Uganda, and 
other woolly varieties. This residual fibre includes, 
besides the ‘fuzz’ proper, some ‘‘ staple’? which has 
escaped the gin and other fibres too short to be in- 
cluded in ‘staple.’ Some part of the residual fibre 
which is not ‘ fuzz” has long been recovered by saw 
linting machines, as ‘‘linters,” mainly marketed in 
Germanys a ese 
The successful removal of the proper “fuzz” with 
out injury to the seed or to the short fibres has been 
a more difficult problem. The potential value of 
““fu22" has long been recognised, but the attempts to _ 
separate the ‘‘fuzz” at first gave a product marked 
by the defect of admixture with pieces of seed-shell 
and foreign matter. Since 1909 a machine has been — 
in use which turns out “ fuzz” in a clean, marketable 
form free from this defect. Before the war 2000 tons 
of these short fibres had been imported to Britain for 
paper-making. During the war 8000 tons of this — 
‘‘hull-fibre’? have been used by one United States — 
firm in making explosives. eet hee | 
American practice removes the residual fibre in- 


i 


f 
. es ey wt r 


NATURE 


415 


a Jury 24, 1919] 


e apseany Some 2 per cent. (45 Ib. per ton of seed) 
_ is recovered in the saw-linting machine as, ‘linters,” 
on about 3 per cent. (67 Ib. per ton) in the seed- 
_ defibrating machine as ‘ seed-lint"’; while some 12 per 
_ ent. (112 Ib. per ton of seed) is obtained in the hull- 
_ defibrating machine as ‘“‘hull-fibre.” All three pro- 
how command high prices. Calculated on a 
_ pre-war basis, the three grades aggregate 45s. per 
Boca gael the cost involved is 11s. 6d. per ton; and 
_ the net extra return ts about 33s. per ton. 

ae Ss pe milling system, which crushes the 
entire seed, prevents complete recovery of the residual 


re. Even so, and assuming that 
re. Eve , a 2 r cent. of 
re is left on the seed, 2 per cent. pod still be 
rered as “linters’’ and 6 per cent. as *‘ seed-lint.” 
dditional value should be 32s. per ton of seed, 
fided the recovery be effected in the oil-milling 
eration. But it will be preferable, whenever pos- 
le, to defibrate the seed in the country of origin. 
ere Uganda seed defibrated at the ginning in 
nda there would result:—(a) A profit on the 
ters "’ and “seed-lint’’ recovered; (b) a reduction 
space occupied by the defibrated exported seed, 
per cent. or more in 
in freight; (c) a diminution of the liability of 
on-seed to heat during the voyage and a con- 
juent reduction in insurance rates; and (d) a prob- 
le inerease in the price paid for defibrated as com- 
ed with “fuzzy’’ seed. At pre-war rates these 
we Sore eenieintly, should 7 an increase of 
s. per ton in the prices paid for Uganda seed in 
the British market. 3 ae 


’ 


2% 
ay 
Es 


_ | COLLISION OF a-PARTICLES WITH 
eR SS ea LIGHT ATOMS.} 
Bi "THE. discovery. of radio-activity has not only 
_ * thrown a flood of light on the processes of 
_ transformation of radio-active atoms; it has at the 
_ same time provided us with the most powerful natural 
_ agencies for probing the inner structure of the atoms 
_ of all the elements. The swift a-particles and the high- 
speed electrons: or f-rays ejected from radio-active 
__ bodie are by far the most concentrated sources of 
: rgy known to science. The enormous energy of 
flying a-particle or helium atom is illustrated by 
uk > bright flash of light it produces when it impacts 
on a crystal of zine sulphide, and by the dense dis- 
- tribution of ions along its trail through a gas. This 
_ great store of energy is due to the rapidity of its 
Mt motion, | which in the case of the a-particle from 
_ radium C (range’7 cm. in air) amounts to 19,000 km. 
per second, or about 20,000 times the speed of a rifle- 
bullet. It is easily calculated that the energy of 
- motion of ah ounce of helium moving with the speed 
of the a-particle from radium C is equivalent to 
~ 40,000 tons of solid shot projected with a velocity of 
a km. per second. — 
In consequence of its great energy of motion the 
_ charged particle is able to penetrate deeply into the 
structure of all atoms before it is deflected or turned 
_ back, and from a study of the deflection of the path 
of the icle we are able to obtain important 
evidence on the strength and distribution of the electric 
fields near thé centre or nucleus of the atom, - 
+ Since it is believed that the atom of matter is, in 
general, complex, consisting of positively and nega- 
tively charged parts, it is to be anticipated that a 
_ narrow pencil of a-particles, after passing through a 
thin plate of matter, should be scattered into a com- 
paratively broad beam. Geiger and Marsden showed not 
Rubee ERS at the Royal. institution cn June 6 by Sir E- 


NO. 2595, VOL.. 103] 


only that much small scattering occurred, but also that 
in passing through the atoms of a heavy element some 
of the a-particles were actually turned back in their 
path. Considering the great energy of motion of the 
a-particle, this is an arresting fact, showing that the 
a-particle must encounter very intense forces in pene- 
trating the structure of the atom. In order to explain 
such results, the idea of the nucleus atom was 
developed in which the main mass of the atom is 
concentrated in a positively charged nucleus of very 
small dimensions compared with the space occupied 
by the electrons which surround it. The scattering of 
a-particles through large angles was shown to be the 
result of a single collision where the a-particle passed 
close to this charged nucleus. From a study of the 
distribution of ‘the particles scattered at different 
angles, results of first importance emerged. It was 
found that the results could be explained only if 
the electric forces between the a-particle and charged 
nucleus followed the law of inverse squares for dis- 
tances apart of the order of to-** cm. Darwin 
pointed out that the variation of scattering with velo- 
city was explicable only on the same law. This is 
an important step, for it affords an experimental proof 
that, at any rate to a first approximation, the ordinary 
law of force holds for electrified bodies at such ex- 
ceedingly minute’ distances. It was also found that a 
resultant charge on the nucleus measured in funda- 
mental units was about equal to the atomic number 
of the element. In the case of gold this number is 
believed from the work of Moseley to be 79. 
Knowing the mass of the impinging a-particle and 
of the atom with which it collides, we can determine 
from direct mechanical principles the distribution of 
velocities after the collision, assuming that there is 
no loss of energy due to radiation or other causes. 
It is important to notice that in such a calculation 
we need make no assumption as to the nature of the 
atoms or of the forces involved in the approach and 
separation of the atoms. For example, if an 
a-particle collides with another helium atom, we 
should expect the a-particle to give its energy to the 
helium atom, which could thus travel on with the 
speed of the a-particle. If an a-particle collides 
directly with a heavy atom, e.g. of gold of atomic 
weight 197, the a-particle should retrace its path 
with only slightly diminished velocity, while the gold 
atom moves onward in the criginal direction of the 
a-particle, but with about one-fiftieth of its velocity. 
Next, consider the important case where the a-particle 
of mass 4 makes a direct collision with a hydrogen 
atom of mass 1. From the laws of impact. the 
hydrogen atom is shot forward with a_ velocity 
16 times that of the impinging a-particle, while the 
a-particle moves forward in the same direction, but 
with onlv_o0-6 of its initial speed. Marsden showed 
that swift hydrogen atoms set in motion by impact 
with a-particles can be detected like a-particles by 
the scintillations produced in a zine sulphide crystal. 
Recently I have been able to measure the speed of 
such H atoms and found it to be in good accord with 
the calculated value, so that we mav conclude that 
the ordinary laws of impact mav be applied with con- 
fidence in such cases. The relative velocities of the 
a-particles and recoil atom after collision can thus be 
simply illustrated by impact of two perfectly elastic 
balls “of masses proportional to the masses of the 
atoms. q 
* While the velocities of the recoil atoms can be easily 
calculated, the distance which they travel before being 
brought to rest depends on both the mass and the charge 
carried by the recoil atom. Experiment shows that 
the range of H atoms. like the range of a-particles. 
varies nearly as the cube of their initial velocity. If 


- ment. 


416 


NATURE 


[JuLy 24, 11% 


the H atom carries a single charge, Darwin showed 
that its ee should be about four times the range of 
the a-particle. This has been confirmed by experi- 
Generally, it can be shown that the range of 
a charged atom carrying a single charge is mu‘R, 
where m. is the atomic weight, and u the ratio of the 
velocity of the recoil atom to that of the a-particle, 
and R the range of the q-particle before collision. 
In comparison of. theory with experiment, the 
results agree better if the index is taken as 2-9 
instead of 3. If, however, the recoil atom carries 
a double charge after a collision, it is to be expected 
that its range would only be about one-quarter of 


the corresponding range if it carried a single charge. : 


It follows that we cannot expect to detect the presence 
of any recoil atom carrying two charges beyond the 
range of the a-particle, but we can calculate that any 
recoil atom, of mass not greater than oxygen and 
carrying a single charge, should be detected beyond 
the range of the aq-particle. For example, for 
a single charge the recoil atoms 
and helium should travel 4 R, iithium 2-8 R, carbon 
16 R, nitrogen 1-3 R, and oxygen 1-1 R, where R is 
the range of the incident a-particles. We thus see 
that it should be possible to detect the presence of 
such singly charged atoms, if they exist, after com- 
pletely stopping the a-particles by a suitable thickness 
of absorbing material. This is a great advantage, for 
the. number of such swift recoil atoms is minute in 
comparison with the number of a-particles, and we 
could not hope to detect them in the presence of the 
much more numerous a-particles. 

In order to calculate the number of recoil atoms 
scattered through any given angle from the direction 
of flight of the a-particles, it is necessary, in addition, 
to make assumptions as to the constitution of the 
atoms and as to the nature and magnitude of the forces 
involved in the collision. Consider, for example, the 
case of a collision of an q-particle with an atom of 
gold of nuclear charge 79. Assuming that the nucleus 
of the a-particle and that of the gold atom behave like 
point charges, repelling according to the inverse 
square law, it can readily be calculated that, for direct 
collision, the a-particle from radium C, which is 
turned Haroagh an angle of 180°, approaches within 
a distance D=3-6 x 1o-” cm. of the centre of the gold 
nucleus. 
approach of the a-particle, and the distance increases 
for oblique collisions. For example, when the 
ye Sate is. scattered through an angle of 150°, 90°, 


30°, 10°, 5°, the closest distances of approach are 
T-OI, I: a 2-4, 6-2, 12 D respectively. 

In the experiments of Geiger and Marsden, the 
number of a-particles’ scattered through 5° was 


observed to be about 200,000 times greater than the 
number through 150°. The variation with angle was 
in close accord with the theory, showing that the law 
of inverse squares holds for distances between 
36x 10-"* em. and 4-3x10~-" cm. in the case of the 
goldatom. The experiments of Crowther in 1910 on the 
variation of scattering of B-rays with velocity indicate 
that a similar law holds also in that case, and for 
even greater distances from the nucleus. 

We have seen that Marsden was able by the scin- 
tillation method to detect hydrogen atoms set in swift 
motion by a-particles up to distances about four’ times 
the range of the incident a-particle. In Marsden’s 
experiments a thin-walled glass tube filled with radium 
emanation served as an intense source of rays. ° Since 
the lack of homogeneity of the a-radiation and the 
absorption in the glass are great drawbacks in making 
an accurate study of the laws controlling the produc- 
tion of swift atoms by impact, I have found it best 
to use for the’ purpose’ a homogeneous source of 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


of hydrogen: 


This is the closest possible distance of. 


radium C by exposing a disc in a strong source 
emanation. Fifteen minutes after removal from 
emanation the g-rays from the disc are practica 
homogeneous, with a range in air of 7 cm. 
special arrangements very intense sources of g-ré 
tion can be produced in this way, and in the vari 
experiments discs have been used the y-ray activit 
which has varied between 5 to 80 rnilligyaieee? of 
radium. Allowance can easily be made for’ the decay 
of the radiation with time. i 
In the experiments with hydrogen the. acu was. 
placed in a metal box about 3 cm. away from an 
opening in the end covered by a thin sheet of metal 
of sufficient thickness to absorb the a-rays completely. 
A zinc sulphide screen was mounted outside about 
I mm, away from the opening, so as to allow for 
the insertion of absorbing screens of aluminium or 
mica. The apparatus was filled with dry hydrogen at. 
atmospheric pressure. The H atoms striking the 
zinc sulphide screen were counted by means of a 
microscope in the usual way. The strong luminosity 
due to the f-rays from radium C was largely reduced 
by placing the apparatus in a powerful magnetic 1 field 
which bent them away from the screen. — A 
If we suppose, for the distances involved ina eels 
lision, that the a-particle and hydrogen nucleus may 
be regarded as point charges, it is easy to see tha 
oblique impacts should occur much’ oftener than 
head-on collisions, and consequently. that the stream | 
of H atoms set in motion by collisions should con- — 
tain atoms the velocities of which vary from zero to. 
the maximum produced in a direct collision. The © 
slow-velocity atoms should greatly preponderate, and — 
the number of scintillations observed should fall off 
rapidly when absorbing screens are placed in the path 
of the rays close to the zinc sulphide screen. _ 4 
A surprising effect was, however, observed. ‘Using 
a-rays of range 7 cm., the number of H atoms re 
mained unchanged when the absorption in their path 
was increased from 9 cm. to 19 cm. of air equivalent. 
After 19 cm. the number fell off steadily, and no- 
scintillations could be observed beyond 28 cm. air 
absorption. In fact, the stream of H atoms ena 4 
closely a homogeneous beam of a-rays of range — 
28 cm., for it is well known that, owing to scattering 
the number of a-particles from a homogeneous sourcé 
begin to fall off some distance from the end of their 
range. The results showed that the H atoms are pro- 
jected forward mainly in the direction of the a-particles — 
and over a narrow range of velocity, and that few, 
if any, lower velocity atoms are present in the stream. 
If we reduce the velocity of the a-particle by placing © 
a metal screen over the source, it is found that the — 
distribution of H atoms with velocity - changes, and — 
that the rays are no longer nearly homogeneous. — 
When the range of the a-rays is reduced to 75 cm., - 
the absorption of the H atoms is in close accord with — 
the value to be expected from the theory of point — 
charges. It is clear, therefore, that the distribution _ 
of velocity among the H atoms varies markedly with — 
the speed of the incident a-particles, and this indicates 
that a marked change takes place in the distribution - 
and magnitude of the forces involved in the collision : 
when the nuclei approach closer than a certain 
distance. ng 
In addition - to these peculiarities. ithe? aurea’ of % 
H atoms is greatly in excess of the number to be — 
expected on the simple theory. For example, for the 
swiftest a-rays the number which is able to travel 
a distance equivalent to 10 cm. of air is more than 
thirtv_ times greater than the calculated value. The 
variation in number of H atoms with velocitv of the — 
incident a-particle is also entirely different from that 
to be expected on the theory of point ane The — 


a 


‘ 


| Jury 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


417 


_ number diminishes rapidly with velocity, and is very 
_ small for -a-particles of range 2-5 cm. 
Tt must be borne in mind that the production of a 
_ high-speed H atom by an a-particle is an exceedingly 
_¥are occurrence. Under the conditions of the experi- 
' ment the number of H atoms is seldom more than 
_ 1/30,000 of the number of a-particles. Probably each 
_ @-particle passes through the structure of 10,000 
ogen molecules in traversing one centimetre of 
rogen at atmospheric pressure, and only one 
 a-particle in 100,000 of these produces a high-speed 
_ Hi atom; so that in 10° collisions with the molecules 
_ of hydrogen the a-particle, on the average, approaches 
only onee close enough to the centre of the nucleus 
a ive rise to a swift hydrogen atom. 
_ We should anticipate that for such collisions the 
_ a@-particle is unable to distinguish between the 
' hydrogen atom and the hydrogen molecule, and that 
- H,atoms should be liberated from matter containing 
or combined hydrogen. This is fully borne out 


tained with a-rays of range 7 cm. are similar to 
those to be expected if the a-particle behaves like a 
charged disc, of radius about the diameter of an 
_ electron, travelling with its plane perpendicular to the 
_ direction of motion. 

_ It is clear from the experiments with hydrogen that, 
_ for distances of the order of the diameter of the elec- 
_ tron, the a-particle no longer behaves like a point 
_ gharge, but that the a-particles must have dimensions 
of the order of that of the electron. The closest 
_ distance of approach in these collisions in hydrogen is 
_ about one-tenth the corresponding distances in the 
ease of a collision of an a-particle with an atom of 


The results obtained with hydrogen in no way 
invalidate ‘the nucleus theory as used to explain the 
attering of a-rays by heavy atoms, but show, as 
‘4 z os tsaeitle gata 3 the theory breaks down when 
we approach very close to the nucleus structure. In 
our ignoran 


ance of the constitution of the nucleus of the 
 a-particle. we can only speculate as to its structure 
' and the distribution of forces very close to it. If we 
take the a-particle of mass 4 to consist of four posi- 
- tively charged H nuclei and two negative electrons, 
we sh expect it to have dimensions of the order 
of the diameter of the electron, supposing, as seems 
_ probable, that the H nucleus is of much smaller 
_ dimensions than the electron itself. When we con- 
_ sider the enormous magnitude of the forces between 
_ the a-particle and the H nucleus in a close collision 
_ —amounting to 6 kg. of weight—it is to be expected 
‘that the structure of the a:particle should be much 
deformed, and that the law of force may undergo 
very marked changes in direction and magnitude for 
small changes in the closeness of approach of the two 
colliding nuclei. Such considerations offer a reason- 
' able explanation of the anomalies shown in the 
number and distribution with velocitv of the 
_H atoms exhibited for different velocities of the 
_ a-particles. 
_ When we consider the enormous forces between the 
nuclei, it is not so much a matter of surprise that the 
nuclei should be deformed as that the structure of 
the e-particle or helium nucleus escapes disruption 
- into its constituent narts. Such an effect has been 
carefully looked for, but so far no definite ‘evidence of 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


such a disintegration has been observed. If this is 
the case, the helium nucleus must be a very stable 
structure to stand the strain of the gigantic forces 
involved in a close collision. 

We have seen that the recoil atoms of all elements 
of atomic mass less than 18 should travel beyond the 
range of the a-particle, provided they carry a single 
charge. Preliminary experiments, in which the 
a-particles passed through pure helium, showed that 
no long-range recoil atoms were present, indicating 
that after recoil the helium atom carries a double 
charge. In a similar way no certain evidence has 
been obtained of long-range recoil atoms from lithium, 
boron, or beryllium. It is difficult in experiments 
with solids or solid compounds to be sure of the 
absence of hydrogen or water-vapour, which results 
in the production of numerous swift H atoms. These 
difficulties are not present in the case of nitrogen and 
oxygen, and a special examination has been made of 
recoil atoms in these gases. Bright scintillations were 
observed in both these gases about 2 cm. beyond 
the range of the a-particle. These scintillations are, 


presumably, due to swift N and O atoms carfying a 


single charge, for the ranges observed are about those 
to be expected for such atoms. The scintillations due 
to-recoil atoms of N and O are much brighter than 
H scintillations, although the actual energy of the 
flying atom is greater in the latter case. This differ- 
ence in brightness is probably connected with ‘the 
much weaker ionisation per unit of path due to the 
swifter H atom. 5; 

The corresponding range of the recoil atoms was 
about the same in oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon 
dioxide. Theoretically, it is to be anticipated that the 
N recoil atom should give a somewhat greater range 
than the O atom. The recoil atoms observed in 
carbon dioxide are apparently due to oxygen, for if 
the carbon atoms carried a single charge they should 
be detected beyond the range of O atoms. 

The number of recoil atoms in nitrogen and oxygen 
and their absorption indicate that these atoms, like 
H atoms, are shot forward mainly in the direction of 
the o-particles. It is clear from the results that the 
nuclei of the atoms under consideration cannot be 
regarded as point charges for distances: of the order 
of the diameter of the electron. Taking into account. 
the close similarity of the effects produced in hydrogen 
and oxygen, and the greater repulsive forces between 
the nuclei in the latter case, it seems probable that 
the abnormal forces in the case of oxvgen manifest 
themselves at about twice the distance observed in the 
case of hydrogen, i.e. for distances less than 
7x 10-7" cm. Such a conclusion is to be anticipated 
on general ‘grounds, for presumably the oxvgen 
nucleus is more complex and has larger dimensions 
than that of helium. eis SAE 

In his preliminary experiments Marsden observed 


that the active source always gives rise to a number : 


of scintillations on a zine sulphide screen far beyond 
the range of the a-particle. I have always found 
these natural scintillations present in the sources of 
radiation employed. The swift atoms producing 
these scintillations are deflected in a magnetic field, 
and have about the same range and energy as_the 
swift H atoms produced .by the passage of a-particles 
through hydrogen. The number of these natural 
scintillations is usually small, and if is very difficult 
to decide definitely whether such atoms arise from 
the disintegration of the active matter or are due to 
the action of the a-particles on hydrogen occluded in 
the source. 

These natural scintillations were studied bv placing 
the source in a closed box exhausted of air about 


418 


NATURE 


[Jury 24, 1919 __ 


3 cm. from an opening in the end covered by a sheet 
of silver of thickness sufficient to stop the a-rays 
completely. The zine sulphide screen was fixed out- 
side close to the silver plate. On introducing dried 
oxygen or carbon dioxide into the vessel, the number 
of scintillations fell off in amount corresponding with 
the stopping power of the column of gas. An un- 
expected effect was, however, noticed on introducing 
dried air from the room. Instead of diminishing, the 
number of. scintillations was increased, and for an 
absorption ‘equivalent to 19 cm. of air the number 
was about twice that observed when the air was 
exhausted. It was clear from these results that the 
a-particles in their passage through air gave rise 
to long-range scintillations ‘which appeared of about 
the same brightness as H scintillations. This effect 
in air was traced to the presence of nitrogen, for it 
was shown in dry, chemically prepared nitrogen as 
well as in air. The number of scintillations was much 
too large to be accounted for by the presence.of traces 
of hydrogen or water-vapour, for the effect observed 
was equivalent to the number of H atoms produced 
by the’ mixture of hydrogen at 6 cm. pressure with 
oxygen. The measurements were always made well 
outside the range of the recoil nitrogen and oxygen 
atoms, which we have seen are stopped by 9 cm. of 
air. 

These swift atoms which arise from nitrogen have 
about the same brightness and range as the H atoms 
produced from hydrogen, and; presumably, are 
charged hydrogen atoms. Definite information on 
this point should be obtained by measuring the deflec- 
tion of a pencil of these atoms in a magnetic and 
electric field. The experiments are, however, exceed- 
ingly difficult on account of the very small number 


of the scintillations to be expected under the experi-. 


mental conditions. It should be mentioned that the 
evidence so far obtained is not sufficient to distinguish 
definitely whether these are H atoms or atoms of 
mass 2, 3, or 4, for the range and brightness of the 
latter would not be very different from those shown 
by the H atom. 
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that these long- 
range atoms arising from the collision of q-particles 
with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms, but probably 
charged atoms of hydrogen or atoms of mass 2. If 
this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen 
atom is disintegrated under the intense forces de- 
veloped in a close collision with swift a-particles, and 
that the atom liberated formed a constituent part of 
the nitrogen nucleus. It may be significant that from 
radio-active data we should expect the nitrogen 
nucleus of atomic mass 14 to-consist of three helium 
nuclei of mass 4, and either two hydrogen nuclei or 
one nucleus of mass 2. 
_ The effect observed in nitrogen would be accounted 
for if the H nuclei were outriders of the main nucleus 
of mass 12. The close approach of the a-particle 
leads to the disruption of its bond with the central 
nucleus, and under favourable conditions the H atom 
would acquire a high velocity and be shot forward like 


a free hydrogen atom. Taking into account the great 


energy of the particle, the close collision of an 
a-particle with a light atom seems to be the most 
likely agency to promote its disruption. Considering 
the enormous intensity of the forces brought into 
play in such collisions, it is not so much a matter 
of remark that the nitrogen atom should suffer: dis- 
integration as that the a-particle itself escapes disrup- 
tion. The results, as a’ whole, suggest that if 
a-particles or similar projectiles of still greater energy 
were available for experiment, we might expect: to 
break down the nucleus structure of many of the 
lighter atoms. 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


INTELLIGENCE. 


CAMBRIDGE.—Sir J. J. Thomson, Master of T 
who recently resigned the Cavendish professorship 
experimental physics, has been elected into the new y 
established professorship of physics. his professor- 
ship is without stipend, and will terminate with 
tenure of office of the first professor unless the 
versity determines otherwise. ee 

The General Board of Studies has made fi 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL. 


The €ourt has also resolved to proceed with addi- 


Pror. T. BRaitsrorp Rosertson, formerly professor 
of biochemistry in the University of Toronto, has been — 
appointed to succeed the late Sir Edward C, Stirling — 
as professor of physiology in the University of Ade- 


laide, South Australia. 


Tue Encenial proceedings of the University of New | 


Brunswick in Fredericton, the capital, took place in 
May last. They included the alumni oration delivered 


by Prof. D. Fraser Harris, of the Dalhousie Univer-_ 


sity, ate aa N.S., who took for his subject ‘‘ Science 
and Character-building.’’ Prof. Harris laid stress — 


upon the claims of science as giving a mental training — 


He defined | 


second to no other intellectual exercise. . 
science as that training of the mind which is im- 
parted by a rigorous, unbiased, and sympatheic study 
of Nature, demanding for its successful pursuit 
patience, care, exactness, and a strict reverence for 
truth, all of which qualities are essential to the 
building up of character, which is something more 
than being conventionally moral, since weal people 
can be moral and some conventionally immoral people 


have been strong characters—for instance, Caesar, — 
Nelson, and Napoleon. Character is strong without 


being oppressive, just without being narrow, self- 
reliant without being self-centred. 
heroism in her workers and has had her martyrs, 


- some of whom were enumerated. ‘Truth is what men 


of character search for, reverence, and seek to declare, 
and Prof. Harris gave a list of the great men of 


science who were conspicuous in this regard, strangely — 
omitting the names of Darwin, Tyndall, and Huxley, — 
and naively asked whether it is possible to name an — 


equal number of men as eminent_and as reverent in 
literature, philosophy, or art. Prof. Harris would 


‘Unie 


John Strong, Rector of E 


Science produces 


Jury 24, 1919] 


NATURE 


- 


419 


‘have gained much had he carefully studied the 
_ close reasoning and the method of treatment of his 
subject displayed in the address of Huxley on “A 
_ Liberal Education and Where to Find It,” delivered 
in the South London Working Men’s College in 1868. 


_ SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
eee ice SHEFFIELD, 

Society of Glass Technology, June 18.—Mr. S. N. 
i on, president, in the chair.—S, N. Jenkinson : 
_ Impressions of a recent tour of the German glass fac- 
_ tories. During a tour in Germany Mr. Jenkinson 
_ Visited Silesia, Saxony, Saxe-Weimar, and other dis- 
_ tricts, and investigated conditions in several works, 
_ particularly glass factories. The size of the glass 
industry in any in pre-war days can be judged 
from the fact that in 19f3 they exported glass to the 
‘value of 123,090,000 marks, and pottery to the value 
_ -0f 94,000,000 marks. This amount means that 75 per 
_ cent. of their output was exported. It can be realised, 
_ therefore, that the outbreak of war caused the shutting 
_ down of many German glass factories during 1914-15. 
_ The policy Pape 1915 10 in Germany was to re- 
_ open several of the factories and allow one furnace 
in each works to be kept going, and a scheme was 
_ inaugurated whereby finance in the industry was 
pooled. At the present time very little production of 
_ glassware is taking place, due largely to the lack of 
_ coal and the state of transport. Alk the plant in the 
works was kept in’ the highest pitch of efficiency, so 
that immediately opportunity came a high rate of pro- 
_ duction would follow. Out of some 132 furnaces 
into which Mr. Jenkinson made inquiries, only 
eight were working.—Dr. M. W. Travers: Some ex- 


_ periments with a gas-fired pot-furnace. The author. 


ave a description of furnaces which had been used 
‘in producing chemical glassware, and advocated burn- 
ing the gas from the producers in front of the pots, 
4 sen the burnt gases out of the furnace at the 
_ back.—Edith Firth, F. W. Holden, and Dr. W. E. S. 
_ Turner: The properties of British fire-clays suitable 
_ for glassworks use. Part i.: The variation of shrink- 
age, density, and porosity with temperature. (Pre- 

liminary communication.) This paper was illustrated 
5 ee lies of fire-clay blocks showing the behaviour 
of various fire-clays under the tests outlined by ‘the 
authors. It is the first communication of a research 


carried out under the auspices of the Refractories 


nee! 


Research Committee of the society.—A. V. Elsden, 
& oO. Roberts, and H. S. Jones: The examination of 
optical glass in relation to weathering properties. 
oie Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, June 23.--M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair.—A. Lacroix and M. Tilho: The vol- 
-.ecanoes of Tibesti—G. Humbert: The positive 
_ quadratic forms of Hermite.—A. Rateau: The theory 

‘of aeroplanes. Principal consequences of the formule. 
A development of a theory outlined in a previous com- 
munication.—R. de Forcrand and F. Taboury: The 
_ sulphones formed by sodium, rubidium, and caesium 
- jodides. The pressures of liquid SO, in contact with 
' Nal, CsI, and RbI at —23-5°,- 0°, and 9:5° were 
- measured, and compared with the pressures of liquid 
SO, alone at the same temperatures. The combina- 
tions Nal+3SO,, RbI1+3SO,, and CsI1+3S5O, were 
isolated and analysed.—C. Sauvageau and L. Moreau : 
‘Marine algz as food for horses. Fucus serratus and 
Laminaria flexicaulis form good food for horses, the 
only fault being that at the commencement there may 
_ be some difficulty in getting the animals to take them, 
and there is also a preliminary period during which 
digestion is incomplete-—M. Widal was elected a 


NO. 2595, VOL. 103] 


member of the section of medicine in succession to 
the, late M. Dastre.—A. Egmell: Vectorial fields with. 
indeterminate asymptotic directions.—G. Rémoundos ; 
Singularities of differential equations and series 
capable of summation.—J. Amdrade: A new method 
for the experimental study of flat spirals —L. Bloch ; 
The formula of Ritz and the theory of quanta.—H. 
Colin and Mile. A. Chaudun; The law of action of 


sucrase. Influence of the viscosity on the velocity of 
hydrolysis: It has been shown in an earlier com- 


munication that after the ratio of saccharose to sucrase 
reaches a certain limit, the velocity of hydrolysis ceases 


-to inerease with the proportion of sugar; but for a 


considerable increase in the sugar concentration above 
this limit the velocity diminishes, and this is now 
shown to be due to the increased viscosity. The 
velocity of hydrolysis under these conditions is a linear 
function of the fluidity of the solution.—A. Valeur and 
E. Luce: The action of hydrogen peroxide upon 
sparteine and isosparteine.—C. Gorceix: The proof of 
an isostasic post-Glacial movement in the iy of 
Chambéry. Age of fffe Voglans lignites.—_J. Rouch: 
The velocity of the wind in the stratosphere. Ob- 
servations on the coast, under conditions of clear sky ~ 
and with moderate wind, show no reduction of velo- 
city in the stratosphere.—J. Tissot: Mechanism of 
the destruction in the serum of the antigen sensitised 
cell by its specific antibody.—G. Bertrand: The 
mechanism of the preservation of fruit in cold water. 

June 30.—M. Léon Guignard in the chair.—P. 
Termier: Transport phenomena of Alpine age in the 
Rhone Valley, near Avignon.—A. Rateau: Theory of 
the rectilinear rising of aeroplanes. The maximum 
ascension velocity.—G. Charpy and G. Decorps: The 
conditions of formation of coke. A continuation of 
previous communications by MM. Charpy and 
Godchot. Since the strength of the coke may vary 
with the preliminary compression of the charge and 


‘with the temperature of the retort, experiments are 


described in which the effect of change in each of 
these two variables was studied separately. The effect 
of a preliminary baking at a low temperature, 500° C:, 
for forty minutes, followed by coking at 900° C., was 
also studied with interesting results, cokes with very 
high resistance to crushing being obtained by this 
means.—M. Andoyer was elected a member of the 
section of astronomy in succession to the late M. Ch. 
Wolf.—P. Boutroux: A family of multiform functions, 
integrals of a differential equation of the first order.— 
G. Guillaumin ; Forced conduits with variable charac- 
teristic—_M. Létang: ‘The phenomena which take 
place during the combustion of powder in a closed 
vessel._—A, Cornu-Thénard: Flexion tests of notched 
bars bv shock.—M, Brillouin: The dynamical theory 
of the atom and the quanta theory.—L. Benoist : New 
porous walls. filtering unsymmetrically. A complex 
filtering plate, consisting of three layers of different 
porosity, was constructed, the magnitudes of the 
porosities being 0:30, 0-23, and o-18. The time of flow 
of a fixed volume of water under a given pressure 
was measured and found to vary with the direction 
of flow, according as it entered the most porous or 
least porous side of the plate.—H. Abraham and E. 
Bloch: Amplifiers for continuous currents and _ for 
currents of very low frequency.—G. Chavanne and 
L. J. Simon; The preparation of some volatile 
saturated cyclic or open-chain hydrocarbons contained 
in petrol.—A. Guébhard; Causes of displacement of 
the earth’s crust.—S. Stefanescu : The practical applica- 
tion of the characters of the root of the molars of 
elephants and mastodons.—G, Guilbert: The predic- 
tion of variations of atmospheric pressure of small 
amplitude.—P. Girard ; Physical scheme for the study 
of mineral nutrition of the cell.—A. Besredka: 


420 


NATURE 


[Jury 24, 1919 


Mechanism of typhoid infection in the rabbit. Anti- 
typhoid vaccination by the mouth.—A. C. Hollande ; 


Pathogenic yeast forms observed in ‘the blood of » 


Caloptenus italicus.—J. Dufrenoy; The parasitic dis- 
eases of Cnethocampa pityocampa of Arachon pines.— 
MM. Yamanouchi, Iwashima, and Sakakami: Study of 
the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. Experiments on 
fifty-two voluntary subjects proved that the virus is 
filterable, and is found both in the sputum and in the 
blood of infected persons. A 


SYDNEY. 

Linnean Society of New South Wales, March 26.—Mr. 
J. J. Fletcher, president, in the chair.—F. H. Taylor ; 
Australian Tabanidz, No. iv. One new genus is 
proposed in the subfamily Tabaninz, and twenty-six 
species and one variety, referable to the genera Silvius, 
Cydistomyia, and Tabanus, are’ described as new.— 
T. Steel: The external parasites of the dingo (Canis 
dingo, Blum.).. The occurrence of two fleas (Cteno- 
cephalus felis and. C..canis), a larval tick (near Ixodes 
holocyclus), and a louse (Trichedectus latus, or nearly 
related species) is recorded from a full-grown, pure- 
- bred male dingo.—Dr. R. Greig-Smith ; The germicidal 
activity of the eucalyptus oils, part i. When a serum- 
-suspension of M. aureus was absorbed in cotton and 
‘placed in dilutions of the eucalyptus oils in olive oil 
for two hours at 20° C., it was found that the bac- 
tericidal power was proportional to the acidity of the 
oils. The germicidal effect was not caused by the 
acidity, but was assisted by it. .The effect upon 
B. coli communis was of much the same nature, 
although the action of the acid was not so clearly 
shown. ‘The iodide reaction was no criterion as to 
the germicidal value of the oils. The vapours of the 
‘oils had a decided bactericidal action. 

April 30.—Mr. J. J. Fletcher, president, in the chair. 


—Dr. R. J. Tillyard: The morphology and systematic | 


position of the family .Micropterygidz (sens. lat.). 
Introduction and part i.: The wings. 
of archaic, moth-like insects has been regarded as 
belonging to the order Lepidoptera until quite 
recently, when. Dr. .T.. A. Chapman, .on_ one 
hand, removed the genus Micropteryx alone to a 
new order Zeugloptera, retaining Eriocrania and 
its allies in the Lepidoptera, while, on the other, 
Prof. Comstock has removed the whole family. bodily 
‘into the Trichoptera. The object of the paper was 
to elucidate the morphology of the group and _ to 
determine its correct ordinal position within the In- 
secta.—A. H. S. Lucas: Notes on Australian marine 
Algz. . No. ii. Descriptions of four new. species.-— 
Dr. A. B. Walkem:; A collection. of Jurassic plants 
from Bexhill, near Lismore, N.S.W. The known 
flora of the-Clarence series in northern New South 
Wales is increased from four species to eleven, the 
additions: indicating conclusively that the portion of 
the series from which they were obtained is of Jurassic 
age. This flora shows a closer resemblance to the 
Jurassic flora of Victoria than to any other Australian 
flora of similar age. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Four-Place Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables, 
together with Interest Tables. Edited by Prof. Louis C. 


Karpinski. Pp. 30. (Michigan: George Wahr, 1918.) 
30 cents. : 
La Théorie Atomique. By Sir J. J. Thomson. 
Pp. vi+57. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1919.) 
2.40 francs-net. 
Géodésie Topométrique. Troisiéme __Fascicule. 
Détermination du Point par Relévement. Méthode 


du Service Hydrographique de la Marine Dite du 
NO. 2595, VOL. 103 | 


“Point Approche.”? By Emile Balu. Pp. vit 57+ 


1918. 


This family 


2 plates. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1919:)~ 
6 francs net. a 
Introduction, 4- la Chimie Générale. Lois Fonda- 
mentales de l’Atomisme et de 1|’Affinité Exposées’ a _ 
des Chimistes Débutants. By Prof. H. Copaux. © 
Pp. vit+212. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1919.) | 
7.50 francs net. — 4 
The Urethroscope in‘the Diagnosis and Treatment | 
of Urethritis. By Major N. P. L.. Lumb. Pp, xiit+ — 
51t+10 plates. (London: John Bale, Sons, and | 
Danielsson, Ltd., 1919.) - tos. -6d. net. : = 
Annual Reports on the Progress. of Chemistry for | 
_ Issued by the’ Chemical Society. Vol. xv. — 
(London: Gurney and Jackson, 1919.) 4s. 6d. net. ; 
Science and War: The Rede Lecture, 1919. By © 
the Right Hon. Lord Moulton. Pp. 59. (Cambridge: — 
At the University Press, 1919.) 2s. 6d. net. 0 


Smithsonian. Institution: Bureau of | American — 
Ethnology. Bulletin 59. Kutenai Tales. By Franz — 
Boas. ‘Together with Texts collected b nder — 


Francis Chamberlain. Pp. xii+387. 
Government Printing Office, 1918.) % 

Senior Practical Chemistry. By H. W._ Bausor. — 
Pp. viiit217. (London: W. B. Clive, University 
Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1919.) 35. 6d. 
A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns. — 
By Dr. J. C.- Willis. Fourth edition, revised and re- 


(Washington : _ 


written. (Cambridge Biological Series.) Pp. xii+ 
712+lvy. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1919.) 
20s. net. pag 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
A Guide to Lens Calculations. By T.S. .....- 401. 
Colloid-Chemistry. By A. FF... ..+ +++... 400 
Physiology for Students and Practitioners ... . 402 
Our Bookshelf... «ies i] pan ae ea aa ae 
Letters to the Editor :— 
Research and Service.—Sir James W. Barrett ; 
Prof, Frederick Soddy, F.R.S. .) «+... + 40¢ © 
Wild ‘Birds and Distasteful Insect Larvee.—Dr. j 
Walter E. Collinge ...... Bee ee My 2 tae 
Science and Salaries. —C. . .. 1...» eyes Od. 
Modern Single-Observer Rangefinders, (Illustrated.) 
By James Weir French .... Es ott ot . 405 
The Bournemouth Meeting of the British Associa- 
tion | eitha? tes bra ite NL Goes tel ie mata eee ee re 
by hoy 1-1 Pap ea ah er CM Sai eM eee Ci canine OP 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
A Bright Meteor...» + ws we Piped 4il 
The Light of the Aurora and the Auroral Line. . 411 
The Spiral Nebula 6... / ee ee et ee nea BS § 
Chemists in Conference. .....+ «+++, 412 
Physiology and Metaphysics ......--.+. % 412 
A League of Universities. ...-  » +++ + 413 
Science in Industry: Lectures at the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition ........ + 414 
Cotton and Cotton-seed Industries ..... +... 414 
Collision of a-Particles with Light Atoms. By Sir 
E. Rutherford, F.R.S. oie ee ees Waseca 3 
‘University and Educational Intelligence. .... 41 
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<A <5 a ea a 
ney Ses Tig ¢ 


NATURE 


421 


THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1919. 


APPLIED CHEMISTRY. 


) Boiler Chemistry and Feed-;iVater Supplies. 
By J. H. Paul. Pp. 1x+242. (London: Long- 

mans, Green, and Co., 1919.) Price 14s. net. 

0 Reports of the Progress of Applied Chemistry. 

_ Issued by the Society of Chemical Industry. 
Vol. iii. “Pp. 495. (London: Society of Chemi- 
cal Industry, 1918.) Price 1os. 6d. 

6) Trinitrotoluenes and Mono- and _ Dinitro- 
toluenes : their Manufacture and Properties. By 
'G. Carlton Smith. Pp. vii+133. (London: 
‘Constable and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 8s. 6d. 
net. 


Ne oT aes 
i y r 


2 (a) ME. J. H. PAUL is a well-known autho- 
rity on the chemical principles involved 
in the management and control of steam-boilers, 
. especially in regard to the nature and selection 
_ of their teed-waters and of their treatment in the 
prevention of boiler-scale and corrosion. 
_ In the book before us, which has been written 
_ mainly for the use of engineers and practical men 
‘possessing, presumably, a limited knowledge of 
chemistry and of chemical terminology, the author 
has sought to explain, in non-technical language, 
the character of the reactions which occur in 
natural waters containing a variety of soluble 
saline substances, when heated for the purpose of 
Steam-raising at the relatively high temperatures 
and pressures of modern boiler practice. The 
mature of the changes which may occur under 
these conditions is probably more complex than 
is usually assumed, and certain of them are pos- 
ery complicated by the circumstance that they 
aré. _of the character of reversible reactions, and 
to the laws of mass action and to the vari- 
able influence of temperature and concentration. 
4 _In some seventeen chapters the author describes 
_ the various forms of natural water, with special 
_ reference to their suitability for steam-raising ; 
the nature of their saline constituents; the com- 
Ea ya of the various scales and boiler deposits ; 
_ modes of softening water; the character and in- 
fluence of the permanently soluble salts; the 
p action of carbonic acid; its behaviour towards 
iron; the general question of boiler corrosion, its 
causes and prevention; good and bad boiler prac- 
ass, etc. The book is largely based upon personal 
experience, and contains the results of numerous 
Eerwinal analyses of water-supplies of all kinds 
and from all parts of the world, and of various 
i deposits, internal and external. It can be recom- 
; mended as a trustworthy guide to those concerned 
in boiler work. It will be gathered that it deals 
‘more with practice than with theory, and it must 
be stated that the rational explanation of certain 
_of the phenomena given by the author is open to 
question; indeed, it is admitted that the section 
of the work dealing with the action of carbonic 
acid on iron is largely speculative, and may have 
to be modified when more is known on the sub- 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


VERS Ta 


= 


TS 


ae 


ee tne 


E 
; 
| 
i 


ject. In spite of his avoidance, as a rule, of 
technical language, the author is constrained at 
times to express reactions by means. of chemical 
equations, of some of which the validity cannot 
be considered as established, and it somewhat 
savours of dogmatism to neglect. the evidence of 
other observers. . “It has been felt that the prin- 
ciple of giving authorities is a subterfuge for pass- 
ing on to others a responsibility an author has not 
the courage to assume on his own account.’’ This 
is surely a very unscientific attitude of mind. 
There should be here no question of subterfuge 
or of courage or the lack of it. He who wishes 
to gain, as fully as possible, a knowledge of. the 
facts desires to have an independent corrobora- 
tion of them, and for Mr. Paul to arrogate to 
himself an ex cathedra position as the sole autho- 
rity detracts from, rather than enhances, the 
weight of his testimony. As a searcher for the 
truth it is incumbent on him to cite whatever evi- 
dence bears upon it. 

(2) Vol. iii. of the annual reports issued by 
the Society of Chemical Industry deals with the 
progress of applied chemistry made during 1918. 
As in the case of the two previous reports, it is 
mainly based upon material published by the 
society in its fortnightly journal issued during that 
year. Its plan is practically identical with that of 
its predecessors, and many of its contributors are 
the same as in previous cases. Two important 
sections are added, viz. agricultural chemistry and 
foods. On the other hand, three are omitted, 
viz. ceramics, building materials, and fermenta- 
tion industries, as the compilers of these sections 
failed to send in their copy in time to be included 
in the present volume. Considering the range of 
material to be dealt with, and the number of con- 
tributors engaged, laches of this kind are probably 
unavoidable, but they detract, of course, from the 
value of the report as a comprehensive and com- 
plete summary of the particular year’s work, and 
necessitate, as in the present case of the added 
sections on foods and agricultural chemistry, the 
compression of the work of several years in a 
single report. There is, to this extent, a certain 
lack of uniformity in treatment and an absence of 
continuity which are to be regretted, but for which 
the editor and the publication committee are 
scarcely to be held responsible. 

In the present volume the various departments 
of applied chemistry treated of are grouped under 
twenty-two sections. It is obviously impossible, in 
the limited space at our disposal, to deal with them 
all in detail, and we propose to select those for 
the purpose of comment which are of general in- 
terest or of particular importance at the present 
time of “reconstruction.’’ 

The value of these annual reports is greatly in- 
creased when particular sections are handled in 
successive years by the same author, provided 
that he is competent and has the necessary critical 
skill; and the excellence of his summary is aug- 
mented if he prefaces it by a general statement 
of the more striking marks of progress which 


Z 


4:22 


NATURE 


[JuLy 31, 1919 


have characterised the year’s work. Such a 
statement is probably best put together after the 
detailed account of the year’s literature has been 
compiled, and when, as it were, the material has 
been brought to focus. The greater number of 
the contributors, especially those who have been 
engaged on previous reports, actually make these 
general surveys, but the practice is not uniform, 
and the surveys are neither of the same interest 
nor show the same grasp and critical skill. This 
perhaps is to be expected. Progress in some de- 
partments of applied chemistry is very slow, espe- 
cially in minor industries, and such developments 
as do occur are often not particularly striking. 
Of the new contributors, Dr. Dunn, of New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, contributes an admirable résumé 
on ‘* Fuel,’’ in which he deals with a wider range 
of literature than is noted in the society’s journal ; 
Mr. Alwyne Meade, of the Commercial Gas Co., 
Wapping, treats of “Gas-destructive Distillation- 
Tar Products ’’ in a well-arranged and succinct 
digest’ of some twenty pages; while Mr. Arnold 
Philip, the Admiralty chemist at Portsmouth, occu- 
pies about the same space with an excellent résumé 
of the present position of the mineral oil industry, 
with special reference to its applications as fuel. 
Although the matter is not, strictly:speaking, rele- 
vant to the title of this particular section, Mr. 
Philip is naturally led to discuss the question of 
the possible substitution of alcohol, wholly or in 
part, for petrol as a motor-fuel—a question which 
is again being actively ventilated owing in great 
measure to the present high price of petrol. The 
author is evidently not very sanguine that alcohol 
is likely to play any considerable part as a motor- 
spirit unless some form of co-operation on the 
part of motor users, or some form of control by 
the State, as in Germany, checks the destructive 
competition between the producers of alcohol and 
of petrol which will inevitably set in. As matters 
stand at present the great petroleum corporations 
can at any time afford to undersell alcohol, and 
can undoubtedly ruin any undertaking engaged in 
the manufacture of industrial alcohol for motor- 
fuel. The question has engaged the attention of. 
a Departmental Committee, and a report upon it 
has recently been issued. The whole matter is 
beset with’ administrative difficulties, and will 
presumably need legislative action, if any practi- 
cal effect is to follow from the Committee’s report. 
Other new contributors are Capt. Nash, of 
the Chemical Warfare Department, on “ Paints, 
Pigments, Varnishes, and Resins ’’’; Dr. Twiss, 
of the Dunlop Rubber Co., on “ Indiarubber ’’; 
Mr. F. C. Thompson, of the Leather Indus- 
tries Department of the University of Leeds, 
on “Leather and Glue’’; Dr. E. J. Russell, 
of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, on 
‘* Agricultural Chemistry ’’; Mr. I. P. Ogilvie, the 
technical editor of the International Sugar Jour- 
nal, on “Sugars, Starches, and Gums’; Dr. 
Bywaters, lecturer on general metabolism at the 
Bristol University, on ‘‘ Foods *’; Dr. Ardern, the 
chief chemist of the Manchester Corporation’s 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


Rivers Department, on ‘‘ Water Purification and 


Sanitation ’’; and Prof. Barger on ‘‘ Fine Chemi- 
cals, Medicinal Substances, and Essential Oils.’” 
It will be seen that in all cases the editor has been 
fortunate in securing the co-operation of recog- 
nised authorities in the particular sections entrusted 
to them. ph hagas 

The remaining sections have been undertaken 
by previous contributors. Prof. Morgan con- 
tinues his admirable series of reports on ‘‘ Colour- 
ing Matters and Dyes’’; Mr. Briggs deals with 
‘Fibres, Textiles, Cellulose, and Paper ”” ; Mr. 
Higgins with ‘‘ Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, and 
Finishing ’’; Dr. Auden with “Acids, Alteali Ss, 
Salts, etc.’’; Mr. Rees with “Glass and Refrac- 
tories ’’; Mr. Bannister with “The Metallurgy of 
Iron and Steel’’; Mr. Patchin with the “Non- 
ferrous Metals’’; Mr. Hale with “Electro- 
chemistry ’’; and Messrs. Revis and. Bolton with 
“Fats, Oils, and Waxes.”’ Hatta i 

There is much in this excellent series of digests 
of general interest, and had space permitted we 
should have been tempted to direct attention to 


many points of novelty and importance. Certain — 


of the sections overlap to a slight extent, and, as 
might be anticipated when we are dealing with 
matters at the very frontiers of progress, authori- 
ties occasionally differ, as, for example, concern- 
ing the importance or otherwise of the presence of 
vitamines in certain articles of food, as in mar- 
garine. But these reports are, or should be, 
generally accessible to all who are concerned with 
the multifarious applications of chemical know- 
ledge, and the price at which they are issued 
brings them within the reach of all who are in- 
terested in the progress of applied chemistry. 


(3) Mr. Carlton Smith’s little monograph on the — 


nitrotoluenes is, like its subject, a product of the 
war. Its author is on the staff of the School of. 
Applied Science of the Pittsburgh Carnegie Insti- 
tuté of Technology. The book is mainly con- 
cerned with the history, modes of manufacture,. 
and properties of the trinitrotoluenes, and par- 
ticularly of T.N.T., which, under the various names: 
of trolyl, tolite, trilite, trincl, tritolo, etc., is now 


largely used as an explosive in war by practically © 


all nations in substitution for picrie acid. During 
the late war the demand for it was enormous, and 
large quantities of it were made by American 
manufacturers on account of the high price it com- 
manded. Mr. Smith’s book is mainly concerned 
with the methods of production as carried on in 
the United States. It is presumably written for 


the information of the manufacturer; as a scien- — 


tific treatise it has few merits; the explanation of 


the theory of nitration is confused and misleading, 


and the -historical account is incomplete. 
Literary composition is evidently not the author’s 
strong point, and his orthography and punctua- 
tion are occasionally erratic. For Walters (p. 6) 


read Walter; for Hoffman (p. 7) read Hofmann; ~ 


for Rosenstill (p. 12) read Rosenstiehl; for Lamp- 
richt (p. 16) read Limpricht; for Nolting 
Witte (p. 16) read Noelting and Witt; for Astro- 


and ~ 


_ len’’ in the list of references should be ‘ Anna- 
_ len.”’ These are blemishes which should not occur 
in a book written by an instructor in general 
_ chemistry in so important a school as the Car- 
_-negie Institute of Technology. 


THE PRINCIPLES OF RADIO- 
COMMUNICATION. 


a The Principles of Electric-wave Telegraphy and 


Telephony. By Prof. J. A. Fleming. Fourth 
' edition, revised. Pp. xvi+707. (London: 


- itagiat Green, and Co., 1919.) Price 42s. 
j a: is no easy task to keep a large treatise on 
ie electric wave telegraphy and telephony abreast 
__ of the advances that have been made during the last 
few years. In this fourth edition the author has 
been very successful. He does not load up the 
book with descriptions of all kinds of technical 
apparatus, or attempt to describe all the methods 
used in practice. There is now quite a small 
library of highly technical works which give the 
required detailed information to the engineer, and 
‘to these Prof. Fleming refers the reader. What 
he does give is a comprehensive view of the 
Subject, particularly on its scientific side. He 
also dwells fully on quantitative measurements 
and their theory, which he himself has done so 
_ much to develop. 
In part i. a Pt asion is given of electrical 
_ oscillations. The mathematical proofs given are 
and straightforward, and will be appre- 


red even by those who are beginning to forget 
thei knowledge of the calculus. The mathe- 
matical formule for the high-frequency resistance 


| r’s successful experimental methods of test- 
ing these formule described. When the wires 
are curved, the mathematical difficulties in the 
3 of computation are so great that engineers 
: si hs iasiag the experimental verification of the 


othe Phe given of spark-voltages between 
= sphere electrodes are somewhat antiquated. 
-The reviewer had occasion recently to 
analyse the experimental results on spark 
 Weatages published in the standardisation rules 
of the American Institute of Electrical En- 
4 gineers emi The Institute used spheres vary- 
- ing in diameter from 3.125 cm. up to 50 cm., 
__and the spark voltages go up as high as 4oo kv. 
_ The results plainly show that when the voltages 
_ of the electrodes are equal and opposite at the 
- instant of discharge, the maximum electric stress, 
_ R, at this instant, the temperature being 25°C. 
and the pressure 76 cm., is given by 
R=27744+14'1//a 
EF stovelts per centimetre, where a is the radius 


a of either spherical electrode in centimetres. It 
was of interest, therefore, to see whether the 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103 | 


5 and inductance of circuits are given, and the » 


JuLy 31, 1919] NATURE 423 
__-misslewsky read Ostromisslensky. ‘‘ Roberite’’ | results (p. 188) obtained by Heydweiller in 1893 . 
4p. 108) usually written “roburite ’’—at | on spheres of 0°5, 1, 2, and 5 cm. were in agree- 

- east on this side of the Atlantic; and ‘Anal- | ment with this formula. We find that when we 


correct for temperature and pressure they are in 
most excellent agreement. It follows, therefore, 
that if V be the spark voltage when the distance 
between the electrodes is x, we have 


V=(R/f)x, 


where f is a mathematical factor depending on x 
and a, a table of the values of which is given on 
p- 145 of this book. This is at least true for 
spheres varying in diameter from o'5 up to 
50 cm., values of x less than about a millimetre 
being excluded. Various theories have been 
given to explain why R should be the sum of two 
terms as shown above, but in the reviewer’s 
opinion those theories which neglect the effects 
of the convection currents of air flowing round 
the ‘ectrode prior to the discharge are wrong. 

In part ii. electric waves are discussed, and a 
very complete account is given of methods of 
measuring and detecting them. The remainder 
of the book is devoted to radio-communication. It 
begins with a short history of the subject. Then 
various long-distance telegraphic stations are 
described, the salient points of the systems of 
working being pointed out. The theory of trans- 
mission is given. Full descriptions are given of 
several of the latest developments of the art, such, 
for instance, as the Marconi military set for wire- 
less apparatus, and the Marconi sets used in air- 
craft. 

The final chapter treats of radio-telephony, and 
is perhaps the most interesting in the book. It 
is extraordinary what rapid progress is being 
made in this branch of the subject, and how 
different are the methods employed by the various 
experimenters. Marvellous results have been 
obtained by the Fleming oscillation valve. The 
almost incredible sensitivity attained in receiving 
apparatus by the use of thermionic amplifiers 
warrants the most sanguine hopes for the future 
of radio-telephony. 

We ought to mention that, although additions 
have been made to the book to bring it up to 
date, yet by the deletion of antiquated matter and 
the use of smaller type the total bulk of the 
volume has been reduted. This is an advantage, 
as the earlier editions were beginning to get 
unwieldy. We can recommend this book to every- 
one interested in radio-telegraphy. To the scien- 
tific radio-telegraphist it is a necessity. 

A. Russet. 


_GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF WORLD 
POLITICS. 


Democratic Ideals and Reality. 
Politics of Reconstruction. By H. J. Mac- 
kinder. Pp. 272. (London: Constable and 
Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 


HERE is no lack of ideas in this book. From 
beginning to end it is full of striking con- 
ceptions which arrest attention even if some of 


A Study in the 


424 


NATURE 


[Jury 31, 1919 


them fail to meet with acceptance. Mr. Mackinder 
has exercised to the full his ability to see the 
broad issues of history in terms of geographical 
influences, and he has produced a fresh and stimu- 
lating commentary on the world politics of to-day. 
Seeking fundamental generalisations, he sees a 
world-island comprising Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, and a heartland covering all continental 
as opposed to coastal Asia and European Russia. 
As the world-island is the base of sea power, so 
the heartland is the home of land power. In the 
antagonism between the two—that is, between 
_ German and Slav—Mr. Mackinder sees one of the 
fundamental causes of the war. There was no 
immediate quarrel, he contends, between East 
Europe and West Europe. Germany’s object was 
to gain control of the heartland, and if she had 
thrown her main strength against Russia and 
stood on the defensive towards France, this aim, 
he thinks, might have been achieved before the 
peoples of the West realised its  strategical 
danger. f 

The issue between German and Slav is still 
unsettled, and the danger of German control of 
the heartland still remains. To obviate this 
danger a balance must be held between German 
and Slav in East Europe. Certainly there is no 
indication that German psychology has undergone 
any change by the defeat of Germany in the West, 
and it might well be argued that the Allies’ vic- 
tory marks merely a respite in the world-war. 
Severe as are the terms imposed on Germany, her 
economic resources will eventually lead to her 
complete recovery, and her old ambitions may be 
reborn. Mr. Mackinder’s solution of the problem 
is to break up Eastern Europe into self-governing 
States, so that there is a tier of independent States 


between Russia and Germany. Poles, Bohemians, j 


Hungarians, Southern Slavs, Rumanians, Bul- 


gars, and Greeks are each, he believes, people 


with the capacity for a strong independent 
national existence and capable of self-government. 
That is possible, but at the same time it is equally 
possible that such buffer-States, if weak, might 
become bones of contention and eventually lead to 
war on a large scale. It should be added that 
the volume was written last winter, and so is in 
no sense a criticism of the Peace Treaty. 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


The Annual of the British School at Athens, 
No. xxii. Sessions 1916-1917, 1917-1918. 
Pp. vii+272+xi plates. (London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 25s. net. 

THE most interesting paper in this valuable 

review is that by Mr. E. Norman Gardiner on 

“The Alleged Kingship of the Olympian Victor.”’ 

Two theories have been suggested to explain’ the 

origin of the Olympian games: one, that they 

were derived from funeral games held in honour 
of Pelops; the other, that they represent a ritual 
contest for the throne. As regards the first, the 
writer points out that the evidence in its favour 
is not to be found in any theory of the origin of 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103 | 


funeral games in general, but in the fact that. 


such games are of. very early date, earlier than 
Homer, and reaching back to Achezan or Dorian 
times. The real objection to the funeral theory 
is that it does not explain any of the peculiar 
features of the Olympic festivai, and that the 
evidence for it is inadequate. — 

The second theory depends on the supposition 
that the victor received honours regal and divine, 
such as riding in the chariot of the sun-god, being 
crowned with an olive wreath, like Zeus, and being 
pelted with fruit and flowers, like a tree spirit; 
and that hymns were sung and statues erected 
in his honour. Mr, Gardiner shows that these 
marks of honour will not bear the suggested 
explanation. -‘‘ Students of religion are,’’ he says, 
“apt to exaggerate the importance of the 
religious motive to the neglect of equally import- 
ant secular motives.’’ Athletic sports are already 
fully developed in Homer, the natural recreations 
of a race the business of which was fighting. In 
historical Greece they are naturally associated 


with festivals, held in times of holiday and peace, — 


when the people met in friendly union. 

Another important paper is that by Mr. F. W. 
Hasluck on ‘The Mosques of the Arabs in Con- 
stantinople,’’ in which it is shown that the two 
so-called ‘“‘Arab’’ mosques do not go back to 
the early date attributed to them, and that the 
Arab. saint is often the successor of the Arab or 
negro Djinn well known in the folklore of the 
Nearer East. © alin 


An Introduction to the Study of Science: A First 
Course in Science for High Schools. By Wayne 
P. Smith and Edmund Gale Jewett. 
(New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 7s. 6d. 
net. 

In the presentation of their subject the authors 
have followed “the psychological rather than the 
traditional logical or dogmatic method ’’—as the 
preface puts it. The principles of science have to 
be looked for in the text or verified in the labora- 
tory by the young student for whom the book is 
written. 
discovered they will make a far stronger appeal to 
his intelligence and his memory than if they were 
thrust upon his unwilling attention in the tradi- 
tional manner. 

The bearing of science upon human life and 
activities is kept constantly in view. The first 
chapter is about weather, the Jast, about the pro- 
tection of health; and a quarter of the book is de- 
voted to biological problems. The purist in 


science may find points at which to cavil, but — 


the authors have run the risk of that, and are to 
be congratulated on writing a book which is 
within the scope of those for whom it is intended 


and can be read with profit and pleasure by the. 


young. 

Most of the illustrations are taken from the 
United States, for the book is intended primarily 
for students in the schools of that country. 


Another disadvantage, for English boys and girls, — 


i 
q 


Pp. xi+ 620. 


There is little doubt that when they are 


q 


is that the spelling is American. 


| Jury 31, 1919] 


NATURE 


425 


“Sulfur dioxid ’’ 


looks strange in print. But teachers on this side 


_ of the Atlantic have much to learn from America 


in the way of presenting science informally, and 
they may be willing to overlook these minor points. 


Manual of Vegetable-garden Insects. By Cyrus 
Richard Crosby and Mortimer Demarest 
Leonard. Pp. xv+391. (New York: The 
Maemillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1918.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 

In this “Rural Manual’’ the authors give clear 

and concise accounts of the insects which, in 

_ North America, may be regarded as pests on 

vegetables grown in gardens. Each chapter is, as 

a rule, assigned to a particular species or group 

_ of vegetables, but ‘“‘cutworms’’ (Noctuid cater- 

_ pillars), blister-beetles, and flea-beetles are treated 

respectively in three special chapters, while 

_ another chapter is devoted to “unclassified pests.”’ 

_ Most of the insects described are distinctively 

_ American species, but some—such as the cabbage- 

fly (Phorbia brassicae)—are common in British 

and European gardens. It is interesting to notice 
that in several cases an American insect attacks 

a cultivated plant in a manner like that adopted 

by an allied insect in Europe with the same plant; 

for example, the caterpillars of Hydroecia (Papai- 
pema) nitela and H. cataphracta bore potato-stems, 
as those of H. micacea and H. ochracea do in these 
countries, while the damage by the American 
_ potato flea-beetle (Epitrix cucumeris) to foliage is 
_ closely comparable with that of our Psylliodes 


 affinis. 


The authors give a useful concluding chapter on 
_ the structure of insects, with special reference to 
_ their modes of feeding, this subject naturally lead- 
_ ing to a consideration of insecticides. The book 
_ is illustrated with a number of well-drawn figures 
_ supplemented by photographs somewhat unequal 
_ in execution. Ge: Be C; 
_ Fauna Brasiliense. Peixes. Archivos do Museu 
: nacional do Rio de Janeiro, vol. xvii. (Rio 

de Janeiro: Papelaria Macedo, 1915.) 
THE bulky volume under notice contains a 
monograph, illustrated with excellent photographic 
plates, of the physoclistous fishes of Brazil by 


Prof. A. de Miranda Ribeiro, brought out in parts 


from 1913 to 1915. It is well got up, but the 
‘contents will be difficult to quote, as there is no 
_ continuous pagination and the numerous plates are 
- mot numbered. The classification and nomen- 


clature are in accordance with the views of modern 


_ American ichthyologists; it is, however, a matter 
for regret that no sort of synonymy, not even a 
reference to the original descriptions of the species, 
_ should have been given, as by this omission the 
_ value of the monograph is greatly impaired, 
_ correlation with standard works of older date being 
_ thus rendered extremely difficult. 

It is well that attention should be directed to this 
_ work, as only a part of it has been quoted in the 
_ ** Zoological Record,’’ no mention of it, or of the 
_ new species therein described, having appeared in 
_ the Reports for 1914, 1915, or 1916. 

NO. 2596, VOL. 103 | ; 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
ot SAS, | ; 
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. ] 


Labour and Scientific Research. 


ENCLOSED is a copy of a resolution which has just 
been unanimously adopted by the American Federa- 
tion of Labour at its Atlantic City convention. I trust 
that you may.consider this of sufficient interest to 
the readers of NATURE to warrant its publication. 

P. G. AGNEW. 

Scientific and Technical Branch, Federal 

Employees’ Union, No. 2, National 
Federation of Federal Employees, 
Washington, D.C., June 28. 


‘‘Whereas _ scientific research and the technical 
application of results of research form a fundamental 
basis upon which the development of our industries, 
manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and others, must 
rest; and: . , 


‘“Whereas the productivity of industry is greatly 
increased by the technical application of the results 
of scientific research in physics, chemistry, biology, 
and geology, in engineering and agriculture, and in 
the related sciences; and the health and well-being 
not only of the workers, but of the whole population 
as well, are dependent upon advance in medicine and 
sanitation; so that the value of scientific advance- 
ment to the welfare of the nation is many times 
greater than the cost of the necessary research; and 


‘“Whereas the increased productivity of industry 
resulting from scientific research ig a most potent 
factor in the ever-increasing struggle cf the workers 
to raise their standards of living, and the importance 
of this factor must steadily increase, since there is a 
limit beyond which the average standard of living of 
the whole population cannot progress by the usual 
methods of readjustment, which limit can only be 
raised by research and the utilisation of the results 
of research in industry; and 


‘“Whereas there are numerous important and 
pressing problems of administration and regulation 
now faced by Federal, State, and local governments, 
the wise solution of which depends upon sciefitific 
and technical research; and ; 


‘*Whereas the war has brought home to all the 
nations engaged in it the overwhelming importance of 
science and technology to national welfare, whether 
in war or in peace, and not only is private initiative 
attempting to organise far-reaching research in these 
fields on a national scale, but in several countries 
governmental participation and support of such under- 
takings are already active; therefore be it 


“Resolved, by the American Federation of Labour in 
convention assembled, that a broad programme of 
scientific and technical research is of major importance 
to the national welfare, and should be fostered in every 
way by the Federal Government, and that the activi- 
ties of the Government itself in such research should 
be adequately and generously supported in order. that 
the work may be greatly strengthened and extended; 
and the secretary of the Federation is instructed to 
transmit copies of this resolution to the President of 
the United States, to the President pro tempore of the 
Senate, and to the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. ’’ 


426 


NATURE 


Behaviour of a Guckoo. 

A pair of pied wagtails built their nest beneath the 
crest-tile at the end of the roof of a cowhouse. ‘The 
entrances to the nest were two, one at the gable end 
where the mortar was loose, the other on the roof 
itself beneath the tile. On June 24, at 5.30 p.m. 
(G.M.T.), a female cuckoo circled round the building, 
and presently, settling beneath the crest-tile, attempted 
to effect an entrance through the larger opening. But 
the opening was too narrow, and the bird could not 
force its body in beyond the shoulders. It therefore 
flew away and settled upon an adjoining building, but, 
returning in less than a minute, made a further attempt 
and failed again. These efforts were repeated a 
number of times without success. Two attempts were 
then made through the smaller opening on the roof, 
which, of course, also failed, and so the bird returned 
to the main opening and made still further and more 
determined efforts:to enter, and the impulse to attain 
its end seemed to be increasing gradually in strength. 
At 6 p.m. the bird betrayed symptoms of distress; 
its bill was often widely opened, and its efforts were 
more frequent and more prolonged. At 6.10 p.m. a 


final attempt was made; turning upon its side, it tried - 


to force or scratch its way through the aperture, as 
a terrier forces its way down a rabbit-hole; but still 
it could not enter beyond its shoulders. A. strange 
thing then happened. _ In addition to its muscular efforts 
there were distinct signs of emotional manifestation ; 
its wings were spread and waved and its tail was 
outspread, and at the height of this manifestation the 
egg was protruded through the vent and fell to the 
ground. All excitement forthwith vanished, and the 
bird flew away and did not return. The emotional 
manifestation, similar to that which occurs so fre- 
quently in bird-life during sexual emotion, evidently 
coincided with the violent contractions of the cloacal 
walls. 

- There is a deal of evidence to show that the cuckoo 
sometimes lays its egg upon the, ground, and then 
picks it up in its bill and deposits it in the nest, and 
sometimes actually lays it in the nest. Here we have 
a case in which, one would think, the former method 
would have been employed; yet there was no 
mistaking the fact that the activities of the bird 
were dominated by a single impulse, the impulse 
to enter the nest. Do some cuckoos employ 
one method and some the: other; and is there 
a ‘relationship, determined by ‘racial preparation, 
between the mode of behaviour and the type of nest 
selected? If these questions can be answered in the 
affitthative, must this particular cuckoo be regarded 
as a prospective failure in the inevitable struggle for 
existence? H. Exvior Howarp. 

Hartlebury, June 26. 


‘Sparganophilus: A British Oligochet. 


BENHAM created the genus Sparganophilus in 1892, 
and gave“a description of a new worm found at 
Goring-on-Thames, under the title S. tamesis. Since 
that time other species have been added to the genus, 
but no one has been able ‘to confirm, extend, or con- 
fute, Benham’s statement that it was ‘‘a new English 
genus of aquatic Oligocheta” (Q.J. Micr. Sci., 
N.S., 34, 1892-93, P- 155). 

Looking over my collections to-day, I have had the 
good fortune to find some well-preserved specimens 
of Sparganophilus collected in Cornwall in April, 1910. 
I noted the worm at the time, and recorded it provi- 
sionally as Helodrilus elongatus, n.sp. Until now it 
has been hidden away and forgotten. 

The Cornish species differs from that found in the 
Thames in several ways, and resembles somewhat 
closely S. eiseni, Smith, found in America, and 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103 | 


position with that of the earthworm. The 
is longer, extending over segments 15°27, b 
only. once been able to find any- traces 
pubertatis. ied 
“Cathay,’’ Solihull, July 9. ti 


The Brent Valley Bird. Sanctuary. 

Tue Brent Valley bird sanctuary of the Selb 
Society has been carried on for sixteen years, ai 
apart from the experimental work which has resu 


‘in the sending of nesting-boxes all over the cou 


and to different parts of the world, much pleasure 
been given to very numerous visitors of all cla 


The committee has, until recently, been able to ke 
things going on the profits obtained from the sale of 


nesting-boxes, together with occasional donations. op 
-The war upset all arrangements, and turned the 
balance in hand in 1914 into one due to the ‘secretary 
so that it has been found necessary to make an aj 
for direct contributions. O 1 


These may be sent to meat — 
“ The Hermitage,” Hanwell, W.7, together with orders — 
for nesting-boxes, 1) deorkes eee is 
With a greatly increased amount of land under 
cultivation, and in view of the Government’s afforesta- 
tion scheme, the need for augmenting the number of 
insect-eating birds is manifest, and the importance of 
bird sanctuaries greater than ever. Sg TIS 5 
In these circumstances it may not be out of place 
to express the hope that someone may come forward — 
and put the Brent Valley bird sanctuary upon a per- 
manent basis. Witrrep MARK WEBB, 
Chairman. 


83 Avenue Chambers, W.C.1. 


ein 


THE STRUCTURE OF THE SOLAR © 
ATMOSPHERES 4 © a 
ves Been of the extraordinary revelations of the 
spectroheliograph, in its application to the — 
structure of the solar atmosphere, may be gathered 
from the accompanying photographs, which have 
been courteously placed at our disposal by Prof. 
G. E. Hale, director of the Solar Observatory at 
Mount Wilson, California. er: 
As is now well known, the Spee eee 
yields monochromatic images of the sun in ght 
of any desired wave-length, and shows the dis- 
tribution of the clouds of hydrogen, calcium, or 
other vapours, which are not apparent in direct 
observations by the integrated light. Further, by 
a suitable adjustment of the second, or isolating, 
slit of the instrument, different portions of the 
same spectral line may be separately transmitted | 
to the sensitive plate, and the structure of the 
solar atmosphere at different levels above the 
photosphere may thus be investigated. In recent ~ 
years the red line of hydrogen, Ha, has been 
iargely utilised, and the photographs obtained 
with the central portion of this line are believed. 
to represent the highest levels at present attain- — 
able. The work at Mount Wilson has been carried — 
on for several years with a spectroheliograph of 
5 ft. focal length, but during the last few years 


=<  ..  e, 
ie oF eS 


+ 2 


eS ee 


JuLy 31, 1919| 


NATURE 427 


a new instrument having a focal length of 13 ft. | the granulations of the photosphere which are 


has also been employed. 


Fig. 1 is a typical photograph showing the 


. 
= 


nag 
$e < 
Pit 


; eae 
PE ah ayn 


Fic. 1.—Slit on centre of Ha, 5-ft. spectroheliograph, August 12, 1917. 


whole of the sun’s disc when the second slit is 
set on the centre of the Ha line. By comparison 
with Fig. 1a, which is an ordinary photograph of 
the sun taken at the same time, it will be seen 
that, in addition to the granulation over the 
general surface, there are both bright and dark 
“flocculi” in the vicinity of the various spot 
groups, and numerous dark markings in other 
parts of the disc. It is now generally agreed that 
both the bright and dark flocculi represent pro- 
minences in projection on the disc, the bright 
areas corresponding with bright eruptive promi- 
nences, and the dark ones representing masses of 
gas at the highest levels, where the temperature 
is so reduced as to cause the hydrogen to show its 
presence by absorption. This view has been 
strongly supported by the stereoscopic examina- 
tion of pairs of photographs taken at intervals of 
about 7 mins., in which absorption markings have 
appeared as high ridges. The long, dark flocculi, 
which have been called “filaments ’’’ by Deslan- 
dres, are therefore now regarded as long ranges 
of prominences at a high elevation, but it is prob- 
ably only the denser prominences which reveal 
themselves in this way. 

The wealth of detail in such photographs can 
only be properly appreciated by suitable magnifica- 
tion of the original negatives, as in the other 
examples reproduced. Fig. 2 is an interesting 
case, showing several conspicuous prominences as 
absorption markings, and the generally disturbed 


_ state of the solar atmosphere in the region sur- 


rounding a group of sun-spots. 

The small flocculi which appear all over the 
sun’s disc have been carefully studied by Prof. 
Hale, who finds a general correspondence with 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


familiar to all observers of the sun (Proc. Nat. 
Acad. Sci., Washington, vol. ii., p. 95). The 


Fic. ra.—Ordinary photograph of the sun, August 12, 1917. 
coarse “rice-grains ’’ of the solar disc were re- 
solved by Langley into clusters of minute and 
intensely bright granules, not more than 03” 
(about 135 miles) in diameter, and Langley re- 


Fic. 2.—Slit on centre of Ha, 13-ft. spectroheliograph, September 9, 1915. 


garded these as the upper extremities of long, 
thin filaments which exist vertically all over the 
sun, and are revealed more completely in the 


428 NATURE 


[Jury 31, 1919 


penumbre of sun-spots, where they are drawn out | obtained for 


the cross-sections at . different 


nearly parallel to the solar surface. It was further | levels with the spectroheliograph. Photographs in 


b 


Fic. 3.—Bi-polar spot group. (@) Slit on portion of continuous spectrum ; (4) slit on centre of Ha, 13-ft. spectroheliograph. 


supposed by Secchi that these photospheric low-level calcium (H, or K,) correspond with a level 
granules were. closely related to the radial fila- | somewhat below that observed visually at the 


See oe 


CS ee 


Fic. 4.—Record of magnetic polarities and field-strengths in different parts of a spot group, 
August 10, 1917. 


mentary structure of the chromosphere, and this 
relation is ‘strongly supported by the results 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


spectrum, 


sun’s limb, and here the granules 
are relatively small. At the 
higher level represented by the 
H, and Kg lines, the structure is 
generally similar to that of the 
photosphere, but the average size 
of the small, bright flocculi is 
rather greater than that of the 
granules found by Langley. At 


‘the still higher levels depicted 


when the second slit is set on the 
centre of Ha, the corresponding 
granules are dark, and _ the 
smallest of them are about 2” in 
diameter, or twice the size of the 
smallest calcium flocculi. The 
filaments thus appear to expand 
as they rise, and Prof. Hale con- 
siders that these observations 
support the view that the photo- 
sphere and the gaseous atmo- 
sphere above it are formed of 
columns of hot gases, rising by 
convection from the interior of 
the sun. In order to explain the 
change from the _ continuous 
spectrum of the photosphere to 
the bright-line spectrum of the 
chromosphere, it seems necessary 
to suppose that precipitation 
of refractory materials occurs 
at the photospheric level, or 
that the conditions may be 


such: as to cause the gases to emit a continuous 


— ae ee 


a 


Oe ee Se 


—6 


Sa ee ee 


ae ae * 


_- 


a ee ee 


Joy 31, 1919] 


NATURE 429 


In many cases, as shown in Fig. 3, the small, 
dark hydrogen flocculi surrounding spots present 
a well-defined vortex structure, and it is now well 
known that the hypothesis which associates a 
sun-spot with an electric vortex has been brilli- 
antly confirmed by Prof. Hale-in the discovery of 
Zeeman effects in sun-spot spectra corresponding 
with the magnetic field produced by the whirling 
ions. A large percentage of sun-spots are double, 
and the two members have been found to be of 


middle of Ha so as to bring out the structure of 
the overlying atmosphere. The two photographs 
were obtained simultaneously in this way. 

The polarities of sun-spots have been extensively 
investigated by the. Mount Wilson observers, and 
arrangements have lately been made for the rapid 
visual determination of the polarities and_field- 
strengths of all sun-spots as part of the daily 
programme of observations. The 150-ft. Tower 
telescope, giving a 16-in. image of the sun, and 


Fic. 5.—Hydrogen flocculi surrounding a group of sun-spots. (@) 1915, August 3; (4) August 5; (c) August 7; (a) August 9, 13-ft. spectroheliograph. 


opposite polarity, as indicated by the polarisation 
phenomena of the components of the complex lines 
produced in spot spectra by the magnetic field, and 
by the opposite direction of whirl over the two 
component spots. Such groups are called bi- 
polar groups. In the case of Fig. 3 two isolating 


slits, side by side, were employed; one was set on, 


a portion of the continuous spectrum, and thus 

shows practically an ordinary image of the spot 

group, while the other was adjusted to the 
NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


the 75-ft. spectrograph, with a compound quarter- 
wave-plate placed over the slit, are utilised in 
these observations. The method of recording the 
phenomena is shown in Fig. 4, representing a bi- 
polar group observed on August 10, 1917. In this 
diagram, R means that a given strip of the com- 
pound quarter-wave-plate, used with a Nicol 
prism, transmits the red n component of the Zee- 
man triplets, of which A6173 is selected for 
observation, and the appended figures indicate the 


430 


NATURE 


[JuLy 31, 1919 3 


intensity of the field, at the point marked, in 
hundreds of gausses; R21, for example, refers 
to a field-strength of 2100 gausses. V _ similarly 
means that the violet n component is transmitted, 
indicating an opposite polarity. ce Re 

‘It has been found that the preceding’ members 
ef bi-polar groups in the northern and southern 
hemispheres. are of opposite polarity, indicating 
opposite directions of the whirling motion, as in 
the case of cyclones in our own atmosphere. There 
was a reversal of the polarities of the preceding 
members of the groups in the two hemispheres 
after the sun-spot minimum of 1912, and the 
polarities of spots would therefore seem to be 
connected intimately with the underlying cause of 
the sun-spot cycle (Proc. Roy. Soc., A, vol. xcv., 
Pp. 235): | 

Fig. 5 represents the successive appearances of 
a group of spots at intervals of two days, as it 
passed from near the central meridian towards 
the western limb. These photographs show a 
‘striking resemblance to Langley’s drawings of 
sun-spots and the photosphere, and Prof. Hale 
considers that the resemblance can scarcely be 
devoid of significance, though the small hydrogen 
flocculi are somewhat larger than the minute 
grains of the photosphere. . At some distance from 
the spot group it will be seen that the granules are 
replaced by slender filaments extending towards 
the axis of the group, recalling the penumbral 
filaments as they extend towards the umbra in 
the case of a sun-spot. These filaments stop 
abruptly at the edge of a bright region of honey- 
comb structure, from the middle of which the long, 
dark flocculus is seen to rise as a high ridge when 
viewed in.the stereoscope. The dark flocculus 
itself appeared as a bright prominence when it 
was brought to the limb by the sun’s rotation. 

While. the principal features shown in the photo- 
graphs obtained with the spectroheliograph may 
now be considered to have received a satisfactory 
interpretation, it will be evident that the photo- 
graphs include a vast amount of material for 
further research on such questions as those refer- 
ring to the dimensions of the columns of ascend- 
ing gases, and the movements of the vapours 
around and above the sun-spots. 


PROF. EMIL FISCHER, FOR.MEM.R.S. 


one death of Emil Fischer will be deeply re- 
gretted throughout the world of chemists; 
his achievements alone suffice to belie the attempts 
too frequently made of late years, during the 
war, by speakers in no proper way conversant 
with the subject, to belittle German scientific per- 
formance and originality. No act is so dangerous 
as that of underrating the intelligence of an 
enemy: but this we persistently did in the past, 
notwithstanding the warnings that were given 
by those few who were alive to the facts; and 
this we are boastfully doing at the present, 
before we have made any effective progress in 
overcoming the difficulties by which we were 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


hampered in the past and while we are still 
almost leaderless and unorganised. ate 
Emil Fischer was one of Germany’s great 


academic experts—a man who was listened to and 
used by his Government and supported in every 
necessary way; he was simply worshipped by 
industry. We can but envy ithe position he 
enjoyed. Our Government has still no use .for 
the expert; indeed, the. Board of Trade has 
officially declined, only recently, to give academic 
chemical science any voice in connection with so 
ultra-chemical a subject as the dyestuff industry 


-—an industry which is simply the laboratory writ 


large; and the industrial worker still too often 
scoffs at the academic worker instead of treating 
him as his boon companion—perhaps sometimes 
with show of reason, as the latter, is apt to get on 
stilts. : ie 
When the present writer first met Fischer in 
Strasburg in January, 1882, he all but fell in love 
with him on the spot. A Rhinelander, tall, well- 


built and well-dressed, with eyes of wonderful: 


brightness and manners of most engaging frank- 


ness and courtesy, Fischer had scarcely any of the ~ 


attributes of the pedagogue, although, as years 
went on and he grew in importance, his impa- 
tience with those who ventured to question his 
opinion became more obvious—but no German 
can escape from this. If not the prototype of a 
new academic genus, Fischer was certainly a 
mutant of the original German species. A far 
greater-chemist than his predecessor, Hofmann, 
he lacked Hofmann’s diplomatic qualities and love 
of influence; and though he filled his office with 
dignity and distinction, he in no way courted 
publicity; indeed, for the most part he lived the 


austere life of the recluse, spending his time, other 


than that given to necessary official duties, en- 


tirely either in his laboratory or in his study. He — 


systematically overworked himself and there is 
little doubt that his frequent complaints of his 


health—of his Magen particularly—were largely. 


conditioned by overwork. No chemist has secured 
success to a greater extent through constantly 
enforced intellectual effort and the determination, 
having once conceived an object, to win through. 
He was a striking contrast, in this respect, to his 
wonderfully alert contemporary, Victor Meyer, in 
whom the faculty of immediately seeing and seiz- 
ing an opportunity was perhaps more highly 


developed, though he had neither the fixity of 


purpose nor the patience of his colleague; but 
Meyer was a Jew, hence the difference. The two 
men made parallel discoveries, almost at the same 


-time, the one by developing the use of phenyl- 


hydrazine, the other that of hydroxylamine, as 
differential analytical agents : but phenylhydrazine 
became the Rosetta stone with the aid of which 


Fischer unlocked the story of the sugars and justi-_ 


fied Pasteur’s prediction that iife is an asymmetric 
process. 


It is impossible to overrate the value of the 


three great series of investigations which are 
inseparably linked with Fischer’s name, as, by his 
work on the Sugars, on the Proteins and on Uric 


ee a eee 


oe 


4 


a 


' 


| date 
Wor. 


Jury 31, 1919 | 


NATURE 431 


o 


‘derivatives (each an inquiry of unparalleled mag- 


‘nitude and importance), he made biology, on the 


chemical side, a science. 


_ Fischer appears to have continued to exercise 
his academic activity throughout the period of 
‘hostilities, as communications bearing his name 
hhave been published at frequent intervals. It is 
‘difficult to imagine that he can have taken any 
part in the hellish work of war. The loss of such 
‘a man at such a time is greatly to be deplored, 
‘as he would probably have been one of the few 


to exercise an ameliorating influence. . He died at 


the comparatively early age of sixty-seven. 
Fischer received the Davy tac ‘pes the 
Royal Society in 1890 and was elected a Foreign 
‘Member of the society in 1899. He was awarded 
the Nobel prize in 1902. He had many com- 


g - petent English and American workers among his 


students, who rendered him no slight, assistance. 


His laboratory has been one of the limited number | 


iin which, of late years, experience of real value, 


both technical and moral, could be gained; few 
men have set so high an example to their 


students and no one was more mindful in spirit 
of his countryman Kekulé’s saying, “Nur keine 
unreifen Friichte.’’ He would recommend no one 
wHo was not sufficiently trained. Many are now 
seeking entry into practice here who are not only 
under-trained but also unaware of their ignorance : 
herein lies our danger—we have yet to attach 


‘real meaning to the term “chemist ’’ and to follow 


Fischer’s example. As representative of the 
in its most highly developed modern form, 
he is to be placed at the very apex. 
_ From the time of Liebig onward English 
students have visited German laboratories and 
these have undoubtedly afforded them valuable 
opportunities. But the Germans have also been 
gainers thereby and they have yet to realise what 


they lose by our withdrawal. The change of 


circumstances will be to our advantage in many 


tet toe 
ie ee eel 


s. The object of higher training should be 
to promote originality and individuality, but in- 
stead of being trained on individualistic lines, of 
years students in Germany have been led to 
ship authority rather than to be freethinkers. 
A more serious consequence of the constant 
emigration of our students to German _ labora- 
tories, however, was the effect this had in pre- 


a venting the development of higher education in 
‘our own schools: until recently it rendered the 


systematic prosecution of chemical inquiry and 
the formation of* schools of research in this 
country almost impossible. Our most capable 
workers were constantly withdrawn from us just 
as they were about to become valuable instru- 
ments—we were allowed to sharpen pencils but 
not to use them. In fact, we. have allowed the 
Germans to monopolise not only the dyestuff in- 
dustry but also the higher academic industry—and 
not only have our best students been encouraged 


to leave us but we have also done our utmost 


to sterilise the intellects of the remainder by a 
cast-iron system of examinations. The 1851 Com- 
missioners, unfortunately, favoured this policy; 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


indeed, at one time they almost forced their 
chemical scholars to go to Germany. As there 
was no interchange, we were left without helpers. 
The protests made as to the impolicy of the course 
were of no avail—we were told, in no halting 
terms, that we sought to keep students at home 
to serve as our assistants; yet the Germans were . 
allowed to use them to their ends—in the eyes 
of our officials what was improper here was 
permissible abroad. Fortunately, during the past 
decade or two, we have been successful in gradu- 
ally stemming the tide of emigration and our 
higher instruction, has been developed apace, 
though hitherto it has never been otherwise than 
starved. its HE?! AG 


NOTES. 3 

Tue Forestry Bill, which was brought up in the 
House of Lords early in the month, has now passed 
its third reading. The Bill is the first attempt at 
forestry legislation to be brought before Parliament 
since the question of afforesting some of the waste 
lands in the country was first mooted more than thirty 
years ago. During this period numerous Commissions 
and Parliamentary Committees were appointed ito con- 
sider this matter, but no planting was undertaken as 
a result of their deliberations. It is the war, and the 
enormous demands for timber, especially the soft 
woods of the trade, entailed by it, which opened the 
eyes of the Government to the dangerous position in 
which Great Britain stood in: the matter of timber 
Supplies. The Government Bill now before the 
country is closely based on the recommendations made 
by the Forestry Sub-Committee appointed by the late 
Minister of Reconstruction. It proposes the appoint- 
ment of a Forestry Authority of seven (reduced to five 
in the House of Lords) Commissioners and _ the 
afforestation of 1,750,000 acres in eighty years, a 
quarter of a million acres to be planted in ‘the first 
ten years at a cost of 3,500,0001. The total cost of 
the undertaking will certainly be far greater than the 
estimates laid before the House, these estimates being. 
very nearly pre-war figures. The Bill was introduced 
by the Earl of Crawford. It was opposed by Viscount 

aldane, whose chief arguments were the danger of 
erecting an authority of the kind proposed, which 
would not be subordinate to any Minister; and pos-- 
sessed of funds drawn from the Consolidated Fund, 
and not, therefore, placed on the Estimates, and con- 
sequently far less open to effective criticism in Par- 
liament. The main point brought out by Lord Hal- 
dane, the one really weak part of the Bill from the 
scientific point of view, is the inadequate manner in 
which provision is made for future educational and 
research work and for the representation on the Board 
of Commissioners of forestry. experts possessed of a 
sound scientific training. In the matter of 
scientific training and knowledge the proposed Board 
of Commissioners is a purely amateur one. Unless 
means can be devised to set up a Board truly repre- 
sentative of what is required—a Board which shall 
include a strong representation of men provided with 
a sound scientific training and a wide practical know- 
ledge of forestry conditions throughout the Empire— 
there is a grave danger that the objects the Bill seeks 
to achieve will be doomed to failure from the outset, 
jot the resultant disappointment and waste of public 
unds. 


WE regret to learn of the death, at seventy-five years 
of age, of Antoine Paul Nicolas Franchimont, emeritus 
professor of organic chemistry in the University of 


432 


NATURE 


[JULY 31, 1919 


Leyden. After graduating there in 1871 he worked 
with Kekulé at Bonn ana with Wurtz at Paris, and 
was appointed in 1874 professor of organic chemistry 
in his native town. During forty years he trained 
many Dutch organic chemists, and on his retirement 
in 1914 chairs in the other three Dutch universities 
were in the occupation of his pupils.. Besides being 
an enthusiastic teacher, Franchimont was an‘ in- 
defatigable investigator. His principal work was con- 
cerned with the nitro-amides, which he discovered in 
1883, and the aliphatic nitramines (R.NH.NO.,). For 
the preparation of these compounds, often highly 
explosive, he introduced the use of pure (‘‘real’’) nitric 
acid, prepared by distilling a mixture of nitric and 
sulphuric acids in vacuo. The use of sulphuric acid 
and of zine chloride as catalysts in acetylation is also 
due to him. Although some of his results (acetyl- 
cellulose, pure nitric acid) found technical application, 
he derived no material gain from them, f an un- 
worldly and retiring disposition, Franchimont did not 
often frequent scientific congresses, but those who met 
him at the Cambridge meeting of the British Associa- 
tion in 1904, or visited him at Leyden, will cherish the 
memory of a kindly man who lived for his science 
and for his pupils. His family associations gave 
Franchimont a command of the French language, and 
he was one of the founders, in 1883, of the Recueil 
des Travaux chimiques des Pays-Bas, in which journal 
nearly all his subsequent work was published. Out- 
side his native country his merits were recognised by 
his election to the honorary membership of the 
Chemical Society and by his appointment to the 
Legion of Honour, 


On Wednesday, July 23, Mr. F. H. Carr, at a 
meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, 
delivered a memorial lecture on the late Lt.-Col. E. F. 
Harrison, whose invaluable work on the developrhent 
of the anti-gas respirator has lately been the subject 
of so much eulogy. No more fitting place could have 
been’ chosen for the lecture than the buildings of the 
Pharmaceutical Society in which Harrison received his 
training in the profession he had selected, and with 
which he was afterwards so intimately associated, nor 
could the delivery of a lecture in his memory have 
been entrusted to a better or more capable man than 
Mr. Carr. Most of the audience had been personal 
friends of Harrison’s, some of them for upwards of 
twenty years, and they knew that the testimony that 
Mr. Carr bore to his sterling qualities, his upright 
nature, his sincerity, and the fearless manner in which 
he grappled with difficult problems, was only too 
well deserved. The details which Mr. Carr gave of 
Harrison’s early life, his tenacity of purpose and 
remarkable self-denial, were interesting in the extreme, 
and went far to explain a certain austerity in his 
nature. ‘The part which Harrison played in the final 
phase of his life, the development of the box-respira- 
tor, by which so many lives were saved and which 
contributed so largely to the victorious issue of the 
war, occupied the latter part of the lecture, which 
will long remain in the memory of those who were 
fortunate enough to hear it. 


At the meeting of the British Association in 1914 
a wish was expressed for some organisation by which 
the breeders of plants and animals and those engaged 
in genetical research might be brought into closer 
contact with one another. The’ advent of war pre- 
vented the immediate realisation of these hopes, but 
in the present year, largely through the energy of 
Miss E. R. Saunders, the Genetical Society has come 
into being under the presidency of the Right Hon. 
A. J. Balfour. It is expected that the society will be 
mainly peripatetic, holding meetings on convenient 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


dates at places where breeding work of interest is in 
progress, whether at scientific institutions or plant 
nurseries or stock-raising centres. Open-air demon- — 
strations offer considerable difficulties in the case of — 
large parties, and for this reason it was held advisable 
to limit the number of members of the society to 120, 
and to impose certain qualifications for membership. 
Candidates for admission must either be, or have 
been, engaged in genetical research, in the teaching 
of genetics, or in the practical breeding of plants or 
animals. It is proposed also to hold meetings from 
time to time for the reading of papers and the dis- 
cussion of results. It was appropriate that the society 
should enter upon its active existence with a visit to 
Cambridge, the cradle of modern genetic studies. 
Between thirty and forty members attended the 
meeting on July 12, at which Miss Saunders gave a 
lucid and interesting account of the present state of 
knowledge of the genetics of stocks. The members 
present visited the garden where these experiments 
have been in continuous progress since the end of 
last century. Prof. Punnett gave an account of some 
experiments with sweet peas designed to test the 
validity. of the chromosome hypothesis of heredity, and 
Prof. Biffen demonstrated wheat material in connec- 


tion with the inheritance of immunity and susceptibility _ 


to rust. Mr. J. B. S. Haldane also described some — 
experiments with two new colour’ varieties of rats * 
which have recently come into existence, illustrating 
his account with living examples. The secretaries of 
the society are Miss C. Pellew, The John Innes Horti- 
cultural Institution, Merton, S.W.19, and Prof. 
Punnett, Whittingehame Lodge, Cambridge, from 
either of whom further information may be obtained. 


WE regret to see the announcement’of the death 
at Naini Tal, in his sixty-first year, of Prof. A. W. 
Ward, professor of physics at the Canning College, 
Lucknow. From a short obituary notice in the Times we 
learn that Prof. Ward was educated at Liverpool College 
and Institute, and at St. John’s College, Cambridge, 
where he held a scholarship, graduating in 1882. After 
lecturing at the Borough Road Training College and 
working in the Cavendish Laboratory, he went out to 
Southern India in 1885 as lecturer on physical science 
at the Kumbakonam College, but was soon invalided 
home. He returned to India in 1889 to take up his 
Lucknow appointment. He was a prominent figure. 
in all matters connected with the University of Allaha- 
bad as a member both of the Senate and of the Syndi- 


-cate, and was its representative on the United Pro-— 


vinces Legislature. Prof. Ward contributed a number 
of scientific papers to the Proceedings of the Royal 
Society and to the Philosophical Magazine, 


In the South African Journal of Science for 1918 
(vol. xv., No. 6) the Rev. J. R. L. Kingon discusses. 
“Cattle as a Factor in the Economic Development of 
South Africa.’? He considers the cattle question in 
relation to the Portuguese voyagers; the aborigines, 
including Bushmen, Hottentots,, and Bantus; the 
Dutch; and the first British occupation, and shows 
that much of the history of the country is focused 
in-its cattle. He leaves untold the story from the 
time of the second British occupation down to the 
present day, during which period the question has 
been of no less importance. « 


SELDOM has a-more elaborate monograph descrip- 
tive of a group of people numbering fifty-seven souls 
been prepared than that issued as vol. xlii., part i., 
of the Journal of the College of Science, . Imperial 


University of Tokvo (R. Torii, ‘‘Etudes Archéo- 
logiques et Ethnologiques: Les Ainou des Iles 
Kouriles ’’). The author remarks that in all the 


, Jury 31, 1919] 


NATURE, 


433 


“many accounts of the Ainu, those of the Kurile 
_ Islands have been strangely neglected, but that they 
_ form an important factor in the study of this remark- 
able people. This claim is fully justified by the appear- 
ance of this elaborate account of them, dealing with 
_ their history, linguistics, sociology, customs, and 
_ Superstitions. It is illustrated by thirty-eight pages 
_ of photographs and by numerous drawings in the text. 


In Norway, as elsewhere, the little Scrophulariaceous 
_ plant Euphrasia, best known to us as the common 
_ eyebright, is extraordinarily variable. The numerous 
_ forms that have been described, notably by R. v. Wett- 
_ stein, may be due in part to local influences, differ- 
ences of moisture, and the like, and appear to revert 
to the norm when withdrawn from the action of such 
influences. Other forms seem to be more permanent, 
_ and may be definite mutations provcked by differences 
of climate in different districts or changes of climate 
_ in past time, or by other physical changes in the 
_ environment. Such forms may be regarded as true 
_ Species or sub-species. Yet other forms are probably 
_ hybrids between those last mentioned, and, though of 
apparently constant recurrence, would be susceptible 
to Mendelian analysis. Before such analysis is under- 
taken it is certainly helpful to have a very exact 
systematic survey of all the variations that occur in 
a state of nature; and this is the task that has 
been accomplished for the Norwegian species 
by Mr. E. Jorgensen, whose results have just 
been published in Bergens Museums Aarbok, 1916-17 
(Naturvidenskabelig» Raekke, 2 Hefte, 337 pp., 
‘It maps, 14 pls., 1919). The main text, which is 
in German, is also illustrated by enlarged diagrams of 
detail, and there is an English summary. The author 
recognises five species, with sub-species, forms, and 
‘sub-forms, all belonging to the sub-genus Eueuphrasia, 
Wettst., section Semicalcarate. 


Licut has been thrown upon a very fascinating 
theme by the publication of Dr. Gilchrist’s paper on 
“Luminosity and its Origin in a South African Earth- 
worm” (Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa, vol. vii., part 3, 


1919, pp. 203-12, . xxiv.). We have but one regret: 
P. ala ab ocies of Chilota which displayed the pheno- 
_ menon in so marked a degree is not identified. a 
long ago as 1 no fewer than thirty species ha 
been Gone Chilota is nearly related to Photo- 
_ drilus, Giard, and one species of this genus is now 
known as Microscolex phosphoreus on account of its 
luminous properties. Until each species known to be 
luminous has been definitely determined, we shall 
_ always have confusion. But in regard both to the 
information given and to the inferences or conclusions 
drawn therefrom, Dr. Gilchrist’s paper is a decided 
advance on its predecessors. Fungi, bacteria, gre- 
_. garines, and other -y organisms have been regarded 

as agents in the production of luminosity, and the 
‘author not only states the case as it formerly stood, 
but also gives a very clear and instructive view of his 
own observations and findings. The fluid exuded was 
subjected to a variety of tests, and found to consist 
mostly of single celis heavily laden with inclusions 
of different kinds. ‘The luminosity is given out by 
the inclusions of small size, and these seem to be of 
a substance allied to fat, by the oxidation of which 
light ‘is produced.”’ 


Tue Weekly Bulletin of the Hawaiian Volcano 
Observatory records in vol. vii., No. 1, for January, 
1919, the very considerable appearance of “smoke ”’ 
that may arise from incandescent lava owing to copious 
evolution of sulphurous gases. The bulletin continues 
to give admirable photographs of successive stages of 
‘activity in Kilauea. 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


Mr. THomas SHEPPARD, well known for his re- 
searches and historic studies in British stratigraphy, 
has given an interesting account of ‘‘ Martin Simpson 
and his Geological Memoirs”? in the Proceedings of 
the Yorkshire Geological Society (vol. ix., p. 298). 
Simpson was well known to visitors in the classic 
surroundings of Whitby, and published a summary of 
the contents of the Whitby Museum at the age of 
ninety-one, a year before his death in 1892. 


In Naturen for April-May, 1919 (forty-fourth year, 
Nos. 4-5), Hr. Olaf Holtedahl gives a distinctly 
original series of maps showing the relations of land 
and sea “i jordens oldtid’’ in the North Atlantic 
region. The ‘‘oldtid ’’ dealt with ranges from Ordo- 
vician to Permian times, and the maps, and the 
evidence discussed, include the whole North Polar 
area and that down to Newfoundland and the British 
Isles. The maps, if enlarged, would make an excel- 
lent series of lecture-diagrams. 


Tue literature of that old and recurrent subject, the 
origin of flint, is added to by Mr. W. H. Twenhofel 
in a paper on chert in Kansas and Oklahoma (Amer. 
Journ. -Sci., vol. xlvii., p. 407, 1919). The author 
refers to W. A. Tarr’s work (see NaturE, vol. ci., 
p. 174), but does not seem to have considered the 
formation of flint-zones by deposition. of silica in 
waters moving at right angles to the stratification. 
He assigns, at any rate for the region dealt with, an 
early date in the history of the unconsolidated rock 


for the growth of flint from silica in solution in the 
sea. 


In a paper recently received (Académie d’Agriculture 
de France, October 23, 1918) Prof. J. Mascart, the 
director of Lyons Observatory, has directed attention 
to the exceptional nature of the two winters 1916-17 
and 1917-18 in that neighbourhood. Both produced 
cold spells of unusual severity, and the sequence of 
two such winters following one another appears 
to be almost unique. In the winter of 1916-17 
the autumn might be said to be prolonged to 
January 15, after which, with two brief excep- 
tions, temperature remained low until April 28, 
falling at times below -—20° C. over extended 
regions. Thereafter the first fifteen days of May 
were very warm, so that the season of spring was 
entirely suppressed. The features of the following 
winter were very different; there was a cold spell 
from mid-October to mid-January, after which the 
weather became mild until the end of March, the 
break in January being of a very pronounced 
character. Thus the lowest temperature of the winter 
occurred on January 5, —17-:1° C., and the mean tem- 
perature of that day was —11-2° C. On January 20 
the mean was no less than +11-7° C., or 22-9° C.. 
above that of January 5. This difference is greater 
than that between the mean coldest and. the mean — 
warmest days of the year. Attention is directed to the 
fact that the two winters were almost inverse, so that 
mean temperature from the two combined would have 
shown little of note. In considering the effect of such 
winters on fruit-trees and crops the difficulty of 
eliminating other factors is pointed out, and it is 
suggested that close collaboration between agriculturists 
and meteorologists is necessary to arrive at any con- 
clusion of value. 


A VALUABLE article on the mechanical extraction of 
coir is published in the Philippine Journal of Science 
(November, 1918); also one on the mechanical pro- 
perties of Philippine coir and coir-cordage. The same 
issue also deals with steaming tests of Philippine 
coals. 


434 


NATURE 


{JuLy 31, 1919 


THE annual report of the Board of Scientific Advice 
for India, just to hand, gives a very comprehensive 
summary of the work carried out by the different 
departments for the year 1917-18. The — section 
reports deal with applied chemistry, astronomy, 
meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, geology, geodesy, 
botany, agricultural bacteriology, forestry, zoology, 
veterinary science, and medical research. 


Tue first number of Science and Industry, the official 
organ of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and 
Industry, is just to hand. ‘The aim of the new journal 
is to serve as an authoritative medium for the expres- 
sion of Australian scientific thought and aspirations. 
Contributions are welcomed at thé same time from 
all independent scientific workers. The object of the 
new institute is the co-ordination of scientific research 
in the Commonwealth. At present there is a paucity 
of trained scientific workers and much overlapping. 
The inaugural number contains articles and notes of 
primary interest to Australian industries, e.g. the 
prickly pear pest, the obligation of science to pastoral 
industry, applications of veterinary research, the 
artesian water problem, sheep-fly investigations, ete. 


Tue Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for July 4 
contains a paper on science and industry in Australia, 
which was read by Sir John McCall, whose death on 
June 27 is so deeply lamented. The paper sketches the 
development of agriculture in the Commonwealth, and 
sets forth the hopes for the future, especially in view 
of what is being done to promote scientific research 
and study. Australia contains vast mineral resources, 
particularly coal and iron, and the manufacture of iron 
and steel should be greatly facilitated by the excellent 
metallurgical coke derived from the coal of New South 
Wales and Queensland. Now that the steel industry 
is established in the continent, it is expected that wire 


and tinplate manufactures will be greatly stimulated. — 


In regard to more scientific manufactures also, pro- 
gress has been made during the war, and, with 
further development, they should be capable of pro- 
duction at much lower prices than those at which they 
can be obtained from Germany. 


Dr. R. E. Siave, director of research of the British | 


Photographic Research Association, has presented a 
report upon work in progress or contemplated. A wide 
programme of research has been drawn up and pre- 


liminary experiments have been made on a large number | 


of subjects. The history of photographic science and 
industrial development shows that, since the publica- 
tion in 1891 of the researches of Hurter and Driffield, 
practically no new methods of attacking the problems 
of photography have been introduced. Many workers 
have improved and worked out further details. of the 
old-established methods, and very considerable ad- 
vances have been made, but the time now seems ripe 
for entirely new methods of photographic research. 


The association is using all the means at its disposal . 


to initiate such new methods, and is making progress 
in this direction. Some experiments have been made 
on gelatin, which, though not suitable for publica- 
tion, will be of great use in future work. Progress 
has been made in investigations of photographic 
emulsions, and a communication on this subject. will 
be circulated shortly.. Success has been attained in 
staining wood black or grey right through. This 
black wood, which was made in Germany before 
the war, is used by manufacturers of cameras and 
optical instruments, and the grey wood for picture- 
frames and furniture. The process, for which an 
application for a patent has been filed, should be 
suitable for use on a large scale, and also be 
-economical. Results of research, whether theoretical 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


or experimental, which are of general interest, and — 


not of immediate use for application to speci 
problems of the industry, are published at the first 


opportunity to increase knowledge in photographic. 


science generally, and to induce other workers to 
devote their attention to theoretical photographic 
problems. The offices of the association are at 
Sicilian House, Southampton Row, London, W.C.1, 
and the secretary is Mr. A. C. Brookes. j 


A NEw volume by Mr. E. H. Chapman will shortly 
be added to the Cambridge Nature Study Series, pub- 
lished by the Cambridge University Press. 
is ‘‘The Study of the Weather,’’ and the aim of the 
book is to provide not only a series of practical exer- 
cises on weather study, but also a simple introduction 
to the study of modern meteorology. ° aes ceemay 


Mr. CHARLES BakeEr’s current list of second-hand 
scientific instruments is now available for distribu- 
tion. The catalogue gives particulars of more than 
1500 pieces of apparatus which can be examined at 
244 High Holborn, London, W.C.1. Mr. Baker 
holds a large stock of materials for colour photo- 
graphy, and can undertake the immediate delivery of 
standard material. 


on approval before actually purchasing. — 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
A Wor.tp Survey.—The Pari$ Bureau des Longi- 


; Every instrument included in the 
list is guaranteed, and customers can, in certain cir- 
cumstances, have pieces of apparatus for three days 


The title 


tudes is proposing to make use of wireless telegraphy — 


to determine the geodetic position of certain p on 
the earth’s surface which shall be considered funda- 


mental, and may be used as reference points for future — 


geodesy. Triangulations have been made and arcs of 


longitude measured in different regions of the world 


which have been co-ordinated, but it is possible that 
the attachment of these may be improved. The closing 
error in the longitude of the sphere, or the amount 
by which the sum of the arcs circumscribing the earth 
differs from 24 hours, is about a fifth of a second 
of time. The details of the plan at present suggested 


are that Paris, Shanghai, and a third point in the 


neighbourhood of San Francisco shall 
primary points. 
mined, possibly with the prism astrolabe, and the 
difference of longitude between each consecutive pair 
measured. It is suggested that the clocks at Paris 
and Shanghai may be compared by means of signals 
from the radio-telegraphic station at Lyons, those at 
Shanghai and San Francisco by signals from Hono- 
lulu, whilst signals from Annapolis would serve for 
the comparison of the clocks at-San Francisco and 
Paris. ‘This is the main feature of the scheme, to 
which subsidiary details will be added. It is proposed, 
for instance, that the position of a point in New 
Zealand, the antipodes of France, shall be. determined, 


be taken as 


and naturally it is hoped that Greenwich will take — 
part in the operations and form one of the points of — 


reference. 


SotarR Puysics aT CAMBRIDGE.—The sixth annual © 


report of Prof. Newall, the director of the Solar 
Physics Observatory at Cambridge, which relates to 
the year ending March 31 last, shows that the staff 
is returning after war service, and that one member 
only is absent, Capt. 
the Army in Cologne. The staple work of the in- 
stitution is divided under three heads :—(A) Stellar 
work, which at present consists mainly of the classi- 
fication of stellar spectra, and the arrangement of 
these in sequence in relation to the intensities of 
characteristic lines. (B) Solar work, the observational 


The latitude of each is to be deter- 


W. E. Rolston, who is with — 


will receive 1 


fran: Ain ih ics ala lin " _ ; i a . ° 
et ake ee ee er ee ee ee ny a TORE a a nN fos Sai — 
; : a “a ' ; [oes ten ee pee 
“ ; Dan 


| Jury 31, 1919] 


P part of this being done by the spectroheliograph, 


_ tained on 111 days in the period under review. 
% eens are received from Kodaikanal, and 


NATURE 


435 


with which photographs of the sun’s disc are taken 
in calcium light, and pictures of this kind were ob- 
Similar 


records are studied at Cambridge for evidence of 
systematic distribution of flocculi.. The third heading 
(C) is Meteorological Physics, which is represented by 
the work of Mr. C. T. R. Wilson on lightning dis- 


_ charges and the variations of potential of the electric 


field in thunderstorms. 
_ Tue Spectrum or Nova Aguita.—Besides the work 


q recorded in the preceding note, investigations have 
a gp made of the spectra of Nove. Photographs of 
spectru 


m of Nova Aquilz (1918) were obtained 


_ very soon after the appearance of the star, and it is 
_ concluded from examination of these early photo- 
Be: a ed that the outburst was accompanied by changes 


the spectrum which, if indicating motion in the 


a line of sight, involve two or more pulses moving with 
_ exceedingly high velocity. A study previously made 


of the spectrum of Nova Geminorum (1912) showed 
that the narrow lines in the spectrum of that star 
resembled those of aCygni. The complex absorption 
lines exhibited in the spectrum of Nova Aquile have 
been deciphered as being effects characteristic of 
eee but duplicated by two large displacements 
which agree with those of the simultaneously dupli- 
cated absorption lines of hydrogen. 


“THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
ProvisionaL PROGRAMMES OF SECTIONS. 


) Mise programme of sectional arrangements for the 
4 meeting of the British Association at Bourne- 
mouth on September 9-13 is well advanced, and many 
interesting subjects, both in connection with scientific 
work during the war and otherwise, will come up for 
discussion. Among these the following are provisionally 
entered :—The Mathematical and Physical Section will 
discuss the origin of spectra and thermionic tubes, and 
rts or papers on the recent solar 
lipse observations, on wireless telegraphy during the 
first three years of the war, and on wave-motion. A visit 


appropriate papers, has been arranged by’ the 


3 to the neighbouring Holton Heath cordite factory, 


and Engineering Sections. The Geological 


Section will concern itself specially with local geology, 


and will discuss jointly with the Anthropological 


Section the age of local antiquities. .The Section of 
Zoology, among many other papers, provisionally 
announces afternoon lectures on grain pests and the 
storage of wheat, lice and: their relation to disease, 
and the geographical distribution of fresh-water fishes. 
The Geographical:Section purposes to. discuss the geo- 


4 graphical aspects of devolution, and, among other sub- 


jects, to receive papers on air photography, long- 


2 distance air routes, the geography of Imperial defence, 


the colonisation of Africa, and various frontier ques- 
tions, if circumstances permit; it also hopes for a 
yper on geography from Sir Henry Wilson. The 
Pivieenics Section announces a number of distin- 
i speakers on a national alliance of employers 
and employed, price-fixing (with special reference to 
Australian experience), transport, the gold standard, 
finance and taxation, the .replacement of men 
“women in. industry, and. other subjects. The 
gineering Section will pay special attention to avia- 
tion in various aspects. The Anthropological Section 
will receive a number of papers on the eastern Medi- 
anean region, on early prehistoric archeology, the 


ethnology of the Russian borders, cults, the migration 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


of culture, etc. The Physiological Section will discuss 
jointly with that of Economics the influence of the 
six-hour day on industrial efficiency and fatigue. The 
Botanical Section will join the Zoological in receivin 

papers on the origin, evolution, and transmission o 
biological characters, with the Agricultural for the 
discussion of forestry problems, and with the Educa- 
tional for that of the teaching of biology. The pro- 
gramme of the Educational Section includes the dis- 
cussion of the free-place system, the teaching of 
English, the method and substance of science teach- 
ing, training. in citizenship, continuation schools, 
private schools, museums, fundamental principles in 
education, and (jointly with the Economics Section) 
business in relation to education. The Agricultural 
Section, among various other topics, will receive a 
group of papers on war-time food production in Great 
Britain. Fuller details, with particulars as_ to 
membership of the association, may be obtained from 
the offices at Burlington House, W.1, or from 
the local secretaries, Municipal Buildings, Bourne- 
mouth. 


— 


CANCER RESEARCH. 


Wee annual general meeting of the Imperial Cancer 

Research Fund was held at the Examination 
Hall, Queen Square, Bloomsbury, on July 23, his 
Grace the Duke of Bedford, K.G., in the chair. 

Sir William Church, Bart., proposed the adoption 
of the report, and gave a summary of the work of 
the fund during the war, both on cancer and on other 
subjects. The effect of withdrawing a large number 
of young males for military service was to alter the 
age-constitution of the civil population, producing an 
apparent great increase in the crude male death-rate 
from cancer. ‘The female rate was unaffected, and 
the apparent rise for males disappeared when the 
necessary correction was made. The method of auto- 
logous transplantation had been used to separate 
tumour-like proliferations of lymphoid tissue from the 
true malignant new growths of mice. The former 
never grew on grafting into the affected animal itself, 
even when recurrence and dissemination occurred. 
Autologous grafts of true new growths were prac- 
tically always successful, whether recurrence took 
place or not. Experiments were carried out on the. 
relation of the water-content of tumours to their rate 
of growth. In harmony with the findings for normal 
tissues in animals and plants, the tumours showed a 
close relationship in this respect, the more rapidly 
growing tumours having the higher percentage of 
water. The water-content of tumours could. be arti- 
ficially reduced by exposure to isotonic calcium chloride 
solution in vitro, and such material on inoculation 
exhibited diminished powers of growth, from + which 
recovery was slow but complete. 

The work on war problems mentioned in the report 
dealt, first, with the heat-regulating mechanism of 
the body; especially the réle played by the thyroid- 
adrenal apparatus, and its derangements in: disease 
accompanied by fever or hypothermia. A second paper: 
was devoted to the pathology of gas gangrene. It 
could be shown that a specific local injury of the 
tissues permitted the development of the anaerobic. 
bacteria of gas gangrene and tetanus. Substances 
present in cultivated soil, particularly ionisable calcium 
salts, wére able to produce the necessary lesion which 
breaks down the otherwise efficient natural defences 
against these micro-organisms. These two papers, 
and another on the fate of grafted cartilage, will 
shortly be published in the Sixth Scientific Report of 
the fund. 


436 


NATURE 


[JuLy 31, 1919 


THE METALLOGRAPHY OF IRON AND 
IRON-CARBON ALLOYS. 


pe ey the May meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

two papers of decided scientific importance were 
presented. In one of these Prof. G. Cesaro, of Liége 
University, a distinguished Belgian man of science, 
has endeavoured by careful mathematical analysis to 
ascertain the course of the curve joining the points at 
which molten iron-carbon alloys commence to solidify, 
if the abscissee are taken either as x, the number of 
atoms of carbon contained in a unit of the alloy, com- 
posed of a hundred atoms, or as y, the number of 
molecules of cementite Fe,C contained in a unit of the 
alloy composed of a hundred molecules, and assuming 
an iron molecule to contain two atoms. The author 
has used for his data the experimental results obtained 
by Carpenter and Keeling fifteen years ago, which are 
generally accepted as valid for the liquidus of the 
series. He comes to the conclusion that whether 
Raoult’s law of the depression of the freezing point 
or the more general law expressed by the Le Chatelier- 
Schroeder formula 


lem 2 ( : om a) 
Eade bape 


where T is the absolute temperature and =z is the 
number of molecules in the solvent contained in a unit 
of the alloy forming a single molecule, be adopted, the 
calculated figures agree decidedly better with the ex- 
perimental results on the iron-cementite than the iron- 
carbon hypothesis. Further, the results which agree 
best are obtained on the assumption ‘of a rectilinear 
variation afforded by the Fe,C—Fe, hypothesis. 

In the second paper Prof. Honda, of the Tohoku 
Imperial University, Sendai, Japan, returns to a con- 
sideration of the allotropic forms of iron. It is now 
generally agreed that pure iron undergoes two trans- 
formations between the freezing point and the ordinary 
temperature, which are allotropic. The first of these 
.is the A, transformation, and takes place at 1394° C., 
about 130° below the freezing point. It is completed in 
a few minutes. The second is the A, transformation, 
and occurs at about goo° C. This transformation, 
although not so rapid as the previous one, can be com- 
pleted in a very narrow temperature interval, provided 
the heating and cooling are sufficiently slow. In a 
recent experiment by Ishiwara, where the complete 
transformation required about three hours, the differ- 
ence between the Ac, and Ar, points did not exceed 

Cc 


The A, change is of a different nature. It does not 
take place at a definite temperature or within a small 
range, but begins at the ordinary temperature, its rate 
becoming greater as the temperature is increased, 
until it is completed at 785° C. The various physical 
properties, such as heat absorption or evolution, inten- 
sity of magnetisation, electrical resistance, thermal 


conductivity, etc., vary similarly with one another, the. 


values changing slowly at lower temperatures, and the 
change becoming faster as the temperatures approach 
785° C. When thermal equilibrium is established the 
change in any one of the properties does not increase 
by a prolonged heating. The properties are definite 
functions of the temperatures. It is this distinction, 
according to the author, which constitutes the essential 
difference between allotropic and _. non-allotropic 
changes. According to him, therefore, an allotropic 
change is the transformation of a substance from one 
phase to another which proceeds at a definite tem- 
perature if sufficient time be allowed for the trans- 
formation. . 

The A, critical point. as determined thermally, is 
usually taken as 768° C. This is the temperature at 
which the rate of heat evolution or absorption is at 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103]. 


‘does the right. 


the maximum on cooling and_ heating respectively. 
This figure is somewhat lower than 785° 
is the value proposed by Honda, and is the tempera- 
ture at which the A, transformation begins on cooling 
and terminates on heating. 

In the case of carbon steels, in addition to the 
above, there are two other transformations, A; and 
Ao. The former is a change of phase, while the 
latter is a change in cementite of a similar nature to 
A;. Accordingly, whereas A,, A;, and A, are phase 
changes, the A, and A, transformations extend from 
the critical to the lowest temperature. Every stage 
of these changes is a definite function of the tem- 
perature, and, from the point of view of the mole- 
cular theory of magnetism, they may be regarded as 
Processes in which the molecules acquire rotational 
energy about their magnetic axes. sie 

H. C. H. Carpenter. 


SEX, REPRODUCTION, AND HEREDITY : 


IN PIGEONS AND FOWLS. “ 


D®: OSCAR RIDDLE has previously brought for- 
ward evidence to-show that male pigeons arise 
from eggs (yolks) of less storage metabolism, which 


implies small size and higher (onda metabolism, | 


and that females arise from eggs (yolks) of greater 
storage metabolism, which implies large size and 
lower (oxidising) metabolism. -He has now (Journ. 
Exper, Zoology, vol. xxvi., 1918, pp. 227-54) studied 
two cases of female ‘identical twins,’ and seeks to 
show that the ova (yolks) which produced both of 
them were extraordinarily and abnormally large. 


Of course, the yollk of an egg cannot be directly. 


weighed on a balance and then put back to see what 


C., which’ 


it will develop into; Dr. Riddle’s evidence is neces- | 


sarily indirect. The eggs when laid were very large 
compared with all the other eggs produced by the 
particular parents (totals of 116 and 134 eggs). 
Double-yolked eggs in doves are practically restricted 
in their production to hybrids from wider crosses, or 
to birds showing striking reproductive abnormalities, 
or to both of these, and would not be expected to 
appear in the series in which the two cases of *iden- 
tical twins’’ were found. s 

It is suggested that the blastoderm-borders will be 
abnormally raised in extraordinarily large eggs, and 
abnormally lowered in extraordinarily small ones, and 
that this might lead, for physical reasons, to the 
establishment of two independent foci of development. 
If male ‘identical twins” were found developing 


from a very small egg. it would be an interesting 


corroboration of the author’s theory. Meanwhile, he 
thinks that the available data point to the conclusion 
that each pair of female ‘identical twins” arose from 
a single ovum of high storage metabolism. 

In healthy doves and pigeons the right testis is 
larger than the left in a very high percentage of cases, 
vet in the female it is the left ovary that persists. 
The left testis more nearly approaches the ovary than 
In disease, particularly in tuberculosis, 
the testes undergo extreme atrophy, but more in the 


right than in the left; the ovary does not seem to. 


suffer reduction in size. The right testis of the verv 


voung birds (from embryos to squabs a few weeks 


old) is normally longer than the left. The single (per- 


sistent) left ovary of voung female squabs is twice, or 


more than twice, as long as is either testis in males 
of similar age (three to seven weeks). Now. Dr. 


Riddle finds (Anat. Record, vol. xiv., 1918, pp. 283- 


334) that in hybrids the normal size relations of the 


two testes are often disturbed, sometimes reversed, 
approximating to the female condition. The number - 


Jury 31, 1919] 


NATURE 


437 


# of such reversed cases increases as the width of the 


cross. The excess of males from such crosses is also 
_ known to increase similarly, e.g.. when the crosses are 
between members of different genera. The theory 
suggested is that ‘‘sex has been controlled in these 
forms, and that a male which is forced to arise from 
a female-producing eggs may show in the relative 
size of its gonads an approximation to the relative 
size of the gonads of a female.” 

In an investigation (Journ. Biol. Chem., vol. xxxiv., 


_ 1918, pp. 161-70) of the correlation between fat con- 


tent in the blood of fowls and the total egg records 
Dr. Riddle and Mr. J. Arthur Harris find a pro- 
_ gressive change; it is positive for birds in a laying 
_ condition, sinks to zero after the cessation of laying, 
__ and finally takes a high negative value in birds which 
have lon ceased to lay. At the end of the first laying 
_ year birds which have laid larger numbers of eggs 
_ and are still laying have a in sg percentage of fat 
_ in their blood than laying birds which have made a 
__ poor record for the year. But birds which have laid 
a large number of eggs and exhausted their fertility 
have a smaller percentage of fat in their blood than 
non-laying birds which have poor egg records. 
Thus the correlation changes from a positive to a 
negative a: es conclusion involves a 
ous criticism of that reached by Warner and 
lg (Journ. Biol. Chem., or XXxi., 1917, 
. 281). 
Dr. Riddle and Mr. Carl E. Anderson (Amer. Journ. 
Physiol., vol. xlvii., 1918, pp. 92-102) gave ring-doves 
_ small doses of quinine sulphate, and found a marked 
reduction in the yolk size and total size of the eggs. 
It is well known that quinine reduces the destruction 
_ of nitrogenous components of the tissues, and probably 
checks the secretory activity of the oviduct, the product 
(albumen) of which is entirely of a protein nature. 
Furthermore, the presence of quinine in the yolk of 
the eggs probably checks the characteristic trans- 
formation of the nitrogenous compounds; the eggs 
_ are poor in volk for some weeks after the dosage is 
_ discontinued. ; 
_ From an egg produced by a pigeon under the 


weakening influence of ‘reproductive overwork” there 


« was hatched in 1914 a female bird which might be 
_ called an ataxic mutation. Dr. Riddle describes 
p. the bird (Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. and Med., vol. xv., 


_ 1917, pp. 56-58), which showed when young a marked 
| lack power over the voluntary movements of the 
head and body. The affected female was bred to 


two different males, and the derangement was seen 
through four generations descended from either. Of 
175 voung ones reared to the age at which the disorder 
might be exhibited, 119 were classed as normal and 
46 as affected. With some irregularities the character 
apvears like a Mendelian recessive 

__In an interesting study of the brains of the “ ataxic” 

pigeons (Amer. Journ. Physiology, vol. xlvii., 1918, 
pp. 124-36), Miss Mathilda L. Koch and Dr. Riddle 
report that, as compared with normal birds of the 
‘Same parentage, there are increased values for mois- 
ture. protein, and extracted sulphur. and decreased 
values for lipoids. phosphatides, and cholesterol, The 
results of the analvses are interpreted as suggesting a 
chemical under-differentiation or immaturity of the 
disordered brains. 

Dr. Riddle and Mr. Victor K. La Mer report (Amer. 
Journ. Physiol., vol. xlvii., 1918. pp. 103-23) a re- 
markable fact which must be considered in connection 
with theories of colour-inheritance, namely, the post- 
mortem formation of ,melanin in the pigmentless 
retinas and choroids of embryo white ring-doves of 
3-12 davs of development. Killing the tissues in 
HgCl, does not prevent the production of the pig- 
ment, but the presence of free oxygen is necessary. 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


INDUSTRIAL LIGHTING, 
N his lecture at the British Scientific Products 
Exhibition on July 28, Mr. L. Gaster traced the 
growth of interest in industrial lighting, which had now 
come to be regarded as essential to the health of the 
workers, to the avoidance of accidents, and to efficient 
work, The extension of night-work during the war 
and the great demands made on British factories had 
rendered good artificial lighting specially important; 
and various factors likely to operate in the future, such 
as the fuller use of the “ three-shift’’ system and the 
development of the manufacture of accurately made 
standardised and interchangeable parts, also tended 
in the same direction. Another important considera- 
tion at present was the saving in fuel that might be 
brought about by the general use of more scientific 
and efficient methods of lighting, whereby the con- 
sumption of gas or electricity necessary to produce 
a given illumination on the work could be reduced. 
The case for adequate industrial lighting, both from 
the economic and humanitarian points of view, was 
very strong. There was no doubt that both the output 
and the, quality of work suffered if the illumination 
was defective. Cases were on record in which the 
output had increased by 8-27 per cent., and even 
more, when the illumination was improved. In 
general, the cost of lighting formed only a small 
proportion (often less than 1 per cent.) of the wages 
bill, so that even a small gain in output more than 
compensated for the expenditure on good lighting. 
Mr. Gaster also gave an instructive account of the 
steps taken by various Governments in Europe to 
promote better industrial lighting in the years imme- 
diately preceding the war. The French Government 
had nominated a Committee to inquire into the sub- 
ject, and the Belgian Government had also been asked 
to do so. In these cases action had been inevitably 
delaved by the war, but the Departmental Committee 
on Lighting in Factories and Workshops, appointed 
by the British Government in 1913, had persevered 
with its labours, and issued a most _ instructive 
and valuable interim report in 1915. In this matter 
Great Britain might justly claim to have taken the 
lead in comparison with other nations. During the 
war, however, the United States, profiting by European 
experience, had been very active, and there were now 
five States which actually possessed codes of indus- 
trial lighting in force. Experience had shown that 
managers of factories were quite willing to adopt 
the recommendations in these codes, their chief desire 
being to receive assistance and guidance in bringing 
their illumination up to date. To the worker likewise 
good illumination was of direct personal benefit. Mr. 
Gaster expressed the hope that definite reference to 
adequate industrial illumination would be introduced 
into the British Factory Act in the near future. It 
was also desirable that industrial lighting should be 
included amongst the conditions of work to receive 
international treatment, so that there might be inter- 
change of experience and uniformity of action in the 
chief countries of the world. 


THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 


TRE sessions of the Royal Society of Canada were 

held as usual in Ottawa on May 19-22, and were 
of more than ordinary interest. There was an un- 
usually large attendance of fellows from the various 
provinces, from British Columbia in the west to Nova 
Scotia in the east, and the presidential chair was 
occupied by the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, M.P., the 
distinguished French-Canadian statesman and_jurist. 
Many fellows present had just returned from Europe, 


435 


NATURE 


[JULY 31, 1919 


their professional duties having ended with the con- 
clusion of the war. 

The Canadian Royal Society combines the features 
of the French Academy and the British Association, 
in accordance with the views of the founder, the late 
Duke of Argyll, who, as Marquess of Lorne, and 
occupying the office of Governor-General at the time 
(1882), originated the society. It includes French and 
English Literary and Historical Sections (Sections I. 
and II.) and three. scientific sections, Chemistry and 
Physics (Section III.), Geology and Mineralogy (Sec- 
tion IV.), and the Biological Sciences (Section V.), 
and its fellows, about 150 in number, are able to 
assemble in session not more frequently than once a 
year, owing to the vast distances necessary to be 
travelled to reach the capital of the Dominion. 

The serious duties of the meetings were relieved 
by many social functions, the principal one being the 
garden-party at Government House, given by their 
Excellencies the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, 
on the afternoon of May 20. There was also a 
largely attended public luncheon, in honour of the 
society, on the following dav. 

As many as 131 communications were presented to 
the various sections, and of these 51 were chemical, 


physical, and mathematical, and 32 were botanical. 


and zoological, but owing to the absence of the presi- 
dents of Sections I. and V. the usual opening ad- 
dresses were omitted. In Section IJ. Principal 
Maurice Hutton, Toronto, gave a masterly disquisi- 
tion entitled ‘‘ Humour and Satire,’ with ancient and 
modern illustrations from Aristophanes to Jane 
’ Austen, Dickens, and H. G. Wells; and in Sec- 
tion III. Prof. L. V. King, Montreal, svoke on ‘‘ Out- 
standing Problems of Modern Physics,” and Prof. 
L. W. Bailey, University of New Brunswick, the 
Nestor of Canadian geology, addressed Section IV. 
on “Acadian Palwography.’? ‘The vresident of the 
society (Mr. Lemieux). delivered an eloquent. and 


remarkable address in French at the first evening 


session (on May 20) entitled ‘‘Le Canada, la 
Guerre et Demain.’’ The second evening address took 
the form of a memorial lecture, viz. the “Sir John 


Murray Memorial Address,” and the council invited 


one of the Dominion’s most eminent biologists and 
the leading authority on the resources of Canada’s 
seas, Prof. 
Ottawa, to deliver it. The annual popular evening 
address is always one of the attractive features of 
Royal Society week in the capital, and, as the 
generosity of an anonymous Scottish donor ‘had pro- 
vided for this special lecture, it proved to be a very 
notable event. os oe 
Prof. Prince appropriately chose as his subject 
‘Life in the Ocean: A Review of Recent, Deep-sea 
Researches,” a subject which formed the late Sir John 
Murray’s life-work.. The spacious ballroom of the 
Chateau Laurier’ was packed by a crowded audience, 


and moving pictures of fish-life under the waves and. 


of whales: and whaling,. and exquisite coloured pro- 
jection views of marine vertebrate and invertebrate 
life, added greatly to the interest. Prof. Prince 
referred to the fact that Sir John Murray was a 
Canadian, born in Ontario in 1841, and at the time 
of his tragic death’ in Edinburgh was honorary vite- 
president of the Canadian Roval Society. He spoke 
of his own personal friendshin, dating from student 
days at St. Andrews, when. Sir John Murray occa- 
sionally visited the ancient universitv. After detail- 
ins the. main ‘features of the world’s oceanic areas, 
their extent, profound denths, currents, salinities, etc.. 
the lecturer emphasised the existence of unsuspected 
minute organic forms. enormous in amount, in the 
ocean’s denths, and of organic detritus there, ultra- 
microscopic in its character. As the late Prof. 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


E. E. Prince, Commissioner of Fisheries, | 


Minchin declared, this invisible organic matter was 
of supreme moment in maintaining life in the sea. 
Dr. W. B. Carpenter. fifty years ago had styled sea- 
water ‘‘ minute. broth.’ £13) 

The enormously abundant diatoms, infusorians, 
copepods, and the like could not suffice, it is generally 
admitted, for the nutrition of the incalculable hordes 
of mid-water and deep-sea creatures in the sea. A 
familiar sponge (Suberites), one ounce in weight, 
required 22 milligrams of carbon, to provide which 
nearly one and a half billions of such a diatom as 
Skeletonema, or more than seven billions of Thalas- 
siosira, would be required to be ingested daily. A 
small copepod such as Calocalanus must capture and 


digest daily 9,750,000,000 Thalassiosira every twenty- | 


four hours; and an oyster 5 in. long consumed, it 


has been calculated, one-twelfth of a cubic inch of 


solid food daily, and would need to filter eight or nine 
gallons of water, or nearly two thousand times its 
own bulk, to obtain that amount of nutriment. — 
Kishinouye has stated that the Japanese sar 
would require to wander nine miles through the sea 
to secure the 2 gram of food constituting its daily 
diet; for 1 gram of diatoms, foraminifera, copepods, 
etc., usually occurs in 1000 litres of the water where 
the schools of fish feed. eee ee 


Is there not some unsuspected source of abundant — 


nutriment available in the sea? In addition to the 
plankton, with all its infinitely varied and copious life, 
Lohmann has signalised the nannoplankton, which 
passes through the finest tow-nets, and can be secured 
only by centrifuging small quantities of sea-water; 
but there remains the ‘‘Demerson,” that extremely 
plenteous floating organic matter, invisible, dis- 
integrating, probably largely moribund, derived from 


the sinking clouds of planktonic forms which “rain | 


down,” as Prof. Moseley expressed it, from the upper 
waters to. the depths below. The ‘‘ Demerson” finally 
settles on the floor of the sea as a thin colloidal 
stratum, as. Bessels found in Arctic waters, and 
Hornell describes in Indian waters off the Malabar 
coast. Though .the ‘‘Demerson” recalls the dis- 
credited Bathybius of Huxley, vet marine biologists 
are being compelled to recognise it as the great source 
of nutriment. for innumerable Benthonic forms at all 
depths, from the coast to the abysmal zones in the 
oceans of the world. Saree 
At the close of the address President Lemieux, in 
thanking Prof. Prince for it, said that the science of 
the deep sea demonstrated how much stranger truth is 
even than fiction, and that Prof. Prince’s long services 
in connection with the valuable biological stations 
of Canada, his wide experiences as a fishery expert in 
Canada, as well as in Irish, Scottish, New Zealand, 
and Australian waters, entitled him to speak with 
authority on fisheries and life in the sea generally. 
At the closing business meeting of the society on_ 
the afternoon of May 22 the election of officers for. 
tg1a-20 took place, and it was announced that Dr. 


R. F. Ruttan, the distinguished professor of chemistry _ i 


in McGill Universitv; Montreal, had been. chosen 
the new president of the Royal Society. 


+ 


—: 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
, “INTELLIGENCE. 


Griascow.—His Majesty the King has been pleased 
to appoint Dr. George Gerald Henderson, F.R.S., to 
the Regius chair of chemistrv in the University of 
Glasgow. Prof. Henderson has held the chair of 


chemistry in the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, 
which is affiliated to the University, since 1892. He 
was formerly lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry 


at the University and at the Queen Margaret College 


AS > 


‘el 


‘ie 


hi 
De 


- Jury 31, 1919] 


NATURE 


439 


& aiden incorporated with it. He was_a few years 
_ ago president of the Society of Chemical Industry, and 
is a vice-president of the Chemical Society. The 
Regius chair, resigned by the late Prof. John Fer- 
guson in 1915, has since seit remained vacant owing 
to the war. 


The following appointments to new chairs have 


been made by the University Court :—Gardiner 
Chair of Bacteriology: Dr. C. H. Browning, 
director of the Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology 


at the Middlesex Hospital, and professor of bacterio- 
in the University of London. Gardiner Chair of 
Chemistry: Dr. T. S. Patterson. Waltonian 


of Glasgow. Gardiner Chair of Physio- 

logical Chemistry: Dr. E. P. Cathcart, professor of 
es London Hospital Medical School. These 
rtant new chairs owe their foundation to 
aan 8 pam endowment of Mr. William Guthrie 
-and Mr. Frederick Crombie Gardiner, ship- 

owners, Glasgow. The sum of 20,0001. was provided 
for each chair—6o,ocol. in all. The benefaction con- 
tributes greatly to the equipment of the University 
for- mage d with important scientific studies. The 
the chairs are among those in which some 
of most remarkable modern developments have 
taken place. It is provided that the professor of bac- 
teriology shall apply himself to the promotion of 
ecto and research in relation to bacteriology 
as bearing on on disease, and that the holders of the 
other chairs shall apply themselves to the promotion 
of instruction and research in their different subjects. 


_ Lonpon.—Sir William H. Beveridge has been 
ted Director of the London School of 


Mr. T. L. Wren has been appointed to the Univer- 
sity readership in geometry tenable at University 
College. In the session 1913-14 Mr. Wren was 
be Sars in mathematics at Bedford College, 
i was then for two years lecturer at St. John’s 
e, Cambridge. 
scheme was approved for the establishment at 
rsity College of a school of librarianship from 
‘ dary by the generosity of the Carnegie 
ust The school will be administered by a com- 
tee ‘consisting of representatives of University Col- 
lege and of the Library Association. Dr. E. A. Baker 
has Liop appointed director. 
’s Register of Shipping has presented 10,0001. 
to the ee end ich is being raised to establish a degree 
commerce at the University. The trustees of Sir 
ESS Cassel have promised 150, oool. if a similar sum 
subscribed before October. It is estimated that a 
pews a 500,0001. will be required to make suitable 
Fags the subject in the University. 
eeThe title of emeritus professor has been conferred 
upon the following :—Prof. Sir George Thane, who 
has resigned the chair of anatomy at University Col- 
lege, which he has held since 1877 (with the title of 
University professor since 1907); Prof. F. M. Simp- 
son, who has resigned the chair of architecture at 
University College, which he has held since 1903 (with 
the title of University professor since 1907); and 


Prof. A. K. Huntington, who has resigned the chair- 


of metallur 
since 1879 
‘Igt2). 

The Senate has resolved to institute a University 
chair of botany tenable at Bedford College. 

The following doctorates have been conferred by 
the Senate :—D.Sc. in Biochemistry: Mr. S. S. Zilva, 
an internal student, of the Lister Institute of Pre- 
ventive Medicine, for a thesis entitled ‘‘The Influence 
of Deficient Nutrition on the Production of Agglu- 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 


at King’s College, which he has held 
with the title of University professor since 


, and lecturer in organic chemistry in the | 


tinins, Complement and Amboceptor.’’ D.Sc. in 


‘Physiology: Mr. E. W. H. Cruickshank, an internal 


student, of University College, for a thesis entitled 
(1) “ The Production and Utilisation of Glycogen in 
Normal and Diabetic Animals,’ and (2) ‘‘ The Digestion 
and Absorption of Protein and Fat in Normal and 
Depancreatised Animals." D.Sc. (Economics): Mr. 
E. W. Shanahan, an internal student, of. the London 
School of Economics, for a thesis entitled *‘The Pro- 
duction and the Consumption of Animal Foodstuffs, 
with Special naga to the British Empire.’’ D.Sc. 
in Botany: James Small, an external student, 
for a thesis entitled ‘‘The Origin and Development of 
the Composite,’’ together with subsidiary contribu- 
tions. 


Lr.-Cot. Str THropore Morison has been ap- 
pointed Principal of Armstrong College; Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, in succession to Sir Henry Hadow. 


Pror. W. M. Garpner, head of the chemistry and 
dyeing department of Bradford Technical College since 
1895, and principal of the college since 1906, is retiring 
on account of ill-health. 


Tue trustees of the Beit Fellowships for Scientific 
Research, which were founded and endowed in 1913 
by Mr. Otto Beit in order to promote the advance- 
ment of science by means of research, have recently 
elected Mr. Jonas Arthur Hey to a fellowship. Mr. 
Hey was educated at the Keighley Trade and 
Grammar School, 1907-14, and has been a student at 
the Imperial College of Science and Technology since, 
except for the period of his war service. He will 
carry out his research at the Imperial College. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
. Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, July 7—M. Léon Guignard in 
the chair.—C,. Richet, P. Brodin, and F. Saint-Girons : 
The immunising action of sodium chloride against 
anaphylactic injection. The second injection of 
plasma, which normally causes a violent anaphylactic 
shock, can be rendered also innocuous by dilution with 
nine times its volume of an isotonic (o8 per cent.) 
solution of common salt. The sodium chloride cannot 
be replaced by glycose. The plasma injected was from 
the horse. and dogs were used in the experiments, but 
the authors regard the immunising action of the salt 
as general, and not limited to these special cases.— 
A. Blondel: Some properties of the bipolar diagram 
of synchronised alternators on a network at constant 
potential.—V. Grignard and Ed. Urbain: The pre- 
paration of phosgene by means of carbon tetrachloride 
and oleum or ordinary sulphuric acid. The best vield 
of phosgene in this reaction is obtained with oleum 
containing 45 per cent. of SO,, and SO,HCI is left as 
the residual product. If the presence of some HCI in 
the phosgene is without objection, ordinary sulphuric 
acid may with advantage be substituted for the oleum, 
using infusorial earth as catalyst.—M. Emanuele 
Paterno was elected a correspondant for the section 
of chemistry in succession to M. G, Charpy, elected 
member of the division of the applications of science 
to industry.—V. Karpen: The cause of the adherence 
of the concrete to the iron in armoured concrete con- 
structions.—_MM. Auclair and _ Boyer-Guillon: An 
accelerograph.—]. Ubach: Observations of the an- 
nular eclipse of December 2, tor8, made at Buenos 
Aires.—F. Diénert and F. Wandenbulcke: The action 
of sodium thiosulohate upon hynochlorites. When a 
potable water has been treated with hypochlorite, it is 


440 


NATURE 


[Jury 31, 1919 


a 


necessary to know the exact amount of sodium thio- 
sulphate to be added to destroy the free chlorine. The 
course of the reaction is variable, depending on the 
presence or absence of free carbon dioxide in the 
water, and a direct laboratory experiment must be 
made in each case.—M. Lespieau : Cryoscopy in acety- 
lene tetrabromide. This. substance, when pure, melts 
at +0:13° C., and has a high cryoscopic constant, 217. 
—-M. Picon: The preparation of some true substituted 


acetylenes by means of the monosodium derivative of - 


acetylene. A description of the preparation of heptine, 
decine, and octodecine.—Ch. Mauguin and L. J. Simon: 
The action of concentrated sulphuric acid upon carbon 
tetrachloride.—S. Posternak: The constitution of the 
reserve phospho-organic principle of green plants.— 
A, Krempf: A primitive and essential stage, so far 
unrecognised, in the development of the Anthozoa.— 
A. Rochon-Duvigneaud; The double retinal fovea in 
birds of prev flying by day. 
VICTORIA. 

Royal Society, May 8.—Mr. J. A. Kershaw, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—R. H. Walcott :. Origin of the 
volcanic tuff of Pejark Marsh, Victotas ‘Lhe follow- 
ing results, giving further evidence of the formation 
in. situ of the bedded volcanic tuffs, were obtained 
during excavations at this locality to find further 
data as to man’s antiquity in Victoria. This evidence 
consists of the continuous thinning out of the beds 
away from the probable points of eruption, the cross- 
bedding present, and the gas cavities in the upper 
part not due to decomposition of vegetable remains; 
also in its being precisely like other tuffs which were 
undoubtedly formed in the same way both in physical 
and in mineralogical aspects.—F. Chapman: New or 
little-known Victorian fossils in the National Museum. 
Part xxiv.:,A fossil. tortoise in ironstone from Cara- 
pook, near Casterton. This is a replacement of the 
greater part of the body cavity of a tortoise, in which 
the vertebral column is well-marked. The sutures 
of the costal plates and the impression of theebones 
of the pelvic girdle are visible. The ventral surface 
shows the impress of the bones of the plastron. This 
cast is referred to Emydura, and with some reserve 
to the species E. macquariae, the Murray . mud- 
tortoise. Pleistocene fossils of this species from Aus- 
tralia already exist in the British Museum (Natural 
History), London, as single bones. A curious point in 
physiography.: is suggested by the present occurrence : 
since the living Murray mud-tortoise is: now found 
only in rivers flowing: north into the Murray, the 
rivers of the Carapook district, which now flow into 
the Glenelg, probably, had a northerly trend. in. the 
Pleistocene. ‘This is: also supported by local physio- 
gponis.© evidence. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 

A Synoptical List of the Accipitres (Diurnal Birds 
of Prey). Part i.: Sarcorhamphus to  Accipiter. 
Pp. 38. (London: John Wheldon and Co., 1919.) 4s. 

A Student’s Book on Soils and Manures. By Dr. 
E. J. Russell. Second edition, revised and enlarged. 


(Cambridge Farm Institute Series.) Pp... xii+240. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1919.) 6s. 6d. 
net. 

Union of South Africa: Province of the Cape of 
Good Hope. Marine Biological Report, No. iv.,. for 
the period ending June 30, 1918. Pp. v+1824ii. 
(Cape Town: Cape Times, Ltd., 1918.) 


Planetary Rotation Periods and Group Ratios: 
Two Essays on the Relations between the Planets in 
Diurnal Rotation and in Mass. By F. A. Black. 
Pp. xii+115. Le aged and London: Gall and 
Inglis, n.d.) 3s.. 6d. 


NO. 2596, VOL. 103 | 


Shell Shock and its Lessons. 
Smith and T. H. Pear. New impression. Pp. xv+ 
135. (Manchester: At the University Press; London: 
Longmans, Green, and Co., 1919.) 1S. 6d. net. 

Scientific Signalling and Safety. By Prof. John on 
Pp. 3641 plate. (London: Taylor and Francis, 191 


‘Is. 6d. net. 


The Statesman’s Year-Book: Statistical and ‘His: 
torical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 
1919. Edited by Sir John Scott Keltie and Dr. M. 
Epstein. Fifty-sixth annual publication. Revised 
after official returns. Pp. lii+1476. (London : Mac- 
millan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 18s.: net. . 

Volumetric Analysis for Students of Pharmaceutical 
and General Chemistry. ‘By Charles H. Hampshire. 
Second edition. Po. ie (London: J. and A. 
Churchill, 1919.) 5s. 

Lectures on Sex and "Heredity delivered in Glisgow, 


1917-18. By F. O. Bower, J. Graham Kerr, and 
W. E. Agar. Pp. vi+119. (London: Macmillan and 
Co., Ltd., 1919.) 5s. net. 


Insect Artisans and their Work. By Edward. a. 
(Hutchinson’s Nature Library.) Pp. x+318. (Lond on : 
Hutchinson and Co., 1919.) 7s. 6d. net. — 

The Seashore: Its Inhabitants and How to Know 


Them. By Forster Robson. Pp. 111. (London: 
~ Holden and Hardingham, Ltd., n.d.) 1s. 6d. net. © . 
Coal Mines and Nationalisation. By Dr. Arthur 
Shadwell. Revrinted «from the Times. “Pp. 
(London: Longmans, Green, and Co., *f88 is.” 
CONTENTS. PAGE 
Aoplied Chemistry... 9... +) See 42t 
The “Puaciples of Radio-Communication. By — 
Dr. A. Russell 5 tal aes 
Geographical Aspects of World Politics . . 7423 


Our Bookshelf . . vee st a 424 
Letters to the Editor :— : 
Labour and Scientific Research.—P. G. Pee) er 425 


Behaviour of a Cuckoo.—H. Eliot Howard | . 426 

Sparganophilus : A British Oligochet.—Rev. Hil- 
deric Friend .. 426 

The Brent Valley Bird Sanctuary. —Wilfred Mark 
Webe- i ot a ee 


The Structure of the Solar Atmosphere. (Mlustrated. ) ane 


Prof, Emil Fischer, For.Mem.R.S. By H. E, A. . 430 
Notes. . » own G3t 
Our Astronomical ‘Column : — i 
' A World Survey tn ot a rei e a oe. 
Solar Physics at  Carabvadee Merurw rid - 434 
The Svectrum of Nova ge tas 435 

The British Association. rovisional Programmes 
of Sectionsip G5) 6 6. oS} ais Se ae 435 
Cancer Research... 606, 0 5) ts a8 Fe ee 435 

The pohauge thy" of Iron ‘and. iron-Curben- 
Alloys. By Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, F.R.S. . : 436 

Sex, Reproduction, and Heredity in bebe) and 
Powle ea Pe eee 436 
Industrial Lighting . Pigs cs .6: i 3 ee AVE NG s tape 6 
The Royal Society of Canada was waka ee 437 
University and Educational Intelligence. ... - 438 
Societies and Academies... .....4+4++2-s 439 
Hooks Received: Been gy Sat ee tae 440 


Editorial. and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., 


ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.z. 


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Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
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By Prof. G. Elliot — 


Se 


_ 


of the directorate. 


—p oo eeTURE 


441 


THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1919. 


‘THE FORESTRY BILL. 


WE referred last week to the Forestry Bill, 
i _ which has passed its third reading in the 
“House of Lords and is now before the House of 


_ Commons. The Bill is a Government measure 
_ and .is largely based upon the Report of the 
_ Forestry Sub-Committee appointed by the late 
_ Minister of Reconstruction. It creates a Forestry 
_ Authority consisting of five Commissioners, three 
of whom are to be paid, “charged with the 
4 general duty of promoting the interests of 
_ forestry, the development of afforestation, and 
_. the production and supply of timber in the 
- ‘United Kingdom.”’ 

_ have powers to expend 3,500,000l. during the 


The Commissioners will 


next ten years in afforestation. This sum of 


‘money is to be at their absolute disposal, and 
_ will be subject to no control by Parliament or 


by any Minister responsible to Parliament. The 
powers conferred are thus very wide.. The Com- 
missioners may acquire land, compulsorily if 


_ necessary, and may plant trees themselves, or 


aid, by loan or grant, owners of land to plant. 
‘They may establish and carry on woodland indus- 
tries. Education in forestry is to be promoted 
by the establishment of schools and by aid to 


_  €xisting institutions where forestry is taught. 
_ The Commissioners may also make inquiries and 
undertake experiments and research. 

It will be obvious from this synopsis that the 
_ Commissioners will have the charge of a great 


‘national undertaking, which, if it were a business 


P _ Proposition, would need to provide evidence that 
__ the men who are to be entrusted with the work 
possess the qualifications necessary to give con- 
_ fidence in their successful accomplishment of it. 
_ In other words, if the Bill represented a company 


Prospectus involving the control and expenditure 
of three and a half million pounds, little of this 


_ amount would be subscribed in the absence of 


“any assurance as to the satisfactory constitution 
© This, however, is exactly 
‘what the Bill neglects to supply. There is nothing 


_ to ensure that any of the Commissioners—paid 
or unpaid—shall have any knowledge of forestry ; 


so that, just as we have had a Dyes Commis- 


_ sioner without special knowledge of the subject 
_ with which he was concerned, the Forestry Com- 
_ Missioners may similarly become purely political 
appointments. ; 


We are glad that there is one body which 
watches national matters of -this kind with the 


“view of promoting efficiency and economy by the 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


by Lord Ancaster in the House 


right use of scientific knowledge and experience. 
There is no group of men of science in the House 
of Commons apart from that of the medical 
members; therefore it must be left to those out- 
side the House to make strong representation of 
their views when measures demand it. The 
British Science Guild has done this in the case 
ef the Forestry Bill; and it is to be hoped that 
the action taken will ensure that the Forestry 


‘Authority will not be a purely amateur Board of 


Commissioners, but will include men who have 
had a sound scientific training and practical 
knowledge of forestry conditions—particularly 
those in the United Kingdom, with which the 
Commissioners will be concerned. Such men 
would secure adequate attention to forestry re- 
search and education, and would in addition be 
likely to see that the officers appointed upon the 
staff are well qualified to perform their duties. 
But even with a-Forestry Authority which included 
Commissioners with expert knowledge, it would 
be a decided advantage if all officers were selected 
by an independent selection board. 

In forestry, as in other departments of applied 
science, it is usual in this country to try to do 
without the expert, and to call for his advice only | 
when compelled to do so by the failure of amateur 
administrators. The common attitude towards 
scientific and technical knowledge was expressed 
of Lords when 
he said recently : roe 

“The Government, instead of making up the 
deficit in timber, seems to be chiefly’ engaged in 
questions of research. He did not claim to be a 
timber expert, but the thing was not so extra- 
ordinarily difficult as to require so many scientific 
gentlemen. There was no particular mystery 
about how to produce timber. To make the 
country self-supporting in the matter of timber, 
the great thing was not to set up commissions 
and lecturers, but to dig holes and plant the 
trees.’’ (Laughter.) 

The answer to this is that Lord Ancaster and 
his class have been planting trees on this simple 
plan for more than a hundred years, with the 
result that “the annual yield for the 3,000,000 
acres under woods in the United Kingdom was 
only 45,000,000 cubic feet, or about one-third of 
what it should have been under correct sylvi- 
cultural treatment.’ (Reconstruction Report, 
p- 4.) So far as it deals with training and re- 
search, the Bill is, as Lord Haldane pointed out, 
Lilliputian. The amount supposed to be spent in 
research, which is really in a piteous condition - 
in this country, is about 60001. a year! No par- 
ticular sum is, however, guaranteed by the Bill - 
for this important work. 


AA 


442 


NATURE 


[AuGuUsST 7, 1919 


It is in connection with the planting of new 
ground, which will be one of the main duties of 
the Forestry Authority, that a well-planned and 
necessarily costly scheme of research and investi- 
gation is necessary. Lord Clinton, a member of 
the Interim Forest Authority, stated recently at 
Exeter that no farms would be taken to increase 
the woodland area. The new land to be acquired 
for planting must thus be. restricted to lowland 
heaths and poor mountain pasture. The success- 
ful planting of such ground is a difficult problem 
if it is to be done at a reasonable cost. Research 
on new lines is imperative. The services of the 
best men in plant ecology, soil geology, botany, 
dendrology, etc., must be enlisted, and a proper 
team gathered together, in order to study the 
conditions which militate in this class of ground 
against tree growth, such as acidity of the soil, 
exposure to wind, etc. Arrangements must also 
be made for the selection of seed from the best 
sources. 

Foresters in this country now rely on Pacific 
Coast conifers for the rapid production of timber 
in great quantity and of good quality. The 
Douglas fir and Sitka spruce are the main species 
employed, and so far these wonderful trees 
have been successful. Thuya gigantea, equally 
lauded and in many places already planted on a 
considerable scale, has suddenly been attacked 
by a fungus which threatens the extinction of this 
species. This untoward event may act as a warn- 


ing against Lord Ancaster’s view that it is only | 


necessary to dig holes and plant trees. Much 
more knowledge is required of exotic species in 
regard to their adjustability to the new environ- 
ment to which they are exposed in this country. 

As to the replanting of the vast woodland areas 


felled during the war, the Forestry Bill appears | 


to adopt the policy of the Report of the Forestry 
Sub-Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction, 
which practically advocated the immediate pur- 
chase and planting of new land on a large scale, 
- while it neglected to deal in a_ satisfactory 
manner with the question of replanting. The 
authors of the Forestry Bill, like the framers of 
the Report, apparently do not wish to antagonise 
the landowners by providing for compulsory re- 
planting. This, it seems to us, is a needless fear 
on their part, as all wise landowners will replant. 
The argument in favour of compulsory replanting 
is simple. The Reconstruction Sub-Committee 
concedes the principle that afforestation is essential 
to national safety, and consequently should be 
carried out regardless of cost. It is not too much 
then to ask ‘the landowners, who during the’ war 
sold their timber at an increased price, to replant 
the denuded areas. This they are morally bound 
NO. 2597, VOL. 103 | 


to do on patriotic grounds. It is, moreover, the 


only way of utilising economically the denuded — 


areas. A compulsory replanting clause should 
be introduced into the Bill. It will be a very easy 
measure to carry out, as it is analogous to 
compulsory tillage schemes, which have been very 
successful. To sum up, it is the business of the 
Forestry Authority to concentrate during the first 
five years on replanting, and to proceed cau- 
tiously with schemes for afforestation of poor land 
—the only kind that will be available. * 


pe Te er eS 


We owe to Lord Lovat’s strenuous advocacy — 


the principle adopted in the Bill of a single Forest 
Authority for the United Kingdom, independent 
of all control, and subject to no interference from 
the existing Boards of Agriculture of England 


and Scotland and the Department of Agriculture - 


for Ireland. Against this principle there is the 
Haldane policy that forestry should be developed 
in close association with agriculture both in 


administration and in the practical working out — 
of schemes for buying suitable land for planting. — 


The main point of view of Lord Lovat’s policy as 


embodied in the Bill is to secure supplies of — 


timber in the country in the interests of national 


safety, and no regard is to be paid to cost. 2 


Forests are a national necessity, and the country 
must have them, 


even though the money ex- 4 


pended yields less than the current rate of interest — 


on the capital involved. We are in favour of the 
Bill, which aims at an important national work 


that has been too long delayed, and for neglect 4 


of which in the past we suffered much in” pocket 
during the war. It is devoutly to be hoped, how- 
ever, that now the Bill is in Committee of the 
House of Commons the scientific and practical 
aspects to which we have directed attention will 
be improved for the sake of ensuring efficiency in 
this important national enterprise. Great praise 
should be given to the earnest efforts of Lord 
Lovat and his coadjutors in preparing the valuable 


Reconstruction Report, on the basis of which the ~ 


measure is founded. That they have succeeded in 
inducing the Government to take up afforestation 
seriously is due to their energy, and augurs well 
for their success in carrying out afforestation in 
this country once the Bill becomes an Act. 


HYDROGEN IN WAR AND INDUSTRY. 


The Chemistry and Manufacture of Hydrogen. 


By Major P. 
(London : 
1os. 6d. net. 


Litherland Teed. Pp. vii+152. 
Edward Arnold, 1919.) Price 


© hy of the most characteristic phaees of 


modern industrial chemistry is to be seen 
in the extraordinary and unlooked-for develop- 
ment in the application to utilitarian purposes of 
the substances collectively known as the gases. 


_ AucustT 7, 1919] 


NATURE, 


443 


_ A few decades ago the majority of these bodies 
then known were regarded in the light of 
“chemical curiosities ’’’ rather than as potentially 
useful products. They were interesting to the 
student on account of their theoretical signifi- 
cance, but had little practical value. The present 
generation has seen all this changed. There is 
scarcely one of the commoner gases and few 
even of the rarer ones that have not been turned 
to a useful account. It is unnecessary to multiply 
instances of this fact. The examples of oxygen, 
nitrogen, chlorine, carbonic acid, nitrous oxide, 
ammonia, acetylene, ethylene, and methane are 
familiar enough to everybody. Others might be 
named. And the process goes on. When argon 
was discovered it seemed inconceivable, from the 
very nature of its inertness, that it could be of 
any practical use. But now argon is being ex- 
_ tracted from the atmosphere on a.manufacturing 


_ scale and applied in the electric lighting industry. 


Attempts are being made to utilise helium, and 
it is only the extremely limited supply which 
prevents the application of its extraordinary pro- 
perties on the large scale. We may yet live to 
see the widespread use of niton as a therapeutic 
agent. In fact, he would be rash who would 
attempt to set any limit to the possible utilitarian 
application of a chemical product. History teems 
with examples which should warn us of the un- 
wisdom of indulging in any such restriction. 
_ Among the several gases which have of late 
years received an extraordinary development of 
application is hydrogen—the subject of Major 
Litherland Teed’s little book. Although one of 
the earliest of the gases to have its individuality 
clearly recognised—namely, by Cavendish, who 
_ ia 1766 made an approximately accurate estima- 
_ tion of its lightness—it received no application, 
_ except as an occasional chemical reagent, until 
_ it replaced the expanded air of Montgolfier’s fire- 
balloon, and this remained its chief use until coal- 


- gas became more generally available for aero- 


static purposes. In war-time, however, hydrogen, 
for obvious reasons, was still employed for the 
inflation of balloons, and much of the develop- 
ment of the technology of hydrogen has resulted 
from war-time necessities. Many manufacturing 


_ processes, in fact, owe their origin entirely to the 


enormous demand for the hydrogen required to 
fill kite balloons and <airships. The knowledge 
and experience thus gained are directly available 
_ for the ever-growing applications of hydrogen in 
_ the chemical arts, as, for example, in the syn- 
thesis of ammonia, and in the hardening of oils 
and fats by catalytic agencies, both of which pro- 
cesses have now become highly important 
chemical industries. What the future of synthetic 
ammonia will be remains to be seen. As yet 


_ its production has made comparatively little pro- 


berg in this country, but the “coal question ’’ is 
und to affect its prospects, and to what extent, 
if any, synthetic ammonia will replace by-product 
‘ammonia is not wholly clear. On the other hand, 
_ the application of M. Sabatier’s cardinal dis- 
_ covery of the effect of hydrogen, under the influ- 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


ence of metallic catalysts, in transforming oils 
and other unsaturated fats into edible products 
has solved a very pressing problem, which threat- 
ened at one time to become acute. It has been 
the means of adding enormously to the food 
supply of the world. 

Major Teed’s monograph consists of five com- 
paratively short chapters. In the first two he 
gives a concise account of the physical and 
chemical properties of the gas, the mode of its 
discovery, the manner of its occurrence*in Nature 
in the free or occluded state, and its reactions 
with other chemical elements and with certain 
compounds, particularly with animal and vege- 
table oils. There is necessarily little of novelty in 
these chapters; their material is, for the most 
part, the common property of the text-books. 
Certain of the physical constants of hydrogen, 
such as its thermal values, density, solubility 
in water, transpiration, refractivity, and the rela- 
tionship between its pressure and volume, are 
referred to an appendix. These matters are, 
however, dealt with as briefly as possible; it was 
doubtless considered necessary to treat them 
as completing the descriptive history of the | 


subject. The account is generally accurate, and 
bibliographical references are freely given. We 
would, however, remark that Sir William 


Crookes’s name is wrongly spelled on p. 7; 
“Moisson’’ (p. 19) should be printed ‘“ Mois- 
san’’; ‘“‘Neuman’’ and “Strientz’’ should be 
“Neumann ”’ and “Streintz.’’ Moreover, in the 
table, p. 15, giving the volume of hydrogen 
adsorbed by finely divided metals, it should be 
stated that the amounts are maximum values; 
the amounts actually adsorbed are frequently 
much less in many cases. 

The most generally interesting and most valu- 
able section of the work is concerned with the 
manufacture of hydrogen on the large scale. 
This is dealt with in the remaining chapters. The 
processes in use are to some extent affected by 
local conditions. This is especially true of 
hydrogen to be used for aviation in war. But 
when the gas is to be employed for manufacturing 
purposes, and cost, ease, purity, and uniformity 
of production are important considerations, war- 
time methods are not necessarily to be preferred, 
and as a matter of fact these are seldom or never 
employed in industry. Manufacturing methods 
are purely chemical, purely physical, or chemico- 
physical. The choice of a particular method must 
depend upon the amount of the gas required, the 
use to which it is to be put, facility of transport, 
etc. In certain circumstances it may be better 
to buy the hydrogen than to make it on the spot. 
In some established industries, as in the electro- 
lytic production of chlorine and caustic soda, 
hydrogen is a by-product, and its collection in- 
volves little additional cost; hence it can be 
obtained relatively cheaply. In other cases it 
may be preferable to establish a plant for its pro- 
duction. This may be electrolytic, or it may 
depend upon the separation of hydrogen from 
“blue ’? water-gas by metallic iron, or by the 


444 


NATURE 


[Aucusi 7, 1919 


Badische Anilin catalytic process, or by the 
agency of cold and pressure, as in the Linde- 
Frank-Caro. process. All these methods have 
been carefully worked out, and all are in actual 
use on the large scale. Major Teed gives a suc- 
cinct account of them, and of certain other less 
important processes, with such theoretical explana- 
tions as seemed to him necessary. A chemical 
engineer with actual experience of the working 
of hydrogen plants will probably find little 
in the description with which he is not already 
familiar, but the student andthe ordinary 
chemical manufacturer who are desirous of learn- 
ing something concerning the mode of producing 
hydrogen on the large scale for manufacturing 
purposes will find the book of considerable 
service. It is simply and concisely written, and 
well illustrated. The bibliography is ‘fairly 
full, and the references to patent literature are 
ample. It would, however, have added to the 
value of the book as a work of reference if an 
attempt had been made to give a short analysis 
of this literature. 


ORGANIC READJUSTMENTS. 


Man’s Supreme Inheritance. Conscious Guidance 
and Control in Relation to Human Evolution in 
Civilisation. By F. M. Alexander. Second 
edition. With an introductory word by Prof. 
John Dewey. Pp. xxviii+239. (London: 
Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 7s. 6d. 
net. 


HIS book, strongly recommended by ‘Prof. 
John Dewey, philosopher and educationist, 
will intrigue the reader. It gives the weary 
traveller a vista of a promised land, in which he 
may walk with light steps, and breathe freely, 
and enjoy physical perfection. The particular 
path into the promised land is not precisely re- 
vealed, but one of the sign-posts is ‘‘ respiratory 
re-education,’’ and the general idea is that of 
substituting for carelessly acquired habits and out- 
of-date instinctive promptings a regimen—or, 
rather, an art+-of' conscious control and scientific 
guidance. Man is hampered by maladjustments 
to the complex artificial environment which he 
has evolved around him; return to Nature and to 
the simple life is impossible and undesirable; to 
rely on mystical breezes and emotional gusts to 
give the ship a prosperous voyage is to invite 
disappointment; what is needed is more intelligent 
seamanship. 

Human evolution has been environmental as 
well as organismal, and the changes that are 
enregistered in the social heritage (city life, for 
instance) imply much that is unnatural for 
creatures who are zoologically open-air mammals, 
much to which the human body is far from being 
well adapted. To lessen the discomfort and hind- 
rances implied in this imperfect adjustment all 
sorts of palliatives are tried; the author has faith 
in none. He believes only in a serious discipline, 
in conscious control. It is in vain to fall. back on 
deeply rooted subconscious or instinctive prompt- 

NO. 2597, VOL. 103| 


ings, for these were wrought out in relation to 


a very different order of things, and instead of — 


‘ 
. 


being dependable guides. they may be at times — 


positively misleading. Habits of the body, such 
as ways of walking and breathing, which once 
served passably well, have to be superseded by 
something better, and Mr. Alexander’s experience 
has led him to a large faith in man’s educability. 
Well-thought-out discipline in conscious guidance 
and control will lead to the development of a 
new subconsciousness—cultivated, not inherited. 
The discipline indicated ‘will enable the in- 
dividual to stand, sit, walk, breathe, digest, _and,. 
in fact, live with the ‘least possible expenditure of 
vital energy. This will ensure the highest 
standard of resistance to disease.’’ It is claimed. 
that it will do more (and we can well believe it), 
that it will develop a new sense of bodily freedom. 
and relief from strain, and that it will react on 
the inner life of thought, feeling, and will. 
This is not the place for any discussion of what 
Mr. 
neuro-muscular training in general, and “respira- 
tory re-education 


interesting contribution to the old question of 
“nature’’ and “nurture.’? The central idea is 
that man’s supreme inheritance—to wit, a capacity 
for rational control—should be more deliberately 
utilised in the education of the body, in saving 
us from handicapping habits which artificial con- 
ditions all too readily induce, and in leading us 


to the realisation of powers which, in default of © 


appropriate nurture, are all too likely to remain 
latent or half-developed. We forgive the author 
his very frequent repetitions and his frank self- 
advertisement, for we think that he has some- 
thing very valuable to say. “We must break 
the chains which have so long held man to that 
directive mental plane which belongs to the early 


Alexander half reveals of his methods of © 


’’ in particular; we must be con- — 
tent with directing attention to what is a very — 


stages of his evolution. The adoption of conscious — 


guidance and control (man’s supreme inheritance) 


must follow, and the outcome will be a race of 


men and women who will outstrip their ancestors 
in every known sphere, and enter new spheres as 
yet undreamt of by the great majority of the 
civilised peoples of our time.’’ This is a large 
order, but if we begin, Mr. Alexander assures 
us, we shall soon have abundant payment to 
account. se 


OUR BOOKSHELF. see 


A Geography of America, By T. Alford Smith. 
(Macmillan’s Practical Modern Geographies.) 
Pp. x+329. (London: Macmillan and Co., 
Ltd., 1919.) Price 4s. 6d. 


THE Ss of a short text-book is as Mae an 
art as the writing of a short story, and little 
latitude for self-expression can be allowed to 
those who work for schools. Mr. T. Alford 


Smith explains this limitation when he appends — 


selected examination questions to his conscientious 
treatise. . The details on which geography is 
founded still remain more imporeaniee in the eyes. 


AvucusT 7, 1919] 


NATURE 


445 


of examiners than the scientific outlook. In these 


circumstances our’ author goes forward very 


straightly. If he has to omit the tragedy of 
Hudson’s ending, he inspires us by a good map 
of Amundsen’s North-West passage, which is far 
less known, because it belongs to recent history. 
He cannot trifle with examiners by betraying 
emotion at the ‘‘ revolutions of the globe,’’ but 
he gives a good geographic account of the Ice 
age in America (illustrated by a map of the 
moraine-front and by an entirely inappropriate one 
of medial and lateral moraines in Switzerland), 
and he moves us effectively by his excellent choice 
of illustrations. The South American section 
opens an unfamiliar field before the reader. The 
dangerous dunes on the Mollendo-Arequipa line, 
and the fascinating glimpse of the Patagonian 
ranges, may be cited from these interesting pages. 
The unique nitrate-deposits of Chile (p. 258) might 
have receiyed fuller mention, since the material 
is exported, not “for the preparation of various 
chemicals,’’ but for the increase of the food 
supply of the nations, and its local refining and 
foreign distribution are among the romances of 


geography. one T. C, 


Carburettors, Vaporisers, and Distributing Valves 

used in Internal Combustion Engines. ~ By 
Edward Butler. Second edition, revised and 

enlarged. Pp. viii+288. (London: Charles 
- Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 
In the hundred or so pages of this work devoted 
to carburettors the author has scarcely done 
justice to the modern outlook, although he gives 
an interesting description of various types. The 


omission of the double Venturi form is remark- 
able. No mention is made of aero work, yet it 
- Was aviation which opened our eyes to efficiency. 


Carburettor design is at last emerging out of 


the embryo stage, and the rule-of-thumb method 


of the inventor is giving place to scientific 
measurement. Instead of a list of carburettor 


_ patents, as given in the book, we should prefer 


some experimental figures establishing the order 


_ of merit of the different types and the justification 


of the claims of the inventors. Thus, if a simple 


-earburettor of the Zenith or Claudel type does all 


that is claimed for it, why go to the trouble of 


fitting all sorts of extra air-valves? It would be 


interesting to know why complicated designs can 
persist side by side with simple ones. 
The remaining pages of the work are devoted 
to vaporisers and injectors (suitable for stationary 
ines under fairly constant load), and to the 
consideration of types of valve gear. In this 


connection we think that the advantages of the 
_ sleeve valve gear are overrated. 


Treating of valve gear, we should have expected 
some reference to the importance of turbulence of 
the charge for high-speed work. Also the design 
of induction pipes for multi-cylinder engines, and 
the vibration of air in such systems (affecting 
distribution and carburettor characteristics) are 


matters of importance and deserve some comment. 
W. Jj. S. 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


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,]} 


Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larve. 

In Nature of July 24 is a_ letter from Dr. 
Walter E. Collinge entitled *‘ Wild Birds and Distaste- 
ful Insect Larve.’’ This letter starts with a state- 
ment with regard to the distasteful qualities of the 
larva and imago of the currant moth (Abraxas grossu- 
lariata, Steph.), an insect which, of all others, has 
probably been studied most in this connection. So 
long ago as 1889 Prof. E. B. Poulton, in his classic 
work on “The Colours of Animals,’ states 
(p. 169):—‘'All observers agree that birds, lizards, 
frogs, and spiders either refuse. this species altogether, 
or exhibit signs of the most intense disgust after 
tasting it.” 

Experiments of more recent date have done nothing 
to refute this observation, and, what is more, the 
larva of this moth differs widely from other Geometrid 
or ‘‘ Looper ’’ caterpillars in making itself conspicuous 
by means of a gregarious habit and of the position 
which is assumed when at rest, in contradistinction 
to protective resemblance to twigs of trees, to the 
eaten edges of leaves, etc., exhibited by most other 
members of the family. 

Further, from his observations upon the case of 
song-thrushes feeding their young upon the caterpillars 


of this moth, and from the fact that the latter, after 


their destruction by the birds had ceased, were found 
to be parasitised, Dr. Collinge raises a question of 
the possibility of the parasitised larve alone being 
rejected by birds. 

It is true that parasitic insects, when depositing 
their eggs in the interior of caterpillars, sometimes 
cause an exudation of blood which dries over the 
wound and produces a mark which acts as a warning 
to other parasites not to oviposit in the same larva, 
but, in the case of a spotted insect like the present 
one, it is neither probable that such a mark would 
be noticed by a bird, nor is it likely that all the cater- 
pillars experimented with by entomologists were 
similarly parasitised, even though insects which enjoy 
protection through conspicuity of warning colours are 
naturally subject to great persecution by their parasitic 
enemies. 

A simpler and more logical explanation is applicable 
to Dr. Collinge’s observations. In the first place, no 
insect, however. well protected, is completely immune 
from attack by enemies, and in times of stress birds 
have long been known to subsist upon insects with 
highly distasteful qualities. Of the eight birds men- 
tioned by Dr. Collinge as containing currant-moth 
larve in their gizzards, the great tit, the house- 
sparrow, and the cuckou are known to eat bees from 
hives in winter or in spring, when food is very scarce, 
The blue tit, flvcatcher, and chaffinch are also ad- 
dicted occasionally to this habit of eating an insect 
with a powerful sting. 

A habit, probably of local origin, is exhibited by the 
chaffinch when large numbers of humble-bees, and 
even wasps, are attracted to the fragrant blossom of 
the weeping white lime-tree (Tilia petiolata) in 
August. These insects are provided both with weapons 
of defence in the stings of workers and queens, and 
with warning colours in the shave of vellow and red 
bands interspersed with black, but all these protec- 
tions break down when they have sipped the nectar 
from the flowers. 


446 


NATURE 


[Aucust 7, 1919 


Queens, workers, and males alike are caught by 
the chaffinch, which usually, with a peck from its 
beak, first destroys the tail, dropping the latter to the 
ground, eats out the contents of the abdomen, then 
breaks into the thorax, and finally drops the hollow 
remains of the insect to the ground. 

In 1912 young birds of a late brood accompanied 
their parents to two trees in Hertfordshire, but 
showed fear of the bees, and would eat them only 
when caught and offered by their parents. 

‘The blue tit is said to treat hive-bees in much the 
same manner (Cheshire, ‘“‘Bees and Bee-keeping,”’ 
vol. ii., pp. 578-79, 1886). 

The’ shrike, or ‘“‘butcher-bird,’’ pierces queen 
humble-bees through the side of the thorax, after 
catching them on the wing in its beak, apparently 
with ‘the view of causing general paralysis before 
impalation upon the thorn during formation of the 
“larder.’’ 

Toads are known to feed voraciously upon hive-bees, 
swallowing them whole, and it is at present very 
doubtful if any of the birds mentioned are affected 
by the stings of bees; but the method of avoidance of 
being stung cannot be completely overlooked in the 
cases described for birds. 

The cuckoo is especially addicted to feeding upon 
caterpillars provided with irritant hairs, and with this 
we have a rough series showing the downfall of dis- 
tasteful qualities or defensive weapons in face of 
selective adaptation in enemies, which for generations 
must have been kept at bay by such protection in their 
would-be victims. 

The currant-moth larva, then, has merely been 
eaten by the thrush, and possibly by the other birds 
mentioned by Dr. Collinge (save for the cuckoo, which 
is now adapted to eating distastful insects), when the 
stress of having to feed a family has made such a 
practice a necessity. In the case of the song-thrush 
and its young, the stress has disappeared after a 
period of seven days with the arrival on the scene 
of more palatable food. . 

The presence of parasites in the caterpillars left 
after this period can scarcely be more than a _ co- 
incidence, and there is no proof that the caterpillars 
which the thrushes ate were not also parasitised. 
This explanation would seem more acceptable than 
Dr. Collinge’s paradox based on the assumption that 
the larve of the currant moth are not unpalatable to 
the majority of birds in ordinarv times. 

Epwarp R. Speyer. 

New Paes Oxford, oy, 20. 


Luminous Worms. 


Tue paper by Dr.- Gilchrist published in the Trans- 
actions. of the Royal- Society of South Africa, and 
referred to in NaTurE of July 31, p. 433, should be of 
service in reviving interest in this. country in the 
question: Do our indigenous Oli ey display 
luminosity? So long ago as 1893 I directed attention 
to the subject in these columns (NaTuRE, vol. xlvii., 
p- 462), and in more recent years I have endeavoured 
to elicit information of .a.trustworthy nature on the 
question with but little success. The following worms 
which have been reported as exhibiting luminosity are 
common in this country :—Brandling (Allolobophora 
(Eisenia) foetida), Enchytraeus albidus, and Henlea 
nasuta. Microscolex phosphoreus or an ally is an 
importation Another worm, which is large, common, 
and easily observed, is Octolasium. It has a steel- 
blue body, clay-coloured girdle, and yellow -tail filled 


with fat cells which are often attended by gregarines. | 


Various questions await solution. Of what service, 
for instance, can luminosity be to creatures which 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


the habit of remaining on their nests when 


_ books of reference to which I have access I can find — 


have no eyes? Helodrilus oculatus is the only Lum- 
bricid found in England possessing organs of visi 
and these are rudimentary. They have been report 
by Eisen as occurring in Sparganophilus also, two 
species of which, as I recently showed, occur in th 
country. Is it possible that light can influence 
Annelids in some way, and so facilitate sexual pro- 
cesses? It was affirmed by Flaugergues in 1771 that 
luminosity disappears in certain cases after stone 
tion, and if that observation is trustworthy it is 
suggestive. Dr. Gilchrist, in his paper on lumi ‘ 
referred to above, suggests that luminosity. is a ‘pro- i 
tective device so far as South African worms are | ? 
cerned, and his argument is very plausible. T believ 
that the yellow extremities of Octolasium s 
purpose of dazzling underground foes by emit 
light. 
“The reports ake years ago to the British. - 
tion of luminous worms found in Liverpool | and in a 
the bogs of Ireland have never led to any satisfacto 
issue. As I am now writing my monograph of Bi 
Oligochzts for the Ray Society, it would gre : 
interest and help me to receive living specimens tt 
worms which betray phosphorescent properties, orvan 
well-authenticated facts relating to the subject \ 
could be used for purposes of publication or im} 
tion. Hitperic F 
‘““Cathay,’’ Solihull, July 21. cit 


rns 


Protective Coloration of Birds and Eggs . s 


WHILE collecting information on the use of 
protection among birds, my attention has been directed 
to what appears to be a very interesting generalisation 
viz. that among birds which nest on the moors, sea 
shores, and similar open places, (1) those which 


threatens generally wear camouflaged unifc 
their eggs seldom show any signs of colour-pr 
while (2) those which are very shy and 
eggs readily are generally conspicuously co’ 
their eggs are usually camouflaged. ee 

Amongst the first class are capercailzie, ight): 
partridge, wild duck, and bittern; and amon “the 
shy ones with camouflaged eggs are lapwing, curlew, 
oyster-catcher, terns, ringed plover, and golden plover. 

I do not remember to have seen this point ‘men-— 
tioned explicitly in any book or paper, and < ae 
be greatly obliged to any reader of NATURE — 3 
in birds who would give me any further i i 
on the subject. Gro. | 

The Museum, Keighley. : 


Teeth of Sea-Otter. 


Ir is commonly stated ‘that the sea-otter (eater bi) 
differs from other carnivora in having only two incisor — 
teeth in the lower jaw. Through the kindness of . an 
old Etonian, Mr, Ernest Edwards, our school museum _ 
has become possessed of a fine stuffed head this - 
animal. I was surprised, however, to note that this 
specimen has three incisors on both sides. In the ‘ 


fa 


ses enn a 
sa 


no such case recorded, and I shall be grateful if any — 
of your readers can give me information on the point. — . 
M. D. dais 

Eton Colleet: Windsor, July 20. 


The Late Sir Edward Stirling. as 

In Nature of April 3, p. 87, the late Sir Edward 
Stirling is referred to as director of the South Aus- 
tralian Museum. Sir Edward resigned from the dite: 
torate in 1913, and was succeeded by Mr. Edgar R 


~? 


ere it 


Sit! OW, oy Sel yes. 


importance to the national welfare. 


. 
Pom 
‘ 


AucustT 7, 1919] 


NATURE 


447 


Waite. On relinquishing control in the museum Sir 
Edward was appointed honorary curator in ethnology, 
which position he filled to the time of his death. 

: L. M. Harwoop, 

‘ Acting General Secretary. 
Public Library, Museum, and Art Gallery 

of South ‘Australia, Adelaide, South 

_ Australia, June 4. 


4 : 


LABOUR AND THE HIGHER VALUES. 

A FIER the weary and fruitless efforts of the 
{\ past century by those engaged in enlarging 
the boundaries of truth to educate their masters 
to an appreciation of the national importance of 
such higher values, it is a relief to turn to their 
frank espousal by the representatives and spokes- 
men of pre in this country and in America. 


To those for whom Labour stands for everything 
that is evil in the best of all possible worlds and 


who are content to absorb their judgments on 
contemporaneous problems with their breakfast, 


such a view will be bizarre. But scientific men 


who are accustomed to deal with facts, and form 


their conclusions therefrom, cannot fail to be 
interested in the very marked growth of apprecia- 
tion in the humanitarian value of their work which 
has occurred in the ranks of organised Labour. 


At its recent Atlantic City convention, as an- 


nounced in last week’s issue of Nature, the 
American Federation of Labour resolved ade- 
quately and generously to support the activities 
of the Federal Government in pursuing, strength- 
ening, and extending a broad programme of 
scientific and technical research as being of major 
The resolu- 
tion was based on five grounds: That the work 
forms the fundamental basis of all modern in- 
dustry; that the increased productivity and well- 
being of the whole population ensuing therefrom 
are of far greater value than the cost of the 
bah that, after all possible methods of. re- 


adjustment, there is a limit to the increase of the 


average standard of living in the community, 
which can be raised only by research and the 
utilisation of research in industry; that it is 
‘necessary for the solution of many of the most 
pressing problems immediately confronting the 
Governments; and, lastly, that the war has 
brought home to all the nations engaged in it the 
overwhelming importance of science and tech- 


nology in war or peace. 


‘In this country the Labour Party in_ its 


Report on Reconstruction last year, entitled 


“Labour and the New Social 
sisted on greatly increased public provision 
being made for scientific investigation and 
original research in every branch of know- 
ledge, and for the promotion of music, 
literature, and the fine arts, upon which any real 
development of civilisation depends. It is humili- 
ating also to note that it should have been a 
deputation from the Education Committee of the 


Order,’ in- 


Labour Party who found it necessary to point out 


to the President of the Board of Education the 


grave injury done to the cause of education by the 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103 | 


exclusion from the older universities of men 
without money but with brains, and the welcome 
apparently accorded to men with money but with-. 
out brains. . 

So far as the evidence goes, the causes of 
scientific education and scientific research at least 
seem to stand to profit enormously by the advent 
of a Labour Government. The view, of course, 
may be taken that this is the traditional lip-service 
to the higher values paid by all political aspirants 
for power alike, though the political expediency of 
expressing such sentiments in this country is not 
obvious. At least, if it be mere vote-hunting 
demagogy, it is of a startling and original kind! . 

Labour may be trusted to make one important 
contribution to government which has been too 
long lacking, in that it cannot fail to realise the 
fundamental importance of the productive. and 
creative elements in the community. It is not 
likely to make the mistake of putting the cart 
before the horse, an amusing illustration of which 
is our habit of speaking of commerce and in- 
dustry. One may expect that if it intends to 
foster scientific research its efforts, however mis- 
taken, will not be open to the interpretation that 
the resources of the State will be used for the 
exploitation rather than the encouragement of the 
research worker. 

Sums, by previous standards munificent, have 
recently been voted by Parliament for fostering 
scientific research. What scientific investigators 
have so far mainly got is a set of rules and condi- 
tions that some lawyer had drawn up presumably, 
by which any investigator who is so hard-up as 
to accept money from this source puts himself 
outside the law with regard to any commercial. 
rights that may ensue from his work and vests 
them in the Government. Willing as scientific 
men may be that their brains should be exploited 
for the benefit of the community, it must be 
remembered that the community is a vague term 
comprising drones as well as workers. Those to 
whom the destinies of civilisation have been en- 
trusted during the past century have not shown 
themselves either very generous or very intelli- 
gent in their appreciation of the higher values 
which make for national well-being and prosperity. 
Under them, slums and millionaires have been 
the chief output of creative sciénce, which cer- 
tainly could not be in worse hands under Labour, 
The intense appreciation of the higher values that 
is growing up among the leaders of Labour is 
perhaps the most hopeful sign of the times, and 
the education of the workers into the real aims, 
uses, and aspirations of science now, more than 
ever, calls for the co-operation and support of 
scientific men. F. Soppy. 


AUSTRALIAN RAINFALL.' 
had the continent of Australia rainfall is by far 
the most important meteorological element to 
the agriculturist, there being large tracts of 
country where the annual precipitation is barely 


1 ‘The Australian Environment (especially as Controlled by Rainfall i" 
By Dr. Griffith Taylor. Pp. 188+plates. (Melbourne, 1918.) < : 


448 


NATURE 


[AuGuUST 7, 1919 


sufficient to allow of profitable use of the soil for 
farming or raising stock. For this reason Dr. 
Griffith Taylor, who is becoming well known for 
his work on Australian meteorology, has recently 
produced a volume devoted entirely to the rain- 
fall of the continent and its control over vege- 
tation.. The subject is dealt with in a very 
thorough manner, and it would be hard to over- 
estimate the value of such a work in the case of 
a young agricultural country looking to great 
developments in the near future. To obtain a just 
appreciation of the meteorological conditions 
which govern the weather of the continent 
it is mecessary to remember that the 
southern tropical high-pressure belt crosses 
the southern part of the country,’ while the 
equatorial low-pressure area lies off the northern 
coast. These systems fluctuate north and 
south with the sun, causing a very marked 
annual period in the rainfall. Thus the northern 
districts receive most of ‘their. rainfall’ in‘ the 
southern summer, when. cyclones from _ the 
northern low-pressure area strike the coast. On 
the other hand, the southern districts at this time 
of year lie under anticyclonic conditions and 
receive little rain, but-in the winter, when. the 
high-pressure belt has moved northward, the 
westerly winds of the southern oceans reach this 
region.and the rainy season:occurs. This move- 
ment to the north and south of the pressure 
systems and associated phenomena is well illus- 
_ trated by an ingenious ‘Solar Control Model” 
which forms the frontispiece of the present 
volume. mi: 

To the casual student who is acquainted with 
‘the desert regions which cover a large part of 
Western Australia and has been in the habit of 
regarding the whole district as one of great 
aridity it may come as a surprise to learn that 
over a small coastal. area running southwards 
from Perth the annual rainfall: amounts to more 
than 30 in., a quantity which is equalled only in 
narrow belts along the south-eastern, eastern, and 
northern coasts. Furthermore, a map which Dr. 
Taylor has prepared shows that the “rain relia- 
bility ’’ from year to year reaches a very high level 
in this tract of Western Australia, so that the lot 
of the farmer should be a happy one, at least so 
far as rainfall is concerned. The most variable and 
untrustworthy rains are found in the arid centre 
of the continent, where the annual fall amounts 
to about 6 in. only, and fluctuates widely from 
year to year. The chart of “rain reliability ” forms 
a valuable feature of the book, as in regions 
where the fall is barely sufficient for farming it 
may make all the difference whether an almost 
constant fall can be expected from year to year, or 
whether periods of exceptional rain are likely to be 
followed by spells of drought through which no 
farming can be carried on. ‘ In a previous publi- 
cation the author has made use of the “climo- 
graph,’’ or temperature-humidity curve, for 
indicating graphically the suitability of a climate 
for man. As regards suitability for plant life 
rainfall is a more: important element than 

NO. 2597. VOL. 103] 


students of Australian meteorology, as well 


humidity, and the “hythergraph ’’ is here intro- 
duced to indicate changes of temperature and 
rainfall throughout the year. 
reproduced for typical extra-Australian wheat-, 
rice-, and cotton-growing lands, and by comparison 
with Australian curves indicate the possibilities of 
the different parts of the country for these crops. 


Tea and coffee growing is also considered in the 


same way. __ . 
For a detailed discussion the country is divided 


into fifteen districts, for each of which the condi- — 


tions are considered very fully. An attempt is 
made to ascertain the type of pressure distribution 
which causes rain in the different regions, and each 
fall in the course of the lustrum 1910-14 is 
ascribed to one or other of certain pressure types. 
It may be questioned whether the cause of rain- 
fall suggested on p. 58, the chilling of an air mass 
by contact with a colder body of air, is really 
productive of appreciable rain. In most cases of 
this kind an easier explanation seems to be found 
in the convection effects which are likely to be 
set up. The work is very fully illustrated, but 
one misses a good map of Australia whereon the 
different towns and districts mentioned could be 
located without the trouble of turning up an atlas. 
It is impossible to read a work of this kind 
without regretting that meteorologists have 
devoted so little attention in the past to measure- 
ments of evaporation. There can be few districts 
of the world for which any adequate evaporation 
data are available, and yet in a country like 
Australia the loss of water by this means must 
be second only in importance to the supply by 
rainfall. 
have been involved in the preparation of such a 
comprehensive work as that under notice, and 
as 
those responsible. for the development of the 
country, have reason to be grateful to Dr. Griffith 
Taylor for the result of his labours. J. S.-D. 


GUSTAV MAGNUS RETZIUS. 


ROF. GUSTAV RETZIUS, who died at 
Stockholm on July 21, aged seventy-seven, 

did more to enrich anatomical literature 
than any other man of his time. By his death 
there comes to an end a line of anatomists that 
has made Sweden famous for a century and 
more.. Retzius’s grandfather was professor of 
natural history at Lund; his father, Anders Ret- 
zius, the intimate friend of Johannes Miiller, 
held the chair of anatomy in the Caroline Medico- 
Chirurgical Institute, Stockholm, in which he 
was in due time followed by his son Gustav, 


who devoted his life to working out, by im- | f 


proved methods, lines of research commenced by 
his father. In 1842, the year in which Gustav 


was born, Anders Retzius recognised that the ~ 


form of the human head was an important mark 
of race, and initiated the system of describing 
the shape of heads and skulls by the proportion 
which their breadth bears to their length. Like 
his father, Gustav Retzius was an anthropologist 


Hythergraphs are — 


A very large amount of trouble must 


i 


' AvcusT 7, 1919] 


NATURE 


449 


‘as well as an’ anatomist; as a young man of 
twenty-two he collected, edited, and published 
his father’s anthropological researches, and from 
1864 until his death devoted much of his time to 
unravelling the history of the inhabitants of 
Scandinavia. In 1900 he publishea a magnificent 
atlas, giving exact reproductions of ancient 
Swedish skulls; in 1902 he and his colleague, 
Prof. Karl Fiirst, brought out an exhaustive 
work on the anthropology of Sweden. ‘He pub- 
lished several papers on the Lapps and on the 
Finns. In 1909 he was invited by the Royal 
Anthropological Institute of this country to give 
the Hyxley lecture, which he devoted to “The 
) d North European Race of Mankind.’’ 
He recognised the merits of the race, but took, 
as we think, an unnecessarily gloomy view of 
its future. 
Great as were Retzius’s contributions to 
_ anthropology, his extensive researches in ana- 
tomy are even more important. His father’s 
_ first publication, in 1822, was devoted to the 
anatomy of the Myxine; the son continued that 
' work. In conjunction with his colleague, Prof. 
Axel Key, who held the chair of pathology, 
Retzius published in 1875—-76 a monograph in 
two great and splendidly illustrated volumes, 
which is still the standard work in all that relates 
to the cerebro-spinal coverings and spaces. Per- 
haps the main interest of his life was his investi- 
gations of the intricate internal ear or labyrinth 
of vertebrate animals, an account of which he 
published in 1881-84. His monographs on the 
structure of the cortex of the brain, on the end- 


_ organs of nerves, and on the brains of human 


races and of anthropoid apes, and his more 
minute researches on the morphology of .sper- 
' matozoa and of nuclear structure, will provide 
biologists for all time with a sure groundwork 
on which to base their speculations. He was 
content to gather the facts and leave to others 
the more pleasant task of interpreting their 
meaning. He had the fortune to marry a lady 
who not only was in the deepest sympathy with 
his life’s work, but also made it financially pos- 
sible for him to place his researches at the dis- 
posal of all the world in a form which has earned 
the envy as well as the gratitude of every 
anatomist. , A. Keita. 


NOTES. 
_ THE meeting of the International Research Council, 


which was — at. Brussels on July 18 in the pre-- 
e Ki 


sence of th ng of the Belgians, concluded its labours 
on July 28. Much successful work was accomplished. 
The statutes of the International Council were finally 
5 eit to, and unions embracing the whole subject 
of astronomy and the various sections of geophysics 
_ were formed. In other branches of pure and applied 
_ science proposals for the formation of international 
associations were discussed and formulated. These 
will have to be submitted to the authorities concerned 
in the different countries before they can be formally 


_ adopted. <A resolution inviting the co-operation of 


nations that had remained neutral during the war was 
adopted unanimously. Brussels was selected as the 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


the study of natural science in this country. 


legal domicile of the International Research Council. 
Its triennial meetings will be held in that city, and 
ap or legacies will be administered according to 

elgian law. But the associations dealing with 
special subjects will probably follow the established 
custom of holding their conferences. successively in 
different countries. The secretariat of the council will 
be at Burlington House, where the Royal Society has 
placed a room at the disposal of the general secretary. 


' Str ArtTHuR Boscawen, Parliamentary Secre- 
tary to the Board of Agriculture, moved the second 
reading of the Forestry Bill on August 5 in the House 
of Commons. In the discussion reference was made 
to the large expenditure of between 40,000l. and 50,000. 
which is to be spent in the setting up of the new 
staff and other outlay; the divorce of agriculture 
from forestry, with the consequent impossibility of 
dealing adequately with the small holdings policy; 
and the friction which may arise between the agri- 
cultural and forestry authorities. Sir Philip Magnus 
pointed out that the chief defect of the Bill lay in its 
silence on the necessity of having on the central 
authority a preponderance of fully qualified scientific 
experts. He warned the supporters of the Bill and . 
the Government of the grave danger of proceeding 
with this new afforestation scheme without the guid- 
ance of scientific advice, the neglect of which in the 
past had so often resulted in Government schemes 
ending in disaster. This aspect of the Bill he pro- 
posed to insist upon in the Committee stage of the 
Bill. Mr. Barnes, in replying as a Minister to the 
criticisms made, said he thoroughly agreed with Sir 
Philip ‘Magnus as to the need for scientific men among 
the Commissioners, and that the point would be sym 
pathetically considered 


A COMMITTEE has been formed, under the chairman- 
ship of Lord Rothschild, to establish a memorial to 
the late Frederick Du Cane Godman, in acknowledg- 
ment of his lifelong devotion to the interests of 
natural history and in grateful testimony of the 
many valuable benefits conferred by him in Lahigeoi ea 

ta 
meeting of the committee held at the Natural History 
Museum in April last it was resolved that». the 
memorial should take, primarily, the form of a bronze 
tablet with medallion portraits of Mr. Godman and 
of the late Mr. Osbert Salvin, Mr. Godman’s life- 
long friend and collaborator in all his scientific enter- 
prises, and that this tablet, with a suitable inscrip- 
tion, should be offered to the Trustees of the British © 
Museum, to be placed in the Natural History Museum 
at South Kensington. The committee hopes to be in 
a position to do something additional to perpetuate the 
memory of Mr. Godman by helping to establish a less 
local form of memorial. Dame Alice Godman and 
her two daughters have offered to found an explora- 
tion fund with the sum of s5oool., the proceeds of which 
are to be devoted to making collections for the ad- 
vancement of science and for the benefit of the 
Natural History Museum. ‘The committee, therefore, 
proposes that any amount received by it over and: 
above that required for the bronze tablet shall be 
added to the exploration fund. It is hoped that this 
may form a permanent basis for future donations and 
bequests for the same purpose. The committee con- 
fidently asks for funds to carry out this scheme. Con- 
tributions should be sent to Mr. .C. E. Fagan, hon. 
treasurer, Godman Memorial Fund, Natural. History 
Museum, Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7. 


THE: autumn meeting of the Institute of Metals, 
under the presidency of Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 
will be held in Sheffield on Wednesday and Thursday, 


450 


NATURE 


j AUGUST 7, 1919 : 


September 24 and 25. This is the first gathering of 


the institute since 1913, when a meeting was held in 
Ghent. Among the communications to be submitted 
to the Sheffield meeting are :—Prof. P. G. H. Boswell, 
Moulding Sands for Non-ferrous Foundry. Work; 
Prof. ‘C. H. Desch, Second Beilby Report on ‘the 
Solidification of Metals from the Liquid State; Miss 
H. E. Fry and Dr. W.. Rosenhain, Observations on 
a Typical Bearing Metal; Dr. W. H. Hatfield and 
Capt. G. L. Thirkell, Season Cracking of Brass; 
R. E. Leader, The Early History of Electro-silver 
Plating; E. A. Smith and H. Turner, The Properties 
of Standard or Sterling Silver, with Notes on its 
Manufacture; Dr. J. E. Stead, The Ternary Alloys 
of Tin-Antimony-Arsenic; Dr. F. C. Thompson, 
Graphite and Oxide Inclusions-in Nickel Silver; and 
Dr. F. C. Thompson and F. Orme, Some Notes on 
the Constitution and Metallurgy of Britannia Metal. 
It is expected that some hundreds of engineers and 
metallurgists from all parts of the world will take 
part in the proceedings, which will include visits to 
several famous works. 


Tue sevénth annual meeting-of the Indian Science 
- Congress will be held at Nagpur on January 13-18, 
1920. The Chief Commissioner, Sir Benjamin Robert- 
son, has consented. to be patron of the meeting, whilst 
Sir P. ‘C. Ray will be president. The following sec- 
tional presidents have been appointed :—Agriculture: 
D. Clouston. Physics and Mathematics: Dr. N. F. 
Moos. Chemistry: B. K. Singh. Botany: P. F. 
Fyson. Zoology: E. Vredenburg. Geology: P. 
Sampatiengar. Medical Research: Lt.-Col. J. W. 
Cornwall.. The honorary local secretaries are Messrs. 
M. Owen and V. Bose. Further particulars can be 
obtained on application to: the honorary general secre- 
tary, Dr. J. L. Simonsen, Forest Research Institute 
and College, Dehra Dun. 


- Tue Baly medal of the Royal College of Physicians, 
awarded on the recommendation of the president and 
council every alternate year to the person who shall 
be deemed ‘to have distinguished himself in the science 
of physiology, especially during the two years imme- 
diately preceding the award, has been awarded this 
year’ to Dr. Leonard Hill. The Harveian oration of 
the college will be delivered by Dr. Raymond Craw- 
furd on St. Luke’s Day, October 18; the Bradshaw 
lecture on November 6 by Dr. A. P. Beddard; and 
the FitzPatrick lectures on November 11 and 13 by 
Dr. E. G. Browne. 


A Goop account of that interesting race, the Nayars 
of Malabar, was much needed, and it has now been 
provided by a native writer, Mr. K. M. Panikkar, in 
the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 
(vol. xlviii., part2). Among the more important points 
he describes the strength of their village organisation, 
the undivided family and descent in the female line, 
and the classificatory system of relationship. Cross- 
cousin marriage is the orthodox custom, and the result 
of the influence of the Nampudiri Brahmans on their 
social system has produced those complications which 
render the study of it at once fascinating and difficult. 
In agreement with other observers, he regards the 
Talikeltu marriage as the actual and religious form, 
the girl being allowed after its performance to choose 
her own ‘suitor; she does not mourn at_ his 
death, and is not regarded as a widow; but when 
the man who actually tied the Tali or symbol of 
marriage, round her neck dies, she undergoes certain 
formalities of mourning. The existence of actual 
polyandry is still a matter of debate, but no case of 
the kind is said. to have occurred during the last 
fifty years. 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103 | 


StupeEnts of fossil botany should not overlook Dr. 


Walkom’s studi¢s on the Mesozoic floras of Queens- 


land, which are appearing as publications of the — 


Queensland Geological 


Survey 
Brisbane). vs 


Cumming, 


THE issue of separate papers from the New Z ealand ; 


Journal of Science and Technology renders a number 


of observations available in a very handy form, . 


Prospectors will be especially interested in Mr. P. G. 
Morgan’s “ Magnesite and Dolomite in Australia and 
New Zealand,”” which contains numerous analyses of 
material greatly in demand. ee 2 a 


In two detailed papers on _ripple-marks iri sedi- 


mentary rocks (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xlvii., pp. 149 
and 241, 1919), Mr. W. H. Bucher lays stresqgon the — 
production of ripples at rhythmic intervals in road- 


surfaces under moving loads, and in other cases where 
a surface is affected by friction, and regards ripp 
mark as due to ‘‘the tendency of two substances in 
moving past each other to form! a surface of contact 


which offers a minimum of resistance by substituting 


a rhythm for uniform motion.’? A usefu bibliography 
is appended, and a marked addition is made to previous 
studies of the subject. Beg. aya 


A BULLETIN by Mr, E. S. Simpson (Geol. Survey 


Western Australia, No. 77, 1919) on the sources of — 
industrial potash in Western Australia is opportune in 
its treatment of glauconite, and it is pointed out that — 


mixture of a greensand with superphosphate renders 


‘“‘much, if not all, of the potash in glauconite water- ‘ 


soluble.’’ The alunite occurring in veins of kaolinised 
rock at Kanowna is stated to be widely distributed 


over the belt of weathering, and contains some 9 per F 
In view, however, of its possible — 


cent. of potash. 


origin in other cases through eT ie ee 1 
ey Ne 


there seems no reason why it should be con: 
to weathered masses of rock. NG 


_Pror. Omori’s sixth memoir on the eruptions and 5 

earthquakes of the Asama-yama occupies the whole of — 

the last Bulletin (vol. vii., 1919, pp. 327-456) of the 
Committee. The — 


Imperial Earthquake Investigation 


reatest eruptive activity of the volcano was mani- 
ested during the years 1911-13. The year 1914, with 


which the present memoir deals, apparently forms the ; 


closing*stage of the series. Indeed, after the explosion 


of November 20, 1913, the volcano remained quiet for — 
nearly two months, resuming activity simultaneously 
with the great outburst of the Sakura-jima in — 
d In this year there — 
were twenty-nine prominent eruptions, the last of | 
which occurred on December 16, but from this day 
has been 
from earth- — 
The conclusion of. the — 
period of activity has heen marked in several ways. — 
The lava-floor of the crater has sunk almost to the © 
level which it maintained before’ the great upheaval — 
The explosions caused strong detonations, © 
but, with two exceptions, the precipitation of ashes was 


southern Japan in January, 1914. 


until March of the present year the volcano 
free from explosions, though not entirel 
quakes of volcanic origin. 


of 1912. 


extremely slight. As the explosive activity declined 


the average duration of the preliminary tremors of the 
non-eruptive earthquakes increased, showing that their — 
foci were situated-either at a greater depth below the — 
crater or at a greater radial distance. At the same ~ 
time a larger proportion of these earthquakes were — 


sensible without instrumental aid. In the sound- 


areas of four of the explosions in 1914 the silent zone 
was developed, the outer sound-area being at about — 
the usual distance from the volcano, but in two cases — 


diverging from the usual south-westerly direction to 
the south-east and east-north-east. eter 


le- | 


Te all 


e ia a 
seer veee Vereanlrt 


J chan A 


Bis FIRS 


SN Rig 


28:50 metric tons per square kilometre. 


_ AvGusT 7, 1919] 


NATURE ‘ 


452 


— 


. Tue fourth sapeee of the Advisory Committee, asso- 
ciated with the Meteorological Office, on Atmospheric 
Pollution, dealing with observations in the year 
1917-18, is published as a supplement to the Lancet 

June 14. The first report gave the results 


obtained for the year 1914-15, and appeared in the. 


_ Lancet of February 26, 1916. Uniformity of ‘system 
on) ined in publishing the results, which adds 
' much to the value of the observations. The stages of 

pollution are grouped under the first four letters of the 
, A having the smallest, and D the greatest, 

deposit per sauare kilometre; this method of 

classification greatly simplifies comparison. A list 
of the observing stations in different parts of the 


_. British Isles is given, showing in each case the posi- 


tion of the deposit gauge and the nature of the ex- 
osure. The Malvern gauge is representative of un- 
contaminated country air, whilst the gauge at New- 
_ ¢astle-upon-Tyne gives the highest degree of con- 
_ tamination. The air was much contaminated during 
as i the total solids at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
amounting to 44:28 metric tons per square kilometre, 
_ which is more than double the amount in any other 
month except August, 1917, when the amount was 
At Malvern 
the largest amount of total solids was 5:15 metric tons 
per square kilometre in May, 1917. ‘The report 
says :—‘‘ While the deposit of soluble matter is not 
strictly proportionate ito the rainfall, it is obvious that 
there is a general tendency to vary directly with the 
rainfall.” The insoluble matter and the amount 
of rainfall bear no such relation. Details are given 
relative to the experimental work carried on in the 
investigations. The report includes some notes from 
the Director of Botany in British Guiana; they repre- 
sent A ad different conditions from those holding in 
_ the United Kingdom. 


METEOROLOGICAL tables and notes are given for 
-Falmouth Observatory for the year 1918 in a report 
of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. Observa- 
tions have been continued for the past forty-eight 


j _ years, and the average values with which the records 


_. are cor are for forty-five years—a period which 
ensures a great degree of dependence. The mean 
nese eb pressure for the year was 10164 millibars 

30-016 in.), which is 1-3 mb. above the average. In 
 *Fet the Pay 2 attained a rege ae of 

_ 1047-2 mb. (30-923 in.), and there have only been four 

: pen oe mae ap previously, all of which occurred in 
January. ‘The 


minimum barometer reading during the 


year was 2 mb. (28-83 in.) in November. Sep- 
tember a Leh lowest mean temperature on record 
for that month, the mean being 559°; ‘the 


previous lowest mean was 564° in 1910. The 
rainfall and general weather fully account for the 
abnormally low temperature. The total rain measured 
for - was 211-9 mm. (8-34 in.), which is the 
‘ test for the month since 1871, and it was 5-24 in. 
ae the mean for the month, and 1-56 in. more 
than the previous highest total for September. The 
rainfall for July to December was nearly double that 
im the first half of the year. Bright sunshine was 
registered for 1752 hours, which gives a daily average 
of 48 hours. During two severe gales in January 
and November the wihd in gusts attained the velocity 
of 70 and 78 m.p.h. in the respective gales. A tabular 
statement is given of the sea temperature near the 
centre of the harbour for all months, and interesting 
and valuable comparisons are made with the corre- 
- sponding air temperatures. 


A LectuRE entitled ‘‘ How the Cotton Plant Provides 
us with Foodstuffs and other Commodities as well as 
with Clothing ” was delivered at the British Scientific 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


‘diluent for wheat flour. 


Products Exhibition by Mr. Ed. C. de Segundo on 
July 23. In the course of his remarks Mr. de Segundo 
said that, although it had been confidently asserted at a 
conference held in Atlanta (Georgia) in 1907 that the 
production of cotton in the United States would be 
increased in the measure required to keep pace with 
the home (American) and the world’s demands, 
the United States production had declined on the 
whole since that year, while the proportion of the 
crop taken by American spinning mills had risen 
from about 40 per cent. in 1907 to nearly 60 per cent. 
in 1918. Further, the world’s production had de- 
creased each year for the last four years, whereas, 
according to Prof. Todd, the world required a cumula- 
tive increase in the cotton crop of about 800,000 to 
1,000,000 bales per annum, and therefore the vital 
importance of the rapid extension of cotton cultivation 
within the Empire must be patent even to the least 
discerning mind. Mr. de Segundo also dealt with the 
industrial utilisation of the residual cotton fibres re- 
tained by cotton-seed considered as a factor in cotton 
economics, and with the remarkably rapid develop- 
ment of the cotton-seed oil and feeding-cake industry 
during the past fifty years. Attention was directed to 
the value of cotton-seed flour which is prepared from 
the decorticated cake produced under the American 
system of milling cotton-seed, and contains about 
five times as much protein and fat as wheat flour. 
It was stated that the United States Government 
had officially recommended cotton-seed flour as a 
Cotton-seed flour .was of 
a bright yellow colour, and thus the admixture of 


.even a small proportion. with wheat flour gave bread 


baked from the mixture a yellow tinge. Mr. de 
Segundo stated that if cotton-seed flour could be suc- 
cessfully bleached it might become of great economic 
value, having regard to the fact that about 80 per cent. 
of our annual consumption of wheat had to be im- 
ported. A number of small rolls made from a 
mixture of cotton-seed flour and wheat flour were 
exhibited and distributed among the. audience. At 
the close of the lecture one of Mr. de Segundo’s 
cotton-seed defibrating machines was exhibited in 
action. 


CircuLar 79 of the U.S. Bureau of Standards gives. 
an account of the methods of testing and the charac- 
teristic behaviour of the various types of dry cells in. 
use in America. It provides a summary of the in- 
formation at present available on the subject, and’ 
with a view to the ultimate standardisation of the 
manufacture of such cells it gives specifications for 
the various types, their sizes, cardboard cases, zinc 
cans, carbons, cloth bags, mixtures, seal, terminals, 
tests, voltage, and short-circuit currents. Copies of 
the circular may be obtained from the Bureau. 


Tue new monthly review L’Aéronautique, published 
by Messrs. Gauthier-Villars et Cie, of Paris, bids fair 
to become a journal of considerable interest to those 
interested in aviation. The first number (June) is divided’ 
into three sections, viz. general, technical, and his- 
torical, the last being a chronicle of current events. 
The general articles are very well written and excel- 
lently illustrated. They are intended to appeal to the 
average reader and are non-technical. The technical 
section is independently paged, apparently so that it 
may afterwards be separately bound for reference. The 
chief article in this section of the present number is 
concerned with the determination of the best condi- — 
tions for obtaining the greatest distance of flight for 
a given machine—a problem of much’ importance. 
The treatment is, however, very elementary, and some 
doubtful assumptions are made which prevent the 
attainment of a complete general solution of the 


452 


NATURE 


[AucustT 7, 1919 


problem. A short note on the equations of similarity 
as applied to aerial propellers is also unsatisfactory, 
and indicates a lack of appreciation of the true meaning 
of the principle of dynamic similarity. Thus, while the 
general articles are good, the technical section leaves 
something to be desired, and we hope that in future 
issues it will more nearly approach the standard 
of the rest of the production. The quality of paper 
and letterpress is excellent, but the price of 
3-50 francs per copy seems rather high for a publica- 
tion of this kind, however well produced. 


In a paper published recently in the Philosophical 
Transactions (vol. ccxviii., A, p. 395), Dr. A. E. H. 
Tutton gives a further instalment towards the com- 
‘pletion of that colossal task to the accomplishment of 
which he has devoted himself through so many years, 
viz. the complete crystallographic and physical in- 
vestigation of the sulphates and selenates of the series 


S 
ReM(3.0,),, 6H,0. 


In the investigation of the double ferrous selenates of 
the alkalis with which this paper deals, special diffi- 
culties were encountered owing to the unstable nature, 
first, of the solution of ferrous selenate and, secondly, 
of the crystals of potassium ferrous selenate which 
decompose and become opaque within a few hours of 
their formation. ‘The first difficulty was overcome 
by the method of preparation of the ferrous selenate 
by the action of selenic acid upon ferrous sulphide, 
and the second by preparing and investigating the 
crystals of the potassium salt in the depth of winter. 
The results of the investigation are in complete accord- 
ance with those previously obtained in the case of 
other members of the series, and show the regular 
progression of crystallographic and optical properties 
with the increase in atomic number (or weight) of 
the alkalis, and also the almost perfect isostructure 
of the ammonium and rubidium salts. 


Pror. G. H. Bryan’s ‘Tables of Bordered Anti- 
logarithms, Trigonometrical Logarithms to every lwo 
Minutes, Natural Functions on Three Pages, Tables 
of Exact Squares,’’ which occupy twenty pages of the 
May issue of the Mathematical Gazelte, present cer- 
tain novelties which will commend their use to cal- 
culators. The antilogarithms are given to five signi- 
ficant figures up to the antilogaritnm of 0-61, ‘there- 
after to four figures. This increases the accuracy in 
the lower figures, whether used directly as an anti- 
logarithmic table or inversely as a logarithmic table. 
The logarithms of the circular functions are given 
to every minute from 0° to 5° and from 85° to go°, 
and to every two minutes from 5° to 85°. 
The saving of space by reading up the page 
for angles between 45° and go°, although satis- 
factory for the practised calculator, is not regarded 
favourably by the school teacher. The table of squares 
is to five significant figures for numbers lower than 
316, and to six significant figures for higher numbers. 
The chief advantage is that the complete square is 
given for every integral number up to 999. The 
square of a number of four digits is obtained by use 
of the formula (N+x)?=N’+(2N+x)x. This is a 
disadvantage in rapid work. For true accuracy 
Barlow’s tables are all-essential; for limited accuracy 
to four figures (a very useful thing in laboratory work) 
the table in Chambers’s ‘‘ Four-figure Tables ’’ would 
probably be found more serviceable. There is not the 
least doubt, however, that Prof. Bryan has provided 
‘us with a convenient compact set of logarithmic 


tables of greater accuracy than any similar set which — 


has hitherto.been devised. For many important kinds 
of practical work it is amply sufficient. 


N92. 2597, VOL. 103] 


From an article in the Engmeer of July 18 we > 
extract the information that the Mitta Mitta Dam — 
on the Murray: River, the boundary between Victoria — 


and New South-Wales, Australia, will have a total 


length of 3601 ft., divided into three sections :—(a) An 
earthen dam of 2700 ft.; (b) a concrete spillway 740 ft. 
long, including turbine wells; and (c) outlet works, 


161 ft. long. The object of the dam is to effect the 


storage of 1,000,000 acre-ft., or 272,250 million gallons, 
of water, so as to secure a regulated flow of 240,000 
acre-ft. per month for irrigation during the dry 
season. For this purpose a height of 94 ft. from 
the bed of the river to full supply level will be re- 
quired. The earthwork, with a core of concrete, is 


on the Victorian side of the river, the site-formation 
being alluvial, overlying beds of sand and gravel, — 


below which there is a layer of decomposed granite 
of varying thickness. 
is reached at a depth of 34 ft. below surface-level, 
and the dam summit is 85 ft. above the same datum, 
the level of the crest being such as to give a margin 
of 12 ft. above full supply level. 


entirely in concrete. The cost of the scheme, includ- 
ing contingent works, with a series of locks and 
weirs from Echuca, in Victoria, to Blanchtown, in 
South Australia, is estimated at 4,500,000l1., and is 


being met by the States of Victoria, New South Wales, — 


and South Australia, and the Commonwealth. 


Tue Scientific Instrument, Glassware, and Potash ~ 


Production Branch of the Board of Trade has been 
transferred from 117 Piccadilly to 7 Seamore Place, 
W.1. 


A tone list of second-hand microscopes, spectro- — 
scopes, telescopes, and other instruments and acces- — 


sories has been issued by the firm of Mr. John 
Browning, 146 Strand, W.C.2. Copies can be obtained 
upon application. ; 


WE are asked to announce that Messrs. C. Ba 
Casella and Co., Ltd., have removed their factory 


from Walworth to Walthamstow, and opened offices — 
50 Parliament Street, | 


and showrooms at 49 and 
S.W.1, to which address all correspondence for the 
firm should be sent. ; 


The University of Chicago Press has in 
paration for appearance in the University of 
Chicago Nature-Study Series ‘“‘A Field and Labora- 
tory Guide in Physical Nature-Study” and “A 
Source Book of Physical Nature-Study.’’ A bo 
of current interest is promised by Messrs. J, M. 
Dent and Sons, Lid., for the autumn, viz.. one 
dealing with the British coal industry. It will be 
the work of Mr. G. Stone, the assistant pag jc Aa 
the Coal Commission, who is treating the subject from 
the historical point of view and that of present-day 
needs. In the latest list of Messrs. Longmans and 


” 


Co. we notice ‘** The Natural History of South Africa,” 
F. W. Fitzsimons, 4 vols., two of which are in the ~~ 
press, viz. vol. i., Mammals, including the Vervet ~ 


Monkeys, Baboons, Galagos, Fruit Bats, Insectivorous 
Bats, Lions, Leopards, Serval Cats, Black-footed 
Cats, African Wild Cats, Caracals, and Hunting 
Leopards; vol. ii, Mammals, including Civets, 
Genets, Mungooses, Meerkats, Earth Wolves, Hyenas, 
Jackals, Foxes, Wild Dogs, Otters, Honey Ratels, Mui- 
shonds, and Sea Lions; ‘‘ Mensuration for Marine and 


Mechanical Engineers (Second and First Class Board y 
of Trade Examinations),” J. W.-Angles; and a new _ 


and abridged edition of ‘Human Personality and its 
Survival of Bodily Death,” the late F. W. H. Myers, 


with a portrait and biographical sketch of the author. — 


The bedrock of grey granite — 


pre-- ; 


The spillway lies 
across the bed of the river, and will be constructed — 


Fan: 


pire 


Egypt and 'Mesopotamia in Search of Antiquities, 


| Aucust 7, 1919] — 


NATURE 


453 


The new list of announcements of Mr. John 


Murray includes’ the following :—‘ Travels. in 


I 1913,’ Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, 2  vols., 
illustrated; ‘“‘Conifers and their Characteristics,”’ 
en R s; three additions. to the Imperial 
Institute Monographs on Mineral . Resources, viz. 


“Manganese Ores,’ A. . Curtis; 
G. M. Davies, and “Tungsten Ores,’ R. H. Rastall 
and W. H. Wilcockson; ‘Industrial Problems and 

tes,’ Lord Askwith; and new editions of 


-“Hydrographical Surveying: A Description of the 


Means.and Methods Employed in Constructing Marine 


Charts,” the late Rear-Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, 


revised and brought up to date by Admiral Sir Mostyn 


_ Field; ‘‘ Microscopy: The Construction, Theory, and 


Use of the Microscepe,” E. J. Spitta; ‘‘ Principles 


and Metheds of Taxation,’? Dr. G. Armitage-Smith ; 


and “Economic Statesmanship: The Great Industrial 


¥ and Financial Problems Arising from the War,” J. 


Ellis Barker. 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
THe <AvucGust Perseips.—Some of the earlier 


members of this rich annual shower were visible on 


July 30 and August 2, and, from the numbers seen, 
it is probable that the return this year will be an 
unusually abundant one. At Bristol on August 2, 
during a watch of the heavens extending over 
22 hours, forty-one meteors were seen, of which 
eighteen belonged to the special display of Perseids. 


eir radiant point was at 38°+55°, and it was not: 


a sharply defined centre, but an area extending over 
about 7° in diameter. This marked diffusion is 
rather greater than what is usually observed, for the 
shower radiant is often rather small and definite. 


The maximum of the shower may be expected on_ 


August 11 and 12, but it is unfortunate that on these 
dates the moon will be nearly at the full, and will 
hide a considerable number of the smaller meteors. 


__ The Perseids, however, are a shower yielding a large 


rtion of brilliant meteors, so that even in strong 


_ moonlight the event is likely to present a conspicuous 


Koprr’s Prriopic Comet.—The following search 
ephemeris for comet 1906 IV., period 6-6 years, which 


Was not seen in 1913, is published by M. Ebell. 


For Greenwich Midnight. , 


‘ R.A. S. Decl. Mag. 

: ey eis 0 7 
July 20 19° 15:2 II 34:6 10°2 
August 21 19 17-9 9 38 10-7 
| September 22 19 49:2 8 307 11-5 
October 24 20 38-4 7 23:9 12°3 


An observation by Dr. Wolf on July 30 gives 
R.A. ii minutes greater than, and declination 1° 14’ N. 


of, the place shown by this ephemeris. 


Mirra Ceti.—Observations of this variable star about 
the time of its maximum in 1918, made by members 


of the Société Astronomique de France, are given in 


the Bulletin of that society for July. The dates esti- 
mated by the different observers at or between which 
the maximum may have occurred are as follows, the 
magnitude being added in brackets :—October 5 (3-3), 

tember 23 (3-0), September 2-October 11 (about 
39), September 21 (3:3), and September 25 (3-2); 
whilst another observer also records a double maxi- 
‘mum on September 10 (365) and October 5 (385). 
Noting that the observer whose estimate is October 5 
made no observation between September 11 and 26, 
it may be reasonably inferred that Mira Ceti was at 


_ maximum about September 23, 1918, when it was at 


oe Tin Ores,”’ ¢ 


least as bright as magnitude 34. According to similar | 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


observations made.in the previous year, the maximum 
occurred about October 5, 1917. The length of the 
mean period generally adopted for the variation of 
this star is 331 days, which, applied to the date 
September 23, shows that maximum should happen 
this year about August 20. M. Flammarion’s Annuaire 
names August 23 as the date. Mira has been com- 
paratively faint at recent. maxima, not having been 
brighter than third magnitude. It was practically of 
the second magnitude in 1906. 


Royat Opservatory, Epinsurcu.—Prof. Sampson’s 
report for the year ending March 31 last has again 
to record a restriction of work owing to the absence 
of the two senior assistants on important Admiralty 
service. In these circumstances the attention of the 
Astronomer Royal for Scotland appears to have been 
given largely to the time service and to the study of 
improvement in clocks. A 24-in. mirror is being made 


by Mr. George Calver to take the place of one of the 


same size on an existing telescope, the figure of which 
is considered imperfect, and with the instrument thus 
improved it is proposed to determine stellar magni- 
tudes by the photo-electric method, the process of 
which is being studied. 


PATENTS IN. RELATION TO INDUSTRY. 


AX important conference on ‘‘ Patents in Relation 
to Industry ’’ was held, under the presidency of 
Lord Moulton, in connection with the British 
Scientific Products Exhibition, organised by the 
British Science Guild at the Central Hall, West- 
minster, on July 31, when some of the main features 
of the Patents and Designs Bill now before the House 
of Commons came under review. Sir Robert Had- 
field, who opened the discussion, mentioned that those 
who had been trying to get changes introduced into 
the patent law were, at this juncture, being strongly 
supported by the Federation of British Industries and 
the British Commonwealth Union. These two im- 
portant bodies intended, he said, to press for (a) an 
extension of the present term of fcurteen years; 
{b) the introduction of the American file-wrapper 
system into this country; and (c) the appointment of 
a judge possessing special scientific knowledge as 
president of the court that had to deal with patent 
matters. Messrs. W. W. Reid. Hunter Gray, K.C., 
D. Leechman, and James Swinburne, and Sir G, 
Croydon Marks also took part in the discussion. 
The remarks of the speakers made it evident that 
there exists a widespread feeling that the patent law 
of this country is inadequate for the present needs of 


| industry, and, moreover, that it fails to afford the 
_ inventor suitable encouragement. 


Although the modi- 
fications of the law proposed in the 1919 Bill will, it 
is agreed, introduce desirable changes, a_ feeling 
appears to exist that in this Bill are repeated many 
of the weaknesses of the Bill withdrawn last year. 
Very general agreement exists on the point that 
renewal fees should be considerably reduced; such 
reduction, it was pointed out, can be effected at once 
without any fresh legislation, as the Treasury and the 
Board of Trade already possess the necessary powers 
to afford the inventor the relief required by him in 
this matter. 

Lord Moulton, in bringing the discussion to a close, 
stated that, however excellent may be the case for 
obtaining a modification of the patent law, no pro- 
gress will be made in the matter unless and until it 
is realised that the first thing essential to be done is 
for those who desire reforms to.convince the Press 
and the people of the country that it is from the point 
of view of the public interest that questions affecting 


454 


NATURE 


patents are looked at and taken up. It is apparent to 
everyone, he said, that few inventions of the present 
day are really meritorious; he, therefore, regards the 
theory of renewal fees as a very excellent means for 
getting rid of patents that are not valuable. Such 
patents only put a restraint on invention, since im- 
provements are choked so long as a master-patent 
remains in force. Lord Moulton expressed his ap- 
proval of the American file-wrapper system. He 
pointed out that a patent specification must be drawn 
up in the utmost good faith in order that the public 
may have the full advantage of it when the patent in 
due course lapses; such is not always the case at 
present, since where the real inventor is a foreign 
resident abroad complete disclosure of the invention 
rarely takes place. The 1919 Bill will, in his opinion, 
constitute a new charter for the inventor. The public 
is determined, he said, that patents should help the 
trade of the country, and not strangle it as they have 
done during the past thirty or forty years. 


THE LISTER INSTITUTE OF 
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. 


4 Ae twenty-fifth annual report of the governing 

body of the Lister Institute recently issued gives 
a useful summary of the activities of the Institute 
during 1918. 

‘Miss Muriel Robertson has continued her researches 
upon the anaerobic bacteria which infect wounds, with 
particular reference to the wvibrion septique, the 
organism of malignant oedema. The reactions of this 
organism have been worked out, a toxin has been 
prepared from it, and with the toxin an antitoxic 
serum has been prepared and the serum issued to the 
Army., 


Much work has been carried out for the War Office | 


Committee for the Study of Tetanus, presided over 
by the chairman of the peal; Sapa of the insti- 
tute, Sir David Bruce. Sir David Bruce has continued 
his analysis of tetanus cases occurring in home mili- 
tary hospitals. (During 1918 292 cases of tetanus 
occurred among 380,000 wounded men, an incidence 
of 8 cases per 10,000 wounded. During the first three 
months of the war the incidence was 74 cases per 
10,000 wounded. This drop has been chiefly due to 
the prophylactic use of anti-tetanic serum. The rate 
of mortality has similarly fallen—from 58 per cent. 
to 25 per cent. : ‘ 

Mr. Bacot, of the entomological department, has 
carried out numerous experimental tests of processes 
and methods aiming at ridding the troops of lice as 
a result of which a method for the destruction of 
lice by a moderate degree of dry heat has been 
devised and has been practically’ applied in the field 
on a large scale. Large numbers of lice have also 
been reared for use in other investigations concerned 
with the transmission of disease by these pests, par- 
ticularly typhus féver and trench fever. 

A number of researches concerned with food 
problems have also been carried out at the institute. 
Dr. Harden and Dr. Zilva, in conjunction with Dr. 
Still, have prepared a potent extract from lemon-juice 
for use in cases of infantile scurvy. 

An investigation on the effects of cold storage on 
the fat-soluble accessory factor of butter is in progress. 

An experimental investigation on scurvy, com- 
menced in the autumn of 1916 by Dr. H. Chick, has 
already yielded valuable results. Thus it has been 
found that West Indian lime-juice is much inferior to 


lemon-juice in the prevention of scurvy. Yet in the 


British Navy. and.‘mercantile marine and in Arctic 
exploration jast century lime-juice was vaunted as a 
preventive of scurvy. From an historical inquiry con- 


N}. 2597, VOL. 103] 


ducted by Mrs. Henderson Smith the important. nk 
wT fact emerges that the ‘‘lime’’-juice whit 

was employed in these circumstances was actually 
made from lemons! ; Th 


Pid, ‘ 

When during 1917 and 1918 there was a scarcity of — 
oranges and lemons, experiments were instituted in — 
order to ascertain if a cheap substitute existed con- — 
_ taining the anti-scorbutic properties of these fruits,and — 
swede-juice was ascertained to be most effective and — 


not much inferior to orange-juice. 


This brief summary surveys only a portion of the 


activities of the institute, but suffices to indicate the 
valuable work: which has been carried out. The 
overning body proposes that the institute shall in the 


[AuGusT 7, 1919 | a | 


uture be termed the Lister Institute for Medical — 


Research, and suggests that a research hospital in 


connection with the institute would add greatly to its” - 
usefulness. Steps are being taken to give effect to — 


these proposals. 


COLLOIDS AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. — 


NYONE familiar, even in the least degree, with 
the general nature of chemical industry, and 

the applications of chemical science to other sciences 
cannot but be impressed with the importance which 


colloid chemistry has attained within recent years . 
In order that the signi- 


in these two directions. ; sigi 
ficance of this branch of chemistry, hitherto very 


largely neglected, particularly in its scientific aspect, a 


may be more fully appreciated and r nised, a 
committee of the British Association was 


1917 to consider the problem, 


Last year (Nature, March 28, 1918) hg 2 
st 
The object which the 
pipe in the form of _ 


was directed to the publication of the 
report of this committee. 
committee has in view is to I 
sectional reports a summary of information respecting 
the present position of colloid cheaneey and its 
various applications to other sciences, and especially 
to chemical industry.. Each section is written by an 


authority on the subject treated. The first report 5 


ng, 
ms, 


dealt with the following technical subjects :—Tz 
dyeing, fermentation industries, rubber, starch, 


albumin, gelatin, and gluten, cements, nitrocellulose 


explosives, and celluloid. 


The committee has now issued its eh eee 3 


which appears under the aegis of the D . 

Scientific and Industrial Research. It may be ob- 
tained ‘from H.M. Stationery Office or through any 
bookseller. 
first report is adhered to im the present one. This 
consists of (1) classification according to the scientific 
colloid ‘subject, and (2) classification according to the 
industrial process and general application of colloid 
science to other sciences. Under the first head the 
subjects treated are:—(i) Peptisation and_precipita- 
tion (W. D. Bancroft); (ii) emulsions (E, H. 
(iii) the Liesegang phenomenon (E. Hatschek); and 
(iv) elecirical endosmose (T. R. Briggs). Under the 


second head are:—(i) Technical applications of elec- i 


trical endosmose (T. R. Briggs); (ii) colloid chemistry 
in the textile industries (W. Harrison); (iii) colloids 
in agriculture (E. J. Russell); (iv) sewage purifica- 
tion (E. Ardern); (v) dairy chemistry (W. Clayton); 
(vi) colloid chemistry in physiology (W. M. mares ; 
and (vii) administration of colloids in disease (A. B. 
Searle). ye 

It is only ipilat 
these sections represents a gratuitous contribution on 


the part of the compilers for the general benefit of — 


1 Second Report of the British Association Committee on Colloid 
Chemistry and its General and Industrial Applications (t918). (Published 
for the Department, of Scientific and Industrial Research by H.M. Stationery 
Office, 1919.) Price rs. 6d. net. : 


| 


Hatschek) ; 


right to point out that the compilation of | 


A 


ormed in 


The general arrangement adopted in the ~ 


Aueust 7, 1919] 


NATURE 


455 


all who may be engaged in pure or applied: science 


or in industrial operations in which colloids play a 


_ It is obvious, from the mere enumeration of the 
subject-headings, that a very valuable amount of 
material has been collected which, it is hoped, will 
serve the purpose of emphasising the fundamental 
importance a cog ppc add for operations and 
processes | , at first sight, might appear to be 
wholly distinct. gaat 

__ A number of sections remain to be dealt with, and 
it is hoped that these will be included in the third 
report which is now in preparation. 
W. C. McC. Lewis. 


on 


a 


‘THE BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL 
~s CONFERENCE. 


SPE ‘papers communicated to the British Pharma- 
*~ ceutical Conference at the annual meeting on 


| July 22-23 attained an exceptionally high standard of 


pharmaceutical and scientific importance. Summaries 
_ of a few papers are subjoined. 

___K. Samaan, in ‘‘An Experimental Study of Stro- 
phanthus, Kombé, Seeds,”’ clears up a former point of 


controversy by showing that the fat extracted from 


. properly dried seeds by petroleum ether is devoid of 


# physiological activity. Comparisons of the determina- 


tion of strophanthin, physiologically and by various 
quantitative methods, showed Barclay’s, Fromme’s 
{igto), and Lampart and Mueller’s processes all to 
give satisfactory results. For the preparation of 


z strophanthus tincture 65 per cent. of alcohol is recom- 


mended. 
_In a general account of *‘ Recent Advances in Vac- 


cine Therapy,’’ H. E. Annett points out that one of 


the greatest factors militating against success in vac- 
cine treatment is the difficulty of ensuring that suffi- 


- cient antigen is introduced into the blood-stream to’ 


overcome the effects of the infecting agents. Atten- 
tion is directed to the importance of David Thompson’s 
method (Lancet, June 28, 1919) for removing the toxins 
_ from vaccines without damaging the “antigen,” so 
_ that quantities of such vaccines, ten to one hundred 
_ times _— than were possible before, may with 
_ safety be employed. The significance of this is illus- 
_ trated by Dr. Wynn’s striking discovery that, by 
employing what previously would have been regarded 
as enormous doses of suitable vaccines, cases of acute 
were acute influenza, and acute influenzal 
_ bronchiopneumonia can successfully be treated. The 
of B. influe 


contained, for an adult, 30-50 millions 
and 50-100 millions each of Diplo- 
cus miae and Streptococcus. By prompt 
treatment on these lines an attack of influenza can 
definitely be aborted, 
_ E. Berry contributed an important paper on ‘‘A 
| Standardisation of Digitalis Preparations.’’ The dis- 
advantages of the physiological method of standardisa- 
tion by determination of the minimum lethal dose are 
that a vivisection licence is necessary, and that a large 


number of frogs are required for each sample; further, 


the M.L.D. method records toxicity only. The author 
puts forward a colorimetric process which is a 
development of that provosed by Martindale. © Alcohol, 
saponin, and digitoxin are first removed from’ the 
tincture to be tested, after which the residue is treated 
with Frohde’s reagent, and the significance of the 
colour produced read off from a colour-chart. The 
result records the equivalent M.L.D. values for the 
water-soluble glucosides only, and is termed the 
“therapeutic value ’’ of the tincture, (A). A second 
@stimation carried .cut similarly, but in presence of 
7o per cent. alcohol, and without removing digitoxin, 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103 | 


ete., gives the M.L.D. equivalent of the total glito- 
sides,{B). The ‘ toxic value ’’ is given by (B-—A), and 
the comparative toxicity by the expression B—A/A. 
Comparison of these values with those afforded by a 
standard tincture gives a trustworthy evaluation of 
the preparation. 

A. J. Jones, in ‘‘ Purified Ether and the Variations 
of Commercial Samples,’’ records the éxamination of 
nine samples prepared by different manufacturers. 
He directs attention to certain differences which exist 
between the ‘purified ether ’’ of the British Pharma- 
copeeia and “anesthetic ether,” and suggests that 
both types should receive official recognition, and a 
distinction drawn as to the special adaptations of the 
particular ether. This seems called for, as Dr. Cotton, 
of the McGill University, has recently put forward the 
view that absolutely pure ether is not anzesthetic in 
the full sense of the term; that it is narcotic, but 
not analgesic, the analgesic properties of ethers being 
due to traces of impurities—ethylene being suggested. 

In a paper dealing with the couch-grass of com- 
merce, ‘‘ Triticum repens: A Commercial Rarity,” 
Dr. James Small shows that the majority of a number 
of commercial samples examined consisted of Cynoden 
dactylon, or dog-grass, and not of the true couch- 
grass, Triticum repens. 

T. E. Wallis, in ‘‘The Use of Lycopodium in’ 
Quantitative Microscopy,’’ directs attention to the 
great value of this substance, which he shows to con- 
tain 94,000 spores per milligram, for determining the 
quantities of materials present in microscopic pre- 
parations. 

In ‘‘Terebene and its Pharmacopoeia Standards”’ 
B. F., Howard demonstrates the manufacturer’s diffi- 
culty in producing a product which complies with the 
British Pharmacopceia requirement of optical in- 
activity and specific gravity, owing to the great 
alteration in recent years in the character of American 
turpentine. He suggests that main reliance should be 
placed in a distillation standard. 

Miss L. K. Pearson describes ‘“‘A Comparative 
Study of the Pungency of Synthetic Aromatic Ketones 
related to Zingerone.’? The substances considered are 
of the type 


C.H,;CH=CH.COOR and C,H,.CH,-CH,.COOR, 


where one or more hydrogens of the benzene nucleus 
are substituted by hydroxyl or methoxyl groups, and 
where R represents a methyl, ethyl, or phenyl radicle. 
The following are among the generalisations made :— 
(a) The saturated ketones are less pungent than the 
corresponding unsaturated ones; (b) an increase in 
weight of the side chain materially increases the pun- 
gency of the compound; (c) the replacement of the 
hydrogen of the phenolic hydroxyl group by an acyl 
radicle has very little effect; and (d) the replacement of — 
the metahydrogen of the benzene nucleus in p-hydroxy- 
phenyl ethyl] ketone by a methoxy-group brings about 
a decided increase in pungency, as does also the re- 
placement by methyl of the hydroxylic hydrogen in 
the metahydroxy-group of 3: 4-dihydroxystyrvl methyl 
ketone. The most pungent of all substances examined 
was o-hydroxystyryl methyl ketone. 

In “Notes on the Examination of Eosins and 

Erythrosins,” T. T. Cocking, J. D. Kettle, and E. J. 
Chappel give a method of estimation, and show the 
inferiority of the best pre-war German samples to 
those now being produced in England. 
- §. B. Tallantyre directed attention to the general 
applicability of the formaldehyde process for estimating 
bismuth, by which the preparation, after a preliminary 
decomposition with hvdrochloric acid, is reduced by 
formaldehyde and sodium hydroxide to metallic bis- 
muth. . 


456 


NATURE 


[AucustT 7, 1919 


C. K. Hampshire and C, E. G. Hawker, in “A 
Note on Vitamines: A Suet Emulsion for Infant- 
feeding,’’ describe the preparation of a substitute for 
cream, which proved to be palatable and well-tolerated 
by infants. 

Other papers contributed were ‘‘A Note on Japanese 
Chiretta,’? by V. ‘Cofman; ‘Note on. Tinctures of 
Iodine,’? by’ F. ‘Burrows and H. Droop Richmond; 
and ‘‘ The Examination of Valerianates;’’ by H. Droop 
Richmond and W. T. T. Ainsworth. 


A MODEL OF. THE VOLCANO KILAUEA, 
' HAWAII. 


ODELS of land-forms are not new, but the 
art of reproducing the features in a naturalistic 
way without: exaggeration of the vertical scale has 
not been attempted until recent years. A. Heim, of 
Zurich, was a pioneer in this work about twenty years 
ago. Mr. George C. Curtis was a student of Heim. 
Before attempting the difficult task of making a 
naturalistic reproduction of Kilauea, Mr. Curtis had 
made many models of note. Among the most im- 
portant of these are the models of the cities of Boston 
and Washington, and the models of. Bora Bora and 
Funafuti, coral atolls of the Pacific. 


views had been available when the modelling was 
started, the work would have taken only a year and 


‘a half instead of forty months, as was actually the 


case. In the future the naturalistic modelling of land- 
forms will depend largely on kite or aeroplane views 
for its accurate and speedy accomplishment. 


The model of Kilauea is circular in form, 14 ft. in 


diameter, and has an area of modelling representing 
about 13 sq. miles. The scale ‘is 1: 1500, or 
1 in.=125 ft. The sizes of the men on the edge of 
the Halemaumau crater, the buildings, treés, and auto. 
mobiles on the roads, give a good’idea of the scale. 
This model, like the other naturalistic models of Mr. 
Curtis, has no exaggeration of the vertical scale. For 
the first time in model-making a cycloramic back- 
ground has been used. It gives the feeling of vast- 
ness ‘that we should naturally have if looking from a 
balloon on the country below. As the observer -looks 
downward on this model he is virtually half a mile 
high in the,air. Those who are familiar with Kilauea 
assert that the reproduction is as faithful to the actual 
ground as it is possible to make it. Although it has 


_ been impossible to represent every tree on the ground, 


many thousands of trees have been made by hand 
and each one placed.in the plaster: The details of 
the lavas are remarkably true to nature. 


Fic. 1.—General View of the Model. The observer looks northward across the great lava sink. In the middle foreground 
are the extinct pit crater of Keanakakoi and the border of the Kau desert; to the.right a small extinct.pit crater, In ‘ % 


the left middle distance is the active crater of Halemaumau (House of Eternal Fire). 


some down-faulted blocks may be seen, 


On the right of the main sink 


The Volcano House with its group of buildings is situated behind these. 


Note the dense furest on'the left. -On the right is the extinct crater of Kilauea Iki separated fromthe main sink by the 


down-faulted block of Byron’s Ledge. 
* Kilauea and twenty-five miles away. 


In February, 1913,-the present writer engaged Mr. 
Curtis to make a model of: the volcano Kilauea, on 
the Island of Hawaii, for the Geological Museum at 
Harvard University. Mr. Curtis went to Hawaii in 
March, and spent three- months at . the . volcano, 
making a supplementary survey and taking panoramic 
photographs and colour sketches of the ground... The 


staff of the Kilauea Observatory, Prof. T. A. Jaggar 


and Mr. H. O. Wood, aided Mr. Curtis in every way 
possible. After the actual work of modelling had 
been started at: Boston, Mr. Curtis found it almost 
impossible to reproduce the frozen lavas.of the great 
sink of the volcano with the photographs -that, he 
had. Mr. J. Fred Haworth, a merchant of  Pitts- 
burgh, had become a master in kite-photography. He 
was glad of. the opportunity to go to Kilauea- and 
take kite views of the voleano, and.this-he finally did 
at his own expense. Without these views from the 


air it is very doubtful whether Mr. Curtis could have , 


perfected the work undertaken. With these kite 


views, however, the modelling of the frozen lavas | 


In waiting for the kite 


became much. simplified. 
If these 


views the work on the model was delayed. 
NO, 2597, VOL. 103] 


On the left and on the cycloramic background rises Mauna Loa, 10,000 ft, above 


In addition to the many features of interest to the 
vulcanologist and the student of structural 
dynamical. geology, the model shows very well the 
effects of climatic control on the vegetation, due to 
trade winds and altitude. To the east-and north-east 
of the Volcano House. the forest is of a tropical nature 
in its luxuriance. To the west and south-west the 
vegetation. disappears rapidly, so that on the western 
part of the model. there appears nothing but a desert 
of volcanic ash. Three types of climate, are shown: 


the top .of Mauna Kea is frequently. snow-covered; — 
near the north and east coast and as far as the Vol-. 


cano House is a_ tropical forest. where the rainfall 
reaches the large amount of 300 in. a year; and west 
of the Voleano House is a desert where the rainfall 
may not- reach 1§ in. a year. 4 

A model of: this kind is expensive, and such models 
will never be cheap. With the use of kite or aero- 
plane photographs, however, the cost should be cut 
down by half. 
question: Is the work worth while? Those who are 
aualified to answer this question have answered in 
the affirmative. The advantages of a good naturalistic 


ee ee ee ee we 


and — 


a 


-— ct. So 


eC 


a a ee ee a aH 


ot ee 


14 ae 


a 


Museum staffs will ask the important 


Aucust 7, 1919] NATURE 457 


ee are many. (1) Such a.model of a volcano or | of men is a scientific record of that locality, of great 
of any land-form which changes during a generation | value to students of the present and future. (2) Such 


Fic. 2.—In this figure the extinct pit crater of Kilauea Ikiisseen. At the bottom is a sheet of frozen lava which shows black 
in the figure. The level of this lava is several hundreds of feet below the lava of the great pit. ‘There has been a flow 
of lava from a point midway between the great pit and Kilauea Iki within historic times which flowed into Kilauea 
Iki. The sides of Kilauea Iki are very steep, but partlycovered with vegetation. The road may be seen winding about 
the rim of the crater. With a reading-glass several automobiles may be seen, which give an idea of the scale of 


the model. 


the molten lake with its fiery 
The observation hut maintained 
Sometimes the molten lava rises 


nearly to the top of the pit, and again it will sink away so as to make the crater about a thousand feet deep. The 
dark grey lava field reaches to the base of the encircling caldera walls, in which the old bedded structures of ancient 
lava-flows, ash heds, and a laccolith may be observed: ‘'aluses are seen in several localities at the base-of the ,escarp- 
In the left foreground is the summit point Uwekahuna, under which lies a stairway of great. down- faulted 


Fic. 3.—Photograph of the Kilauea model looking north-east across the pit of Halemaumau, 
tountains being just visible. ‘he liquid lava is 350 ft. below the rim of the crater, 
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-is on the left just back from the rim. 


. ment. 
blocks. Note the Volcano House group of buildings in the right distance, to the left of which are the brilliantly coloure 
Sulphur Bank and, behind, the dark forested slopes of the Kilauea cone e 


NO, 2597, VOL. 103] ; 


458 


NATURE 


|AucusT 7, 1919 


models are of great value in research work. Several 
discoveries. have been made by means of this Kilauea 
model. The volcanic bomb craters were practically 
unknown before the model was made. <A young 
drainage system in the ash desert was also unknown 
previously. Prof. R. A. Daly has discovered that the 
land about Kilauea Iki slopes away from the crater 
in all directions, thus making of the Kilauea Iki area 
a dome similar. to the area about Halemaumau. 
(3) The bird’s-eye view of an area which can be studied 
at leisure reveals many relations between various 
features of the country which could not be well seen 
and studied in any other way. On account of the 
atmospheric conditions, no balloon or aeroplane ob- 
servation or photograph could give at once such an 
ideal view as one obtains from the model. (4) The 
model can be used to teach students facts in geology, 


geography, and meteorology. The important things 


which a locality has to offer can be taught at home. 
(5) Such naturalistic models may be used in the 
teaching of landscape sketching and painting, and 
even in the teaching of map-making.. 

Although such models are worth while, the men 
who can make them are not easy to find. This 
is the real difficulty at present. “Let us hope, how- 
ever, that the revolution which kite or aeroplane 
views have made in this new art will encourage more 
men to undertake it. On account of the difficulty of 
obtaining orders for expensive models, Mr. Curtis has 
given up the work, and at present is farming at 
Willits, California. In order that the methods and 
technique which Heim and Curtis have gained after 
years of patient labour and study may not be lost, 
they should bé described and published for the benefit 
of those who will contiue from the point where these 
masters left off. RoBert W. SAYLES. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 


Dr. S. Cuapman has been appointed to the second 
chair of mathematics recently instituted in the Uni- 
versity of Manchester. 


Dr. SAMUEL SMILEs has been appointed to the newly 
created chair of organic chemistry at Armstrong Col- 
lege, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. : 


Mr. J. W. THomas has been appointed lecturer in 
the electrical engineering department of the Birming- 
ham Municipal Technical School. 


Mr. E. Rawson, recently head of the Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne Training Centre, has been appointed head 
of the mechanical and civil engineering department of 
the Portsmouth Municipal College. 


Tue following appointments have been made at the 
London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for 
Women :—Mary Lucas Keene, lecturer in anatomy, 
and head of the anatomy department; John W. Ebden, 
Lawrence Abel, Mary Hounsfield, Mary Joll, demon- 
strators of anatomy; Bernard H. Spilsbury, lecturer 
in forensic medicine and toxicology; Eleanor Scar- 
borough, demonstrator in pharmacology; M. Ross- 
Johnson and D. Woodman, demonstrators of physio- 
logy. 


AN announcement has been received from the Tech- 
nical Optics Department of the Imperial College of 
Science, South Kensington, that, subject to a suffi- 
cient response, Prof. Conrady will give a vacation 


course of sixteen ‘lectures on ‘‘ Optical Designing and 


Computing,”’? For the convenience of students. living 
NO, 2597, VOL. 103] 


at a distance two lectures will be given on each Tues- 4 
day and Thursday from August 26 to September 18° 
p-m. The syllabus includes | 


at If a.m. and 2.30 
methods of exact ray-tracing for axial and oblique 
pencils and approximate methods of treating aberra- 


tion problems, together with the application of these — 


methods to a number of typical optical instruments. 
Full lecture notes will be supplied to students a few 
days in advance of the lectures, leaving the greater 
part of the time free for a fuller discussion of the 
more practical aspect of the problems than would 
otherwise be possible. The fee for thé complete 
course, including an optional computing ‘course fol- 


lowing the morning lectures, is 2l., payable to the © 


Registrar of the Imperial College. In case of 
students who have taken certain previous courses the 
fee is reduced by one-half. 
that names should be entered well in advance. 


Tue Times correspondent at Cape Town, in a mes- | 


sage dated July 31, states that the Devek t Com- 
mittee of the University ‘of Cape Town is issuing a 
scheme of development which involves an | 
of 525,000l., of which 200,000l. is for buildings at 
Groote Schuur, 100,000l. for scholarships, 25,0001. for 
a library, and 200,000l. for general endowments. We 


It is particularly desired 


iditure 


learn from the same source that the Prince of Wales, 


as Chancellor of the University, has sent the following _ 


letter to the Vice-Chancellor :—‘‘I wish, as Chancellor 


of the University of Cape Town, to assure you of my : 


cordial support in the movement to improve the 


financial position of the University. The coming — 


generation is called on to restore and ‘rebuild the © 
Failure in that task would imply that the | 
sacrifice of those who fell in the war had been fruit- 
Success: § 
depends on energy, goodwill, and, above all, on the | 


world. 
less, and failure cannot ‘be contemplated. 


spread of knowledge and of right thinking. The 


universities of the world can exercise a most potent 
influence on this great work of reconstruction, and it 
is because I feel convinced that a sacred duty to help 
in this work rests upon our University that I appeal 
confidently to its friends in South Africa and elsewhere 
to equip it, of their generosity, with the means — 


worthily to do its part.”’ 


THE province of the engineer has in modern times 
become so amplified that the great majority of young 
men educated for that profession are, from the earliest 
days of their active professional career, now brought _ 
into immediate contact: with the business side of ~ 
For this reason a widening of — 
the basis. of the education provided at our universities 
for engineering students has been strongly advocated 
To. meet the needs of this situation — 
it has been decided by the Senate of the University — 
of Bristol to introduce commercial courses in the ~ 
faculty of engineering. Syllabuses of these courses, — 
which are now to be compulsory, have been prepared, — 
The scheme out- © 
lined in the syllabuses comprises instruction in four — 


engineering practice. 


in recent times. 


and are available for distribution. 


groups of subjects, namely :—(a) Book-keeping and 


accountancy, (b) works administration and organisa- — 
tion, (c) commercial law, and (d) estimating and speci- — 
be provided — 


fication writing. Two courses are to 
in each of the subjects (a) and (c), whilst subjects (b) 
and (d) are to be included in both the first- and second- 


year courses for engineering students. The main aim — 
to be kept in view in courses of this kind should — 
be to bring home clearly to engineering students the 


real importance of the business aspects of their pro- 
fession, and at the same time to stimulate their 
interest in this side of engineering work. The sylla- 


‘buses of the commercial courses to be introduced into 


aii TTS ERIN TEE Loy 


. 


~P i es if Aap e ne 


Lal hag 


es te 


_ to the fullest extent. 
_ the nation would be transformed within a generation. 


are essential. 


accuracy and use of this type 


AvcustT 7, 1919] 


NATURE 


459 


the engineering curriculum at the University of Bristol 


_ Sover eminently suitable ground, and appear to be well 


desi successfully to achieve the purposes men- 
tioned above. 
On Thursday, July 31, the King received at 
; i alace three deputations from public 
bodies, viz. the London County Council, the Body of 
English Presbyterian Ministers in London and the 
neighbourhood, and the General Body of Protestant 
Dissenting Ministers, who each presented an address 
of congratulation on the signing of peace after the 
four years’ struggle in which the nations of 
the world have been engaged, expressing the hope 
that we may now embark upon measures having 


for their object the continuous improvement of. social 


conditions and the raising of higher ideals of life. In 
hhis replies to the several addresses the King expressed 
his strong conviction that nothing is more essential to 


‘national prosperity and happiness than education, and 


that the potentialities, physical, mental, and spiritual, of 
se Diep arsain of the community should be developed 
If this were done, the life of 


His gg alluded in terms of keen sympathy to the 
necessity for the care of the- weak and _ helpless, 


for the protection of our infant life, and for the 


ship and training of the physically and 
mentally defective. New powers are being bestowed 
‘upon the public authorities, and the responsibility for 
their effective use rests with them. It is essential to 
raise the ideals of life throughout all classes. This 
implies due nurture and care of infant life, so that 
when the child comes of school-age it shall enter upon 
its formal education healthy in mind and body. To 


achieve this, better housing and more ample surround- 


ings for light and air and healthy outdoor enjoyment 
If these conditions are established there 
will no longer be, as Sir George Newman recently 
reported, a million children out of six millions on the 
rolls of the elementary schools totally unfit, by reason 
of physical or mental defects, to make effective use 
of their educational opportunities. ‘The King’s sym- 
pathy and encouragement, so earnestly expressed to 
th tions, ought to stimulate the zeal and the 


efforts of the local authorities to provide the facilities 


So necessary to the national well-being. 


A tae 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 


_ Faraday Society, July 14.—Prof. A. W. Porter, vice- 


president, in the chair—L. A. Wild: A method of 


_ measuring the magnetic hardness of ferrous metals 


and its utility for carrying out research work on 
thermal treatment. The coercive force forms a very 
convenient criterion for judging the physical condition 


of steel, as a small change in the heat-treatment con- 


ditions or composition of the steel results in the pro- 
duction of a much larger erasige in the coercive force. 
The method has been used for the investigation of 
many problems relating to the properties of steel_— 
F. H. Jeffery : The electrolysis of solutions of sodium 
nitrate, using a silver anode.—W. E. Forsythe: The 
disappearing-filament type of optical pyrometer. The 
paper discusses fully the principles that determine the 
of pyrometer. The 
instrument is practically a telescope with a lamp fila- 
ment at the focus of the objective, in series with a 
battery resistance and ammeter. The instrument is 
lighted in the hot body in such a manner that the 


_ image of the filament crosses that of the body. The 


current is then adjusted until the filament is‘just as 
bright as the body sighted. A red glass in the eye- 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


piece eliminates difficulties due to colour differences.— 
E. A. Ashcroft: Some chemically reactive alloys. 

alloy of 15 per cent. of pure magnesium with 85 per 
cent. of pure lead has the remarkable property that 
upon exposure to moist air oxidation of both the 
magnesium and the lead proceeds so rapidly that a 
amp of alloy so exposed swells up and falls to a 
black powder in a single night, or in some instances 
even in an hour or two. The experiment suggests a 
ready means of producing nitrogen or nitrogen and 
hydrogen mixtures from these alloys, or of removing 
remainders of oxygen from various mixtures in the 
cold.—Prof. H. Honda and H. Takagi: A theory of 
invar.—Prof. A. W. Porter: The equation for the 
chemical equilibrium of homogeneous mixtures. 
Part i.: Equilibrium at constant temperature. The 
general equation for chemical equilibrium is obtained 
in a way which is so much less abstract than the 
method depending upon the thermodynamic potential 
that no dubiety need exist of the meaning of the 


‘result and the conditions under which any particular 


form of it applies: The result is expressed in terms 
of the pressures of the constituents when isolated and 
in osmotic equilibrium with the mixture through 
membranes each permeable to one alone of the con- 
stituents.—Irving Langmuir: The mechanism of the 
surface phenomena of flotation. The paper directs 
attention to a theory of adsorption and surface tension 
which greatly aids in understanding the phenomena 
of flotation, The necessity for further researches is 


urged: 


Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, July 15.—M. Léon Guignard in 
the chair.—G. Bigourdan: The pupils and temporary 
observers of the Observatoire de la Marine.—E. 
Kogbetliantz : The summation of ultra-spherical series. 
—J. Guillaume; Observations of the sum made at the 


Lyons Observatory during the first quarter of 1919. 


Observations were possible on seventy-two days, and 
the results are given in tables showing the number 
of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the dis- 
tribution of the facule in latitude —A. Muguet: A 
fluorometer. This instrument is based on the use of 
a number, of superposed absorbent screens, and com- 
parisons are made with a luminescent standard con- 
taining 1 mg. of elementary radium per square centi- 
metre of surface, acting upon a barium _platino- 
cyanide screen.—H. Abraham, E. Bloch, and L. Bloch: 
Sensitive apparatus for the measurement of alternating 
currents.—F. Taboury and M. Godchot: A new method 
for the preparation of bicyclic ketones. Calcium 
hydride is used as the condensing agent, and it is 
noteworthy that the ketones ‘resulting from the re- 
action are unsaturated, as the hydrogen from the 
calcium hydride is not taken up.—MM. Vavon and 
Faillebin: The hydrogenation of piperonal ketone and 
dipiperonal ketone.—E. Léger: Contribution to the 
study of cinchonidine—G. Chavanne and L. J. Simon: 
The use of the critical solution temperature 
(‘T.C.D.”) in aniline for the rapid analysis of petrol. 
The method proposed gives the percentages of 
aromatic and naphthenic hydrocarbons.—A. Duffour : 
The hexahydrated potassium magnesium double 
chromate.—C. Dauzére: The formation of basaltic 
columns.—L, Dunoyer and G. Reboul: The prediction 
of barometric variations. A reply to M. Gabriel 
Guilbert.—Ch. Maurain: The velocity of the wind in 
the upper atmosphere in bright weather.—J. Rouch;: 
The ascensional velocity of pilot balloons. From 
168 measurements of velocity of pilot balloons it is 
concluded that the velocity of ascent is practically 
constant, and this holds for heights up to 10,000 
metres For balloons weighing between 50 and 


460 


NATURE 


[AuGcusT 7, 1919 


gi grams the velocity can be expressed by the formula 
i 42F h Vj loci ‘: t 

Fer, where is velocity in metres per 
minute, P is ‘the weight of the balloon, and F the 
initial ‘ascensional force.—R. Régnier: The bacterial 
nodule of the poplar (Micrococcus populi). Observa- 
tions on the development of the disease on the tree, 
and suggested means of preventing its spread.—P. 
Carnot and P. Gérard: Mechanism of the toxic action 
of urease. The injection of urease into the blood 
causes death by ammonia poisoning; the urea in the 
blood completely disappears and is replaced by am- 
monia.—R. Fosse: The formation of cyanic acid by 
the oxidation of organic substances. Its identification 
based on quantitative analysis.. Aqueous solutions of 
glucose, glycerin, or glycocoll, oxidised by potassium 
permanganate in presence of ammonia, give cyanic 
acid as one of tthe oxidation products. This was 
identified by precipitating as the silver salt. The 
silver in this salt was determined by addition of am- 
monium chloride, and the urea formed from the 
ammonium ‘cyanate separately estimated.—P, Woog : 


The variable persistence of luminous impressions on » 


the various regions of the retina. Reply to an objec- 
tion.—P. Girard; Relation between the electrical state 
of the cell-wall and its permeability to a given ion.— 
R. de la Vaulx: Intersexuality in Daphne atkinsoni.— 

J. Pellegrin: The ,Eleotris of the fresh-waters of 


Madagascar.—M. Lienhart : The possibility of chicken-. 


breeders obtaining at pleasure male or female 
chickens. For a given strain of bird, the heavier 
eggs produce a higher proportion of males. —J. 
Danysz: The life of a micro-organism, individual and 
species.—P. Delbet: Researches on the toxicity of 


crushed muscles from the point of view of the patho-. 


geny of shock. 


Care Town. 


Royal Society of South Africa, May 21.—Dr. J. D. F. 
Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—B. de St. J. v. d. 
Riet : Note on coloration produced in clay by injured 
roots of Pinus pinea. Instances were described in 
which vapours from injured roots of the stone pine 
produced, in warm sunshine, blue, green, and occa- 
sionally purple stains on soil and subsoil on occasions 
when excavations were made close to the tree. The 
author ascribed the phenomenon to (1) oxidation of 
volatile matter given. off by roots. of Pinus pinea; 
(2) the resulting oxidation products, or product, under 
favourable conditions reacting with iron salts in the 
clay (the well-known reaction between many phenolic 
carbon compounds and ferric’salts); and (3) the pro- 
duction of a kind of lake with aluminium compounds 
in the clay.—Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist : Note on the shells of 
Schizoderma spehgrt Shells of the bivalve Schizo- 
derma are found in. abundance on the Muizenberg 
sands, and present the peculiarity that they are either 
whole or broken up into small fragments. This seems 
to be due to the fact that, when the living animal is 
cast up on the beach, it is seized by the gull (Larus 
dominicanus) and dropped from a height of 20-30 ft. 
on the wet sand. .'This has the effect of causing both 
shells to open without injury, or one shell only is 
broken, rarely both.. It was shown by experiment 
that. this. depends. on how the shells fall.—Dr. 
Dru-Drury: An extreme case of microcephaly. The 
author describes the. skull of a Basuto woman aged 
thirty-two which is preserved in the Port Alfred 
Mental Hospital. The tvpe of skull is long-headed 
and. narrow, with ape-like protrusion of the jaws 
(thick- lipped. in life). The nose was of medium 
breadth and the orbits were unusually high. The 
cranial capacity is 340 ¢.c., which is much smaller 
than an average case of microcephaly. 


NO. 2597, VOL. 103] 


BOOKS RECEIVED. -° ©: 1. 


The British -Freshwater Rhizopoda and Heliozoa. 


By J. Cash and G. H. Wailes, assisted by J. Hopkin- — 


son. Vol. iv. 
G. H. Wailes. 
Pp. xii+130+plates lviii.-lxiii. 
Society, 1919. 

Camping Out for All. 
All who Love the Out-of-Doors. By Gibson. 
Pp. x+81. (London: Gale and Polden, . Ltd., 1919.) 
2s. net. 

Training for Young England. ‘By F. G. Cooke. 
Pp. xiv+98. (London: Gale and Poiden, Ltd., 1919.) 


2s. net. 

The Boys’ Own Book of Great Inventions. By 
Floyd L. Darrow. Pp. ix+385-°° (New York: The 
Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., ‘Ltd., 
1918.) 12s. 6d. net. 

Education for the Needs of Life: 
By Dr. I. E. Miller. 
The Macmillan Co.; 


Supplement to the Rhizopoda. By 


(London: The Ray 


the Principles of Education. 
Pp. viit+353. (New York: 


London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1 79.) 7s. net. 

_ The Sugar-Beet in America. By Pro S. Harris. 
(The Rural Science Series.) Pp. xviiit+342+xxxii- 
plates. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London =: 


Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 
British Science Guild: 


1919.) 2.25 dollars. 


Exhibition, Central Hall, Westminster, July 3 to — 
August 5, 1919. Descriptive Catalogue. Edited by — 
Sir Richard Gregory. Pp. xxiiit+358. (London: — 
British Science Guild, 1919.) 2s. 6d. » 
CONTENTS. PAGE 
‘The rorestry bil. 0. 4 ae 5 ee ae 44r 
Hydrogen in Warand Industry. ... ....-. ‘442 
Organic Readjustments. .. ....1.-+.++:-, 


Our Bookshelf 
Letters to the Editor :— 
Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larve. —Rawacd 


R, Speyer . 6 2a o> eee Nai 
Luminous Worms.—Rev. Hilderic Friend . . 440 
Protective Coloration-of Birds and Eggs. ~ Geo. i 

Grace an ane 446 
Teeth of Sea-Otter. __M. D. Hill : - 446 Sm 
The Late Sir Edward Stirling. —L. M. Harwood . 446 — 

Labour and the Hiehid Values. By Prof, F. ss , 
FIRS) 2 eo EG 447 
Australian Rainfall. " By 5 'S. D. 447 
Gustav Magnus Retzius. By Prof, A. Keith, ¥. R. .S. 448 
Notes .c05) wise Sek eS OE ee 449 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
The August Perseids ©... 21 + e+ + ps uw 453 
’ Kopff’s Periodic Comet . . . . . 1 ese ee - 453 
Mira Ceti. Mme fy 
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh MMR ger ees 453 
Patents in Relation to Industry. ...... ie eo YASS 
The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. - + 454 
Colloids and Chemical Industry. By Feet, Ww. C. ; 
McC. Lewis 454 


The British Pharmaceutical Conferentesa 455 


A Model of the Volcano Kilauea, Hawaii. (lus. 
trated.) By Robert: W. Sayles . A BY 
University and piucatinnal Intelligence. .. . 458 
Societies and Academies ..... ae ole ‘9 
460 


Books Recetas 


Editorial a and Publishing Offices : pesto 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., t 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and hadiness letters to be addresses .. the 
_ Publishers. 


ty Editorial Communications to the Editor. 
Telegraphic Address: Puusts, Lonpon. 
Telephone Number: GzRRarpd 8820. 


Bibliography by John Hopkinson. 


A Complete Handbook for 


A Text-book in 


British Scientific Products 


ey a a es 


NATURE 401 


pe © THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1910. 


1 te ; 
wd 


| ae _ PHOTOGRAPHY. 
_ Photography: Its Principles and Applications. By 
_ Alfred Watkins. Second edition revised. 
_ Pp. xvi+333. (London: Constable and Co., 
_. Ltd., 1918.) Price 10s. 6d. net. 


Ss ac Watkins exposure meter is known 
1S wherever photography is practised, and the 
many other instruments that Mr. Watkins has 
_ introduced to render photography less haphazard 
_ than it so often is enjoy a wide appreciation. The 
_ author therefore comes to the task of writing a 
_ general treatise with what we may perhaps call 
i @ praiseworthy prejudice. Of this he is doubtless 
_ aware, for he says in his preface: “The greater 
attention given to my own methods in exposure 
_and development will, 1 am sure, be forgiven.”’ 
_ The author makes these methods clear and illus- 
| trates them well, and proves the error of certain 
| Aotions that have been put forward from time to 
_ time, as, for example, that one should regulate 
_ the exposure of the plate according to the light 
_ that comes from the object rather than that which 
falls upon it. 
_ As a practical guide for the ordinary photo- 
graphy of the amateur and the professional por- 
trait photographer, the volume deserves com- 
\ mendation, although some important subjects are 
_ treated of with an unsatisfying conciseness. But 
_when the author gets to matters of which he has 
“presumably not made a special study, his state- 
_ ments are not so trustworthy. The confusion of 
_ “focus *’ and “focal length ’’ has had such distin- 
_Zuished and prolonged patronage that perhaps we 
ought to pass it by; still, it is confusion, and it is 
-avoidable. Mr. Warnerke is referred to as 
_“Warneke,’’ and Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, who 
-4dlied five years ago, as “Mr. J. W. Swan (now 
Sir John Swan).”” With regard to Woodbury- 
type, we are told that “a lead mould is made of 
_acarbon print swollen in water so that the exposed 
_ parts are raised,’’ and that “in the Woodbury- 
type process the mould was taken by placing a 
polished sheet of lead on the wet carbon print 
and bringing both under heavy pressure in a 
_ hydraulic press.’’ The gelatine relief was, of 
course, well dried before being caused to impress 
the lead. We have said enough to indicate that 
-some parts of the book are much in need of re- 
vision. 
_ The scope of the volume, as indicated by the 
‘table of contents, is very wide. We find stereo- 
scopic work, panoramic photographs, enamels, 
‘ferrotypes, night photography, animated photo- 
graphy, “bioscope in colour,’’ photo-telegraphy, 
_ photo-surveying by balloons, kites, and aeroplanes, 
_telephotography, photomicrography, X-ray photo- 
graphy, astronomical photography, “ spectro- 
_ photography,’’ photo-mechanical processes, colour 
photography, etc., and each has at least an indica- 
tion of its most obvious characteristics. 
As the results of every method of sensitometry 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


depend upon circumstances, and there can never be 
a standard method in a scientific sense, but only 
by agreement for the sake of convenience, all 
methods are of value, and we axe glad to see that 
Mr. Watkins has again brought forward his 
“central speed ’’ method. Ci J 


A RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 


British Science Guild: British Scientific Pro- 
ducts Exhibition, Central Hall, Westminster, 
July 3 to August 5, 1919. Descriptive 
Catalogue. Edited by Sir Richard Gregory. 
Pp.  xxili+358. (London: British Science 
Guild, 1919.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 


ERELY to enumerate the contents of this 

interesting volume would occupy more space 

than could be reasonably allotted to an ordinary 

review. But this catalogue is something more 

than a list of exhibits, even admitting that there is 

much instruction to be derived from the descrip- 
tions associated with the objects shown. 

The catalogue contains, first, an introduction 
by Sir Richard Gregory, chairman of the organis- 
ing committee, and, if read attentively, as it ought 
to be, especially by employers and manufacturers, 
cannot fail to have a stimulating effect. The list 
of exhibits shows that in many directions this 
country has regained control of important raw 
materials, and by the application of scientific 
knowledge and technical experience has achieved 
results of which, as Sir Richard says, ‘‘ the nation 
has every reason to be proud. Now is the time to 
see that the strong position thus gained is not 
lost, and to unite the interests of the people of 
these islands with those of British lands beyond 
the seas.’’ 

The volume before us sets out the sources from 
which new experimental results have proceeded 
during the war, and in the first place shows the 
extent of the debt incurred to the scientific 
authorities of the universities and _ technical 
colleges throughout the kingdom. In despatches 
at the end of 1916 warm acknowledgment of the 
help thus given is expressed by Sir Douglas Haig, 
and in 1919, again, by General Sir Henry Wil-_ 
son, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. But in 
the past manufacturers have been slow to make 
use of the results secured by research in the 
scientific laboratory, and it is, therefore, all the 
more satisfactory to find that during the last five 
years very many of them have recognised the 
necessity of using scientific knowledge and em- 
ploying scientifically trained men in their works 
to a much greater extent than heretofore. The 
result is that many industries are now associated 
directly with research either in the separate fac- 
tories or by a co-operative arrangement through 
the medium of research associations. To manu- 
facturers, whether or not they are contemplating 
this question with a view to their own require- 
ments, the facts and figures provided in the 
article on “The Organisation of Scientific Re- 
search in Works,’’ by Mr. A. P. M. Fleming: 


BB 


462 


NATURE 


(p- 77), will be found worthy of careful con- 
sideration. 

To those who have been so long hoping that 
some day the importance of science in connection 
with industry would be recognised by the State, 
the Government scheme for industrial research 
is a source of satisfaction. The department now 
established has made a good beginning in afford- 
ing assistance to many workers from the fund of 
one million granted by the Government and in 
encouraging the formation of research associa- 
tions among manufacturers. Many of these are 
already in operation and are enumerated, with 
the names of their officers, in the comprehensive 
volume under notice. 


THE BIRDS OF COLOMBIA. 


Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 
History. Vol. xxxvi., 1917. The Distribution 
of Bird-Life in Colombia: A Contribution to a 
Biological Survey of South America. By Dr. 
Frank M. Chapman. Pp. x+729+>xli plates. 
(New York: The American Museum of Natural 
History, 1917.) 


R. CHAPMAN’S “Report on the Distribution 
of Bird-Life in Colombia ’’ ranks amongst 


the most important contributions ever made to the | 


knowledge of the ornis of the Neotropical Region, 
the avifauna of which stands .unrivalled both in 
the wealth and variety of its feathered forms and 
in the number of its peculiar family and generic 
types. Colombia, thanks to’ Dr. Chapman’s in- 
vestigations, is now known to be the richest 
portion of this remarkable area‘so far as bird- 
life is concerned. That this should be so is due, 
no doubt, to the varied physiographical features 
to be found in that equatorial republic, for these 
range from tropical pasture-lands and forests at 
low, or comparatively low, levels to regions of 
perpetual snow in the Cordilleras, and include the 
uppermost tributaries of the Orinoco and some 
of those of the Amazon. 

In the year 1910 the American Museum of 
Natural History organised and commenced: a 
series. of expeditions for the systematic explora- 
tion of the bird-life of the republic. These ex- 
tended. .over five years, and were carried, out 
under the direction of Dr. Chapman, who himself 
took part in them in rg10 and again in 1913. As 
the result of. these systematic and well-organised 
explorations, 15,775 specimens, representing 
1285 forms (species and subspecies),- were 
obtained: Hence the report is based not only 
upon scientifically collected data, but also upon 
intimate personal knowledge of the country and 
its birds on the part of its author—a combination 
which has rendered the work of inestimable value. 

As the result of his studies on this ideal system, 
Dr. Chapman recognises the following vertical 
life-zones: A tropical, which ranges up to 
4500-6000 ft. ; a sub-tropical, from 4500-6000 ft. 
to gooo—g500 ft. ; a temperate, from gooo—g500 ft. 
to .11,000—-13,000 ft.; a paramo (high plateau), 

NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


[AuGUST 14, I91I9 
from 11,000-13,000 ft. to the snow-line at 
15,000 ft. These zones he again subdivides into 


faunal areas, so that the distribution of bird-lifein | 
Colombia is worked in remarkable detail. The 
author tells us that the uniformity of life increases 
with altitude, and that the distinctness of the 
various animals and plants of these several zones - 
was a constant source of surprise and joy to him. 
It is quite impossible here to enter into. details 
of the various distributional problems unfolded — 
by the author, but the portions of the work 
devoted to them are the most interonimey and — 
valuable to be found in this great work, 
The systematic portion of the report. treats in 
detail of the distribution, plumage, haunts, — 
habits, etc., of the 1285 forms of birdlife. which — 
constitute the ornis of Colombia. Of these, — 
twenty-two species and 115 subspecies are new to 
science. It is much to be regretted that Dr. 
Chapman has not included in his report niente, -3 : 
some 400 in number, which had previously been — 
recorded, but did not come under the notice — 
of himself or his explorers. If this had been — 
done it would have rendered his volume a com-— 
plete record of all that is known to hopes: of the 
avifauna of Colombia. 
The volume is enriched by a series - of repro- 
ductions of photographs of scenery depicting the © 
various life-zones, and of useful maps and charts 
illustrating the distribution of species, — forests, 4 
etc. It is further embellished by four coloured 
plates, devoted to the newly discovered birds, by 
the well-known zoological artist, Louis Agassiz 
Fuertes, who accompanied Dr. Cup Tt 
of his expeditions. aE 
The author is to be heartily congratulated | rr, 
the completion of his admirable work and on the 
masterly manner in which he has presented its 
results. Congratulations are also due to that — 
enlightened institution, the American Museum of — 
Natural History, which made this grand under-— 


‘ 
DS DEtib 


taking possible. W.aBoieale: 
OUR BOOKSHELF... =... 
Practical Physiological Chemistry. A Book uD: | j 


signed for Use_in Courses in Practical Physio+ 
logical Chemistry in Schools of Medicine and © 
of Science. By Prof. Philip B. Hawk. Sixth — 
edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. xiv+661+ vi 
plates. (London: J. and A. Chorehill, 1919.) 


Price 218. net. j 


Tuts book, written by one of the best known of | 
American physiological chemists, first appeared — 
in 1907. Its success is evident from the fact that 7 
it is now in its sixth edition, and is due to the — 
clearness and completeness of the ‘practical in- | 
structions with which it is. packed. . It does not i 
pretend to be a complete work of’ reference, but, 
though designed for the use of students, it is far 

too exhaustive for the ordinary student of medi- 
cine, who in the few years of his curriculum, has — 
to learn so many other subjects, and it is difficult 
to imagine that the American student can devote j 


_Avcusr 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


463 


_ more time to physiological chemistry, important 
_ as the subject is, than his brother in this country. 
_ The book labours from the disadvantage under 
which all books which see many editions labour; 
“no one is more acutely conscious of this than the 
present reviewer; it is so easy to add, so heart- 
‘ king to excise. At the same time, Prof. 
Hawk has made a praiseworthy attempt to cut 
down the multiplicity of methods which assail him. 
For example, the only methods given for urea 
éstimation are those based on the use of urease, 
| and Van Slyke’s procedure is the only one de- 
| scribed for the determination of acetone bodies. 
The same ruthless use of the pruning-knife in 
relation to other materials (e.g. sugar) would add 
= practical usefulness of a most admirable 


AMES rould be easy to criticise details; for 
mple, the book starts with a study of the most 
difficult of all chemical problems, namely, 
_ enzymes, so that it is scarcely one to recommend 
_ to the beginner; then, too, it is not always up to 
_ date; for instance, we are told that English 
_ physiologists speak of metaproteins as infrapro- 
| teins, a term they dropped many years ago; the 


_the work of Hopkins and Fletcher on lactic acid 
z tiginigt ‘the key to the whole situation) at its 
- full value. But where so much is good, picking 
holes is neither profitable nor kind. 
aus W. D. H. 
Joseph Priestley. By D. H. Peacock. 
_ of Progress. Men of Science.) Pp. 63. (Lon- 
+ don: Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
_ dedge; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1919.) 
Sp i@rice 2s: net. 

ae E story ory of Priestley’s life has been told and re- 
Boda to the man of science it is always an 
attractive story, and to the general reader its 
appeal is perhaps scarcely less strong. To the 
chemist there is a never-failing interest in reading 
how this village minister, theological contro- 
Versialist, and political reformer, who. had no 
sare scientific training and no particular facili- 
ties for experimentation, nevertheless was drawn 
to chemical stydies, and acquired a just and last- 
ing fame by his brilliant discoveries. 

__ Priestley’s mind was one of rare alertness, and 
if he missed many things through the weakness 
of his theoretical deductions, a remark of his 
apher helps us to understand pretty clearly 
why this was so. “Chemistry was really little 
more than a hobby to him; theology was his life 
z. aes . . Priestley was Priestley, not Caven- 
i) Of this notable “pioneer’’? we get a good 
|) picture in Mr. Peacock’s pages. There are only 
about sixty of these, but they suffice to tell 
‘pleasantly, even if briefly, of Priestley’s early 
) struggles, his prolific pugnacity in pamphleteer- 
) ing, his delight in experiments, his serenity under 
adversity, his pathetic exile, and his peaceful 
passing. 


(Pioneers 


wat ip?) 
V100L 
ies = 


C. Simmonps. 
NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


- account of muscle physiology does not appraise | 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 
this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 
taken of anonymous communications. ]| 


A Darwinian Statement of the Mendelian Theory. 

So far as the present writer knows, no public notice 
has yet been given to a series of statements by Darwin 
in his “‘Animals and Plants under Domestication ” 
that constitute virtually a statement of the Mendelian 
theory of the distribution and recombination of factors 
in hybrid offspring. Darwin’s idea of dissociation is, 
of course, founded on Naudin’s conception of disjunc- 
tion, but the remainder of his theory is as original as 
Mendel’s, except that it is purely speculative instead 
of being derived directly from experimental data. It 
is worked out, as a matter of fact, by means of his 
theory of pangenesis. © 

Darwin begins as follows :—‘‘ Another form of rever- 
sion is far commoner, indeed is almost universal with 
the offspring from a cross, namely, to the characters 
proper to either pure parent-form. As a general rule, 
crossed offspring in the first generation are nearly 
intermediate between their parents, but the grand- 
children and succeeding generations continually revert, 
in a greater or lesser degree, to one or both of their 
progenitors ”’ (vol. ii., p. 22). ‘ 

He then quotes Naudin’s view that “a hybrid is a 
living mosaic-work, in which the eye cannot distin- 
guish the discordant elements, so completely are they 
intermingled. We can hardly doubt that, in a certain 
sense, this is true, as when we behold in a hybrid the 
elements of both species segregating themselves into 
segments in the same flower or fruit by a process of 
self-attraction or self-affinity, this segregation taking 
place either by seminal or ‘bud-propagation ” (p. 23). 

Darwin goes on to comment on Naudin’s view that 
the segregation of the male and female elements would 
be most likely to occur fin the reproductive cells, since 
in this way their reunion through the fusion of pollen- 
grains and ovules would explain the phenomenon of 
reversion. ‘ 

He then says :— 

“If... pollen which included the elements of one 
ne happened to unite with ovules including the 
elements of the other species, the intermediate or 
hybrid state would still be retained, and there would 
be no reversion’’ (p. 23). 

Here is a statement of a theory of heterozygosis 
which, although not complete in exactly Mendelian 
form, is, so far as the writer knows, the first before 
the appearance of Mendel’s paper. Darwin’s more 
elaborate explanation comes later. He continues :— 

“But it would, I suspect, be more correct to 
say that the elements of both parent-species exist in 
every hybrid in a double state, namely, blended 
together and completely separate”’ (p. 23). \ 

Finally, in his chapter on pangenesis, Darwin 
approaches the theory of hybrids in thorough-going 
fashion, driving his pangenesis theory to its legitimate 
conclusions. By this theory, as is well known, it was 
assumed that the character-units existed in the somatic 
cells in the form of physical entities, however small, 
known as ‘‘gemmules.”? These, passing into the re- 
productive cells, conveyed thither the sum-total of the 
inheritance. — 

Darwin then approaches the subject of the theory 
of hvbrids as follows :— 

“The tendency to reversion is often induced by a 
change of conditions, and in the plainest manner by 
crossing. Crossed forms of the first. generation are 


464 


NATURE 


[AuGUST 14, 1919 


generally nearly intermediate in character between 
their two parents; but in the next generation the 
offspring commonly revert to one or both of thew 
grandparents, and occasionally to more remote 
ancestors ’’ (vol. ii., p. 383). 

The somatic cells of the hybrid, according to the 
theory of pangenesis, throw oft gemmules carrying the 
character-units, and, as Darwin says, “by the same 
hypothesis dormant gemmules derived from both pure 
parent-forms are likewise present... .” 

‘*Consequently,’’ he continues, *‘ the sexual elements 
of a hybrid will include both pure and _ hybridised 
gemmules; and when two hybrids pair, the com- 
bination of pure gemmules derived from the one 
hybrid, with the pure gemmules of the same parts 
derived from the other, would necessarily lead to com- 
plete reversion of characters ’’ (ibid.). 

Here we have as exact a presentation of the allelo- 
morphic idea of homozygosis as could be wished. We 
have merely to substitute the word ‘‘factors’’ or 
“genes’’ for ‘“‘gemmules’’ to have virtually a state- 
ment in the form of the Mendelian theory. 

Finally, Darwin says :-— 


‘“And, lastly, hybridised gemmules derived from, 


both parent hybrids would simply the 
original hybrid. form ’”’ (ibid.). 

Here is what appears to be, and substantially is on 
its face, a Mendelian form of explanation of recom- 
bination in heterozygosis, with this difference: 
According to Darwin’s conception, the ‘‘ gemmules,”’ 
or as we should say ‘‘factors,’? come over, Drx Dr, 
from the respective parents in an already hybridised 
state, and give rise, simply by virtue of their all being 
there in a hybrid, to a complete. bodily state of Dr 
—the hybrid condition—not, however, by means of 
segregation and recombination. Here is lacking, of 
‘ course, the conception of separation and recombina- 
tion according to the law of chance of D and 1, giving 
1 DD:2 Dr:1 rr. Such an_ explanation could 
scarcely have been expected to be worked out short of 
an experiment such as Mendel’s, involving actual 
counts. It does seem strange to us now, in view of 
the several times previously recurring observations by 
some five different breeders, including those of Goss 
and Knight, of the phenomenon of the appearance of 
different coloured peas in the same pod as the result 
of crossing, that this phenomenon should not have 
aroused curiosity and led to experiments on Darwin’s 
part, for he refers to them all. | However, in 
view of the fact that neither Nageli nor Focke— 
the only investigators before 1900 who were acquainted 
with Mendel’s papers at all—was particularly im- 
pressed with the importance of his experiments with 
peas, it is not surprising that Darwin should, among 
others, have failed to find the clue that Mendel did. 

However, as a contribution to the development of 
the history of hybridisation, Darwin’s application of 
his doctrine of pangenesis is highly interesting, 
showing the operation of an able mind, in the absence 
of adequate experimental data, in framing a _con- 
ception of a theory of hybrids that comes surprisingly 
near being a statement of the present point of view 
as regards operation and, in the case of homozygosis, 
in regard to theory, as well. 


reproduce 


Herpert F. Roserts. 
Department of Botany, Kansas State Agri- 
cultural College, June 24. 


Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larvae. 

Dr. W. E. CorxincE, gives in Nature of July 24 
some most interesting details about the distastefulness 
of insects to birds. He observes that both the larva 
and imago of Abraxas grossulariata are eaten by various 
species. I would like to add the following observa- 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103 | 


tions :—During the last few years I have bred severab 


thousand larva, including those of A. grossulariata, 
in order to study their genetics. Owing to the im- 


possibility of setting all the imagines, a certain 
In this 


number were set free as soon as recorded. 
way I have thrown out of my window imagines of 
the following species:—A. grossulariata, Spilosoma 
mendica (larve and imagines), and both type and. 
melanic forms of Tephrosia consonaria, Boarmia con- 
sortaria, and B, abietaria. I have noticed the fol- 
lowing points :—(1) The birds round the house, chiefly 


sparrows, would eat the imagines of all five species, — 
but A. grossulariata the least readily, tearing off the — 
wings and devouring the body on the spot (it was too — 
late in the year for them to be feeding young). (2) My — 
larve of S: mendica were suffering from a disease (a — 
filter-passer, I believe, for smears revealed no micro-— 
organisms), and when an entire brood was past hope — 


I used to throw them into the garden. 


Some were. | 


dead and many dying, but they were cleared away in 


a few minutes, in spite of their evil smell. (3) 
imagines of B. 
eaten with the utmost avidity. 


he | 
consortaria and B. abieiaria were 
No sooner had one or — 


two insects been thrown out than a number of birds — 
would crowd round waiting for the next, and if this — 


were hidden in the ivy round the house they would 


hunt for it until it was found. On one occasion some 
insects were hidden in a flower-pot on the window-sill, — 
but the birds soon found them, and would afterwards 


return to the edge of the pot, as if waiting for more. 
These birds would even carry off dry pinned insects, 
possibly for their nests. The fact that birds will not 
eat A, grossulariata readily, but will eat the diseased 
larvae of S. mendica, seems to support Mr. Speyer’s 
view, especially since the parasites mentioned do not 
live in the alimentary tract. For this reason they 
contain no proteolytic enzymes, and can therefore be 
of no conceivable harm to young birds. a 

Observations as to the extent to which birds prey 
upon the imagines of various species have a special 
interest, because those theories of mimicry which are 
based on natural selection demand some conscious 
selective agent such as birds, although there are very 
few actual observations to support such a conclusion. 
Evidence concerning European species is, of course, 
only of value by analogy. H. Onstow. 

3 Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge, August 2. _ 


THE BRUSSELS MEETING OF THE ~ 
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. 


Tee Inter-Allied Conference on International — 
Organisations in Science, which met in- 
Paris on November 26-29, 1918, adopted a 
number of resolutions for constituting such organ- 
isations for the promotion of co-operation in 


; 


scientific work, and appointed an executive com-— 
mittee to carry them out until the scheme was 
sufficiently advanced for the International Council 
to be convened and to assume its final form as” 
a federation of National Research Councils. 

This took place at a meeting which was held 
in Brussels on July 18-28, where the following” 
countries and dominions were represented by 
their delegates: Belgium, Canada, France, Italy,” 
Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Rumania, Serbia, 
the United Kingdom, and the United States of 
America. 2 ae 

On the morning of Friday, July 18, the 
delegates met in the Palais des Académies, where 
King Albert was present. M. Harmignie, the 


\ 


| Aveusr 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


465 


_ Minister of Science and Arts, welcomed them in 
a short address in which he dwelt on the import- 
_ance of the occasion and on the valuable results 
_ which would be obtained from international co- 
operation in science, and wished them success in 
_ their deliberations. 
_ M. E. Picard, the president of the Executive 
_ Committee, was unfortunately prevented by itll- 
_ health from being present, and M. A. Lacroix 
_ presided at the meetings of the'General Assembly. 
|| The first business was the consideration of the 
|| statutes of the International Research Council 
_which had been provisionally agreed upon in 
_ Paris, and now came up for consideration in the 
- final form as recommended by the Executive Com- 
_ (a) To co-ordinate international efforts in the 
_ different branches of science and its applications. 
_ (b) To initiate the formation of international 
_ associations or unions deemed to be useful to the 
_ progress of science. 
_ (c) To direct international scientific action in 
_ subjects which do not fall within the province of 
any existing association. 
_ (a) To enter, through the proper channels, into 
relations with the Governments of the countries 
_ adhering to the Council to recommend the study 
| of questions falling within the competence of the 
_ The countries adhering to the Council are 
_those already mentioned as represented by 
_ their delegates as well as Brazil, Australia, South 
_ Africa, Greece, and Portugal—that is, those of 
the Allied nations who were originally invited to 
orm the International Council as possessing 
academies of science, and being engaged in scien- 
tific work. To these, other nations may be added 
| their own request or on the proposal of a 
country already belonging to the Council, or 
Union, by a three-fourths vote in favour of 
admission. _ 
_ The work of the Council will be directed by 
the General Assembly, which will meet ordinarily 
every three years, but in the interval between 
its successive meetings business will be trans- 
acted by an Executive Committee of five members 
nominated by the General Assembly and holding 
fice until the next meeting of the General 
ssembly. In the present case the Executive 
Committee, consisting of Prof. E. Picard, Dr. 
A. Schuster, Profs. Hale, Volterra, and Lecointe, 
has been re-elected and will consider. its character 
and constitution and report to the next meeting 
of the General Assembly before its organisation 
is finally laid down. 
' The concluding meeting of the Council was 
held on Monday, July 28, when it was decided 
that all neutral nations should be invited to join 
the International Research Council and the Inter- 
national Unions created under its auspices, thus 
providing for the reconstitution of international 
"Scientific associations so far as is practicable at 
_ the present time. 
2 NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


objects of the Council are therein defined 


* 
. 


< 


The formation of unions for the organisation 
of international work and co-operation in different 
departments of science, which had been initiated 
at Paris, was carried considerably further at 
Brussels. In some cases unions with sections 
for dealing with special branches of the field 
covered by the union were organised. In other 
unions the delegates present came to the con- 
clusion that at the present stage it was preferable 
to appoint committees to study the general posi- 
tion, and to report later to the union with a view 
to the formation at its next meeting of such 
sections as might be needed, when the repre- 
sentatives of the different countries would be 
better able to estimate their requirements. 

The Astronomical ‘Union, which was in&tituted 
in Paris, was now able to complete its organisa- 
tion by approving its statutes, and by deciding 
upon the appointment of a number of committees 
for organising international co-operation in vari- 
ous branches of astronomical work, such an 
arrangement being considered better than the 
formation of separately organised sections. 
M. Baillaud was nominated president, and Prof. 
A. Fowler general secretary, of the union. 

The Geodetic and Geophysical Union, which 
was also instituted at Paris in November last, 
includes several branches of science for which 
special organisations have existed for many years 
before the war. These have now been recon- 
stituted as sections of the union, each with its 
own executive committee of international dele- 
gates. The statutes of the union, which follow 
generally those of the Council, were approved, 
and sections were formed for geodesy, seismo- 
logy, meteorology, terrestrial magnetism and elec- 
tricity, physical oceanography, and vulcanology. 
The section of geodesy takes the place of the 
International Geodetic Association, now’ non- 
existent, but which formerly had its bureau at 
Potsdam. The triennial meetings of this asso- 
ciation, at which reports on different kinds of 
geodetic work were presented and new methods 
and plans for work discussed, were of the 
greatest value to»geodesists, and the new section 
has a large field of work before it. Variation of 
latitude was formerly included among the subjects 
grouped under geodesy, but at Brussels it was 
agreed that it would be more conveniently dealt 
with by the Astronomical Union, which appointed 
a committee to consider and report upon this 
subject. Major W. Bowie, of the U.S. Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, was nominated president, and 
Col. Perrier, of the Service Géographique de 
l’Armée at Paris, secretary of this section. 

In seismology the old pre-war association is 
still in being until April 1, 1920, since the 
countries belonging to it did not withdraw from 
it before the commencement of the last four-year 
period. Its central bureau was at Strasburg, 
which is now a part of French territory, and 
Prof. Rothé has been appointed professor of 
geophysics there. It was decided, therefore, that 
no defiriite action beyond the institution of a 
section of seismology should be taken until the 


466 


NATURE 


[AuGusT 14, 1919 


old association had ceased to exist. The proposal 
was made at Paris that a section of the union 
should deal with meteorology, and this has now 
been confirmed, Sir Napier Shaw being nominated 
president, and Dr. Marvin, of the U.S. Weather 
Bureau, secretary. There has been for many 
years an International Committee of Directors of 
Meteorological Services, by whom administrative 
and technical questions -relating to their work 
were discussed and international co-operation in 
that work was arranged. There is, however, 
ample scope for an organisation to co-ordinate 
work in meteorology, and to direct international 
work in the subject which does not fall within 
the administrative requirements of the meteoro- 
logical services. : 


International work in terrestrial magnetism has’ 


hitherto been looked after by a sub-committee 
appointed by the International Meteorological 
Committee, but there was a general agreement 
that this subject and the electrical phenomena of 
the atmosphere should be dealt with by a special 
section which would co-operate with that dealing 
with meteorology and with the Physical Union in 
its work. Of this new section Prof. A, Tana- 
kadate and Dr. Bauer, of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion of Washington, were appointed respectively 
president and secretary. 

To these. sections were added two new 
ones—that of physical oceanography, to deal 
with tides, currents, temperature, density, 
salinity, and other physical phenomena of 
the oceans; and that. of vulcanology for the 
study of the chemical and physical phenomena of 
volcanoes. In oceanography no president was 
nominated, but Prof. H. Lamb was elected vice- 
president, and Dr. Magrini, of the Hydrographic 
Service of Venice, secretary. In vulcanology 
the president is Prof. A. Ricco, of the Etna 
Observatory, and Dr. Maladra is secretary. 

The executive committee of each union con- 
sists of a president, the presidents of its sections 
as vice-presidents, and a general secretary. In 
the Geodetic and Geophysical Union M. C. Lalle- 
mand, director of the Service de Nivellement de 
France, was elected president, and Col. H. G. 
Lyons general secretary. 

The Mathematical Union was formed with 
Prof. Ch. de la Vallée-Poussin, of Louvain Uni- 
versity, as president. In this union no sections 
have been formed, but it was agreed that the 
union should meet in Strasburg next year, when 
the. further organisation of the union might be 
considered. ' 

A Chemical Union was also formed, but the 
representation of this subject at Brussels was not 
sufficient to proceed further with its organisation 
there. The delegates representing physical 
science decided to form the Physical Union, 
leaving its complete organisation to a later 
occasion. An _ organising committee was 
nominated and charged with making arrange- 
ments for the next meeting as well as for forward- 
ing various projects of importance for the pro- 
gress of physical science. 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


In biology Prof. 


were established for general biology, physiology, 
zoology, botany, applied biology, and. medical 


science, but here, too, it was recognised that the 


arrangements made could only be provisional... 
Though the practical success of the Inter- 


national Research Council and the unions asso- — 


ciated with it cannot be fully demonstrated until 
the next meeting, when three years’ work will 
be available for report, and there will have been 
time to prepare projects for international work- 
ing in each group, the organisation is now estab- 
lished on a working basis, and the meeting at 
Brussels showed that there was a large amount 
of work to be taken up, for the organisation 
of which the executive committees of the unions. 
and sections now exist. The meetings in London, 
Paris, and Brussels form successive stages in this. 
important achievement, and the members of the 
executive committee who have guided the Re- 
search Council through the first stages of its 
existence may well be satisfied with the result. 


The legal domicile of the International Research — 
Council will be at Brussels, and the periodical — 


meetings of the General Assembly will take place 
there. The secretariat will continue to be in 
London, where the Royal Society has placed a 
room at its disposal. Unions and sections will 


meet at such times and places as their general 


assemblies or executive committees may decide. 

On the day of their arrival the delegates were 
received at the Hétel de Ville by M. Adolf Max, 
and receptions were given by the Minister of 
Science and Arts on July 26, and by the Minister 


of Foreign Affairs on July 28, at their official — 


residences. On July 26 M. G. Lecointe, director 


of the Royal Observatory, invited the delegates 


to visit the observatory at Uccle, where they were 
shown over the buildings and its ample instru- 
mental equipment. HH. Guvks 


THE BOURNEMOUTH MEETING OF THE 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 


T 
I meeting of the British Association to be 
held at Bournemouth on September 9-13. As 
already stated, practically all the meetings and 
discussions will be held in the Municipal College. 


This building, it is anticipated, will provide ample 
accommodation for all the activities of the asso- - 


Yves Delage was elected — 
president, and M. C. Flahault secretary. Sections. — 


is now possible to give further details of the _ 


ciation, with the exception of the very large 


assemblies—the inaugural general meeting, the dis- 


courses, and the conversazione (or, as it is now 


termed, the civic reception). 
seen that in this respect members will find the 
arrangements far more convenient than at many 
previous meetings, when various buildings scat- 
tered over the town have had to be utilised. __ 
The large hall of the college will be fitted up 
as the reception room. Other parts of the build- 
ing will be converted into section rooms, staff 
rooms, luncheon and tea rooms, writing and 
smoking rooms, telephone room, etc. Members 


It will readily be — 


food” production ; 


_ AvucusT 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


497 


may be assured that they will find every con- 
venience and comfort immediately at hand. Only 
_ in the problematical case of an exceptionally large 


sectional meeting will it be necessary to make use 
of another building. 

It is unnecessary in this article to describe in 
detail the long programme of work, a copy of 
which can be obtained from the headquarters of 
the association. The journal, giving full particu- 
lars, will, as usual, be issued daily throughout 


_ the meeting. The general public will probably be 
most interested in the papers and discussions 


relating to scientific work in the war, on such 
subjects as tanks, submarine mining, the para- 
vane, air photography, the progress of aviation, 
airships, and directional wireless. Of special 


topical interest will also be the discussions ar- 


ranged by the Economics Section on the National 


3 Alliance of Employers and Employed, price-fixing, 
with special reference to Australian experience, 


t, finance and taxation, and the gold 
standard; by the Agriculture Section on war-time 
by the Physiology Section 
(jointly with that of Economics) on the influence 
of the six-hour day on industrial efficiency and 
fatigue; by the Education Section on various 
problems of modern education; and by the 
Geography Section on long-distance air routes, 
the geography of Imperial defence, frontiers in the 
East of Europe, and the colonisation of Africa. 

- Following the precedent set in Birmingham in 


- 1913, citizens’ lectures will be delivered in out- 


~*~ 


g lying parts of the town during the week, in co- 


with the Workers’ Educational 
These will comprise lectures by 


‘operation 
Association. 


& Prof. H. H. Turner on ‘‘ Modern Astronomy,”’ 
_ Prof. S. H. Reynolds on ‘‘ Purbeck Isle and its 


and Scenery,’’ and Prof. J. L. Myres on 


_ **Woman’s Place in Nature from an Anthro- 


_ pological Point of View.”’ 


Numerous excursions will be made to places of 


2 z terest in the neighbourhood. The Engineering 


Section will, by special permission of the Ad- 
miralty, visit the Royal Naval Cordite Factory at 
Holton Heath, a vast organisation which has 
ppents i up during the war, and will also inspect 
the Wedtsainth and Poole Gas and Water 
Works and the power stations of the tramways 
and electric light undertakings. The Geology 


a Section will journey each afternoon to points of 


logical interest in the locality, including such 
vourite haunts of geologists as Lulworth Cove 
and Kimmeridge. The Botany Section will find 
much material for work and discussion in the 
New Forest, at Shell Bay, and elsewhere. The 
ail Section is arranging a visit to Iwerne 
ster, in the neighbouring county of Dorset; 
while the Anthropology Section will organise an 
excursion to the Channel Islands if sufficient 
names are received before the meeting. Com- 
munications on the last-named subject should be 


{ 


b: addressed to Dr. R. R. Marett, Exeter College, 


Oxford, who is to read a paper on recent dis- 


_ coveries of archzological interest in the Channel 


Islands. 
NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


It may also be mentioned that Lord Montagu 
of Beaulieu, president of the Conference of Dele- 
gates of Corresponding Societies, has offered to 
show members and their friends over the beau- 
tiful Beaulieu Abbey, with its thirteenth and four- 
teenth century remains; and Sir Merton and Lady 
Russell Cotes have consented to throw open to 
them the East Cliff Hall and its fine collection of 
art treasures. 

From the social point of view, those attending 
the meeting will find the Bournemouth week a 
very pleasant one, even though official functions 
on a large scale are not contemplated. Various 
local clubs and institutions will be ready to receive 
them as honorary members during the period of 
the meeting, and in other ways a great deal will 
be arranged in the way of hospitality and 
entertainment. 


SUBMARINE ACOUSTICS. 


oD sver war has been responsible for great 

developments in many branches of science. 
As a consequence of the submarine menace, close. 
attention has been given to the subject of marine 
physics, with the result that notable advances 
have been made in several directions, especially 
in that of submarine acoustics. Much of what has 
been accomplished is still regarded. as confidential 
information, but some interesting disclosures have 
recently been made by Prof. W. H. Bragg in the 
Tyndall lectures delivered before the Royal 
Institution, and in a lecture at the British Science 
Guild’s Exhibition at Westminster. 

The singular property which distinguishes a 
submarine from other ships is its capacity of 
rendering itself invisible when pursued or when 
seeking and attacking its prey. Robbed of this 
power, it is an extremely vulnerable craft, and 
falls a ready victim to more heavily armed and 
armoured surface ships when once its presence 
has been detected and its position located. 

The acoustic method of detecting a submerged 
submarine moving in the open sea was found to 
be far more sensitive and to give a much longer 
range than all other methods. Instruments used 
for this purpose are called hydrophones. Many 
varieties of hydrophone have been evolved and 
perfected, but by far the largest class consist 
essentially of a microphone attached to a dia- 
phragm which. forms one wall of a watertight 
cavity. The microphone is connected through a 
suitable electrical circuit to ordinary telephone 
receivers, the complete installation resembling a 
unit of an ordinary land telephone system. In 
use the hydrophone is suspended from the bul- 
warks of a stationary ship, or mounted in tanks 
attached to the hull, or trailed behind in a suitable 
“fish ’’ body in the case of a moving ship. The 
range of a hydrophone depends upon the size and 
speed of the source of sound, the depth and state 
of the sea, the presence of other sources of sound, 
etc., and may vary from a few hundred yards to 
several miles. 

The difficulty of ascertaining the direction of 


468 NATURE 


[AucusT 14, 1919 


a source of sound has been overcome in a number 
of ways. One type of directional hydrophone is 
shown in Fig. 1. In this instrument both sides 
of the sensitive receiving diaphragm are in con- 
tact with the sea, the microphone being encased 
in a small capsule at the centre of the diaphragm. 
If used in this form the instrument is deaf to 
sounds in its equatorial plane, but can hear 
sounds coming from other directions. It is, in 


Fic. 1.—Uni-directional hydrophone. 


fact, the reciprocal of the hypothetical “double 
source ’’ of Helmholtz. The polar curve, showing 
the dependence of its response upon its orientation 
with respect to the source, is given in Fig. 2. 

It is obvious that the ambiguity involved in the 
bi-directional qualities of such an instrument 
would seriously diminish its efficiency in actual 
practice, and accordingly a modification was ‘intro- 
duced to eliminate this defect. This consisted in 


PLANE oF 
DIAPHRAGM. 


Fic. 2.—Direction-sensitiveness polar curve of a bi-directional hydrophone. 


the attachment to. the -hydrophone carcass, at 


some distance away from the sensitive diaphragm, 


of a bias plate, or “baffle,’’ as it is now called. 


This can be seen in the side view of Fig. 1.. 


When.correctly adjusted in position, the “baffle ”’ 
modifies the polar curve of Fig. 2, so that it takes 
the form shown. in Fig. 3, and, as can be readily 
seen, renders the hydrophone uni-directional. 
The construction and properties of “baffles ’’ 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


are very interesting, and have been the subject f 
of prolonged investigation. The mathematical 
theory of their action has not been worked out 
fully, as it is difficult to specify all boundary con- 
ditions. Moreover, the phenomena are of the 
diffraction type, in which the obstacle is small 
compared with the wave-lengths of the incident 
disturbances. A fairly complete empirical know- 
ledge of their properties has, however, been 
obtained. The essential feature of their construc- — 
tion is the inclusion of a film of gas in a non- 
resonant enclosure. If the “baffle ’’ is placed too 
close to the receiving diaphragm, the hydrophone 
becomes non-directional, a limiting case being 
that in which one side. of the diaphragm is com- 
pletely enclosed, and, therefore, “over-baffl = 
In his lectures Prof. Bragg also- briefly 
described two,other methods by which the direc- 
tion of an under-water source of sound could be 
ascertained by making use of a number of hydro- 
phones which do not themselves possess intrinsic 
directional properties. In the first of these use 
is made of the binaural principle. Two hydro- 
phones are mounted on a rotating arm at a dis- 


— 
i 


PLANE of DIAPHRAGM 


F 1G, 3-—Direction- ‘cpakccteorting polar curve of a a a 
uni-directional hydrophone. ie: 


tance apart of from six to eight feet, one hydro- 
phone being connected to the right ear-piece of — 
the observer’s telephone, and the other to his _ 
left ear-piece. If now the wave-front of the on- — 
coming sound strikes the right-hand hydrophone j 
first, the sound appears to come from the 
observer’s right. On rotating the arm the hydro- 
phone on the left side can be advanced so that 4 
the sound appears to come from the left. By 
rotating the device until the sound appears” to. g 
come from ahead or astern, the observer is 
enabled to detect the direction of the source, a 
simple rule enabling him to resolve any fore-and- 
aft ambiguity. Instead of rotating the arm carry- 
ing the hydrophones, the angle which the wave- 
front makes with it can. be found by compensating — * 
for the difference of path in water by introducing ~ 
an equivalent length of air column between one ~ 
or other of the observer’s ear-pieces and his ear. — 
In. this case three hydrophones have to be used — 
in pairs in order to obtain the direction of the 
source uniquely, the bearings. being read off from — a 
the calibrated scale of the ‘‘compensator.”’ a 
The second method consists in males use of + 


_ Aveust 14, 1919] 
i 


NATURE 


469 


phase relationships between a number of 
ydrophones distributed at regular intervals in 
a straight line. It is obvious that in this case 
sound-waves from a distant source arrive in phase 
only when it is situated on the beam of the line 
‘. of hydrophones. By making use of a multiple 
Mc compensator ”’ the phases can be corrected for 

1 directions, and the bearing of the source read 
off from the “compensator ’’ when the observer 
has determined the setting 
intensity. — 
Pr One gratifying feature of ie work on sub- 
‘marine acoustics done during the war is the possi- 
y which it provides of rendering navigation 
e safe in times of peace. Used in conjunction 
n suitable sound signalling apparatus fitted to 
sels, and submarine bells moored near danger- 
. shoals and rocks, the improved hydrophones 
eveloped for war service should greatly reduce 


the dangers of collisions and shipwreck, due to 
fog, etc. | 


for maximum 


zady hydrographic surveys of the North Sea 
being carried out in which the position of 
er spots are located for charting purposes 
exploding depth charges and recording the 
ulting disturbances at a number of hydro- 
nes connected to land stations. This method 
‘of submarine sound-ranging is by far the most 
curate method of locating such spots, and also 
provides a means of enabling a ship at sea to 
obtain its correct bearings. By dropping a bomb 
hundreds of miles at sea, a ship can in a few 
ppntes communicate its position to the nearest 
station and receive this information itself 
back again by wireless. 
; F. Liroyp Hopwoop. 


POWER ALCOHOL. 


ce E aeiiandt importation of petrol into this 
i peau ery rose to more than 100,000,000 
8 ra before the war. Most of this came from 
: olted States. At that time the consumption 
in the States was about ten times this figure, but 
in 1919 will probably prove to be not less than 
‘ty times as much. With these values to face 
iti is impossible not to wonder whether the rapid 
expansion of usage in the States will allow the 
exportation—at any practicable price—of even 
the small relative quantity used in the United 
‘ingdom before the war, to say nothing of any 
supply to meet the growth of our own 
for road, sea, and air. 
ee these considerations suffice to render inquiry 
into the subject a matter of immediate moment, 
t there is an additional argument available to 
om 9se who take a longer view. Any fuel product 
drawn from oil wells or coal mines has the nature 
of a fortunate dip in a “lucky bag.’’ No one 
<nows how long such supplies will last, nor what 
u Batapped stores there yet may be (nor where they 
are). Moreover, their renewal is a matter of 
hundreds, if not thousands, of thousands of 
years. For this reason it is wise for mankind to 
prepare to supply its future needs by drawing 
NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


Old 


' 


on the current account of the sun’s radiant energy 
and to touch the capital as little as may be. 

In most previous discussions on this subject it 
has been assumed that alcohol obtained from the 
potato crop is as feasible a source of supply as 
any that could be named. It now appears from 
the investigations of the Inter-Departmental Com- 
mittee on Power Alcohol (Cmd. 218, 1919, price 
2d. net) that whilst potatoes yield 20 gallons of 


_ alcohol per ton, the sun-dried flowers of the Indian 


mahua tree (costing about 30s. per ton delivered 
at the factory) will yield as much as go gallons of 
alcohol per ton. Here, as in so many other cases, 
it seems that raw material comes most abun- 
dantly and most economically from the tropics, 
which, indeed, in the present instance is not to be 
wondered at, seeing that it is the daily solar 
radiation the energy of which it is desired to tap. 
The Government Committee above mentioned, 
with most praiseworthy energy, has also taken 
a decided step forward in probing the problems 
relating to the best use of the alcohol when 
produced. With this in view it has arranged 
with the London General Omnibus Co. for a com- 
plete fleet of motor omnibuses to be run for six 
months 6n both alcohol-benzol and alcohol-benzol- 
petrol mixtures, and for the results to be com- 
pared with running on petrol or other fuel. To 
use alcohol without any admixture might prove 
difficult owing to its reluctance to fire in a cold 
engine; moreover, for good thermal efficiency a 


high-compression pressure would be needed, and_ 


this again makes starting difficult. That, howe 
ever, is but one of a series of problems which 


the Committee has arranged to have investigated | 


at Manchester in the laboratory of Prof. H. B. 
Dixon, whose work on similar lines is well 
known. Both these investigations—scientific and 
commercial—should begin to bear fruit very 
shortly, and by Christmas it may not be too much 
to hope that the Committee will be able to 


publish information of such value as to enable — 


the Government to take definite steps towards 
rendering power alcohol available for all internal- 
combustion engine users. 


THE FORESTRY BILL. 
fae Forestry Bill came before the Commons 
in Committee of the whole House on 
August 8, when amendments to several of the 
clauses were suggested. An important amend- 
ment increased the number of Commissioners 
from seven to eight, with the object of having one 
unpaid Commissioner sitting in the House of 
Commons, thus enabling the House to keep itself 
acquainted with the progress of the afforestation 
work. This amendment was agreed to, as was 
also another by Major W. Murray that not fewer 
than two of the Commissioners should have 
special knowledge and experience of plantation 
and forestry in Scotland. 
Sir Philip Magnus strongly advocated the view 
put forward by the British Science Guild that at 
least one of the Commissioners should be a person 


ay a RS + Seti 


470 NATURE 


[AuGcuUST 14, 1919 


of scientific attainments having a technical know- 
ledge of forestry. This amendment was rejected 
on a vote, but Sir Philip persisted with it in the 
Report stage, which followed immediately after 
Committee was over, and it was then accepted 
and added to the Bill. He also put forward an 


amendment, which was accepted, that the Com-- 


missioners should have power, in addition to 
collecting and preparing forestry statistics, to 
publish and distribute them. 

From the point of view of assuring that 
the new Forestry Authority should have 
expert guidance in inaugurating and formu- 
lating its forest policy, the acceptance of 
Sir Philip Magnus’s amendment with reference 
to the inclusion of expert scientific opinion on 
the Commission is of the very first importance, 
for on that member will lie a heavy responsibility. 
It is to be hoped that in his selection the Com- 
missioners will make every effort to secure a man 
of recognised scientific attainments and merit, 
who at the same time possesses a wide knowledge 
of up-to-date forestry methods as existing in the 
different forestry services in the world. The 
appointment will not be an easy one to fill. 

To those acquainted with the requirements of a 
truly scientific forestry department, the setting up 
of which is arrived at in this country, Sir Philip’s 
other amendment, with reference to the publica- 
tion of forestry statistics, which was also urged 
by the British Science Guild, is of not less import- 
ance. The publication of the material collected 
in proper form—that is, in a form which shall 
comprise the issue of that collected in a 
separate series of publications, some for the 
scientific reader, and others for the lower grades 
of a forestry service and for laymen—is a 
matter of supreme importance. This importance 
is accepted by the man of science without ques- 


- tion, but to the public the value of such reports 


is not self-evident. In this respect, therefore, the 
House of Commons is to be congratulated on 
possessing at least one Member having the know- 
ledge and foresight to recognise the vital necessity 
of assuring that this aspect of the question is 
safeguarded, and to be an advocate of scientific 
interests generally. After passing through Com- 
mittee the Bill was read a third time. 


NOTES. 


Tue following names appear in the deferred list of 
honours in connection with the King’s birthday, which 
was published yesterday :—Viscount Iveagh, chan- 
cellor of Dublin University (promoted to an earldom) ; 
Lt.-Col. H. G. Barling, vice-chancellor of Birmingham 
University, and Mr. C. H. E. Chubb, donor to the 
nation of Stonehenge (baronetcies); Dr. R. C. Brown, 
founder of a scholarship for research at Cambridge 
University, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., and Mr. 
J. Y. W. MacAlister, president of the Library Associa- 
tion and secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine 
(kknighthoods). i 


Tue Pontécoulant prize of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences has been awarded to Prof. A. S. Eddingto 
for his work on astronomical research. 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


n W 
-| holder of the chair of botany and vegetable phy 


AN important demonstration in wireless telephony 
was given by the Royal Air Force in the Houses of 
Parliament on Monday, August 11. So far as can be 
judged from the Press accounts, the demonstration was 
entirely successful, over a range of twenty miles. 
General Seely explained that the Air Force took up 
the subject of wireless telephony early in 1915, and by © 
March, 1918, the first two squadrons of aeroplanes 
had been fitted with the apparatus, which gave them — 
such an advantage that it was found that German 
machines took care to avoid them. The fous aero- | 
planes, such as those plying between Kenley and 
France, are now so fitted. Ranges of too miles from 
an aeroplane and of 165 miles from an ai ) have © 
been obtained, and could be increased by the use of — 
larger aerials at the receiving stations, if any good 
purpose would be served thereby. Improvements still 
remain to be effected, such as the elimination of the 
trailing aerial on the aeroplane, and of the need of 
switching over between sending and receiving, which - 
makes the interchange of conversation not quite so 
easy as it is with an ordinary telephone. Another part 
of the demonstration concerned direction-finding by 
wireless for the navigation of aircraft. For this pur- 


pose the aerial in the aeroplane takes the form of a 
coil of wire mounted on a rectangular frame about 
4 ft. high and 3 ft. wide, which can be turned on a 
vertical axis, and the variations in the ‘strength of the 
signals as this is turned round enable the direction 
the sending station to be located. A coil of this kind 
was on view, and by its aid signals were picked 
from the Eiffel Tower, a portion of a message receiv 
announcing itself as being an “‘order particularly for 
Budapest.’’ An inter-communication telephone was 
also shown by General Seely. Worn on the neck of a — 
member, with a wire-connection down the trouser-leg, 
it would enable him to speak to all the world. __ 


In a letter published in the Times of August 
Prof. Karl Pearson directed attention to the serio 
financial difficulties of the Galton Laboratory. Owi 
to the war the equipment of the buildings provide 
for the housing of the laboratory staff was not p 
ceeded with, and the institute was used as a military 
hospital. Now, owing to the rise in prices, not only 
will the equipment cost from two to three times as 
much as it would have done in 1914, but the slend. 
endowment is quite inadequate to defray ordina 
establishment charges, the cost of printing, and th 
provision of a living wage for the staff. Prof. Pea 
writes :—‘‘ The Biometric and the Galton Laborator 
were the first of their kind to be established; t 
no longer stand alone. The United States have t 
professors of biometry and their eugenics laboratori 
backed by funds which we cannot hope to rival. Wh 
is it that Britain so often starts the new idea b 
leaves it to fructify in other lands? E Ty 
portant at the present moment is the field of act 
for our science. The war has brought many problems 
to the fore; eugenical research has much ground to 
make up, and most serious questions as to natio 
efficiency are demanding scientific treatment.’’ 
reasoning is cogent, and it will be a serious scanda 
the Galton and Eugenics Laboratories are ste 
The enlightened patronage by the State of resea 
institutes maintained in connection with unive 
is nearly always a better method of ocean 
true interests of science than the segregation 
search workers in State Departments out 0 
with the general developments of academic thoug 


b 


WE regret to have to record the death, at 
age of forty-three, of Prof. George 


VA 


/ 


Aueust 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


474 


logy in the University of Birmingham since 1909. 
Prof. West’s work in algology has a” world-wide 
reputation, and under him the botanical department 
_ of the University had reached the first rank for the 
“study of this branch of botany. His death while still 
@ young man not yet at the zenith of his power is 
_€n irreparable loss to the University of Birmingham, 
and deprives the world of a botanist of first-rate 
_ ability, whose recent work on the alge of the soil 
opens up a new field of investigation the economic 
importance of which is likely to be far-reaching. Prof. 
West was an indefatigable worker and an admirable 
3 of research, admired and warmly appreciated 
_ by his students and colleagues. Though robust in ap- 
earance, he had recently been in indifferent health, and 

an ; of pneumonia ended fatally on August 7. 
_ He leaves a widow and two children. 


; Tue death is announced, on August 8, at the age 
“ Unicrchy ot years, of Prof. Ernst Haeckel, of the 
: of Jena. ~ 


‘the death of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, on August 11, 

| eighty-fourth year, a romantic career was brought 
close, and the world lost probably its most gener- 
ntributor towards the promotion of science, 
tion, art, and other objects, for Mr. Carnegie 
trongly that the possession of wealth carried 
bilities, and that “‘surplus wealth was a sacred 
which its po or was bound to administer in 
lifetime for the good of the community.’’ He held 
*it is a crime to die rich.’ Acting on these prin- 
Wath erneet to “apes es qenmenee fortune 
urther enterprises which appealed to him. How 
ch he distributed is not known, but in 1908 it was 
= ated that he had given more than 57,000,000l, in 
_ America, more than 7,000,000l.. in Great Britain, and 
1,000, El . Among his gifts may be men- 

‘ . to the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 
_ ington, 2,000,0001. to inaugurate the Carnegie Insti- 
tute at irgh, 2,000,000], towards university educa- 


tion in Scotland, 50,0001. to the University of Birming- 
ham, and, it is estimated, 10,000,000l. towards libraries 
alone. He also purchased the famous library of the 
late Lord Acton, which, through Viscount Morley, is 
__ now the property of the University of Cambridge. Mr. 
wnegie was Lord Rector of St. Andrews University 
1903-7 and of the University of Aberdeen in 1912-14, 
“was the recipient of the honorary: degree of LL.D. 
from the University of Cambridge. 
ar ; ty c t= etats : 

_ Tue death is announced of Mr. Herbert Ward, a 
_ traveller in many lands and a member of the rear- 
_ guard of Stanley’s Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. 


‘Mr. Carte Satter, of the British Rainfall Organisa- 
gl 1as been awarded the premium of the president 
of the Institution of Water Engineers for his paper 
on “The Relation of Rainfall to Configuration,” which 
was read before the institution in December last. 


Dr. Suatrrer, of the University of Toronto, has 
_ been appointed expert in animal husbandry to the 
- Go nent of Mysore. He will work under Dr. 
_ Coleman, the director of agriculture. 


A DeparTMENTaL Committee has been appointed by 
the President of the Board of Trade to investigate 
and report n the present position and economic 
possibilities of non-ferrous mining in the United 
- Rnudom: and to make recommendations as to such 
_ Government action as may be expedient in regard 
thereto. The members of the Committee are Mr. 
__H.B. Betterton, M.P. (chairman), Mr. H. F. Collins, 
fr. J. Harris, Dr. F. H. Hatch, Sir Lionel Phillips, 


Mr. 
_ Bt, Mr. R. A. Thomas, and Mr. James Wignall, 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


he 

ah 

i‘ 
me 


Baya 


M.P. All communications should be addressed to the 
Seen Mr. W. Palmer, Gwydyr House, Whitehall, 
-W.1. : 


_ WE are asked to announce that the time for accept- 
ing entries for the Cammell Laird scholarship in naval 
architecture and the Parsons scholarship in marine 
engineering of the Institution of Naval Architects has 
been extended to August 31. Application forms may 
be obtained from the secretary, Institution of Naval 
Architects, 5 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, W.C.2. 


As already announced (Nature, July 10, p. 370), the 
Royal Society will in the coming autumn eléct to two 
John Foulerton studentships for original research in 
medicine, the improvement of the treatment of dis- 
ease, and the relief of human suffering. The latest 
time for the receipt of applications (which should be 
addressed to the Assistant Secretary of the Royal 
Society, Burlington House, W.1) is October 31. 


A war section of the Royal Society of Medicine has 
recently been formed having for its object the dealing 
with questions affecting medicine and surgery in the 
Navy, the Army, and the Air Force. The first meet- 
ing of the section will be held on Monday, Novem- 
ber 10, when the president, Sir Robert -Hill, Medical 
Director-General, R.N., will give an address. 


Lorp WEIR has consented to open an Exhibition 

Shipping, Engineering, and » Machinery which 
is to be held at Olympia for three weeks, beginning 
on September 25 next. It was to have been held in 
1914, but was postponed in consequence of the war. 


A MEMORIAL tablet to Sir Walter Ralegh—the gift 
of the Société Jersaise—has been placed on the wall 
of the States Chamber of Jersey, Sir Walter having 
been Governor of the island from 1600 to 1603. In 
unveiling the tablet the Bailiff of Jersey said that of 
all the distinguished men who had been connected 
with the Channel Islands none had been more remark- 
able than Ralegh, who was one of the group of Devon 
men who had conceived the magnificent idea of the 
British Empire. 


Tue Department of Mines and Industries of the 
Union of South Africa is requiring the services of a 
scientific officer for the Fisheries and Marine Bio- 
logical Survey of the South African coast. The duties 
of the officer will be to superintend operations, chiefly 
on board surveying vessels, connected with sounding, 
dredging, trawling, physical observations, the pressing 
of specimens, etc. Applications should be sent, in 
duplicate, not later than September 15, to the High 
Commissioner for the Union of South Africa, 52 Vic-- 
toria Street, S.W.1. 


THe Government has issued as a White Paper 
(Cd. 280, 1919) a report on the food conditions in 
Germany by Prof. E. H. Starling, supplemented’ 
by memoranda on agricultural conditions and 
statistics by Messrs. McDougall and Guillebaud. Prof. 
Starling shows very clearly that the chief cause of 
the collapse was a food policy erroneous in principle 
and unworkable in practice. So late as 1917-18 the 
total available food, after meeting the needs of the 
Army, would, if equally divided, have sufficed to pro- 
vide 3000 Calories per average man; but, owing to. 
failure to control producers, the distribution was alto- 
gether inequitable. The producers continued to con- 
sume their pre-war ration, nearly 25 per cent. of their 
disposable surplus was estimated to be distributed by 
illicit trade—to the advantage, of course, of the 
wealthy—and net more than 1500 Calories were left 
to be distributed as the average ration per man per 


‘ London recently to 


. British 


472 NALTURL 


[|AuGuUST 14, 1919 


day. The result was that: the brunt’ of the suffering 
had to be borne by the working-class. and middle-class 
urban populations, Prof. Starling finds that the -con- 
ditions are grave. Even under the most favourable 
conditions, and ‘‘if Germany: is treated by the world 
as a sick child to be nursed back to health, it will 
take one, and perhaps two generations before she can 
recover her previous efficiency. After that, whether 
she is a danger or not to Europe depends on_ her 
Government. Her docile and industrious people are, 
at any rate, sickened of war, and represent no longer 
any active menace to the people of Europe.’’ It 
appears that if Germany is to be in a position to 
utilise her full working capacity, she will need during 
the coming year imported food amounting to about a 
quarter of that normally imported into the United 
Kingdom. 


At the invitation of Sir Robert Hadfield some 200 
representatives of the firm of (Messrs. Hadfields, 


‘Sheffield, including directors, members of the technical, 


financial, and commercial staffs, the research depart- 
ment, managers, foremen, workmen, and boys, visited 
inspect the British Scientific 
Products Exhibition, at the Central Hall, Westminster, 
and the Science Exhibition, South Kensington. At 
a luncheon at the Central Hall Sir Robert Hadfield, 
who presided, said he was far from being a pessimist 
at the present time. Naturally the workmen, owing 
to higher prices prevailing, wanted higher wages. 


What was wanted was the exercise of more patience 


on both sides, and the recognition of the fact that the 
best way to gain one’s ends was by the constitutional 
method of Parliament. That was the method which 
would, he was sure, commend itself most to the 
working man. Sir Richard Gregory, 
chairman of the organising committee of ° the 
British Scientific Products Exhibition, said that 
the lesson to be learned from the exhibition was 
that modern civilisation demanded progressive. work 
from science and from industry. After lunch a visit 
was paid to the Science Museum at South Kensington, 
where the partv. was joined’ by Prince Albert, who 
spent half an hour with them in looking over the 
exhibits. The Prince, who is chairman of the Indus- 
trial Welfare Society, expressed his pleasure at 
meeting such a happy lot of workers, and said he 
would be very glad to receive a copy of the essay 
which won the prize offered by Sir Robert Hadfield 
to the boy who wrote the best account of his visit to 
London. 


KiLparE, the site of the nunnery of St. Brigid, was 
undoubtedly in pre-Christian times the site of a fire 
and solar sanctuary, and the traditions of the older 
establishment have in more than one respect coloured 
those of the later. In Man for August Prof. R. A. 
Macalister quotes an early story about Dar-Lughdach, 
a pupil of St. Brigid, who was smitten by unholy love 
for a man. An angel warned her in a dream to fill 
two shoes with hot coals and to walk shod therewith. 
The fire extinguished her ardour, and St. Brigid 
blessed her feet and the burns were healed. Prof. 
Macalister suggests that this legend is a tradition of 
the practice at pagan Kildare of the rite of the fire- 
walk. Starting with fragmentary recollections of a 
woman. who walked on fire with unhurt feet, the 
legend would naturally assume its present form. The 
name of the heroine means ‘‘ Daughter of Lugaid,’’ 
but it is highly probable that this is a perversion or 
a by-form. of Dar-Luga, ‘‘ Daughter of Lug,’’ the sun- 
god. 


UNDER the title of ‘A Brief History of the Study 
of Greek Vase-painting’’ Mr. S._B. Luce, in the 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103 | 


Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, vol. xxxix., Decemb: 


Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 
(vol. lvii., No. 7, 1918), gives a useful summary of 
what has been done to elucidate the subject. A valu- 
able addition to his paper is a classified list, by 
countries, of museums containing collections of vases, 
with accounts of the catalogues which have been 
issued. A study of this will probably lead to the dis- 
covery of other smaller collections which deserve 
attention, and will stimulate the curators of museums 
containing uncatalogued collections to supply the 
want. 


eae ee ee i 


In the Report for 1918 on the Lancashire sea-— 
fisheries laboratory at the University of Liverpool and — 
the sea-fish hatchery at Piel, Prof. Herdman, Mr. — 
Andrew Scott, and Miss H. Mabel Lewis give a short — 
account of their intensive study of the marine plank- 
ton around the south end of the Isle of Man. One 


conclusion, they state, is becoming clear from the 


accumulated observations of the last ten years, and 
that is the surprisingly small number of different kinds 
of organisms which make up the bulk of the plank- — 
ton that are of ‘real importance in regard to fish..— 
Seven genera of diatoms and six species of copepods — 
are named in this connection, and particular attention - 

is directed to one of the copepods, Temora longicornis, 
which was found in 1917 to be related definitely to’ 
the summer herring fishery off the Isle of Man. To 
the same report Dr. Johnstone contributes a summary 


re 
er 


_of his investigations into the dietetic value of sprats 


and other clupeoid fishes, including a short discussion 
of the nature of the “maturation” which takes place 
when pilchards, herrings, sprats, etc., are “ processed 
and packed d@ la sardine.”” When newly packed the 
bones are not softened, and the taste and smell 
not those expected ; the ripening is the result of allow- ' 
ing the tins to stand unopened for a period of six | 
months to four years, during which the fish continu- 
ally improve in flavour and the bones become softened. — 
Apparently nothing is known as to the nature of this 
maturation process, but bacterial action can be ex- — 
cluded. Dr. Johnstone suggests that it may be a — 
process of autolysis due to specific intracellular en-— 
zymes normally present in the flesh of the fish, but 
on chemical examination the amount of amino-acids 
—which would be formed on the partial splitting of — 
the protein—was found to be negligible. Further in- — 
vestigation is required to elucidate the nature of the. 
process. Thigdt 


Pror. ARTHUR THOMSON gives an account (Journ. 
of Anat., vol. liii., pts. ii. and iii., 1919) of his ob- 
servations on the maturation of the human ovum, 
and holds that there is distinct evidence of the first 
and second polar bodies being given off while the egg 
still lies in the ovary within the discus proligerus of 
the Graafian follicle, and therefore before it has been © 
subjected to the influence of the spermatozoon. This 
is contrary to the general rule, for in other vertebrates 
the sperm usually enters the egg during the second ~ 
maturation division. The average size of the human — 
ovum is, according to Prof. Thomson, 0-:11X0-095 mm. 
(including the zona pellucida)—that is, consi erably 
less than is generally stated. - 


LittLe’ has hitherto been known of the Polyelad 
Turbellaria of the Japanese coasts, and the attention — 
of workers on this interesting order may be directed — 
to a paper by M. Yeri and T. Kaburaki (in Journ. 


1918), recently received, in which are described twenty. 
six species referred to fourteen genera. Two n 
genera have been formed, and seventeen of the species 
are described as new. One of the latter belongs to 
the remarkable genus Bergendalia, and has the pecu- 


AucusT 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


473 


- duplicate male organ not connected with the vas 
ferens. 


___ Aw article on *‘ The Passing of the American Potash 
_ Famine,” contributed by Prof. P. G. H. Boswell to the 
- Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry (June 16, 
1919), states that large quantities of potash will prob- 
ably be delivered from Germany both to the British 
“Isles and to America. This would seem to suggest 
lat. the new potash-obtaining methods introduced 
ing the war are not producing sufficient supplies. 
America the total production of potash for 1917 
aS 50,000 tons, against 230,000 tons imported before 
ie war. Just before the National Exposition of 
emical Industries, held in New York in September, 
18, Russian potash was being used to some extent 
the chemical industry, and in large quantities by 
glass industry. This potash was obtained from 
eon plants, which were the chief source of fats 
the South Russian peasantry. At first it realised 
much as go cents per Ib., but now it is sold with 
ty at 15 cents. Only a small quantity of this 
y was permitted to be exported to Britain, until 
restrictions were removed shortly before the armis- 
when, too, our own supplies were better because 
e new recovery process from blast-furnace flues. 
reater part of the potash imported in the United 
; was used for fertilising purposes, and this is 
to have been the result of German propa- 
work. Obviously the poor, sandy soils of 
hern Germany and our own much cultivated, and 
equently exhausted, soils need potash far more 
the practically virgin soils of America. It is 

Siobable that America will in future use far 
potash for fertilising purposes, and, in con- 
ce, the world’s demand for potash will be much 


easily satisfied. : 


microscopic structure of coal has been a matter 


Dp 


t it was in the year 1854 that the study was started 
ith fresh vigour by Prof. John Quekett. Again 
1870 the subject was revived by Prof. Huxley in 
rticle on “‘The Formation of Coal,’? and since 
it has been approached from time to time, almost 
ys with regard to its vegetable contents, and 
some papers by J. Lomas and others are still fresh 
) our minds. A paper recently published by Dr. 
farie C. Stopes on ‘‘ The Ingredients of Bituminous 
sal’? (Proc. Roy. Soc., B, vol. xc., p. 470, 1919) 
one to some further light upon the botanical 
de of the question, but this paper attacks the 
‘oblem from an entirely different point of view. 
Coal is a rock,’’ the author says, and may be studied 
the same way that vetrologists work at other rocks. 
The al structure of coal as seen in sections is 
described, and the three layers hitherto generally 
recognised are pointed out; but the bright layer is 
now divided so that there are four kinds of substance, 
for which names are proposed. Some account jis also 
ven of “The Behaviour of the Four Ingredients 
ith Certain Chemicals.’’ has 


Mr. J. Morrison puts forward a new view in a 
_ paper on “The Shap Minor Intrusions ’’ (Quart. Journ. 
_ Geol. Soc., London, vol. Ixxiv., p. 127, 1919) to 
_ account for the presence of corroded crystals of ortho- 
clase and quartz in a magma of basic character. He 
suggests that differentiation into a granitic type above 
and a more basic type below occurred in a large body 
of molten rock, and that the crystals, as they developed 
in the uvper levels, sank through the mass until thev 
became incorporated in the basic portion, from which 


+ No. 2598, vor. 103] 


tific interest for the best part of a century,’ 


they could not have separated by ordinary processes 
of crystallisation during cooling. 


Messrs. E, T. Wuerry and E. Q. Adams (‘The 
Classification of Mimetic Crystals,’ Journ. Washington 
Acad. Sci., vol. ix., p. 153, 1919) endeavour to get rid 
of the indefinite prefix ** pseudo” in mineralogy, when 
a mineral crystallises in a form closely resembling 
that of a system other than its own. ‘They describe 
quartz, for example, not as pseudohexagonal, but as 
cryptotrigonal and phenohexagonal, and other terms 
are introduced for cases where crystals compoundeil 
by twinning produce forms simulating a foreign degree 
of symmetry. ' 


Tue Annales of the National 
Athens (vol, vii... 1916) contains several papers 
by Prof. D. Eginitis and Messrs. E. Goulandris 
and N. Critikos on earthquakes in 'Greece during the 
years 1912-14. The total number of shocks recorded 
is 1366, giving an unusually high annual average for 
so small a country. Two destructive earthquakes (on 
January 24, 1912, and October 17, 1914) were felt over . 
the greater part of Greece and ruined many places, 
the one in the south-east of Cephalonia and the north 
of Zante, the other in and around Thebes. Both 
occurred without any warning fore-shocks, and were 
followed by a large number of after-shocks (the Thebes 
earthquake by 712 within a year), several of them stron 
enough to add to the ruin wrought by the principa 
shocks. On November 23 and 27, 1914, and January 27, 
1915, destructive earthquakes were felt in western Greece 
and the Ionian Islands, the epicentres being respec- 
tively near the south-east and north-west coasts of 
Santa Maura and the north-west coast of Ithaca. In 
a general discussion Prof. Eginitis states that, of the 
earthquakes registered at Athens from 1900 to 1914, 
733 occurred during the night (6 p.m, to 6 a.m.) and 
611 during the day; but he suggests that to prove the 
greater night-frequency, a longer series of records 
would be required. 


THE strong earthquake which disturbed the Midland 
counties on January 14, 1916 (NaTuRE, vol. xcvi., 
1916, pp. 572, 601), is described by Dr. C. Davison 
in the Geological Magazine for July (vol. vi., 1919, 
pp. 302-12). The earthquake occurred at 7.29 p.m., 
and was sensible over an area of about 50,200 square 
miles. It originated in two distinct foci, one about 
two miles north-east of Stafford, and the other about 
one and a half miles north-west of Eccleshall, the 
distance between them being eight or nine miles. The 
vibrations from the two foci coalesced along a narrow 
band crossing between them and at right angles to 
the line joining them. As this band is slightly concave 
towards the west, and lies nearer the western focus, 
it follows that the eastern focus was first in action, 
and that the impulse at the western focus occurred 
before the vibrations from the other had reached it. 
The earthquake was thus a twin earthquake. The 
relations between the Stafford earthquake and the 
twin earthquakes of Derby in 1903, 1904, and 1906, 
and those of Leicester in 1893 and I904, are con- 
sidered, and it is suggested that the crust at some 
depth must be corrugated in two systems of perpen- 
dicular folds about seventeen miles in wave-length. 


Le Temps of August 27, in an article on the newly 
founded Institut d’Optique, gives some interesting 
figures on the growth of the optical industry in France 
during the war. These indicate that the output of 
instruments suitable for military purposes increased 
about ten times between 1914 and 1918. The supplies 
of optical glass did not present so great a cause for 
anxietv as in this country, for before the war, with 


Observatory of 


474 


NATURE 


[AuGUST 14, 1919 


three optical glass factories in operation, the supplies 
were more than adequate for their domestic require- 
ments, The output increased from 4000 kilos. a month 
in 1914 to 12,000 in 1918. The claim advanced in the 
article that this represents 80 per cent. of the total 
Allied production can scarcely be correct, as our own 
output during 1918 probably exceeded gooo kilos. a 
month, Like curselves, France was largely dependent 
before the war on German sources for supplies of the 
higher grades of optical instruments. She is deter- 
mined that this position shall not recur, and has 
taken steps not only to safeguard her own supplies, 
but also to secure a share of the world market. As a 
means to this end, the Institut d’Optique, providing 
for higher instruction in optics, research and testing 
laboratories, as well as for the training of skilled 
glass workers and mechanics, has been founded. As 
the head of the institute she has been fortunate enough 
to secure Prof. Fabry, for whom it is proposed to 
create a chair of optics at the Sorbonne. The insti- 
tute aims at fulfilling for the whole French optical 
industry the functions which, in Germany, the special 
technical staffs exercise for their own firms. The 
institute will receive annual subsidies from the Minis- 
tries interested in its work. 


Tue question is frequently raised in connection with 
the use of aluminium and its alloys whether they can 
be satisfactorily soldered; and, if so, by what method 
and with what metals and alloys. Aluminium and, 
to a less extent, its alloys can be welded quite satis- 
factorily by the oxygen-gas process, but often it is 
not desirable to heat the parts to be joined to the 
relatively high temperature necessary to weld them in 
this manner, owing to the resultant distortion of the 
parts, and a means of joining it at lower temperatures 
is sought. The U.S. Bureau of Standards accordingly, 
in its Circular No. 78, gives an account of special 
tests recently made at the Bureau, to determine the 
general trustworthiness of aluminium solders. The 
most common of these consist of tin as a base, with 
the addition of zinc and aluminium, and sometimes 
lead, "in moderate proportions. These metals and their 
combinations are electrolytically electro-negative to 
aluminium. A soldered joint is, therefore, rapidly 
attacked and disintegrated when exposed to moisture. 
There is no solder of aluminium of which this is not 
true. Such joints should, therefore, never be made 
unless they are to be protected against corrosion by 
paint or varnish. Solders are best applied without a 
flux after a preliminary cleaning and tinning of the 
surfaces to be soldered. The composition may be 
varied within wide limits. It should: consist of a tin 
base with the addition. of zine or both zine and 
aluminium, the chief function of which is to produce 
a semi-fluid mixture within the range of soldering 
temperatures. The tensile strength of a good 
aluminium solder is about 7000 lb. per sq. in. There 
is no reason why it need be brittle, as several com- 
mercial varieties are, and it is very undesirable that it 
should be. Its strength depends upon the type and 
workmanship. 


In consequence of the increased cost of production, 
the published prices of the Observatory and the Com- 
panion are to be raised to 1s. 6d. and 2s. 6d. respec- 
tively, beginning with the new volume. 


Tue Wireless Press, Ltd., will. shortly begin the 
publication of a new monthly periodical entitled the 
Radio Review, which will be devoted to the scientific 
development. of .radio-communication and contain a 
review of all current wireless literature. 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103 | 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

Koprr’s Prertopic Comer (1906 IV.).—This count 
an observation of which by Dr. Wolf was announced — 
last week, has since been photographed at Algiers en — 
August 4, and at Greenwich on August 6 and 7. In — 
default of an ephemeris, an approximate place for a 
few days may be inferred from these observations :— 


G.M.T, Re S. Pieek 

" - mM, s Plticiad shot 

July 30 Pie {0 19 27 12 9 32 

August 4 .. 10 19 26 32 ie, Smee 
6 ww. 106 19 2624 $B 57r 
7 Pr 106 19 26 23 '. 8 532: 


mare é ! Rice. ied heeeaeress2 i 
The comet was said to be of magnitude 10-5 0n 
July. 30, and 11-0 on August 7. tr ee 

Macnitupe or Nova Aguit#.—The Astroph 
Journal for June contains a series of measur 


brightness of this star made by Mr. Stebbins a 


E. Dershem with the photo-electric photometer between 
June 9 and December 10 of last year, on seventy-eight 
nights in all. Noting the precision of the instrument, 
for the probable error of one observation is said to _ 
be of the order of a hundredth of a magnitude, this — 


series might be accepted as standard. It shows an 
almost uniform decrease in the light of the star until 
June go to mag. 3:3. There was an increase of 0:2 mag. ~ 
between the nights of July 1 and 3, a similar ii crease . 
between July 22 and 27, and an outburst measured — 
by 0-7 mag. between August 5 and 6. ‘Vater dates 
when the brightness increased were September 1-5 
(04 mag.), September 19-21 (02 mag.), October 6-12 
(0:3 mag.), and, except for these, the fall of br htness 
ere 


was slow but uniform until December 10, when | 
magnitude was 5-67. The authors say that they wer 
disappointed not to detect any rapid changes of light. 
Although the measures often extended over four or — 
five hours, there was only one night (June to) when _ 
a variation so large as o-10 mag, could be estab- — 
lished, and the measures do not show any suc A Ane 
erratic variations in the course of an hour or so. It — 
would, indeed, have been interesting if the large out- ie 
burst between August 5 and 6 had happened in the 
course of an. evening’s observations, Mo 8 _the — 
increases above mentioned have been recorded in other — 
series of observations. ‘eae oan 


Mass aND MomeNTUM oF STELLAR Sy ig i 
memoir of the College of Sciences of the Kyoto — 

Imperial University (vol. iii., No. 7, August, 1918) 48 4 

useful, since. it gives collected lists of binary and — 
multiple stellar systems, with the determined elements _ 
of the orbits and the adopted parallax. From this — 
data the authors, Messrs. Shinjo and Watanabe, have — 
found that for all double and multiple systems the mass 
is of the same order of magnitude, being in the mean _ 
about one and a half times that of our solar system. — 
For spectroscopic binaries of the A type the mass is — 
found to be only slightly larger, but four spectroscopic — 
binary systems of the B type. have in the mean a 
mass twenty times. that of our system. A similar 
research by Prof. Aitken. recently showed that the — 
visual binary systems were about twice as massive as — 
our sun, and suggested that stars of classes K and_ 

are less massive than those of classes A to-G. The 
authors of the memoir now before us co 
also the angular momenta of the systems, and f 
that, on the whole, this is of the same order of m:; 
tude. for all visual systems, being more than a 

hundred times that of our solar system. That the — 
masses of the celestial bodies are, approximately, 
about the same order of magnitude has already | 


AvcustT 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


475 


counted for by theoretical considerations. Messrs. 
injo and Watanabe endeavour to show that the con- 
ancy of angular momentum results from the hypo- 
ssis that the celestial bodies have evolved from 
nordial swarms. of meteorites. 


“DESIGN OF OPTICAL MUNITIONS 
;, OF WAR. 


N a paper read before the Optical Society in 
January last,’ Lt.-Col. A. C. Williams, the officer 

| lately in charge of the inspection of optical 
nitions at Woolwich, described in some detail the 
ts made by his department when inspecting the 
lous optical instruments submitted by the manu- 
rers. The precedent thus set is a most useful 
It is common knowledge what an immense 
sr of instruments were made and accepted, but 
not so generally known how stringent were some 
the tests. Col. Williams makes no apology for 
eect these tests, and in stating the con- 
of service shows how different Army condi- 
are from those of civil life. They are indeed 
sre. ‘It must be remembered that Service instru- 
a be sent to any part of the world, and must 

1 serviceable when used in Arctic snows, 
s mud, Mesopotamia heat and desert sand- 
1, or after travelling in lorries for thousands of 
ver bad roads. In some cases they ae at- 

fo guns, and have to withstand the shock of 

; SS eeasticte. be remembered that they are not 
by men accustomed to handling delicate 
, and that it is only on rare occasions that 
be sent to a workshop for repair.’’ In ad- 
Mie We Pres that of weight is always 


| Mr. J. W. French in his interesting con- 

© the discussion points out, it is easy to 
Pe tion te witlstatd ‘severe shock tests 
s is not of importance. 

‘as is the description of the various tests 
Woolwich, the most interesting part of 
e glimpse given of the pre-war attitude 
nment Department to the scientific 

ris 
S$ assumes that the manufacturer by 

iv instinct “‘ should know what classes of 
ts are required, and should submit to the 
s the highest class of designs of such instru- 
The designs would then be considered by a 
of experts, who would criticise and decide 


' Secrecy was necessary. during 
en it was frequently insisted upon 
au sary In times of peace it has 
ect of holding back the development of new 
ments. It is common knowledge how much 
. Cheshire did to bring together the manufac- 
irer and the officers testing and using the instru- 
when made. In the future it is essential that 
designs of the Service instruments should. be 
tly considered by a body of experts, manufacturers 
vell as. officers, so that instruments are not built 
in the haphazard way they were in days gone by. 
is not necessary to trace the evolution of an instru- 
nt by its obsolete excrescences or unnecessary parts 


It is essential, however, that the fundamental parts 


1 The Design and Inspection of Certsin Optical Munitions of War.” By 
Col. A. C. Williams, R.A. (Transe Optical Soc., January, 1919.) 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


should be accurate, within certain specified limits, and 
that the experts should decide on those limits. 
The Government must also be prepared to pay 
liberally for the manufacture of first models. In the 
future, with the aid of the National Physical Labora- 
tory, the Institute of Technical Optics, the British 
Optical Manufacturers’ Association, and the British 
Scientific Instrument Research Association, the 
Government Departments should not find it difficult 
to obtain good and generous technical assistance. 
Rosert S. WHIPPLE. 


THE OUTLOOK OF METEOROLOGICAL 
SCIENCE. i 


7 no period in the sixty-nine years of the society’s 
existence has the president had a wider range 
of choice for the subject of his address than at the 
present moment; and certainly never has the richness 
of choice been more of an embarrassment than on this 
occasion. The notable and welcome increase in the 
number of fellows adds to the responsibility of the 
situation. Whether we look backward over the days 
of war, or forward to the future and all that it 
may have in store for those who are interested in the 
study of weather, there is more than enough to occupy 
the time which tradition has placed at my disposal. 


Looking Backward—The Position before the War— 


The Investigation of the Upper Air. 


Looking backward, we must take account of a 
promise of remarkable activity in all branches of 
meteorology. Even if there had been no war, the last 
five years would have been fruitful years in the 
development of the science. The progress of aerial! 
navigation, already begun in 1914, promised un- 
exampled opportunities in the comparatively new study 
of aerography, in addition to those which meteoro- 
logists had previously made for themselves. 


The Shock of War and the Reaction. 


Thus the outbreak of war found the various meteoro- 
logical agencies actively employed upon their own pro- 
jects for the world’s enlightenment, and its first effect 
was to paralyse a good deal of their activity. It cut 
our wireless communications, hampered our telegraphic 
reports, put shipping cut of bounds, claimed our active 
workers and their possible substitutes for services that 
wore a uniform, and altered the whole balance of thé 
complicated machinery which had been elaborated’ for 
our contribution to the world’s stock of knowledge of 
the atmosphere. es 

The whirligig of time has brought its revenges. 
We are no longer allowed to regard the weather as a 
subject of curious inquiry that can be ignored in time 
of war. It*has been borne in upon us that weather 
has its influence on the production, preservation, and 
transport of food; that it ‘has a ring upon the 
health of the community; that floods and droughts, 
sunshine and ‘storm, such trivial circumstances as low 
clouds and fog, have their effect upon operatioris of 
offence and defence; and’ we have learned in the 
school of experience’ that ‘aerial navigation tay be 
attended with danger to’ others beside the navigators. ° 


The Call for more General Knowledge of Meteoro- 
logical Methods and Results. - . 

The quickened interest in the study of weather for. 
all purposes has expressed itself in the creation of a 
number of special establishments for the Naval Air 
1 From an address on “‘ Meteorologt : The Society and its Fellows,” 


delivered befote the Royal Meteorological Society on January 15 by Sif 
Napier Shaw, F.R.S., president of the society. , Pe Re 


476 NATURE 


[| AuGusT 14, 1919 


Service, for the Navy itself, for the Army, and for 
the Royal Air Force. 

Throughout the whole course of the war we were 
constantly reminded that what was standing in the 
way of an effective use of past experiences of weather 
in all parts of the world was a lack of general know- 
ledge of the common methods of meteorological study 
and of the principles deduced by their aid. Until this 
position is secured, every letter in reply to a simple 
inquiry must be prefaced with an explanation of what 
you mean by an isotherm, an isobar, the exposure of 
an anemometer, and even the difference between the 
points of the mariner’s compass and the geographical 
orientation, and every popular lecture must begin, and 
generally has to end, with a recitation of rudimentary 
ideas, 


The Preliminary Training Required for a Professional . 


Career. 


Here, perhaps, it is desirable to make it clear that 
the practice of the science of meteorology includes the 
process of observing, of the first part; the compilation 
and summarising, in maps or otherwise, of the facts 
of weather, of the second part; the application of 
meteorological principles, which includes the forecast- 
ing of future weather, of the third part; and the 
development of the «science of meteorology, of the 
fourth part. Any one of the first three may be pursued 
according to recognised canons of procedure with satis- 
factory results; every one of them is indispensable, 
and history is my witness that all three of them may 
be pursued simultaneously without any effective re- 
cognition of the fourth part, which forms our only 
avenue to the comprehension of the secrets of the 
sequence of weather. 

In the present position of meteorological science 
there are two extremes of opinion: either to think 
the penetration into the secrets of the subject to be so 
difficult that we must be content to forgo the attempt 
and deal with what we have, or to think it so easy 
that only observations are required and the training 
of our brains is of no account. Both these extremes 
ought to be avoided. Brains without observations ‘are 
certainly of no avail at all; and observations, however 
numerous and however widely distributed, will not at 


this stage of meteorological science exonerate us from 


the use of highly trained intelligence. 

If trained intelligence is to be devoted to the important 
questions which fall within the scope of meteorology, 
there must be monev to pay for it at the rates which 
prevail in the professions with which meteorology 
must in practice compete. 


The Society: Its Relation to the General 
Meteorological Organisation. 


What, then, is the relation of the society to such a 
future? If I may venture to define it, I would say 
that the society, as representing all the many-sided 
interests of meteorological study, may fairly claim the 
right and duty of fostering, or even of creating, the 
atmosphere which is necessary for the successful 
development which is now required. 

One of the urgent questions for the future is a new 
home for its meetings and for its invaluable library. 
Its journal has enriched the literature of the science 
with contributions of many different kinds. That, 
again, is capable of development with great advan- 
tage, and in one respect the need for development is 
extremely urgent. Meteorology is a_ co-operative 
science in the progress of which all nations share. 
Its literature, all told, is probably larger and more 


diversified in character than that of other sciences. . 


When: we take into account the diversity of language 
and of form, I suppose that there is no meteorologist 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


correspondence at the Meteorological Office, I feel 


who can follow for himself without the aid of many — 
colleagues the progress of the science in different parts — 
of the world; and that makes it all the more neces- — 
sary for the fellows of the society to come to the 
assistance of each other by providing an effective — 
survey and summary of the work that is being done. — 
If meteorology is to be put upon a proper footing ~ 
to discharge its multifarious duties to the public, due — 
provision must be made for the collection of observa- — 
tions to give a proper survey of the rainfall and other — 
aspects of weather for all public purposes. ¥. 


_The Future Responsibility for the Public Memory. 

So far there is very little difference of opinion, but 
when we take the next step and inquire with whom 
should rest the duty of supplying the necessary ob- 
servations, the unanimity may be less marked. We — 
are all agreed that it is a matter of national import- — 
ance, and the necessary cost should be borne by 
national funds. Now national funds are of two kinds, — 
some derived from Imperial taxation and others from — 
local taxation. In either case the money comes ulti- 
mately out of the same pockets, and to me it appears 
clear that the proper division of responsibility in. this 
case is that the local authorities should contribute the 
necessary local observations, while the central authority 
should provide for the organisation of the observa- 
tions, the co-ordination of the results, and the dis- 
tribution of the information. Such an arrangement is 
at the same time the most economical and the most 
efficient. If the nation wants to kndéw what the 
weather has been doing at Magna-Parva, it seems 
natural that it should apply to the local authority of - 
Magna-Parva for the information, because the events 
of which a record is required occurred within the 
jurisdiction of the local authority. That the events 
should be allowed to pass unrecorded, because some- 
body has not been sent from somewhere else to record 
them, approaches the limit of absurdity. 

A full weather-station of the Meteorological Office 
now includes a barograph, a thermograph, and a 
hygrograph. ‘The instruments are easily procured, 
and, except in an atmosphere like that of London, 
they are very durable. But such instruments are 
scientific only if scrupulous attention is paid to 
setting, checling, and timing—duties which require — 
even more skill and care than the daily readings of — 
standard instruments. A new survey of the meteoro- — 
logy of the country on the basis of self-recording — 
instruments is not unworthy of your attention. They 
require for their interpretation the accompaniment of 
the nephoscope and the camera. And, in passing, let 
me say that the camera obscura which Capt. Cave — 
introduced at South Farnborough seems to me to have — 
possibilities as an instrument of meteorological ob- — 
servation which are in many ways unrivalled. 


Other Opportunities of Co-operation. 


But observing and experimenting are only one side 
of meteorological activity, and dealing with observa 
tions that have been made requires quite as muc 
scientific skill and daring as devising and making the — 
original observations. From the recollections of my — 


aT es ee 


Be j —e 
Pn ee epee eee Fe ee ey ey 


eerie 


sure that there are a considerable number of peopl 
with scientific aspirations in this country who regar 
the Meteorological Office as a collection of leisured 
clerks waiting to be moved to do something by the 
fortunate originators of bright ideas who flourish most” 
outside, but, so to speak, within striking distance of 
Government institutions. I do not think I do soi 
of my correspondents injustice if I say that the gist 
the correspondence is that if they supply the ideas 
the way of the design for an instrument or som 


a Avcust 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


477 


riginal observations in the-crude form the Office can 
9 the rest. I can assure them that I have never 
nown the staff of the Office to be at a standstill for 
ack of ideas to carry out, and from the freedom of 
_ this chair I will be bold enough to say that there are 
' Worse services to meteorology than helping to carry 
_ out the ideas of the Meteorological Office. 


' The Fellow as a Centre of Local Influence. 
And outside the immediate sphere of the society 
ere is much that is necessary to create an atmosphere 
yourable for the development of the science. We 
ant people to know that meteorology is not exclu- 
ely forecasting. No doubt the view into the un- 
own future is, as Prof. Schuster said in his address 
to the British Association in 1915, the lure of scientific 
“research, ‘but the long way that has to be travelled 
_order to make’ sure of it rewards us with many 
le-views of common human interest. The discovery 
of the separation of the, atmosphere into troposphere 
_Stratosphere, surely belongs to. the great achieve- 
its of the human intellect; and the meteorological 
lorati of the globe is worth reciting. So I pic- 
¢ to. myself a meteorologist, even in a part of the 
om or the Empire so remote that he cannot share 
privileges of our monthly meetings, who would be 
tre of. knowledge of. the weather without aspiring 
reputation for foretelling. the fortunes of his 
’s hay or anticivating. the prospects. of a 


passage. 


‘piloratio: 


<a 


ECENT IRON-ORE DEVELOPMENTS IN 
-  .fHE UNITED KINGDOM.) | 

] HILST the basis of the prosperity of a countt 
admittedly agriculture, its industrial iroath 
unded on mineral resources, and its participation 
the world’s markets is chiefly dependent on the 
o home manufactures. | 

Tt ‘true that the first historical reference to this 

antry mentions the export of tin from Cornwall, 
that Great Britain’s production and export of 
r in the early part of the nineteenth century 
the largest in the world; but for its modern 
industrial pre-eminence it is indebted to its coal and 


_ The cheap manufacture of iron and steel in this 
. i aiers in the past been greatly aided by the pro- 

{ | dispensation that the ironstone was so closely 
sociated in Nature with the fuel required to smelt 
that the factor of transportation was practically 


_ _ But the gradual exhaustion of the richer black- 
yands and clay-ironstones of the Carboniferous forma- 
on, and the introduction of the acid Bessemer process 
steel manufacture, which requires a pure ore free 
9m phosphorus and sulphur, made it necessary to 
nd other sources of iron-ore supply. For many years 
United Kingdom has been dependent for 30 per 
nt. of the iron-ore used in its blast furnaces on 
reign countries. Foreign ore vlays even a bigger 

than at first sight appears, since ‘it contains 
per cent. of iron as against an average of 30 per 
nt. for home ores. - The importation of haematite, rich 
n iron and low in phosphorus, from Spain and: the 
Mediterranean has built up the big iron industries that 
are engaged in the manufacture of steel by the acid 
process in South Wales, on the North-West Coast, on 
‘the North-East. Coast, and in Scotland, where the 
coh Cardiff. Port Talbot, Whitehaven, Barrow, 
Middlesbrough. Newcastle, and the Clyde, situated in 
a ae oer pf eS leet aeveret at ue R »yal School of Mines on May 27 


a NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


9 which these raw materials can be applied. 


close proximity to an ample supply of labour, enable 
foreign ore and native coal to be easily assembled and 
cheaply handled. ; 

But it was found to have its drawbacks when the 
war broke out; and the scarcity of ship-tonnage, which 
resulted from the activity of the enemy submarines, 
raised. the cost of imported ore from about 20s. (at 
which best Bilbao ore ruled in British ports in 1914) 
to an actual price of more than 6l,. per ton, although 
(under the cloak of Government subsidies) it figured at 
a lower level. At one period of the war the supply ’ 
from these sources threatened to be cut off altogether. 

To meet this situation an increased development of 
the Jurassic ironstones of this country was decided 
on. These ironstones, although abundant and cheaply 
worked, are what the ironmasters term ‘lean ’’—that 
is to say, they are low in iron, averaging only 28 per 
cent. of that metal. Moreover, they have a high phos- 
phorus- and. sulphur-content, and -for the most part 
are rather siliceous. 

The increased production of the domestic phosphoric 
ores brought about by the war raised many difficult 
problems. In the first place, it necessitated a different 
metallurgical’ treatment. This involved the substitu- 
tion of basic-lined steel furnaces for those of the acid 
type, with consequent increased supplies of suitable 
refractory materials. It also involved large additional 
supplies of fuel for smelting, and of limestone for 
fluxing the ore in the blast-furnaces. 

Especial difficulties arose with regard to magnesite 
and magnesite bricks. Prior to the outbreak of the 
war the magnesite-brick ‘industry. was: almost wholly 
in the hands of the Austrians. Possessing in their 
own country extensive deposits of magnesite pecu- 
liarly suited for brick-making, they devoted both skill 
and money to the perfecting of their products, with 
the result that before the war they commanded prac- 
tically the entire custom of the steel trade of this 
country. To make up for the loss of the Austrian 
material, arrangements were made by the Ministrv of 
Munitions for the manufacture in this country of mag- 
nesite bricks. and the raw material was obtained from 
Eubcea, in Greece, and from Salem, in Madras. 

To furnish the required dolomite and limestone, new 
quarries were opened up in this country. 

With regard to labour a fresh supply had to be found, 
not only to work the new quarries of ironstone, lime- 
stone, dolomite, etc., but also to build the railwavs 
required to oven them up, to erect extensions to 
existing vlant, to man the new works, to reline fur- 
naces, etc., and this in face of the incessant and urgent 
calls of the Army to fill the gans in the fighting line. 

Considerable use was made of prisoner labour. The 
difficulty with prisoners was to induce them to work. 
On account of the Army regulations, work could 
be compelled neither by force nor by a reduction of 
rations. The difficulty was overcome by the intro- 
duction . of. niece-rates. but only to a limited extent, 
as there was no outlet for surolus earnings in the 
canteens, food supplies having been cut down on 
account of the general food shortage. On the average, 
the efficiency of orisoner labour was about 50 per cent. 


_of that of British labour. 


The shortage of auarrymen led to active steps being 
taken in responsible quarters to supplement and to 
increase the efficiency of the manual labour at the 
quarries by the provision of mechanical appliances for 
stripping, breaking, and loading the ironstone. 

In these open workings the output per man em- 
ploved varies with the thickness of the ironstone-bed, 
the amount of cover to be removed, the use made of 
mechanical appliances, and the condition of the 
weather. The weather materially affects the output, 
especially where hand-labour is concerned. . From 


478 NATURE 


[Aveust 14, 1919 4 


returns made to the Ministry of Munitions in 
December, 1917, it appears that the average output in 
the Midlands per man employed was 5 tons per shift, 
and that it ranged from 3-8 tons where hand-labour 
was alone employed to more than 15 tons where 
mechanical excavators were in use under favourable 
conditions. The actual saving of manual labour which 
resulted from-.the installation of mechanical plant in 
the ironstone quarries during the war is estimated ‘to 
have been equivalent to more than 3000 men. 

The Jurassic ironstones have a wide distribution 
both in this country and on the Continent. In 1913 
Germany mined in Lorraine and Luxemburg 
28,000,000 tons of minette ores of Jurassic age out 
of a total production of 36,000,000 tons of iron-ore, 
while she imported in addition 3,800,000 tons of the 
same ore from Briey. Without the Lorraine iron-ore 
basin, which she stole from France in 1871, Germany 
would have been unable to go to war, and she took 
care to secure the remaining portion of the field (i.e. 
the Longwy and Briey basins) soon after the com- 
mencement of hostilities. One of the best guarantees 
for future peace is the provision in the Peace Treaty 
that no portion of this iron-ore field remains in 
German hands. 

In England the Jurassic formation stretches as a 
broad band from the coast of Yorkshire to that of 
Dorset. The ironstones occur on four different 
horizons, as shown in the following table, which also 
gives the proportion in which they were worked (in 
relation to the total production of the United Kingdom) 
in 1917, and-their average iron-content. 


Table showing Relative Production and Iron-content 
: of the Jurassic Ironstones., 
Ratio to total Average iron 


[ronstone content 


production. (as'mined); 
; : Per cent. Per cent. 
Inferior Oolite (Northampton- 
shire and Rutland) ee A 32 
Middle Lias (Cleveland) ... 32 28 


Middle Lias (South Lincoln- 
shire, Leicestershire,. and ; 
Oxfordshire) aa! weed 25 


Middle Lias (Raasay) tee 23 
Lower Lias (North Lincoln- 
shire) isa PE idl A 23 
80:5 . 27:6 


The Jurassic ironstones accounted in 1917 for more 


than 80 per cent. of the total output: of iron-ore in 


the United Kingdom, the remaining 20 per cent. being 
made up of haematite mined in Cumberland and Lan- 
cashire (10} per cent.), blackband and clay-ironstone 


‘mined in the English and Scottish coalfields (8 per 


cent.), and sundry ores mined in Wales, Forest of 
Dean, Devonshire, .Weardale, and Ireland (13 per 
cent). © 

The Jurassic ironstones, although poor in iron, are 


‘ valuable because of their considerable thickness and 


widespread occurrence at only a slight depth below 
the surface. With the exception of the Cleveland 
district of Yorkshire, where the ironstone is now 
mined underground, the workings are almost every- 
where at the surface, the ironstone being quarried 
after stripping off an overburden of soil, sand, or clay, 
as the case may be. Since the angle of the dip is 
usually small—or, in other words, the beds are prac- 
tically horizontal—considerable areas can be worked 
before the overburden becomes too great for removal 
at a reasonable cost. As: much as-6o0 ft. of soft 
material (sand or clay) can be removed, and, under 
favourable conditions, probably: 100 ft. will be re- 
moved, 

The different beds of ironstone vary considerably 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103} 


in thickness, The thickest is the Frodingham bed 
in North Lincolnshire, This ironstone is 25 f 
30 ft. in thickness, and consequently can be wor 
very cheaply by mechanical excavation. Before the 
war the cost of the stone in wagons at the quarries. 
(exclusive of royalty) was not more than Is. per ton, 
Probably it is double that now. ba Na 

As_ compared with 1916 figures, the production of 
the Jurassic ironstones as a whole was increased by — 
45,000 tons per week, equivalent to 24 million tons 
per annum, The increase reached this maximum in 
the first half of the year 1918. But it was not 
possible to. maintain production at that figure on 
account of the calls of the Army on labour, The 
increase was made mainly in Northamptonshire, Rut- 
landshire, and Leicestershire, the gerne dt St 


counties accounting for 59. per cent. of | e 
increase; but Cleveland accounted for 26 per 
Oxfordshire for 9 per cent. 2) ea 
With regard to the non-Jurassic iron-ores 
country, the most important are the ne 
of Cumberland and Lancashire. Thes 
remarkable for their richness in iron and 
from both phosphorus and sulphur, and tt 
nish a pig-iron very suitable for the acid Be 
process, and yield an exceptionally pure steel. ‘ 
are, consequently, in great demand, and this dem 


Ties 
: iiss 


the pillars. Manes; 
The deposits occur in masses of ieee shape in 
the Carboniferous Limestone, a formation 1 it 


miles. ce 
No doubt, besides the known deposits, inet 
discovered ore-bodies exist in the Carboniferous | 


Ullcoats, and Ullbank Companies are now engaged in 
developing and working these deposits. 

Since the Carboniferous Limestone is of widespread — 
occurrence in the United Kingdom, it might have been 
expected that valuable hamatite deposits would have 
been discovered in other parts of the country, With 
the exception, however, of deposits of limited extent 
in South Wales and in the Forest of Dean, this 
not proved to be the case. UR 

In the industrial recuperation of this country, 
that the war is over, the working of the low-g: 
Jurassic deposits, which it is fortunate in possessing. 
destined to play a great part. This has been rend 
possible by the great extensions to iron and § 
works that have been initiated with Governmen 
assistance during the war. These works have 2 
planned on the most modern lines, and possess — 
the same site by-product coke-ovens, blast-furna 
steelworks, and rolling mills: They are designed 
the basic process of steel-making, and will be 
with home ores. In choosing the sites for © 
works regard has been paid to the situation - 
raw materials—ore, fuel, and flux—required to 
them. On the completion of these extensions 


\UGUST 14, 1919] 


NATURE 


479 


ould be no necessity for this country to import a 
ngle ton of foreign steel. Before the war something 
se 2,500,000 tons of steel, in the form of slabs, 
looms, and billets, were imported into this country 
nnually, mainly from Germany. 

Bi for success in this great undertaking cheap ore 
nd fuel are essential, and these can be obtained, in 
ace of the greatly augmented cost of labour and 
ial, which is a legacy of the war, only by an all- 
increase in efficiency, embracing capital, en- 
g, and labour—capital by the installation of 
2 equipment, engineering by improved mining 
and labour by an increased output per man 


VERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
. INTELLIGENCE. . 
—The following appointments have been 
t King’s College: Mr. J. E. Barnard, lec- 
nicroscopy; Major J. Quinton, iecturer in 
ics; and Dr. W. Wilson, as whole-time senior 
1 the department of physics. At Bedford 
r Women: Mrs. Orson Wood, demonstra- 
r in the department of physics; Miss Woodman, 
rt-time — onstrator in the department of 
ysiology. The chemical department of the college 
_ divided into the two departments of (a) organic 
and (b) inorganic and physical chemistry. 
wing appointments have been made to the 
the new departments :—Mr. Crompton, head 
department of organic chemistry and director 
laboratories; Dr. Spencer, head of the depart- 
f inorganic and -physical chemistry; Miss 
chele and Miss Triffitt, demonstrators in the 
of organic chemistry; Miss Crewdson, 
in the department. of inorganic and 
try. At Goldsmiths’ College : Mr.-G. T. 
the engineering and building de- 
of assistant professor of physiology has 
upon Dr. O.. Rosenheim, of King’s 


.—Mr. Julian S. Huxley, a scholar of Balliol 
1905 to 1909, and from 1913 to 1916 associate 
30 - of biology in the Rice Institute, Houston, 
and Mr. Henry Clay, scholar of University 
from 1902 to 1906, and author of ‘‘ Economics 
e General Reader,’’ have been elected fellows of 


_ Dr. A. W. Stewart, of the University of Glasgow, 
has been appointed to succeed the late Prof. E. A. 
Letts in the chair of chemistry in the Queen’s Uni- 
ity of Belfast. 
@ late Sir Archibald D. Dawnay bequeathed for 
ships 5000 11. shares in the firm of Archibald 
ay and Sons, Ltd., to the Royal Institute of 
n Architects, 5000 to the London County Council, 
to the South Wales Institute of Engineering, 


sts will become operative after the death 
7 Dawnay. 
_ Apptications for the William Julius Mickle fellow- 
ip, which is of the value of at least 200l., must be 
‘to the academic registrar of the University of 
mndon before October 1 next. The fellowship is 
to both men and women, and will be awarded 
a graduate of the University, resident in London, 
ho has done most to advance medical art or science 


‘ing the past five years. 
NO. 2598, VOL. 103] 


and 1000 to the Battersea Grammar School. . 


APPLICATIONS are invited by the Joint Studentship 
Committee of the Empire Cotton-growing Committee 
of the Board of Trade and the British Cotton Industry 
Research Association for studentships from graduates 
desirous of continuing their studies on the living plant. 
The studentships are of the yearly value of about 15ol., 
and applications must reach the secretary of the 
British Cotton Industry Research Association, 108 
Deansgate. Manchester, on or before August 27. 


Tue prospectus of university courses in the Muni- 
cipal College of Technology, Manchester, for the 
session 1919-20 has now been published. The college 
offers systematic training in the principles of 
mechanical, electrical, municipal, and sanitary engin- 
eering; of architecture and the building trades; of the 
chemical industries and the textile industries; and of 
photography and the printing crafts. It possesses 
extensive laboratories and workshops equipped with 
full-sized modern machinery, tools, and apparatus, 
including not only machines of the types now in 
cia use, but also machines especially constructed 
or demonstration, experiment, and original research. 
There is a generous provision of both entrance and 
post-graduate scholarships. Courses of post-graduate 
and specialised study and research are offered for a 
fourth year to students who have successfully com- 
pleted the three years’ course for a degree in the 
Faculty of Technology in the Victoria University of 
Manchester conducted in the college, or are otherwise 
deemed competent to enter upon them. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, July 21.—M. Léon Guignard in 
the chair.—J. Boussinesq : The existence of an approxi- 
mate relation, pointed out by M. Carvallo for quartz, 
between the two rotatory and dispersive powers of 
bodies.—A. Gautier and P. Clausmann: The action 
of fluorides upon vegetation. Field culture experi- 
ments. The fluorine in these experiments was added 
in the form of amorphous calcium fluoride; it was 
found to be favourable to the growth of wheat, oats, 
carrot, broad bean, cabbage, pea, poppy, potato, and 
hemp. No effect was observed with barley, rye, bean, 
buckwheat, and mustard, whilst beetroot, turnip, and 
onion were prejudicially affected by fluorides.—P. Saba- 
tier and A. Mailhe: The catalytic formation of alkyl 
chlorides, starting with the primary alcohols. A mix- 
ture of hydrochloric acid and alcohol vapour, passed 
over alumina heated to 370° to 450° C., gives the 
alkyl chloride mixed with the ethylenic hydrocarbon 
produced by the dehydration of the alcohol. Primary, 
secondary, and tertiary chlorides may be formed in’ this 
reaction.—V. Grignard and G. Rivat: The addition 
compounds of halogen acids to diphenylarsenic acid. 
The addition products {(C,H,)..-AsO.OH],HCI and 
(C,H;),-AsO.OH.HCI and two corresponding com- 
pounds with HBr were isolated and analysed.—G. 
Giraud: The classification of substitutions of certain 
automorph groups of n variables, and the algebraic 
relations which exist between any (n+1) functions cor- 
responding with certain of these groups.—M. de Broglie : 
The X-ray spectra of the elements. Measurements of 
the K spectrum of rhodium and L absorption spectrum 
of radium.—J. Hebert-Stevens and A. Larigaldie ; Radio- 
_telegraphy by infra-red radiation. The light from .an 
are projector is filtered through a screen which absorbs 
all the visible rays but allows a portion of the infra- 
red rays to pass. The receiver is a parabolic mirror 
with a sensitive thermo-couple placed at its focus, and 
| the latter actuates a relay. Messages have been sent 


‘ 


480 


NATURE 


[Aucust 14, 1919 


over 20 kilometres with this apparatus.—S. Posternak ; 
The synthesis of the hexaphosphate of inosite and its 
identity with the phospho-organic reserve principle of 
green plants. The ester was prepared from inosite and 
phosphoric acid.in presence of an excess of phosphorus 
pentoxide. The yield is. low, 3 to 5 per -cent., 
‘and .the substance is identical in all respects. with the 
natural product from phytine.—R. Levaillant and L. J. 
Simon ; The action of chlorosulphonic acid on methy! 
hydrogen __ sulphate. Methyl — chlorosulphonate, 
.Cl.SO,.(0.CH;), can be isolated from the products’ of 
this reaction.—P, Thiéry; The geology of, the region 
of Alais (Gard).—L. Gentil: The genesis of the 
forms of strata’in chalk districts called rideaux.— 
S. Stefanescu ; The teeth of elephants and mastodons. 


Cape Town. 

Royal Society of South Africa, June 18.—Dr. J. D. F. 
.Gilchrist, president, in the chair.—Miss Ethel M. 
Doidge: South African Microthyriacee. This group 
of fungi has been recently revised by von Hohnel and 
Theissen ‘and others, and the characters of the family 
Microthyriacez have been more clearly defined. A short 
account of the genera represented in South Africa, ana 
descriptions of species in the Cryptogamic section of the 
Union Mycological Herbarium, Pretoria, are given.— 
C. L. Herman: Note on carbolic acid as a fixative 
for histological preparations. \Carbolic acid in 5 per 
cent. solution was found a most efficient fixative for 
histological purposes. It has been used since 1912 for 
all organs, including the central nervous system.’ For 
the thyroid gland it is especially good, as it gives 
thorough fixation of the colloid without shrinking or 
distortion. It acts by precipitating the protein with- 
out, however, entering into combination with it. It 
rapidly penetrates. all tissues, especially the nervous 
tissue, and fixes both the cytoplasm and the nucleus 
without distortion or alteration. The optical. dif- 
ferentiation becomes very good, and all cell-structures 
are found well and clearly defined. Staining is facili- 
tated, and all stains are readily taken up.—J. R. 
Sutton: A contribution to the study of the diamond 
macle, with a note on the internal structure of dia- 
mond. The first part of this paper describes the 
aspect and -characteristics. of .macles from: various 
South African diamond..mines, and. gives « statistics 
showing that the standard thickness to which macles 
tend to conform is.almost exactly one-half that of the 
perfect octahedron standing upon.an equal face.. The 
so-called ‘‘twinning plane.’* is not necessarily. a true 
plane at all, but rather. an irregular surface. _ Bult- 
fontein Mine is remarkable for the large number of 
irregular twins it produces and, the small percentage 
of macles.. In the second part the author discusses 
the ‘‘grain’’ of diamonds, as revealed by. broken 
macles and: by broken. simple crystals, in’ which the 
fracture lies in a dodecahedral plane of symmetry, and 
deduces therefrom the primary cubical structure. The 
points of agreement and disagreement with the struc- 
ture deduced by Bragg (by means of X-ray research) 
are indicated... Three orders of cleavage are shown, 
i.e. parallel to the faces. of the octahedron, cube, and 
rhombic dodecahedron respectively. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


Strawberry Growing. By Prof. S. W. Fletcher. 
(The Rural Science Series.) Pp. xxii+325+xxiv. 
plates. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London > 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.) 1.75 dollars. 

A Large State Farm: A Business and Educational 
Undertaking. By Lt.-Col. A. G. Weigall and Castell 
Wrey. Pp. xiii+82. (London: John Murray, 1919.) 
2s. 6d. net. 


NO. 2598, VOL. 103 | 


_Constable and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 


‘on ‘Some’ Ornamental Waterfowl. 


Institution, 1919.) : 


‘of Munitions. By Dr. F. H. Hatch. Pp 


_Harrison and Sons, 1919.) ° | 


sity Press, 1919.) 2s..6d. net. 2. 

CONTENTS. ~ PAG 

; Photographv. By cS: J; fa jolt wiley cecaaes Iban er te oF, : 

A Record of Scientific Progress . .. ... : 46 

The Birds of Colombia. By W.E.C.... ... 46 
Our Bookshelf .. a, 23 4. Die eee 


The Flower andthe Bee: Plant Life and Pollin: 
tion. By J. H. Lovell. Pp. xvii+286. (London 
tos, 6d. net. “om 
Utility Ducks and Geese : Their Successful Manage. 
ment for Egg and Meat Production, with Brief Note: 
By J. W. Hurst. 
Pp. 93.. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1919. 
2s. 6d. net. *’ cag een 
The Farmer and the New Day. By K. L. Butte 
field. Pp. ix+311. (New York: The Macmillan Co. ; 
London: Macmillan and Co.,’ Ltd., 1919.) 8s. 6d. 
net. : Ben eee 
The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 
Burma. Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae (Hispinz ane 
Cassidine). By Prof. S, Maulik. ‘Pp. xi+439. 
(London: Taylor and Francis, 1919.) __ s a 
The Cactacee: Descriptions and Illustrations of 
Plants of the Cactus Family. By N. L. Britton and 
J. N. Rose. Vol. i.. (Publication No. 248.) Pp. vii+ 
236+xxxvi. plates. (Washington: The Carnegi« 


ca 


7s 
; 
.9 
a 


¥ 


The Iron and Steel Industry of the United Kingdom 
under War Conditions: A Record of the Work of the 
Iron and Steel Production Department of the Ministry 
D. xii+ 167. 
(London: Privately printed for Sir John Hunter by 
' The North Riding of Yorkshire. By Capt. W. _ 
Weston. Pp. viii+161. (Cambridge: At the Unive 


7 ORE ee 


nt ate dole am 


Letters to the Editor :— Ree a 
A Darwinian Statement of the Mendelian Theory.x— 
Prof. Herbert F. Roberts aig enters ay 

Wild Rirds and Distasteful Insect Larve.—The Hon. 

ML Onslow?) tg wad ee 
The Brussels Meeting ofthe International Research 
Council. By H, G. L.'s... 9s es 
The Bournemouth Meeting of the British Associa- 


Power Alcohol 
The Forestry Bill 
Notes ee" 
Our Astronomical Column :— Sein 
Kopff’s Periodic Comet (1906 TVs he are 
Magnitude of Nova Aquilz me aly 
Mass and Momentum of Stellar Systems . 
The Design of Optical Munitions of War. 
Robert S. Whipple. «2. 2 ee + te ee 4e 
The Outlook of Meteorological Science. By Sir — 


5.) 2. Oe. 6 40 See ee. 


9. lates bak eo 


By 


. 


Kingdom. By Dr. F. H. Hatch. ..... ..- 47 


ee 


oy a le Tes, & pee) Am ese a eee 


Books Received 


i Bowe 3 


Editorial and Publishing Offices: 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Lt, 
| ST. MARTIN’S STREET,, LONDON, W.c, 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed 
Publishers. : 

Editorial Communications to the Editor. ; 

Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 


NATURE 


481 


_. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1919. 


NAVIGATION AND NAUTICAL 
Re eee ASTRONOMY... — 


) Air Navigation. Notes and Examples. 
‘Instructor Capt. S. F. Card. Pp. vi+r1g4o. 


4 (London : Edward Arnold, 1919.) Price 10s. 6d. 
enet. 


By 


2) Navigation. By Prof. Harold Jacoby. 
Second edition. With a chapter on Compass 
- Adjusting and a Collection of Miscellaneous 
» Examples. Pp. xi+350. (New York: The 
‘ _QReee Co.; London: -Macmillan and Co., 


d., 1918.) Price r1s. 6d. net. 


ie author of 48 much-needed little book 
may be regarded as something of a 
eer, for, despite the general interest taken 
subject, this would appear to be the first 
< formally devoted to the navigation of the 
en, some years since, schools of naviga- 
ere established at various centres of avia- 
n, Capt. Card was associated with Brig.-Gen. 
, R.A.F., in framing a general plan for 
ucation of pilots and observers. This fact 
lone is a sufficient. proof of the competence of 
he author for the work he has taken in hand. 
' Nautical readers will be interested to see how 
neg ll the navigation of the air is related to the 
stal navigation with which they are familiar. 
Je fare the same problems, but on a greatly 
nified scale. Thus in fixing a position by cross- 
it is not a matter of a couple of head- 
2 or four miles apart, but Reading and 
s or Bedford and Cambridge, are proposed 
is pairs of bearings suitable for the exercise of 
= student... 
stated in the preface, the subject is treated 
. very elementary manner, making’ _ little 
nd he n the mathematical knowledge of the 
tudent. e explanations are clear and simple, 
h an abundance of well-executed diagrams. 
4 ‘excellent notion adopted is to add at the end 
of each chapter a blank page for the reception of 
ny notes the student may wish to make upon 
he contents of the chapter. 
__Upon the subject of the navigation of the air 
jor-Gen. Seely, Under-Secretary for Air, made 
= nportant statement in the House of Commons 
1 June 26. He said that the whole system of 
n astr uction is being revised, and the schools re- 
rganised, and that endeavours ar: being made to 
srfect, so far as possible, mechanical aids, such 
s the sextant. He added that there is great 
OP ‘tl hat a satisfactory form of artificial horizon 
or air use will be brought out, and experiments 
ire in. actual. progress. Gen. Seely’s. remarks 
ippear to refer chiefly to that form of navigation 
over the open ocean with respect to which there 
is at. present much uncertainty and obscurity. 
aga Card’s manual, on the other hand, is limited 
oO the type of navigation over the land corre- 
sponding with what is known as “ pilotage ig 
0 dinary ‘marine navigation, in which position is 
NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


ad 


generally determined by sextant angles and bear- 
ings of known objects. Let us hope, when more 
data are available,.that the author may supple- 
ment his very clear exposition of this type by a 
more general treatise, embracing also ocean air 
navigation, in which position has to be deter- 
mined by observations of the heavenly bodies. 
Some knowledge has been gained from the experi- 
ences of Grieve and Brown, but much remains to 
be learnt in these matters. 

(2) Prof. Jacoby in his book is somewhat ham- 
peretl by self-imposed limitations. Navigation and 
nautical astronomy, being mathematical sciences, 
can scarcely be completely treated upon a non- 
mathematical basis, whereas in this instance we 
have it explicitly stated in the preface that “the 
author has not assumed that the reader possesses 
formal mathematical and astronomical knowledge, 
or desires to possess such knowledge.”’ 

Nevertheless, upon the lines so laid down we 
have a very readable book, calculated ‘to be of 
interest not only to those unconnected with the 
sea who would acquire some insight into the pro- 
cesses of navigation, presented in a chatty, dis- 
cursive, or, as the author himself puts it, “in- 
formal,’’? manner, but also to the professional 
navigator, who, having already some acquaint- 
ance with the matters dealt with, may like to see 
the various problems treated in a somewhat dif- 
ferent fashion from that to which he is accustomed. 
In a little work of 350 pages, about one-half of 
which is devoted to tabular matter, we have an 
account of the leading modern methods employed 
in position finding at sea, while the various tables, 
though in somewhat abridged form, suffice for the 
calculations of actual navigation in ordinary 
circumstances. Amongst these the Davis table of 
combined natural and logarithmic haversines, 


which so greatly simplifies the calculations for 


the Marcq position lines, is conspicuous. Another 
useful feature is Table i1., an azimuth table, but 
with regard to this a word of caution might 
perhaps be added. that, based as it is on the 
formula, 


sine polar distance 


sine azimuth 
sine zenith distance 


sine hour angle — 


the slow rate of change in the sine about 90° 
takes us into troubled waters in the neighbour- 
hood of the prime vertical, where some other 
method for azimuth might be employed with 
advantage. 

One other observation may be offered, with 
regard to a statement on p. 99 that “the moon 
is now so rarely observed that we have not given 
examples of lunar observations.’’ It is quite 
true that tables of distances are no longer pub- 
lished, and that the method of finding longitude by 
measuring lunar distances has in consequence 
become obsolete. But for position line work an 
altitude of the moon in the daylight, with a simul- 
taneous observation of the sun, often enables the 
navigator to obtain a complete “fix ’’ at one and 
the same time, an advantage unattainable by any 
other method in the daytime. Probably more alti- 


cc 


482 


NATURE 


[Aucust 21, 1919 _ 


tudes of the moon are observed at sea to-day 
than at any time previously. 

There is one class of reader to lien the work 

of Prof. Jacoby should especially commend itself, 
and that is the fortunate owner of the palatial 
steam yacht who would fain make himself 
acquainted with what it is that his sailing master 
is about. It was perhaps in the interest of this 
type of reader that a final chapter is devoted to a 
circumstantial account of the voyage of the hypo- 
thetical steam yacht Nav from New York to Colon 
on December 18, 1917. Moreover, the story is 
very well told. bg Fem «fy ° 


BEVERAGES. 


Beverages and their Adulteration. Origin, Com- 
position, Manufacture, Natural, Artificial, Fer- 
mented, Distilled, Alkaloidal, and Fruit Juices. 
By Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Pp. xv+421+11 
plates. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1919.) 
Price 21s. net.: 


R. WILEY remarks that his book “is not 
written for the scientific investigator, but 
for the average, sober-minded, reasonably well- 
educated American citizen.’? A general account 
of the beverages discussed is, in fact, what is 
given, neither severely technical nor flimsily 
“popular.’’ The facts are stated carefully, as 
would be expected from the author, but little or 
no scientific knowledge on the part of the reader 
is assumed. 

Water, as the beverage par excellence, is given 
pride of place. Both ordinary drinking supplies 
and mineral waters are dealt with, and the in- 
formation given is such as will enable the reader 
to obtain an intelligent idea of water supply in 
its bearing upon the public health and upon manu- 
facturing operations. Various processes of water 
purification are briefly described, and the utility 
of chemical and bacteriological analyses of water 
is explained. Touching on the widespread faith 
of ordinary humanity in the virtues of medicinal 
springs, the author dryly remarks that this faith 
is “not so well founded in fact as it is extensive 
in belief.”’ At the same time, he indicates the 
factors producing the undoubted benefits which 
often result from “taking the waters ’’—namely, 
the change of habits, the simpler diet, avoidance 
of excesses, and so on. These, of course, are 
active aids in restoring health even when the 
water itself has no particular therapeutic value, 
except, perhaps, as a laxative. 

Apropos of the habit of drinking ice-cold bever- 
ages—a habit more common on the other side of 
the Atlantic than here—the evil effects are 
summed up in an amusing quotation :— 


Full many a man, both young and old, 
Has gone to his sarcophagus 

By pouring water, icy cold, 
“A-down his hot ‘cesophagus. 


“Soft drinks’’ have an especial interest for 
Americans just now, and perhaps they may pres- 
ently acquire an added importance for ourselves. 

NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


The term is spied in the United States to “non- 
alcoholic ’’ beverages. Whilst the typical “ soft 
drink’’ is soda-water ‘mixed with a flavoured 
syrup, other “soft ’’ beverages are legion, ~ Apart 
from the undesirability of much sugar in drinks 
consumed largely by children, and the above-men- 
tioned habit of taking them ice-cold in hot 
weather, Dr. Wiley does not see much objection 
to the general run of non-alcoholic beverages 
when these are prepared in a hygienic manner from 
wholesome materials. Some, however, contain 
drugs such as caffeine or cocaine; these are highly 
objectionable, and should, the author contusers, 
be prohibited by law. 

In the sections devoted to tea, coffee, and cocoa 
the reader will find some notes and historical 
sketches that are worth perusing, apart f the 
main descriptions of these beverages. 

‘An interesting section is the one waaay with 
wine. Dr. Wiley has personally inspected nearly 
all the French vineyards where the most famous 
wines are produced, and has also vis sited the, 
Spanish, German, and other wine-gro areas 
in Europe: His pages will be welcomed as giving 
a present-day account of the industry. 
remarks, by the way, that the mean annual wine- 
production of the Chateau Y’quem is only go tuns, 
and opines that there is something miraculous in 
this quantity supplying the large amount of 
Chateau Y’quem — so-called, that is. drunk, 
in the world. 

Some, sensible advice te Gulaemtaa the produc 
tion of uniform and distinctive types of wine in 
the United States, and on the adoption of dis- 
tinctive native names for them, instead of calling 
them by foreign names which are not really 
applicable. 

- Whilst: here and there one misses the facile 
touch of the purely literary man, Dr. Wiley’s 
occasional notes and historical extracts serve 
agreeably to enliven the substantial body of facts 
which he has brought together. The book is, © 

course, written from the American point of view, 
but much of the matter is of quite general in- 
terest, and will appeal to readers on both side: 
of the Atlantic. C. SIMMONDS. — 


OUR BOOKSHELF. 


By Prof. Paul Portier. Pp. Ri . 


Les Symbiotes. 
Masson et Cie, 1918.) E 


315.  {Parme 

5 francs. 
Tuis book, dedicated to his Serene Hi hness 
the Prince of Monaco, contains a lively ex- 
position ofa heresy, in regard to which corn _ 
frankly admits that if some years ago he had s 
it stated at the beginning of an essay, he wou 
probably have read no more. The ar is that 
apart from~ bacteria, all organisms are 
being formed by the association and “emb« 
ment”? of two different kinds. of creature. "The 
are partners within every cell, partner-bacteria, 
which the author calls “ symbiotes. ”” A symb a 
is a domesticated micro-organism with two reé 
markable properties, ;an extreme plasticity ha 


_ Aveust 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


483 


enables it to adapt itself to the most diverse con- 
ditions, and a strong capacity for synthesis. These 
symbiotic bacteria come in with the food from the 
oo environment, and, though the 
ership they form is usually indissoluble, they 
in certain circumstances rejoin their wild 
latives and live an independent life. 
a naturalist knows that lichens are double 
ir , due to the symbiosis of algoid and 
fun ng ory partners, which form a very effective 
nity. Prof. Portier maintains that all organisms 
bacteria have in a similar fashion a dual 
nature. A theory somewhat like this was pro- 
ae nded by Mereschowsky in rg1o. But if all 
ells are thus dual, why, one hastens to ask, have 
: the ubiquitous, symbiotic, intra-cellular bac- 
been seen before2,. The answer is that they 
been often seen, but persistently misinter- 
ere They are the components of the mito- 
ial apparatus, those minute formed bodies, 
oan an alias, which have been described 
cytoplasm of all sorts of cells. It is true 
it these mitochondria have often been credited, 
more or less probability, with a definite func- 
al réle in the metabolism of the cell, a réle 
differing from cell to cell; but are not the sym- 
bic tes very plastic? Prof. Portier is good- 
umoured enough to quote the paradox that a 
theory is not of value unless it can be demon- 
trated false. We have no hesitation in prophesy- 
that his theory will attain that value—which 
agian what he would have said himself a few 
rears ago. We are bound to admit that the 
9 is a downright good sportsman. 


2 C a 
% 


, 
47 
Li 


- 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


» Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
SE siatens expressed by his correspondents. Neither 
| an he undertake to return, or to correspond with 
H 4 ‘the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 
_ this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 
taken of anonymous communications. ] 


‘The Magnetic Storm of August 11-12, 1919. 


One of the very great magnetic storms, the most 
_ recorded at this observatory since that of 
September 25, 1909, commenced quite suddenly at 

o G.M.T. on August 11 from a very slightly 
ag fated normal curve in both the elements of 
sclination and horizontal force. The H magnet 
increased sharply by 84y, (1 y=10-° C.G.S. unit), and 
th magnet swung Io’ to the west. The direction 
egiage in each element was immediately reversed, 
with a very rapid decrease of 113y in H, and a 
ving in D, equally rapid, to the east of 16. After 
few very rapid swings the spot of light due to 
decreasing. went off the parade, drum at 7 a.m., 
ar off until it retu at 7.24 G.M.T. 
At 8.12 G.M.T. H increased rapidly, the range, of 
he swing exceeding 4467. At 8.50 G.M.T. it again 
ecreased rapidly, the spot of es remaining off the 
|)recording drum until 9.43 G.M.T. These oscilla- 
\ftions in H were accompanied by rapid swings in D. 
WAfter~ its sudden increase and decrease at the 
| beginnin a the storm it swung 60’ to the west. At 
ar i. it was sc" in the opposite direction. 
le Eicaic range in D during the storm was 110’, 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


iolen 


and of H, since the spot of light travelled off. the 
drum on either side, greater than 780. 

The greatest phase of the storm was between the 
hours 14 and 20 G.M.T. on August 11. The spot 
of light with increasing H was twice off the drum, 
from 15.36 to 16.10 and from 16.20 to 16.38 G.M.T. 
At 20 G.M.T. the oscillations of H were less Rape 
but they. recommenced, after a Pir alee lull, 
0.50 G.M.T. on August 12... At 1.38 G.M.T. a "ane 
peak of decreasing H began, which was followed by 
a peak of increasing H at 3.15 G.M.T., the total 
range being 404 y. Corresponding with this movement 
D showed a very fine peak of swing to the west, 
with a range of 66’, at 1.48 G.M.T. These oscilla- 
tions in both elements, poe tic at the beginning 
and at the maximum phase of the storm, were 
extremely rapid. 

These rapid oscillations were succeeded for a 
period of about five hours by a violent shivering of 
relatively small amplitude, but of great rapidity, in 
both H and D. This phenomenon of so marked a 
type I cannot recall to have seen in former storms. 
After this, at 8.30 G.M.T., August 12, the swings 
became slower and smaller in amplitude on the whole, 
until the storm died quite abruptly in H, and less 
marked, though abrupt, in D, at 19 G.M.T. on 
August 12. 

The Times for August 12 announced that the 
Minister of the Interior in Spain had notified the 
Press of a breakdown in telegraphic and telephonic 
communication on the preceding day. The postal 
authorities in this district were also inconvenienced 
on the same day by earth currents. Needless to 
add that the solar surface has been greatly disturbed 
by sun-spots lately. 

I looked out for a sossible display of aurora cn 
the night of August 11, but the brightness of the 
moon effectually veiled any such appearance, even if 
it were present. The cirrus clouds, however, were 
arranged in streaks, seemingly radiating from the 
north-west. I have noticed such an arrangement of 
the cirrus clouds in former magnetic storms. 

A. L. Corti, S.J. 

Stonyhurst College Observatory, August 14. 


Wild Birds and Distasteful Insect Larvae. 

I wave read the letter of the Hon. H. Onslow 
(NaTurRE, August 14, p. 464) with much interest, and 
I shall certainly continue the investigation as soon 
as opportunity offers. 

I regret that I must disagree with the attitude 
adopted by Mr, Edward R. Speyer (NaTurE, August 7, 
p- 445). In my letter on the subject I had no 
intention of refuting the observations of Prof. — 
Poulton or of any other observer. I simply recorded 
what I had seen, and suggested that parasitism 
of the larvae might afford an explanation, but Mr. 
Speyer introduces a condition which certainly did not 
exist in the spring of 1918. He writes:—‘‘In times 
of stress birds have long been known to subsist upon 
insects with highly distasteful qualities’’; and again : 
““The currant-moth larva... has merely been eaten 
by the thrush, and possibly by the other birds men- 
tioned . . . when the stress of having to feed a family 
has made’ such a practice a necessity.”’ 

At the time my observations were made there was 
no necessity for the birds to feed upon these larve. 
Insect larvz of all kinds were seldom, if ever, more 
numerous. There were an abundant supply and a 
great variety. The currant-moth larve were probably 
the most numerous, and with such an ample supply 
of food the birds fed upon them. 

Watrter E, COoLince, 

The University, St. Andrews. 


484 


NATURE 


[AuGuST 21, 1919 © 


NOTES ON STELLAR CLASSIFICATION. 
N Nature, December 23, 1915, and in the third 
Bulletin of the Hill Observatory, I referred to 
the shape of the temperature curve which Thad pub- 
lished in connection with the meteoritic hypothesis, 
and I pointed out that if we could deal with a large 
number of stars, a generalised temperature curve 
might be placed before us by considering the 
number of stars in the various groups, for the 
reason that the longer a star re- 
mained at about the same tempera- 
ture, the larger would be the number 
of stars in that group, while a rapid 
rise of temperature would reduce the 
number. I gave the curves thus pro- 


duced by discussion of the stars in-  *vClAN- 
cluded in the catalogue of the 470 = "*URIAN- 
brighter stars published in 1902, and — R!GELIaN. 
in the later catalogue of the 354 less — Cvonsan. 

POLARIAN. 


bright stars catalogued at the Hill 
Observatory. Les 
In order to carry the inquiry one 


“ 
ALOEBARIAN. 
é ANTARIAN. 


step further, I now reproduce these a ee 
two curves, together with a third PERCENTAGE OF STARS IN RESPECTIVE SPECTRAL GROUPS 
(Curve 3) based on the catalogue of TEMPERATURE CURVE, 2, 
287 stars, the result of still more BASED on THE SPECTRA of THE 354 STARS CLASSIFIED AT THE 
recent work at the Hill Observatory. HiLL OBSERVATORY , SIOMOUTH, & CATALOGUED IN BULLETIN NEIIt, 
One of my chief objects in plotting ws peat : 
this third curve was to see whether... : Sie 
its shape agreed with the two former _. Ss eyes 
ones, because the more the curves | é opel 
based on different catalogues agree,  *'°""'"" Ri “onigee 
the more they may be accepted asa °“°"'*™- é | SIRAN 
basis for consideration. COLAMINEN tg PROCYONIA\ 
It will be seen that the third:curve “emus. (Procvonsan I & AmcTURIAN : ARCTURIA 
follows suit with the first and second. “NTARIAN pope es oa oe PISCIAN 
Se ee pees die ° 'Bencenract OF STARS IN RESPECTIVE SPECTRALGROUPS 
ositions both on the as 
aa descending arms of the curve. TEMPERATURE CURVE, 3, 
The main difference is that the apex site Seatac See See 
of the curve occurs later in the case 
of the hotter stars than it does in 
either of the others; but the remark- ARGONIAN - 
able verticality of the curve near the ace: . 
middle of ‘the ascending ‘side 1S _ crucian. ; acienull 
common to all, and, indeed, is one of taurian. Se 
the most striking features. Rickie: oak 
If the similarity of the three Curves * ip yeuia ‘SiR 
obtained from different data may be po. pesan. Sa adel 
taken as suggesting a probability esanan 2 PRE cis 
that the classification on which they , 34, ~ 


are based does really provide us with 
homogeneous groups of stars on both 
sides of the curve, several: interest- 
ing inquiries are suggested. 

Supposing that the stellar systems with which 
we are dealing were of very recent origin, it is 
clear, if the meteoritic hypothesis is true, that 
the stars will all be found jn the ascending arm. 
If, on the contrary, the systems are very old, and 
there are no recent formations, it is the descend- 
ing arm into which they will be crowded. 

If my classification embracing high: and low 
temperatures really does provide us with homo- 
geneous groups of stars, some hotting, some 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103 | 


BASED ON THE SPECTRA oF THE 
at THE SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY, SOUTH KENSINCTON. 


Fic. 1.—Curves based on numbers of stars and temperatures. 


cooling, and if such a result proceeds from eithe 
a simultaneous or a continually acting formation 
of star groups, a break in the series can only be 
due to the cause I have already considered in 
Bulletin IV., a more rapid change of temperature 
giving an accelerated stellar change at one point 
of the curve. aN 

But on the supposition that neither a simul 
taneous nor a continually acting formation took 


TEMPERATURE CURVE, I, 
471 STARS CLASSIFIFO 


ARCONIAN . 


ALNITAMIAN . 


| ACRERNIAN 
 ALCOLIAN 
MARKABIAN 
SIRIAN, 
PROCYONIAN 
- ARCTURIAI 
PISCIAN , 


] Piscia 
od leo do He ee 
PERCENTACE OF STARS IN RESPECTIVE SPECTRAL GROUPS. E 


t 


a 
place, then we should expect breaks or a break ii 
the curve. Supposing one break, we should b 
dealing with two groups of stars representing thi 
old and the newer formations, or let us say ok 
and new star systems. If this be conceded, th 
classification lands us in a new region of though 
which it is important to study, and the vertica 
part of the curve may be taken as indicating 
locus of the cessation of the old system and th 
‘advanced guard of the new. “<a 


UGUST 21, 1919] NATURE ee 


PLATE 1.—COMPARISON OF THE TWO CLASSIFICATIONS. hee 
Butretin II].—Catarocue oF 354 Stars. 


Argonian 
Alnitamian B 45 
2 I 
B3 Bz Bs Be B36 Bsp B8 K 
Achernian He 83 ag fone ee 
Algolian oy oe 
Markabian “fs ss “Avs 25 | 
1 A A2 A3 Ap Arp Aq 
Siri LR BO: SS eae 
irian . 
1, AS A Az A3 AS F Fs. 
es ae art. Ieee recut ay dager & 
1 F Fs Fp F8 G A As A8 
Penkvnnl ee |. hs SA 255154 eee 4 i 
yonian 
1. & GP Gs F F5 F8 Ksp K A8p_ 
yi gare hte Men Wicca eles ROK a I as Be, 
ae j 
KR Kp Rg, Ge ge Bes 
Ks Kz Ks Ma Sek cabene 4201 eae 
Piscian | 


Butietin V.—CaTaLoGue oF 287 Srars. 


Argonian ~e 
Alnitamian #3 P et 
Bo B3 Bs } A Bz B2p B3 B5 
ae oe, ee ery tah 
Cie | Pu a Be ae S 
‘ means 2: heres 
pe A ee Be HS Be 
Markabian 94 Arad kA geh2 
; “A Ap Az A3 As B8 Bo: - 
ie RE ho aes | ee 2 
Sirian 
| ur, A Az A3 A3p°A5°.F Gp 
ey bee I I 8 6 I 
1 F Fs F8 F8& A As 
tees: 2 Rae ae 
Procyonian 
foe G Gs § 
- | | Sr Me, a age 
‘(u. K Ke Ks G2 Gs Mo } : 
‘Vgc: TSS ie Here Conon I { K G2 G5 F 
nd ; bes Wp Arcturian. 5. 5. ' 
|, K Ks Kss : Bde 
mage eeeere: 
Ma MO Ks Piscian 


‘NO. 2599, VOL. 103] ee 


486 


NATURE 


[AuGusT 21, 1919, 4 


On my classification we shall be able to study 
the peculiarities and differences of the two 
systems; and a valuable test is in this way 
provided. 

These considerations are certainly fundamental 
enough, and there are others. 

The similarity of the third curve to the first and 
second justifies the return to some considerations 
which I referred to in the fourth Bulletin regarding 
the kinks in the curves. The descending arm 
of the curve is much more continuous than the 
ascending one; the greatest change from the more 
vertical to the flatter shape of the ascending arm 
occurs at the Aldebarian and Crucian stages— 
that is to say, the greatest number of stars at 
nearly the same temperature occurs in those two 
regions. It is suggested that this is due to the fact 
that the stars involved reach their highest tem- 
perature in these regions, so that we may assume 


that not all stars first visible as Antarian reach 


the highest temperature, but one set may reach 
it near the Aldebarian stage, and another at the 
Crucian stage, or rather between the Crucian and 
Alnitamian stages, only a very small number of 
stars reaching the Argonian stage. It is very 
remarkable what .a small percentage of stars 
reach the Argonian stage. It is fair to assume 
that the power of reaching these various stages 
of temperature must depend on the initial equip- 
ment of the swarm, and from this point of view 
a close inquiry into the mass and density con- 
ditions may be expected to help matters. 

In all that has gone before I have dealt with 
a rise followed by a fall of temperature. I am 
bound to say that for years after I put this view 
forward as the only one acceptable on the meteor- 
itic hypothesis it was generally scouted. This 
would not have mattered so much had the 
Harvard classification, with its thousands upon 
thousands of stars, not taken the other view of a 
continued fall of temperature, as demanded by the 
views formulated by Kant and Laplace. 

There have been many signs lately that the 
opposition to my views is weakening; but the 
more they are accepted, the more is it necessary 
that a large number of stars should be added to 
those I have classified. We want tens of thou- 
sands of stars in homogeneous groups in order 
that inquiries may be prosecuted with advantage. 

I showed in Fig. 1 of the fourth Bulletin that 
the letters A, B, F; K-of the Harvard classifica- 
tion occurred in the spectra of stars located on 
both sides of my temperature curve, and although 
differences were indicated by sub-numbers, it is 
a common practice to use the descriptive letters 
alone, and it is difficult, therefore, to ensure 
homogeneity. ' 

One of the great desiderata of the moment, 
therefore, is to inquire whether something cannot 
be done to render the stupendous and long- 
continued work of classification carried out at 
Harvard available under conditions which would 
ensure the complete homogeneity of the stars 
classed together. In order to study this question 
I have prepared tables which show the Harvard 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


‘sides of the temperature curve. 


classification of the stars included in the Hil 
Observatory catalogues of 354 and 287 sta 
(PLaTE 1). I chose these catalogues because the 
classification was carried on by the same three 
observers and with the same instrument, and the 
classification by each observer was carefully 
checked by the others. The dispersion employed 
between K and H,, 927 Angstrém units, is equa’ 
to 28 mm. retsk. q 

My hope was that the same sub-numbers of the 
Harvard classification would nct be found on both 


In the comparisons I have previously made of 
the Harvard classification and my own I have 
indicated the Harvard classification of the stars 
chosen as the type star:in each of my groups, 
but it will be seen frori’the present comparisor 
that the Harvard classification, in consequence of 
the much greater detail which it attempts t 
secure, does not justify us, as I hoped it would, 
in giving a distinction between the letters an¢ 
their accompanying numerals used on both side: 
of the curve. 2 ae 

But this difficulty is not common to all parts of 
the curve. Near the top, at the Crucian anc 
Achernian stages, the greatest number of stars ir 
which, on both sides, are classified ‘B3, it is not 
of the highest importance to draw the distinction. 
In the case of the Sirian and Cygnian stars, wher 
it is imperative that a complete separation shoul 


be chosen, the majority of stars in both are classi- 
fied in A, with the exception of two classified a: 
F, which probably may be due to misprints. Bu 
when we come to. the difference between th 
Polarian and Procyonian and the Aldebarian an 
Arcturian, it will be seen that the attempt i: 
hopeless. Twenty-two Aldebarian stars are classi 
fied as K, and forty-two Arcturian stars alsc 
classified as K. NORMAN LOcKYER. | 
Hill Observatory, toes a 
August 21, 1919. 


THE SUPPLY OF DRUGS DURING THI 
WAR. q 

AA] HEN war broke out, the National Healt 
Insurance Commission was charged by the 
Government with the duty of safeguarding the 
position of this country with regard to the supph 
of drugs, and the Commissioners have just issue 
a memorandum! describing the work done in thi 
connection. The work fell mainly into twe 
categories, viz. (1) conservation of existin, 
supplies by such means as restriction of export 
and the most economical use of the material 
available, and (2) encouragement of home pre 
duction of fine chemicals used in medicine. Th 
second is, of course, much the more interesting 
and some of the results of this work were illus 
trated in the exhibits shown by various fin 
chemical manufactureres at the recent Britis: 
Scientific Products Exhibition. Certain manu: 
facturers took up on their own initiative the pro 


1 Memorandum on the Special Measures Taken by the National Hea t 
Insurance Commission (England) in Relation to the Supply of gs 
her Medical Stores duringethe War. Cd. 183. (1919.) : 


| r _ AvcusT 21, 1919 | 


NATURE 


487 


_ duction of such drugs as salvarsan, aspirin, and 
salicylic acid, and in these cases the Commission 
__ assisted by securing the release of controlled raw 
materials. 
___ The report alludes to the help rendered by the 
_ Royal Society, under whose auspices the manu- 
facture of a number of drugs was undertaken in 
about forty university and other laboratories. It 
is satisfactory to learn that the. knowledge so 
. acquired of the best methods of manufacture has 
_ mot been wasted, but has been placed at the dis- 
_ posal of manufacturers. As a result the Com- 
_ missioners are able to report that some sixteen 
medicinal chemicals, in which Germany had a 
virtual monopoly before the war, are now being 
_ made in this country,,in some cases on a scale 
_ farge enough to provide a margin for export. 
On the whole, though difficulties arose from 
_ time to time, the needs of the Army and the 
_ nation appear to have been met adequately so far 
s all essential drugs are concerned. 
In view of this it seems clear that of the hun- 
‘dreds of synthetic drugs which used to be im- 
ported from Germany before the war many were 
unnecessary additions to our therapeutical re- 
_ sources. It is, in fact, an interesting exercise 
_ to look-through such a publication as Arend’s 
_ “Arznei-Mittel,’’ or one of the “Guides ’’ and 
“Mentors ”’ to therapeutics, which used to be dis- 
tributed by the German drug manufacturers, and 
_ see how many of the products, each with its care- 
_ fully plausible name duly registered, have passed 
_ out of use and almost out of memory. 
_ The Commissioners point out that the manu- 
_ facture of fine chemicals developed in this 
_ country during the war will need to be watched 
_ carefully, suitable encouragement being given, 
- where necessary, and means provided for keeping 
_ manufacturers in touch with scientific workers. 
_ These functions they consider might well form part 
_ of the duties of the Ministry. of Health. 
‘While it is important that the manufacture of 
_ synthetic drugs should be assisted in every pos- 
_ sible way, it is no less important that the old- 
established British fine chemical industry in the 
manufacture of alkaloids should not be neglected. 
_ In this connection it should not be forgotten that 
__ the supply of some of the raw materials, such as 
__ cinchona bark and opium, required by this branch 
_ of the industry is now in urgent need of atten- 
tion from an Imperial point of view. 


ie ERNST HAECKEL. 

Be, A PTER a prolonged illness Prof. Haeckel died 
_*4% at his house in Jena on August 8 at the 
age of eighty-five. His signature of the infamous 
manifesto issued by ninety-three German pro- 
fessors in 1914, his recent bitterness towards 

_ Britain, and his acquiescence in Germany’s crimes 
need not blind us to what is lasting in the work 
he did, to features of greatness in his character, 

_ and to the irresistible charm of his personality. 

_ He was a champion of evolutionism from the 
publication of the “Origin of Species ’? onwards, 

NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


in days when the doctrine was unpopular and 
upholding it meant ,obloquy; he broke new zoo- 
logical ground in many directions, and he was 
the teacher of many illustrious naturalists. 
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel was born at Potsdam on 
February 16, 1834, and went to school at Merse- 


burg; he studied medicine at Wiirzburg, Berlin, 


and Vienna; he was much influenced by the writ- 
ings of Schleiden, one of the founders of the cell 
theory; by Johannes Miiller and Virchow among 
his teachers; and by his friend and fellow-worker, 
Gegenbaur. After a short period of medical 
practice he became lecturer in the University of 
Jena and full professor of zoology in 1865. In 
spite of repeated and tempting offers, he remained 
in this position until his retirement from active 
duties a few years ago. He found opportunity, 
however, for many journeys, from an early pil- 
grimage to Down in 1866 to later explorations 
in Ceylon and further east. He wrote three 
interesting volumes of travel, and indulged his 
love of sketching in a large series of landscapes. 
In his early youth he had dreams of becoming a 
painter, and his artistic skill is familiar to those 
who know his monographs on Radiolarians, 
Sponges, Siphonophora, and‘ Jellyfishes. Indeed, 


his facility became almost a snare, for he was 


sometimes guilty, they say, of improving upon 
Nature and allowing art to mingle with his 
science. The symmetry which is exhibited in his 
well-known genealogical trees, which are often 
referred to contemptuously, as if it .was not a 
legitimate zoological ambition to discover and 
describe relationships, was an expression of the 
same artistic sense, which the rugged facts of 
Nature do not often gratify. 

Haeckel was a popular teacher, and students 
from many parts came to listen to his lectures 
and to work in his laboratory. He lectured 
rapidly and _.picturesquely, with infectious 
enthusiasm, and the beautiful! diagrams and 
blackboard drawings added to the vividness of the 
impression. While he was always very busy with 
work of his own, especially perhaps during the 
Challenger period, he took a keen interest in those 
students who showed anything of his own temper, 
helping those who helped themselves. At his best 
he was a very handsome man, with overflowing 
kindliness, with no end of energy, with a passion- 
ate love of the beautiful whether in the micro- 
scopic Protists or in mountain scenery. His bible 
was Goethe. 

In addition to his technical systematic work 
and his championing of Darwinism and freedom 
of thought and speech, what services did Haeckel 
render? By his vivid style he made biology 
popular and diffused concepts of development and 
evolution throughout the world, for the sale of 
books like “The Natural History of Creation ”’ 
was colossal. His “Generelle Morphologie ”’ 
(1866), as a generalising survey, occupies a place 
beside Spencer’s “Principles of Biology,’ and, 
like it, is held in considerable esteem by the few 
who have read it. He led the way in applying 
evolution ideas to zoology in general, as in his 


488 


NATURE 


[AUGUST 21, 1919 


adoption of Fritz Miiller’s law of recapitulation 
—that individual development (ontogeny) tends 
to be a condensed epitome of racial evolution 
(phylogeny); and although this generalisation 
requires very careful handling, and has often 
led to abuse in the writings of undisciplined 
popularisers, few would go the length of saying 
that its recognition has not enriched zoology. In 
his studies of Monera and the like Haeckel did 
not a little to show the fundamental biological 
importance of the Protozoa; his gastréea theory 
had a considerable and, on the whole, useful influ- 
ence on embryology, though it has now been 
superseded; he was an explorer of the rarely 
visited field of pro-morphology (the study of 
shape and symmetry), in which the pioneers of 
bio-physics are now finding treasure. We might 
recall many of his suggestions which subsequent 
research has justified or may still justify: he was 
very early on the track of phagocytosis; he »was 
sure that crystals have,much to tell the biologist ; 
he felt that heredity and’ memory were «in ‘some 
way related phenomena, and that the unconscious- 
psychical was. not’ a contradiction in terms; he 
insisted that we have not heard the last ‘of the 
application of the second law of thermodynamics 
to organisms; he, was one of the early voices 
crying in.the wilderness that biology was an 
integral part of education. 

Anti-metaphysical by profession, Haeckel never- 
theless expressed in his theory of cell-souls and 
the subjective aspect of the movements ‘of matter 
a poetical hylozoism, akin to that of the early 
Ionic philosophers. He has been likened in 
this respect to a re-incarnation of Xenophanes. 
It was characteristic of his buoyant optimism 
that he never seems to have suspected how naive 
his monistic philosophy was; but those -who 
deplore the mischievousness for the ignorant of 
such a book as “The Riddle of the Universe ”’ 
ought to take their share of the blame for not pro- 
viding for the people equally readable antidotes or 
prophylactics. The rancour he displayed in these 
tragic years towards a country where he had 
many friends and in which he had been highly 
honoured must be viewed in the light of the fact 
that he was an octogenarian in enfeebled health 
when the war broke out, yet in his attitude and 
his utterances we see the continuation of that 
aggressiveness and bitterness which marked his 
attacks on conventional Christianity. It is in 
general terms a difficult riddle which his fellow- 
countryman Ostwald had the frankness to express 
in 1914: “Dieser unverséhnliche Gegner alles 
dogmatischen :Christentums erwies sich als der 
beste und vorgeschrittendenste ‘ Christ’ den Ich 
je persénlich kennen gelernt hatte.’’ The ex- 
_ planation may be in part this, that Haeckel had 
several moods almost equally dominant. He was 
scientific, doubtless, and he himself declared that 
he was all for science, yet he had not that reso- 
luteness of precision which Huxley referred to 
when he said that the assertion that outstrips 
the evidence is not only an error, but also a crime. 
He had the artistic and romantic temperament, 

NO. 2599, VOL. 103]. 


he was a worshipper of beauty, he was to a 
extraordinary degree a passionate man of feeling, 
But he was also a preacher, a reformer, a propa 
gandist—hence his surprising sympathy wit 
Luther. He was so convinced in his-own mind 
that he had got hold of the truth, and that those 
who differed from him were following errors and 
superstitions, that he was incapable of calmly 
considering criticism, still less of changing his 
views. His enthusiasm for science and _ his 
passion for Nature showed themselves in another 
expression in something like fanatic intolerance 
in his propagandist writings. Yet Haeckel did a 
day’s work and a man’s work in a fine, vigorous 
way, always himself and no other, and if he 
overdid the hunt for superstitions, who shall say 
that there was no excuse? Many people are not 
so good as their creeds, but everyone who knew 
Haeckel in his prime will agree that he was 
much better. Vale. 


NOTES. 


A CONFERENCE of representatives of the Meteoro- 
logical Services of the British Dominions is to be 


held in London on September '23+27, when the sub- - 


jects to be considered will include the meteorological 
arrangements for the exchange of observations by 
Wireless at comparatively long distances; specification 
of observations for the surface and the upper air with 
the codes for transmission; the consideration of 
instruments and material for the investigation of the 
upper air; the selection of stations of the 
“Réseau Mondial’? for the purpose of the 
general climatology of 
Mondial,’’ 1911-12-13, \M.O. Publications .207¢, 
209g, and 214g); the provision of current meteoro- 
logical 


meteorological conditions of aerial navigation; and the 


trade routes and the meteorological survey of the | 


oceans by observations transmitted by radio-telegraphy 
from ships. The following official meteorologists of 
the Dominions beyond the seas are expected to be 
present :—Capt. A. ‘J. Bamford (Director of the 


Meteorological Service of Ceylon), the Rev. D. C, 


Bates (Director of the Meteorological Office of New 
Zealand), Mr. H. A. Hunt (Director of the Weather 
Bureau of the Commonwealth of Australia, Mel- 
bourne), Mr. H. Knox Shaw (Director of the Meteoro- 
logical Service of the Public Works Ministry, Egypt), 
Mr. C. Stewart (Chief Meteorologist of the Union of 
South Africa), Sir Frederick Stupart (Director of the 
Meteorological Service of Canada), and Dr. G. T,. 
Walker (Director-General of Indian Observatories), 


‘In connection with the autumn meeting of the Iron 


and Steel Institute, which is to be held at the Institu- 
tion of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, West- 


minster, on September 18 and 19, there is to be, on. 


the first-named date, a general conference on fuel 
economy, at which the following communications will 
be read :—Report on ‘‘ Fuel Economy in Stee] Works,” 


Dr. W. A. Bone, Sir Robert Hadfield, Bart., and 


A. Hutchinson; Report on ‘‘ Fuel Economy in Foundry 


Papers down for reading and discussion on September 
1g. are :—‘‘ Synthetic Cast-Iron,” C. A. Keller; ‘ The 
Fluxing Action of Iron Oxides on Acid-Furnace Struc- 


tures,’’ J. H. Whiteley and A. F. Hallimond; ‘The’ a 


Woody Structure of the Fractures of Transverse Test 


information for the main air routes of — 
the world; co-operation in the investigation of the — 


pe oa 


the globe (see “Réseau — 


' Practice,” H. J. Yates; and ‘‘ Fuel Economy in German — . 
Iron and Steel Works,’’ Cosmo Johns and L. Ennis. 


gla Stat ie} = 


_ AuvcusT 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


489 


es from Special Steels,” J. J. Cohade; ‘ Nickel- 
rome Forgings,’’ J. H. Andrew, J. N.. Greeniwood, 
. W. Green; ‘ Brittleness in Nickel-chrome and 
her Steels,’’ F. Rogers; ‘‘Temper Brittleness of 
Nickel-chrome Steel,’’? R. H. Greaves; ‘‘ Experiments 
with Nickel Steels,’ N. Hudson; and ‘‘The Cause 
of aeeeniity in Nickel Steels,’’ K. Honda and 
H. Takagi. Other papers: expected are :—‘ Decar- 
burisation of Steel,’ E. D. Campbell; ‘‘ Nature of 
the A, Transformation and a Theory of Quenching,”’ 
‘K. Honda; and “The Structure of Ilron-Carbon- 
romium Alloys,’’ T. Murakami. 


Pror. G. E. Hate, director of the Mount Wilson 
ervatory, has been elected a foreign associate of 
Paris Academy of . Sciences. 


Tue appointment of Lord Lee of Fareham to the 
sidency of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 
‘succession to Lord Ernle, resigned, has been 
proved by the King, as has also that of Sir Eric 
as Minister of Transport. 


a Tue Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute 
for the present year has been awarded to Prof. F, 
itti, of Turin. 


Tue Fream memorial prize for 1919 has been 
dec ty the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 
Miss Doris Anderson, a student of University 
ews x lege, Reading. 
__ Tue Elgar scholarship in naval architecture of the 
“Institution of Naval Architects has been awarded to 
Mr. W. G. Green, and the Earl of Durham prize to 
Mr. W. G. Perring, both of Chatham Dockyard. 


__ It is announced that the widow of Prof. Milne 
has decided to return to her native country, Japan, 
and that in consequence the house at Shide, Newport, 
. of Wight, in which Prof. Milne did such im- 
nt work in seismology is to be sold shortly by 
lic auction. : 
HE death is announced of Prof. William Smith 
field, who held the joint chair of pathology and 
cal medicine in the University of Edinburgh from 
81 to 1912. He was, in addition, physician to the 
a 5 a , Edinburgh, and was probably the 
last occupant of such a dual professorship, which was 
not infrequent in a former generation before the 
_ present era of specialisation. Prof. Greenfield was a 
student of University College, London, and’a graduate 
‘of the University of London, and previous’ to_ his 
»pointment to the Edinburgh chair had been assistant 
ahysician and lecturer on pathological anatomy at St. 
Thomas’s Hospital and professor-superintendent of 
the Brown Institution. His chief contributions to. 
pathology were on anthrax and allied diseases, renal 
diseases, pyeemia, and diseases of the thyroid gland. 


‘Tue Government has decided to institute a competi- 
on for commercial types of aircraft with the view of 
bs taining a type giving greater safety. Prizes will be 
offered for three types of aircraft—a smaller aeroplane, 
a larger aeroplane, and’ a seaplane respectively. The 
_ terms of the competition will be announced shortly. 


_ Tue Home Office Committee on Miners’ Lamps 
; gives notice that it is open to consider new suggestions 
for improving the safety or illuminating power of 
safety lamps, and to examine and, if necessary, test 


— Gedde 


Mi 


sent by inventors. Communications on the matter 
should be addressed to Mr. E. Fudge, secretary of 
the Committee, Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.1. 


THe United States Ordnance Department is 
appointing a number of experts in mathematics and 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


any new devices or new types of lamps that may be | 


dynamics to conduct scientific research on ordnance 
problems, to act as advisers on mathematical and 
scientific problems for the Department, and to main- 
tain connection between the Department and the 
scientific world. 


Dr. PH. VoceEt, the well-known Indian archzo- 
logist, has published at Leyden an_ interesting 
paper entitled ‘‘The Sign of the Spread Hand, 
or Five-finger Token, in Pali Literature.” He 
quotes numerous examples from the sacred books 
of Buddhism to show that this familiar symbol, a 
protection against the Evil Eye and the influence of 
malignant spirits, was commonly used in ancient 
India in connection with animal sacrifice and tree- 
worship. In one remarkable case the tree is a Ficus 
indica, and the spirit by which it is haunted is pro- 


| pitiated by means of a human sacrifice, the entrails 


being used as_ garlands and palm-marks made 
with the blood, This explains why women in the case 
of suttee up to recent times, when going to crema- 
tion with their lords, used to make marks on the 
gates of the palace with their hands steeped in ver- 
milion. ~Numerous examples are given to prove that 
the use of this symbol as a protection is common in 
modern India and in other parts of the world. 


In the Museum Journal (vol. ix., Nos. 2-3) for 
September-December, 1918, Mr. C. W. Bishop dis- 
cusses the horses of Tang T’ai-Tsung and the ante- 
cedents of the Chinese horse. In considering this 
series of reliefs in the University Museum, Phila- 
delphia, a question arises about the origin of the 
representation of the flying gallop, showing the horse 
with legs extended skimming through the air as if 
shot from a bow. There was one culture area in 
which the representations of both animals and men 
in motion were executed with a vigour and a force 
unknown. elsewhere—the Minoan or AZgean. All 
study points to the extreme unlikelihood of an in- 
dependent invention of the same artistic convention in 
the Mediterranean and in China. The problem is by 
what means the idea was transmitted. The writer 
concludes that it spread in pre-Classical times to the 
regions north of the Black Sea, where it was 
eventually carried both to Sassanian Persia and to 
ancient China, apparently through the medium of 
the so-called Scythian culture, which overspread to 
much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in early 
times, and in many ways acted as a sort of connecting 
link between East and West. 


Tue first number of a new periodical, the Journal 
of Industrial Hygiene (New York: The Macmillan 
Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.), has 
reached us. It has grown out of the recent establish- 
ment, at Harvard University, of teaching and research 
in this field, and is published mainly under the auspices 
of this organisation, although it aims at being inter- 
national in character. The scope of the journal may 
be gathered from the titles of the articles in the present 
issue. ‘‘Industrial Medicine and Surgery,’’ ‘‘ Lead 
Poisoning,” “ Fatigue,” and ‘‘Telephone Operating in 
its Medical Aspects,” together with full abstracts of 
current literature bearing on cognate subjects, are in- 
cluded. The printing and illustrations are well done. 
Although the formation of so many new journals for 
special departments of knowledge is in general to be 
regretted, there is no doubt that this one will be found 
of much value in bringing the results of scientific re- 
search to the acquaintance of the industrial world. The 
publication of results of original work, however, except 
such as is directed to very special economic ends, in 
journals of limited range is apt to lead to their be- 
coming lost to the general body of scientific doctrine. ’ 


490 


NATURE 


s [AuGuST 21, 1919 © 


DurinG the war the proper provision of life-belts and 
other life-saving appliances on ships became of vital 
importance owing to the submarine menace, One of 
the most widely used appliances was a life-jacket 
stuffed with ‘‘kapok” or floss. ‘This. floss has very 
great buoyancy, a jacket containing 24 oz. of the 

bre being capable of supporting an adult in the 
water. According to the existing official regulations, 
the only kapok that may be used for this purpose is 
Java kapok, which consists of the long hair surround- 
ing the seeds of a tree which occurs abundantly in 
the Dutch East Indies. A similar material is, how- 
ever, obtainable from India, but from a different tree, 
and this Indian floss cannot under the existing 
regulations be used for life-jackets. The results of 
trials made at the Imperial Institute, details of which 
are given in the current issue of the Bulletin of 
the institute, have shown that the Indian floss 
can fully satisfy all the requirements as regards 
buoyancy and freedom from water-logging. It is, 
therefore, suggested that the use of Indian kapok 
should be officially permitted for life-jackets. Inquiries 
made by the Imperial Institute showed that kapok, 
equal in quality tc that used in the trials, is avail- 
able in India in large quantities. 


‘THERE seemed a prospect but a little while ago of 
seeing a live okapi in London, for it was known that 
the Zoglogical Society had made a generous offer for 
a young animal which had for nearly three years been 
the pet of Mme. Landaghem, the wife of a Belgian 
medical officer stationed several hundred miles above 
Boma, on the Congo. This, however, was not to be, 
for Mme. Landaghem has patriotically presented her 
pet. to her native country. It has just arrived in 
Antwerp, the first of its kind ever seen in Europe. 
The existence of this remarkablé animal was first 
brought to light, it may be remembered, by Sir Harry 
Johnston, and through his good offices the first skin 
and skeleton to reach Europe were those of the female 
which arrived in London in 1901... Previous to this 
he had demonstrated the existence in the Belgian 
Congo of a large mammal new to science by sending 
to the Zoological Society of London a bandolier cut from 
the remarkably striped hindquarters of one of these 
elusive creatures—elusive because, though the natives 
had long talked mysteriously of some strange animal 
living in the innermost recesses of the forest, and had 
constantly promised to produce a specimen, that promise 
was overlong in its fulfilment. This bandolier Dr. 
P. L. Sclater-sthen secretary to the Zoological Society 
—concluded had been cut from some species of zebra 
hitherto unknown, and accordingly bestowed upon it 
the name Equus johnstoni. This seemed warranted 
by the evidence, but the sequel showed that it was 
to the giraffes, and not to the horses, that this 
bizarre-looking animal was related. As yet the sex 
of the new: arrival has not been stated, but if.it should 
prove to be a male the development of its horns will 
be watched with interest by all zoologists. © : 


We learn from the Revue Scientifique that the 
courses of higher instruction at the Institut d’Optique 
will be attended each year by selected military and 


naval officers in addition to university students 
and others associated “with the optical industry. 
On the industrial side, the full course covering 


the working of glass and fine mechanics will extend 
over three years. 
the French Government to meet the annual expendi- 
ture, but an appeal is made for donations towards the 
initial expenses of the establishment of the institute. 
The list of members of the council of the institute 
includes a number of distinguished physicists. 


NO, 2599, VOL. 103] 


_to the Middle pre-Cambrian, and the gneissose granite 


posite origin of the biotite-gneisses is shown, not only — 


Subsidies have been promised from 


Dr. ArtHuR Hotmes (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 
London, vol.. xliv.,,p. 31, 1919), in a paper in which 
field-observation and delicate laboratory studies are 
happily combined, describes the pre-Cambrian and 
associated rocks of Mozambique. He utilises radio- 
activity as a means of correlating the ancient rocks 
with those of other areas; the ratio of lead to uranium 
present assigns the granulitic granites of Mozambique - 


to a lower series, probably corresponding with the 
intrusive “Laurentian ’’ rocks of Canada. The com- 


by the field-evidence of assimilation of schists by a 
granitic magma, but also by a radium-content inter-— 
mediate between that of granites and schists. The 
lines of ‘‘inselberge’’ in the country are well discussed, — 
and are connected with axes along which the agin 
magmas have elongated themselves in the direction of © 
the strike. Though we hesitate to use the phrase “ the — 
new geology,’’ ‘Dr. Holmes is an exponent of the most — 
recent developments in an old science, which his papers 

help. to keep very much alive. ! i 


- Messrs. Posnjak and Merwin (Amer. Journ. Sci., 
vol. xlvii., p. 311, 1919) provide a critical review of 
the natural hydrated ferric oxides, stress being laid — 
on the curves that represent the phenomena of experi- 
mental dehydration. Turgite, which we should now ~ 
write as turiite, is the only exception to the rule that 
decomposition takes place in the middle portion of — 
the curve, accompanied by a colour-change from yellow 
to red. Turiite shows a gradual loss of water, and is, 
therefore, not regarded as a definite chemical com- 
pound, but as a solid solution of haematite and gothite 
with adsorbed water. The authors conclude from 
close agreement of the molecular ratio of Fe,O, and 
H,O in specimens bearing different mineral names 
that there is no series of hydrates of ferric oxide 
Nature, but that the only existing mineral fer 
hydrate is ‘ferric oxide monohydrate,”’ erystallisi 
polymorphically as géthite and lepidocrocite. Limonite— 
is an ‘“‘amorphous ”’ condition of the same substance. — 
The fibrous structure that is so common in specimens — 
styled ‘‘limonite ’’ indicates some form of crystallisa- 
tion, and the authors regard the fibrous examples, not 
as true limonite, but as géthite which has adsorbed 
capillary water. Both géthite and lepidocrocite are— 
rhombic, the latter having a slightly lower density, 
and occurring in red, scaly crystals. The authors are- 
able to add some new points to the mineralogi 


description of this species. 


THE question of the degree of roundness of grains — 
of various minerals occurring in sands is interestingly — 
dealt with by Mr. J. J. Galloway (‘‘ Rounding of Sand — 
Grains by Solution,’’ Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xlvii., 
p- 270, 1919). The author urges that even quartz 
becomes appreciably rounded in natural waters by 
solution, and he illustrates experimentally how the 
smaller grains of a powdered mineral lose their forms 
and become spheroidal far more quickly than the 
larger ones. Rapid solution produces grain-surface: 
as smooth as glass, while slow solution, of whict 
quartz serves as an example, gives dull surfaces like 
those due to strong abrasion. Mr. Galloway does no 
assert that the cause of rounding can be determined 
in any given case. He shows, however, that we must 
consider solution as a. factor. isareae 


Pror. P. G. H. BoswEti summarises his recent work 
on sands, including the graphic representation of their 
texture, in a very convenient form by the publicatio: 
of his inaugural lecture on ‘‘Sands: considered Geo. 
logically and Industrially, under War Conditions 
(University Press of Liverpool, 1919, price Is.). __ 


_ Aueust 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


491 


_ the Scientific American for July 26 has*an article by 
’ Prof. McAdie which deals with ‘‘ some of, the problems 
that will have to be solved as the human race takes 
to the air.’ Much that is said-is reasoned from 
the analogy of the “freedom of the seas.’? The recent 
it war has fully shown the value of a command 
of the sea or air. The word ‘“overcloud” is proposed 
for association and definition with ‘‘oversea’’ and 
overland.’’ It is suggested that what the Gulf 
Stream and the Japan Current are to the mariner 
the prevailing westerlies are to the aviator. The 
trades and monsoons are likened to rivers at the 
ground surface. It is stated that ‘‘the war just ended 
exemplified for the first time in history the right of a 
ral nation to claim as territory the air above.’’ 
e author deals with many features of interest, and 
he article contains much that is suggestive; one 
such point is that ‘‘if a steamship meets an adverse 
tide, her progress is delayed just so much, depending 
1 sth of the current; whereas when an air- 
encounters strong head winds, her pilot can rise 
or fall below the level of that particular air current 
and find a level in which the air will be moving with 
m and not against him.’ Many of the analogies 
with show the great advantage of the combined 
association of mathematics and meteorology for a 
proper study of the upper air. 
Montuty meteorological charts, which are issued 
Meteorological Office both for the North 
d East Indian seas, are primarily intended 
en. Now that aircraft are becoming of such 
ice, especially considering the rapid strides 
the last few months and the prospective 
India of R33, these meteorological charts 
ling much greater interest. The Atlantic 
the present month contains a large amount of 
information. At present the North Atlantic 
ocean of primary importance for aircraft, but 
‘inds are dealt with in , less satisfactory manner 
other oceans, ‘‘the frequency, the direction, 
verage force of some characteristic winds 
whilst fuller details and greater precision 
tial. A track is given showing the mean 
centres of cyclonic areas between America and 
. in August for the years 1883-91. A longer 
smbracing the storms of recent years, would 
the value of this information, appending, if 
, details of individual instances. In August 
st trade is seen to extend considerably to 
| of the equator, reaching on the eastern 
north as latitude 13°N. The frequency 
‘ith various winds at different times of day 
ven for Valencia and for St. Johns, Newfound- 
nd, at the back of the chart. The August chart 
x the East Indian seas shows that the south-west 
monsoon is predominant over the sea to the north of 
= equator, whilst south of the equator to 25° S. the 
ith-east trade blows almost uninterruptedly. North- 
terly winds predominate over the whole length of 
Red Sea. In August the average barometric pres- 
. in the Red Sea is lower than in any month of 
vear, and the average air temperature is the 
st of the twelve monthly values. 


- In the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for 
June’20 Mr. Watson Smith directs attention to a 
theory recently advanced by Tschirch to account for 

spontaneous combustion of haystacks. It is 
based upon observations made in the drying of medi- 
cinal plants. A first phase of heating is regarded as 
due to oxidation processes caused by the plant 
- oxydases at the expense of the air present in the stack. 
This results in a small rise of temperature, which 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


f 


_ Unper the heading of ‘The Freedom of the Skies” | 


ceases when the oxygen of the air in the stack is 
exhausted. In the next phase the chief réle is played 
by reductases, which act energetically between 50° and 
7o° C., deoxidising and eventually carbonising such 
substances as amino-acids and carbohydrates. The 
danger of ignition lies in the accumulation of oxygen 
withdrawn by the reductases; the actual reduction 
processes would not themselves produce sufficient heat 
to ignite the material: To obviate the risk of 
spontaneous combustion two precautions are recom- 
mended :—(1) A thorough drying of the hay before 
stacking, which minimises enzyme action, and 
(2) thorough aeration of the stacks, which may be 
secured by building them in layers with air spaces 
between. 


Tue forty-third. annual report of his Majesty’s 
Inspectors of Explosives (1918) (Cd. 278, 1919) is of 
particular interest by reason of the inclusion of 
approximate figures for the production of explosives 
and ammunition of all classes in this country for the 
whole period from the outbreak of war to the signing 
of the armistice, together with statistics of the acci- 
dents which occurred. Of the three chief classes of 
military explosives the outputs and casualties were :— 
(1) Ballistites and cordites, 181,712 tons; persons 
killed, 35; injured, 50 (of the killed 27 lost their lives 
in one accident). (2) Picric acid, T.N.T., and other 
coal-tar products, 107,713 tons; killed, 177; injured, 
368. (3) Other nitro-compounds, 62,048 tons; killed, 
31; injured, 91. In all there were 1277 accidents 
reported, and in 544 no personal injury was caused. 
The maximum number of persons employed was 
86,555; the average, 61,808. The total loss of life 
was 325, With 1316 injured, giving 1-25 killed per 
tooo and 5 injured, compared with a fatality rate of 
1 per 1000 for the five-year period ending 1910. The 
inspectors are more than justified in their comment 
that, “having regard to the output produced at high 
pressure, largely by workers with no previous experi- 
ence, supervised in many cases by equally inexperi- 
enced officials, the general result may be regarded as 
satisfactory.”” It is a remarkable testimony to the 
supervision and protection of the workers that in gine 
more than 8,374,000,000 small-arm cartridges an 
83,600,000 hand grenades in licensed factories during 
the war period there was not a single fatal accident 
and only 48 workers injured, with one exception all 
being engaged on cartridges. Nor was there any 
loss of life in the manufacture of blasting explosives 
(other than gunpowder) or in the conveyance of ex- 
plosives during the year 1918. The report lays special 
stress on the dangers of compositions containing 
aluminium powder, for, although such mixtures are 
not unduly sensitive during test, accidents have been 
somewhat frequent, the reason of the primary ignition 
being obscure. 


WHEN a photographic negative is treated with a 
solution of a chromate well acidified with hydrochloric 
acid, the silver of the image is converted into silver 
chloride, and subsequent application of a developer 
reduces the silver chloride and leaves the metallic 
silver much as it was. But if the acid is 
deficient in quantity, reduction products of the 
chromate remain and reinforce the image. This 
method of intensification is well known. In the 
British Journal of Photography for August 8 Messrs. 
Lumiere and Seyewetz state that they find that the 
acidified chromate may be replaced by a solution of 
potassium chlorochromate, thus using a definite sub- 
stance instead of an indefinite or adjustable mixture. 
They find, too, that if the process is repeated on the 
same negative, the effect gradually diminishes, and 
after five or six treatments the intensification becomes 


492 NATURE |Aucust 21, 1919 
negligible. They suggest that the chlorochromate Language,” C, R, Gibson, and ‘The Marvels of 
acts thus :— Photography: Describing its Discovery and Many of — 


KCICrO, + 2Ag=KAgSO, + AgCl, 


and that as only the silver chloride is reduced by the 
developer, the amount of silver available for thé pro- 
cess is halved by each application of it. 
not, however, yet proved that the double sulphite is 
produced and that it resists the developer, and they 
are carrying their investigations further in” this 
direction, 


During the last few years the use of electric heating 
appliances has become common in the laboratory and 
workshop owing to the production of trustworthy 
heating elements. In most of these an alloy, capable 
of resisting oxidation at 1100° C., is wound round 
a tube or muffle, in the interior of which a tempera- 
ture of 1000° C. can be attained. The small electric 
furnaces exhibited by Messrs, A. Gallenkamp and 
Co., Ltd., at the recent British Scientific Products Ex- 
hibition of the British Science Guild illustrated the 
numerous purposes for which such articles may be 
used with advantage, and were of satisfactory design. 
For heating small articles, or for estimating the 
amount of carbon in steel by combustion, the heating 
chamber consists of a silica tube 1-2 in. in diameter 
and 12-20 in. long, the power required to maintain a 
temperature of 1000° C. ranging from 400 to 800 watts. 
For laboratories in which many estimations of carbon 
in steel have to be made daily, two- or four-tube 
furnaces are constructed to facilitate rapid working. 
A special type, wound in sections capable of separate 
‘heating, is provided for organic combustions. For 
incinerations, the hardening of small steel articles such 
as taps, dies and gauges, etc., the muffle type of fur- 
nace is used, the dimensions of the largest made being 
14X7X5 in., consuming 2300 watts. Messrs. Gallen- 
kamp’s furnaces are designed so that a new heating 
element can easily be inserted by the user, thus 
avoiding delay in the case of a winding burning out. 
Special attention is also paid to efficient lagging, and 
the casing and supports are strong and durable. Re- 
sistances for controlling the temperature are supplied 
with each furnace. A further commendable feature is 
that a purchaser may procure a furnace to-suit his 
own work, and is not compelled to take one of the 
ordinary stock patterns. 


Tue following new books of science are an- 
nounced :—By Messrs, George Allen and Unwin, Ltd, 
—‘* Mineral Resources of Georgia and Caucasia,’’ D. 
Ghambashidze; ‘‘The Equipment of the Workers,”’ 
‘*The Education of the Workers,’’ and ‘‘ The Environ- 
ment of the Workers.’”’ By Mr. Edward Arnold— 
‘Tons, Electrons, and Ionising Rays,’? Dr. J. A. 
Crowther; ‘‘Surveying,’’ W. N. Thomas; ‘Tacheo- 


meter Tables,’’ Prof. H. Louis and G. W. Gaunt; | 


“*The Principles of Electrical Engineering and their 
Application,’’ Prof. Gisbert Kapp, vol. ii.; ‘‘ Examples 


in Electrical Engineering,’’ J. S. Gill and F. J. Teago; 


and “Algebra for Engineering Students,’’ S. East- 
wood and J. R. Fielden. By Messrs. W. Heffer and 
Sons, Ltd. (Cambridge)—‘' Groundwork of Surgery for 
First-year Students,’”’ A. Cooke. By Messrs. Crosby 
Lockwood and Son—‘ Electric Spark Ignition in In- 
ternal Combustion Engines,’’ J. D. Morgan; and new 
editions of the ‘* Mechanical Engineer’s Pocket-Book,” 
the late D. Kinnear Clark, revised and enlarged by 
H. H. P. Powles; and ‘‘ Hand Sketching for Mining 
Students,’’ G. A. Lodge and N. Harwood. By Messrs. 
Methuen and Co., Ltd.—‘‘Coal Mining and the Coal 
Miner,”? H. F. Bulman, By Messrs. Seeley, Service, 
and Co., Ltd.—*Chemistry and its Mysteries: The 
Story of what Things are made of, Told in Simple 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


They have 


its Achievements,’’ C, R. Gibson. By 
Witherby and Co,—'* A Geographical Bibliography of 
British Ornithology,” H. Kirke Swann, W. H. 
Mullens, and F, C. R, Jourdain; ‘‘A Handbook to the 
Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales,’ H..E. Forrest; 
‘‘Meteorology for All,’? D. W. Horner; ‘The Birds 
of France,’’ C. Ingram; and ‘Monograph of the 
Pheasants,’’ W. Beebe, vol. ii. ; S 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 


Koprr’s Comer 1906 1V.=1919a.—M. Ebell has pub- 


lished (Ast. Nach., 4996) an ephemeris of this comet 
from Dr. Zappa’s elements (A.N., Bd. 194) with 
a correction of +23-48’ to the mean anomaly, The 
observations made during the month ‘show a correv- 
tion to this of about —7’ in declination. The following 
positions (for Greenwich midnight) include this cor- 
rection :— 


: R.A. S. Decl.” . “Log x Log a 
ie Aes fe f 
Aug. 21... 19 29 22. 8 164. 
23 + 19 30 16 8 136 0250 g 942 
BE lhiahe IQ 31-265): 402 
27. ies 19 32528. 8 get 
29 + 19 3345 8 73 
31+ 19: 35 8 «8 5:8 «0256 = 9-973 


The computed brightness decreases from magnitude — 


Io-9 to 11-1 during this period. The comet passed 
through perihelion on June 28 last. (rae 
OcCULTATION' OF SMALL Stars py JUPITER.—Mr. 
Arthur Burnet sends particulars of two phenomena 
of this kind that he predicts will happen in the 
coming months, The star B.D. +18° 2062, mag, 849, 


R.A. 8h, 46m. 52s., dec. 18° 23’ 22" N., will be 


occulted on September 15 between 14h. 15m. and 
15h. 1m. G.M.T. As Jupiter will rise at Greenwich 
at 13h. 30m. on that night, the possibility of successful 
observation from this part of the world is doubtful. 
On October 5 the star B.D. +17° 2007, mag. 7-8, 
will be occulted before 11 o’clock GME. toe 
will not rise at Greenwich until after midnight. The 
occultation may be visible in India from toh. 25m. to 
1th. 36m. Apparent place of the star on October 5, 
R.A. gh. 1m. 46s., dec. 17° 26’ 2" N. ee 


A Macnetic Storm.—The traces on the sheets of 


the magnetographs at Greenwich showed violent dis- 
turbance on Mondav, August 11, beginning about 
7 o’clock in the morning and lasting for twenty-four 
hours. From notes in the daily Press it appears that 
telegraph lines and cables were affected, and that 
operators experienced much difficulty due to earth 
currents. There was a spot on the sun at the time, 
not of the largest size, but about 500 millionths of 
the visible surface in area, which had passed the 
central meridian on August 8. There was also a 
broken group of small spots following this, and 


another regular spot rather less in area than the first — 


was approaching the central meridian. 


THE Recent SoLar Ecuipse.—Though the observers 
of the British expedition to the Island of Principe 
were not favoured with specially fine weather, some 
useful results were obtained. Ten of the plates ex- 


posed were spoiled by cloud so far as the object of 
the expedition was concerned, but give an excellent | — 


representation of the large prominence which was cn 


the sun’s limb at the time. The remaining six photo- 
graphs show x’ and x? Tauri and two or three other 
stars. The measurement of these should show the ‘a 


looked-for deflection if it exists. 


Messrs, — 


a Pe 
oe 


__ whether the output of a wor 
is only fair that emplovers should adovt this system 
of payment, but it is absolutely exceptional for them 


_  AvcustT 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


493 


INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE. 


8 Yes Industrial Fatigue Research Board, which 
_ + was recently appointed by the Department of 
Scientific and Industrial Research and the Medical 
Research Committee jointly, has quickly got into the 
swing of its labours. It has just issued two brief 
ce a and announces other more lengthy reports 
_ which are in preparation, In Report No. 2 Mrs. 
_ Ethel E. Osborne describes ‘The Output of Women 
- Workers in Relation to Hours of Work in Shell- 
i .”? The women were engaged in the opera- 
tion of “ripping” or “part-off” on 6-in. shells, and 
their output was compared when they were on twelve- 
- hour and eight-hour shifts. The output of work 


ss achieved during each hour of actual work in the 
_ shorter shifts was 6-5 per cent, greater than in the 
longer shifts, but because of the improvement in time- 


_ keeping and the more efficient running of the 
- machinery the production per hour of factory work 
cent. greater. Determinations of hourly 
ont owed that during the last hour of the long 
shifts there was always a low output, whilst on the 
_. short shifts output was maintained throughout. 

In Report No. 3 Col. C. S. Myers, a member of 
the Board, describes ‘‘A Study of Improved Methods 
in an Iron Foundry.’ Hitherto the .American 
_ methods of time and motion study have ‘gained very 


was 15 


little acceptance in this country, and the enterprising 


tay managing director of the iron foundry investigated by 
Col, Myers is greatly to be congratulated on his 
initiative in applying the methods practically to the 
yroduction of small iron castings. Although the hours 


of work were at the same time reduced from fifty-four 


ee ale kaa per week, the men were able to increase 
their total output greatly, and they suffered less 
fatigue. The men were on piece rates, but they were 
paid on the novel, but wholly equitable, principle that 
the greater their production the greater their scale of 
pay per piece, or the rate of pay rose automatically 
with increase of total output. In that the overhead 
char of a factory are usually almost the same 

be small or great, it 


er to do so. 


idle pe MEAN SEA-LEVEL.! 

THE science of oceanography is slowly coming into 
its own, and it has advanced greatly in the last 
twenty years; but still, of those who think of it at all, 
many people know very little what it is. It is looked 
_, upon, often enough, as an easy, descriptive science, 
a small part of a simple, descriptive geography. But 


if this be true at all, it is a very small part of the 
truth; for the great problems of oceanography are 
' physical problems, to be approached by mathematical 


methods, and soon involving us in difficult questions 
of hydrodynamics, and other difficulties besides. In 
the elementary task of the exploration of the sea 
Englishmen have taken a large, perhaps a lion’s, 
share; in one special part of scientific hydrography, 
. ee theory of the tides, they have done a great deal, 

such names as Lubbock, Whewell, Airy, Kelvin, 
‘and George Darwin come at once to our minds. But 
in other parts of the subject, and in recent times, we 
have done less; and the Scandinavian countries 
especially have done a great deal more. Bijerknes, 
Witting, Otto Pettersson, Sandstrém, Fridjof Nansen, 
_ Helland-Hansen, Madsen, and De la Cour are only a 
few names of men who, from Denmark to Finland, 


1 Rolf Witting: ‘‘Hafsvtan, Geoidvtan och Landhdjningen utmed 
ep Hafvet och vid Nordsjin.” Fennia 39,,No. 5. (Helsingfors, 
1918. , Ni Oa 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


have studied the hydrographical phenomena of the 
Baltic or the wider problems of hydrography. 

Among its most fundamental problems are those 
connected with the determination of mean sea-level—if 
we may so speak of something that has never yet been 
determined. There is scarcely a physical constant so 
freely spoken of or so often used; every elevation in 
the world is referred to it, but no man knows what 
it is. Two or three generations ago a few observa- 
tions of consecutive tides were supposed to be enough 
to ascertain it—a month was ample; but we have long 
known that the ‘‘constant’’ so determined is no con- 
stant at all, but is subject to complicated fluctuations, 
some regular and some, at first sight, erratic. This 
first approximation to ‘‘mean sea-level’’ has a very 
appreciable annual fluctuation, an ‘‘annual tide’; it 
alters from year to year; at any one locality these 
changes are apparently irregular, but they are 
found to tally with one another over large areas of 
coast; there are important differences of sea-level 
between one station and another; and there are slow 
changes of long period which again may be found 
common to large areas. Among the elementary diffi- 
culties of the problem is the fact that the annual 
change of level is much too great for a simple astro- 
nomical explanation—it is not a ‘solar tide”’; and, 
that being excluded, we are thrown back on two 
hypotheses or sets of hypotheses, the one meteoro- 
logical, the other based in one way or another upon 
movements of the earth’s crust. A great deal has 
been written on the subject in recent years; we cannot 
attempt to review the whole question, but must be 
content to give an abstract of an important paper 
lately published by Prof. Rolf Witting, of Helsingfors, 
director of the Oceanographical Institute in that 
University, 

The “level” of the sea, or, more generally speak- 
ing, the form of the surface of the sea, is a resultant 
of forces both extrinsic and intrinsic; that is to say 
(after we have eliminated by a sufficient number of 
observations the effect of the tides), we have to deal 
with the densities and currents of the sea itself, and 
with the winds and the atmospheric pressure acting 
upon its surface. It is plain that where the sea is less 
dense its surface will tend to stand at a higher level 


-than where it is more so; this is an intrinsic pheno- 


menon. - As to the extrinsic forces, inasmuch as the 
winds are determined by the distribution of atmo- 
spheric pressure, the latter may be employed as our 
common indicator for both factors—that is to say, for 
the winds and for their effect upon the sea. 

For the latter, or extrinsic, forces Prof. Witting 
gives us the following law or laws :—(1) Every baro- 
metric distribution of any permanency produces a de- _ 
formation of the surface of the sea. (2) The ascending 
slope so produced is not identical in direction with 
the barometric gradient, but deviates to its right-hand 
side, in the northern hemisphere. (3) The amount of 
slope is greater than that which would correspond with 
the hydrostatic pressure induced by the barometric 
distribution. (4) The amount of the deviation, and 
also the ratio between the amount of slope and the 
barometric gradient, are (to a first approximation) 
independent of the gradient, but largely affected by the 
shape of ‘the basin and by the distribution of densities 
in its water-layers. 

From Fig. 1 we may judge, for a particular date. 
the relative directions of the barometric gradient and 
of the sloping surface of the Baltic Sea. 

In a celebrated observation (to which, by the way, 
Prof. Witting does not happen to refer) Sir James Ross 
found that, at a certain point within the Antarctic 
Ocean, a change of barometric pressure produced, to 
all.intents and purposes, its precise hydrostatic equiva- 


494 


NATURE 


-[AucusT 21. 1919 


lent in the level of the sea. But, whatever may have 
been the exact circumstances and conditions of that 
experiment, its result is very far from holding good 
within our narrow seas. According to Prof. Witting, 
both in the North Sea (on the average) and in the open 
basin of the Baltic the slope of the sea-surface is 
equivalent to a column of water about 35 times that 
of the barometric gradient measured in mercury; 
whereas, hydrostatically, the ratio should ‘be. only 
about 13:5 times, or in the simple ratio of the specific 
gravities of mercury and water; in still narrower 
areas, as in the gateways of the Baltic, the ratio 
may be much greater, amounting to as much as 
100 times. In the open basins the direction of the 
water-slope deviates from that of the barometric 
gradient by about 55°; and this value is again exceeded 
in the narrower channels. 
find that in the opener basins the disturbance of the sea- 
level is nearly three times as great as the direct hydro- 
static effect due to atmospheric pressure, which is as 


Fic. 1.—Sea-level and pressure-distribution in March, 1906; represented bY 
isanomalies from the means for the whole period 1898-1912. Thick 
lines, sea-level in half-centimetres ; broken lines, barometric pressure in 
tenth-millimetres. 


much as to say that the dynamical effect of the wind 
must account for well-nigh two-thirds of the total 
effect produced. Moreover, in these waters the current 
produced by the wind deviates by about 20° to the 
right of the direction of the wind itself; and the 
current thus moves sideways up the slope, about 45° 
to the right of its uphill direction, which is an oceano- 
graphical paradox. 

In the gateways of the Baltic these external forces 
by no means fully explain the phenomena which occur, 
We may calculate the amount of water which escapes 
from the Baltic, on an average, month by month; 
and, proportional to these amounts, we then discover 
residual deviations of slope in the water-levels. Within 
its gates the Baltic may be regarded as a basin the 
levels of which (except for perturbations at the mouths 
of rivers) are mainly determined by the barometric 
field. But the gateways themselves constitute a 
sluice, damming up the waters within; and in this 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


In other words, then, we | 


region the height of the dam will depend not only — 
on the atmospheric pressure, but also on the quantity 
of water which passes over into the North Sea, the — 
level of which varies according to its local conditios 
and to more distant phenomena in the ocean. In a 
general way, the peculiarities of the narrow entrances — 
to the Baltic are not difficult to comprehend. — . 
But let us return to the internal forces, or, prac- 
tically speaking, to the distribution of densities in the 
sea. We have here a direct cause of variation of 
surface-level, giving us, as it were, a theoretic or ideal 
sea-level at any particular place, largely affected in 
actual fact by extrinsic forces which move and heap 
up the waters. Now, we began by saying that mean 
sea-level, properly so-called, is a constant as yet un- 
determined. But, nevertheless, we know a very great 
deal more about it than we did even a few years ago, 
and can give a very fair approximation to it in a con- 
siderable number of localities. Even at Dundee or 
Aberdeen mean sea-level is a very different thing from 


, 


[Sa aE Ch 


cs 5 Bb 10 12° 14 16 16 te + 24 
MORES ies pote: te fe ‘ 
| : 4515 
eal - y 
#4 
= is 
i 
==. = ° 
=> = asiree 
‘oO 
= 5 7 cA 
= #325 : 
58 
y 
+h = f 
4 “5 
9, 
4 b] 
S & 
‘ ripe NS Le 
12 Lad 


Fic. 2.—Mean sea-level, calculated values ; referred (in centimetre-units) to 
a geoidic surface touching the North Sea in the middle of its northern 
part. 


that mark at Liverpool from which all our Ordnance 
levels are reckoned, and which (though by a happy 
accident it is not far from the truth) we all know to bea 
purely empirical or conventional datum. Now, as. 
Prof. Witting argues, we do already know enough 
about this subject to be able to define, with a fair 
amount of accuracy, a ‘‘zero-pressure level” in the 


sea at a point where no movements are caused by the a | 
distribution of densities; to be more specific, we may | 
choose a point somewhere towards the middle of the — 


northern part of the North Sea, describe a geoidic 
surface touching it, and call that (to the best of our 
present knowledge) our datum level. Proceeding out- 
wards from this zero point, we may calcylate the — 
hydrodynamical part of the slope due to the distribu- 
tion of densities; and again we may calculate, and — 
supéradd to this, the slope due to barometric pressures, — 


either for some particular epoch or in average values 
corresponding with long-period barometric means. In — 


Fig. 2 Prof. Witting shows, after this manner, the — 


_ Aveusr 21, 1919 | 


NATURE 


495 


calculated or hypothetic values of mean sea-level over 
the Baltic area, expressed in terms of deviation (or as 
isanomalies) from the geoidic surface defined above. 
It will be seen that these isanomalies are of an order 
of magnitude far beyond any probable errors in the 
determination of our base. 
' The next step, to be immediately taken, is to .com- 
_ pare these calculated results with the observed results 
| obtained by actual survey on land, with the most 
_ modern nivellements de précision achieved by the 
national Surveys. On this subject Prof. Witting has 
much to say, and he succeeds in showing that the 
wo sets of results, the calculated and the observed, 
re wonderfully congruent. For example (and one 
ample must suffice), Prof. Witting arrives by cal- 
culation at an estimated mean difference of sea-level 
between Marienleuchte, on the North Sea, and Arkona 
d Memel, in the Baltic, amounting respectively to 
-98 and +17 centimetres. The German Pricisions- 
nivellierung gives observed values of 11 and 17-6 centi- 


Fic, 3.—The mean rate of elevation of the land during the period 1898-19 
: 5 in centimetres per annum. 
j ; 


between stations in the Baltic and Amsterdam, making 
use of the Dutch as well as the German levellings. 
In.short, Prof. Witting has good right to boast that 
this part of oceanography has become an exact science, 
and that his ‘ thalassographic levelling ”? bears favour- 
able comparison with, and may even be used to check 
‘and to control, the most refined achievements of actual 
Surveys on land... ; . 

_ The last remaining matter which presents itself is 
pe pa of long-period fluctuations of sea-level 
and the whole subject of secular elevation or depres- 
sion of the land. Here we start at a disadvantage, 
_ from our great ignorance of the variations in level of 
the ocean itself. But we do know a good deal by 
observation, and we may learn a good deal more by 
Prof.. Witting’s method of calculation of the relative 
variations of. level at, various points of the coast. 
There is no fixed point which we can designate, but 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


metres. As good, or even better, agreement is shown 


Prof. Witting shows that for about a century the | Nicholson, F.R.S. 


coastal variations in the southern Baltic must have 
been very small. Suppose, then, that the coast from 
Wismar to Pillau has, on the whole, kept a constant 
level; we may then map out the relative changes over 
the rest of the Baltic area (as in Fig. 3) during the 
period of years (1898-1912) over which Prof. Witting’s 
work extends. The result is striking enough; but the 
story does not end there. There are, on one hand, 
minor fluctuations within the area itself, and some of 
them are related to seismic phenomena; for instance, 
there was an interruption in the general upheaval: 
about the time of the Scandinavian earthquake of 
1904. On the other hand, the phenomena are directly 
related to those exhibited outside the Baltic area; 
and it may be said that, though certain minor differ- 
ences exist—for instance, in Holland—it is clear 
enough that the Fennoscandian upheaval is only part 
of a larger movement of the earth’s crust, which 
extends at least as far as the Netherlands and Scot- 
land. From England the author has to regret that 
no observations were available. 

With these recent scientific results regarding the 
elevation of the Baltic coasts Prof. Witting goes on 
to compare the earlier historic records and the pre- 
historic evidence, such as’ it. is, which is available 
from archeology and from geology. He finds that for 
some centuries past the elevation of the Fennoscandian 
lands has gone on at just about the same rate as. 
to-day. The archzological evidence is more doubtful. 
It may be that the phenomenon has been approxi- 
mately the same for some six thousand years; but it 
was possibly slower during and just after the Bronze 
age. Prof. Witting suggests—and this should interest 
the archzologists—that apparent contradictions’ would 
disappear if we might assume that the older relics are 
considerably older than Scandinavian archzologists 
are accustomed to consider them; and that, on the 
other hand, the Bronze age is not quite so old as it 
is commonly supposed to be. The more ancient pheno- 
mena are difficult to discuss, because a damming-up of 
the Baltic outlet may have produced results not to be 
distinguished from actual elevation of the lands within. 
But Prof. Witting believes that in the Littorina period 
there was certainly an interruption, and that probably 
just after the Glacial period there was an acceleration 
in the rate of elevation. 

Prof. Witting brings a most interesting paper to a 


‘close with a strong plea for increased study of sea- 


levels and all the related phenomena, and for such 
international co-opveration as is obviously essential for 
a complete and systematic investigation of the whole 
subject. D’Arcy W. THOMPSON. 


ENERGY DISTRIBUTION IN SPECTRA. 


@ hehe. knowledge of the structure of very fine spec- 

trum lines is now on a secure and nearly compre- 
hensive basis, from the points of view of both theory 
and of experiment, and it is very remarkable that so. 
little is known of the distribution of energy in these 
lines, either in individual lines or as between the dif- 
ferent lines contained in the spectrum of any atom.. 
The analysis of the spectra of atoms, theoretically and 
in the laboratory, is now recognised as the most criti- 
cal test to which any theory of atomic structure can be 
subjected, and we have recently had theories of the 
atom entirely based upon the wave-lengths of the 
radiations which they emit. A question of equal im- 
portance, to which I now wish to direct your atten- 
tion, is the relative amounts of energy which the atom 
throws out in the form of radiation in the different 


1 Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on May 2 by Prof. J. W- 


496 


NATURE 


[AucusT 2i, 1919 


wave-lengths, for this is well known to vary in some 
cases very greatly according to the circumstances in 
which the atom is excited. I shall describe, in the 
first instance, a method designed by Dr. Merton for 
investigating the distribution of energy among spec- 
trum lines, or in the breadth of an individual line, with 
great accuracy. It is possible by this means to obtain 
the long-desired object of an absolute scale of spectral 
intensity, independent of all the ordinary difficulties 
determined by such matters as the unequal behaviour 
of the photographic plate for light in different regions 
of,the spectrum. Dr. Merton‘and I have been work- 
ing together:on this subject. for the past three years, 
and I shall conclude the present lecture with an account 


of some of the more interesting results which’ have’ 


been reached, after an explanation of the method. 
The intensities of spectrum lines have usually been 
recorded on an arbitrary scale. ranging between 10 
and zero, the numbers assigned being at the discretion 
of the observer, and varying so. greatly among different 
observers as frequently. to be of little value for exact 
knowledge. They depend also very much on the 
nature of the observation, whether. visual or photo- 
graphic, and in the latter case on the region of the 
spectrum to which the line belongs. The sensitivity of 
a photographic plate varies’ with the wave-length of 
the light in a curious manner, and apparently an irre- 
gular one not following any simple law. The sensi- 


tivity of the eye is also different for different colours. © 


When the line is outside the visible spectrum, in the 
infra-red or dark heat region, measurements of in- 
tensity can be made with some accuracy by a thermo- 
pile or a bolometer. But they are needed more ur- 
gently in the visible region at present, not only for the 
information they will afford regarding the nature of 
the atom, but also for application to other problems. 
The subject is very important, for instance, in the. inter- 


pretation’ of celestial spectra, and more particularly. 


those spectra of great complexity. and variability which 


are associated with the birth of new stars, from. which. 


most of our knowledge regarding such stars: must. be 
constructed. 


Previous knowledge of changes in spectral intensity 


under varying conditions was of necessity limited to the. 
Those changes. which are of especial. 


great changes. 
value in connections such as I have mentioned, are 
liable to be of a less conspicuous type, not. readily 
capable of detection by the ordinary photographic or 


the visual method, and, if detected, not capable of. 


accurate measurement. 

In the visual region of the spectrum observations 
with the bolometer are not satisfactory. The source 
of light must be very intense in order to produce large 


. deflections in the galvanometer, and only the brightest 


lines could be dealt with even in this way. Only one 
line in the spectrum can be experimented upon at one 
time, and the source of light cannot be maintained 
constant over a protracted period. The method is, in 
fact, quite unsuitable, and the spectrophotometer has 
been tried instead, but no great accuracy is possible, 
and its use is confined to a very narrow region of wave- 
length. Moreover, the variability of the source of light 
is again present. 

In adopting any photographic method for quantita- 
tive work we must remember that not only does the 
sensitivity of the plate vary with the wave-length, but 
also that there is no very definite relation between the 
density of a photographic image and either the in- 
tensity of the light or the time of exposure. If we 
halve the former and double the latter, we do not get 
the same density of the image, but another which 
depends on the particular plate used. The grain of a 
plate also scatters light, and‘the actual size of the 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103 | 


-another, are detected as peaks or kinks in this bound- 


image thus depends on the exposure and the intensity 
of the light. 


method involve the necessity of an equal exposure on 
the same plate for all the sources of light to be com- 
pared, and the method to-be described satisfies this 
necessity. . 
The spectrograph for producing and photographing 
the lines of a spectrum is set up in the usual way, 
which requires no description. A wedge of neutral- 
tinted glass, cemented to another of clear glass so as 
to form a plane parallel plate, is mounted in front of 
the slit. The image of the slit formed by light of any 
wave-length is thus attenuated towards the part of the 
slit opposite: the thick end of the wedge, where the 
absorption of light is greatest, and the image ceases 
to be strong enough to affect the plate beyond a certain 
specific height, which depends on the original in- 
tensity, in the beam from the source, of this particular 
wave-length. free 
The photograph thus consists, not of the usual spec- 
trum with all lines or slit-images of the same length, 
but of a spectrum in which all the lines are cut down 
to specific heights depending on the original intensi- 
ties, and thus it gives a simultaneous record of all the 
intensities in the spectrum at any oneinstant. All spec- 
trum lines have a breadth, due to-the Doppler effect of 
the atomic motions in the kinetic theory, and to other 
agencies. The shape of one of the truncated line 
depends on the original law of intensity across the 
line, and they may be wedge-shaped, or bounded by a 
more or less rounded curve, from the nature of which, 
if the, boundary can be sharply defined, we can deduce 
mathematically the law of intensity across the original 
line. Sharp changes of intensity, such as oecur when 
the line has several close components overlapping one 


ing curve. The original photograph can be enlarged 
with considerable magnifying power, and if the bound- 
ing curve on this enlargement is sharply defined, we 
can obtain its mathematical shape very accurately, and — 


We were early compelled to conclude that — 
accurate measurements of intensity by a photographic — 


deduce an estimate of the intensity in any part of the _ 


line with a great degree of precision. We have been 
able to show that in most of our experiments such 
accuracy as I part in 100 has been reached, and it 
could readily be increased, if desired, by the use of 
greater magnification of the original photograph. 
The determination of the exact boundary of a patch 
of dark on a white ground is a matter in which “ per- 
sonal equation ’’ is important. We overcame this diffi- 
culty: by enlarging positives, prepared from the nega- 
tives, on to bromide paper through a ruled ‘‘ process ”” 
screen. The resulting photograph consists in this way 
of an assemblage of very minute dots, fading away 
towards the boundary into invisibility. It is a simple 


‘matter to prick out the last dots visible all round the 


contour, and in this way personal equation can appa- 
rently be entirely eliminated. We adopted usually 
about 100 dots to the inch on the final photograph. If 
comparisons of different lines with one another are 
required, only the central heights of the figures are 
necessary, and the topmost dot can be seen at once. 


The first application of the method was to the in- 4 


tensity distribution in the lines of the hydrogen spec- 
trum when a condensed discharge was passed through 
the exciting tube. 


It was known that with'a con- 
densed discharge the lines always appeared much — 


broader, and we concluded that the best method of 
obtaining information as to the source of the effect — 


was to examine the intensity distribution across the 3 
lines. Some remarkable contours were obtained, show- — 


ing at once a 


clear distinction between this source of — 
broadening and that associated with the Doppler effect. 


_ AvucusT 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


497 


_ The contours essociated with the latter should be thin, 
_ symmetrical parabolas. Those we found were wedge- 
shaped, with definite kinks indicating the introduction 
_of new component lines when the condenser was put 
into the circuit. The wedge shape indicates that the 
_law of decrease of intensity from the centre of a com- 
_ ponent is exponential, and not the law of error as in 
the Doppler effect. By measuring the distances be- 


ious calibration of the wedge, all necessary quan- 
_ titative data of the spectrum line can be calculated. 
_ It was possible to show in particular that the separa- 
_ tions in wave-length of the components of Ha were 
those found by Stark when new components were 
called into being by the existence of an enormous ex- 
ternal potential gradient. As we had suspected, the 
ori of this exceptional broadening under the con- 
lensed discharge is the. ‘‘electric Zeeman effect,’’ the 
rigin of the large electric field on any atom being 
¢ close proximity of other charged atoms. We thus 
_ have a new means of studying the electrical resolution 
__ Of spectral lines, more convenient in many ways than 
__ the older methods, and capable of much greater gener- 
ality and accuracy. A large number of observations 
of the same phenomenon were made also on the spec- 
tral lines of helium and lithium, and the correspond- 
ence with the Stark effect always held good. . ‘ 
€ examination of an individual line has also been 
ed in the case of an ‘“‘ordinary’’ discharge, and 
S the first direct proof of the probability dis- 
ition of velocities in the radiating atoms of a gas. 
distribution was taken as a basis by Lord Ray- 
igh in the elaboration of a precise method of deter- 
ning the mass of a radiating atom from the breadth 
le spectrum lines—a method applied by Buisson 
d Fabry with great success, when the breadth is 
measured by methods of interference of light. Our 
experiments. have defined very closely the circum- 
stances in which this method is practicable, and shown 
_ that it fails altogether if condensed discharges are em- 
a U etigac’ In the ordinary uncondensed discharge under 
W pressure, however, our contours are very accurately 
wabolic, which fact can be shown to imply a very 
rigorous probability law of velocities in the atoms, and 
other important source of broadening of lines in 


_ circumstances. 
e only other application to an individual line. 
hh I shall mention. concerns the nature of the 
‘series of hydrogen, long believed to be a diffuse 
th each line consisting of two close com- 
arcely separable or. not separable at all, with 
r al in frequency between them for every 
_ We have shown that it is in fact a principal 
‘series, with the separations decreasing in a calculable 
_ way required by theory, confirming also the value of 
_the separation in H, given by Fabry and Buisson. The 
_ method was to use the neutral wedge in combination 
- with another apparatus of extreme resolving power— 
this case a Lummer-Gehrcke plate. We can in this 
_ way obtain contours for a pair of close components 
_ which cannot be detected visually as a pair, and the 
tual interval can be deduced by a series of measure- 
of the joint contour, consisting of two over- 
ig parabolas. We calculate the position of the 
srtex of the inner one, and thence the separation, 
_ which can, in Hg, be determined within about o-oot of 
_ an Angstrém unit. The actual separation in this line is 
as small as 0030 A., and the present method: could” 
measure separations accurately, even if they were much 
smaller. ; Ree a oes 
__ We pass now from the phenomena of structure and 
‘intensity of a single line to those involving a compari- 
son of different lines. Here the behaviour of the plate 


NO, 2599, VOL. 103] . 


_ tween the kinks, and knowing the magnification and a, 


for different wave-lengths must be dealt with. But it 
so happens that every plate can be calibrated by throw- 
ing On to it, not only the whole spectrum under exam- 
ination, but also the radiation—a continuous spectrum 
—from the positive crater of the carbon arc. The energy 
distribution in this case is known from Wien’s law 
when the temperature of the arc is known, as it is very ° 
closely. On the slide you will notice the curious con- 
tour bounding this spectrum, largely due to vagaries 
in the sensitivity of the plate. Above it is the helium 
spectrum on the same plate. To obtain an absolute 
scale of intensities down the helium spectrum, inde- 
pendent of all sources of error due to apparatus, we 
only need to compare the heights of the lines with the 
corresponding heights directly below them in the 
carbon-arc spectrum. It is, in fact, logarithms of . 
intensity which the heights represent, and differences 
of height represent powers of a definite factor entering 
into the intensities, so that the photographs give no 
visual impression of the enormous differences of in- 
tensity which occur. For example, the line of wave- 


_length A 3888, a principal line in the helium spectrum, 


appears quite short on the photographs, but is actually 
the most intense in the spectrum. It happens to be 
in a region of wave-length where the plate is not sensi- 
tive. One of our conclusions is, in fact, that principal 
series deserve their name even in elements which 
appeared hitherto to be exceptions, in that they do 
contain, for the visible region, a preponderant part of 
the energy radiated 

It is not necessary to use the carbon arc in every 
subsequent experiment. We can, by its means, cali- 
brate the helium spectrum under conditions easily 
reproduced, and afterwards take this as our standard, 
especially when the work projected is the variation of 
the helium spectrum under changing conditions of 
excitation. Some of the remaining slides indicate the 
unexpected character of some of these variations. It 
would not be possible, in this discourse, to give: any- 
thing like a complete account of the phenomena of 
this class already investigated, and I shall therefore 
confine myself to some of those which are most strik- 
ing. In the first place, we may notice the spectrum 
of a mixture of hydrogen and helium or neon. The 
fundamental phenomenon which this method has de- 
tected is what we have called ‘‘transfer of energy 
along a series.’’ For instance, in the Balmer series of © 
hydrogen, produced from pure hydrogen under “‘ ordin- 
ary ’’ conditions, there is a perfectly definite intensity 
relation among the lines Ha, Hg, and so on, but in 
the presence of helium this is disturbed, and the ratios 
Hs/He, H,/Hs, are notably increased. In _ other 
words, more energy tends to be emitted in the form of 
the more refrangible rays, at the expense of the less 
refrangible. It is interesting to speculate as to how 
far this process can be carried, for its logical extreme 
is a radiation from hydrogen concentrated at A 3646, 
the limit of the Balmer series. We have not, in fact, 
examined the matter from this point of view. 

Neon produces the same effect on the hydrogen spec- 
trum, the first recorded evidence being an experiment 
of Liveing and Dewar, who found in 1900 that it was 
possible to observe more of the violet members of the 
Balmer series when neon was present. We have made 
quantitative measurements of the effect in various 
cases, and in one experiment, for instance,- the neon 
was found to make H,; 6/5 as strong, H, 0/5 as strong, 
and H, 11/5 as strong in comparison with He. But Lb 
shall not enter into further numerical detail. A parti-. 
cularly interesting fact is that the effect of a small 
trace of an impurity is often diametrically opposite to 
that of a large quantity, and causes the transfer of 
energy: to take place in the opposite direction along the 


498 


NATURE 


[AuGUST 21, 1919 


spectrum. There are evidently two quite different 
mechanisms of interaction possible between the atoms 
of the two gases—a problem I commend to the chemist 
for investigation. 

But it is not necessary to mix One gas with another 
in order to produce the energy transfer. It can be 
achieved otherwise, as some further slides I have here 
will suffice to show. We have made many measure- 
ments of intensity, more especially in the spectrum oi 
pure helium, of the lines from a pure gas as dependent 
on the part of the tube they arise from, and on the 
conditions of excitation. We shall only consider one 
or two of the more interesting results which arise from 
a comparison of three spectra of helium: (1) the 

‘ordinary ’’? spectrum, or the spectrum given by: the 
capillary of a vacuum tube containing helium at about 
a millimetre pressure, excited by the discharge from 
an .induction coil without capacity or spark-gap; 
(2) the bulb spectrum, obtained by putting a small con- 
denser and a very small spark-gap in parallel in the 
circuit; (3) the capillary spectrum with a spark-gap 
anda strong condensed discharge, In both (2) and (3) 
the transfer of energy to the more refrangible members 
of a series takes place very strongly. In the diffuse 
series the transferred energy goes in (3) mainly towards 
increased breadth of the line, but in (2) mainly towards 
enhanced central intensity—two quite distinct effects. 
The. sharp and principal series show the same transfer 
quite definitely, though on a smaller scale, and the 
effect is in these cases more closely confined to enhance- 
ment of the central intensity. 

The most striking enhancements produced by the 
condensed discharge in helium occur with the lines 
A 4472 and. A 4388, which are precisely: the helium lines 
apt to be found abnormally strongly in the spectra of 
some of the planetary nebulz. Some other experiments 
we have made, on the spectrum of helium at very low 
pressure, indicate that these lines, together with the 
line: 5015 more frequently quoted, are the strongly 
enhanced lines also in these circumstances. If the two 
sets of circumstances occur together, A5015 is not 
especially strong, but the others are enhanced for both 
reasons. We have, in fact, been able to demonstrate 
that the peculiar “‘nebular ” spectrum of helium could 
be produced in the laboratory by a combination of the 
condensed discharge with an extremely: low pressure. 

I shall not discuss the spectra of gases as dependent, 
in their intensity relations, on pressure. The time 
required would be prohibitive, and my object is to 
indicate the range of work now open to precise investi- 
gation, rather than to give any complete account of 
the phenomena which the method has yet indicated or 
elucidated, One remark must, however, be made in 
connection with high-pressure spectra. We investi- 
gated the intensity distribution in a helium tube at 
the extraordinary pressure of 42 mm. Except for the 
trace of hydrogen which came out of the electrodes 
during the discharge, the helium was pure. Yet the 
hydrogen spectrum was nevertheless predominant on 
the plate, and fourteen members of the Balmer series, 
instead of the usua! six or seven at most, could be 
seen visually as very sharp lines. This phenomenon 
incidentally cannot be reconciled with the current quan- 
tum theory of the hydrogen spectrum—perhaps not an 
unexpected fact to those conversant with the hydrogen 
spectrum. No atomic theory as yet has begun to inter- 
pret any of this spectrum except the Balmer series, 
and many have done this. No spectroscopist can, in 
fact, accept a’ theory) which can give no hint of the 


origin of the so-called ‘‘ secondary spectrum ”’ of hydro. - 


gen, known to arise mainly from the atom, and, in the 
laboratory at least, the most important and extensive 
part of the spectrum. The elucidation of this spectrum 
is in many ways the most fundamental problem of 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


| preconceived conn 


‘of librarianship at University College, of which, as q 
E. A, 


electrical engineering department of the Bradi 


physics, and far more fundamental than the Balmer’ A . 


series problem. ; ee 
Many of the .._~ problems of interest, which the 
possession of an acc. “> method of intensity deter. 
mination in spectra enables us to attack, are mainly 
of astrophysical importance. There may be variations 4 
of intensity in the Fraunhofer lines accompanying — 
other more readily perceived solar phenomena, for ex- 
ample, but of more urgent importance is the need for 
a series of photographic registers of the intensity across 
the whole spectrum of a new star at different stages 
of its history. It has not often been possible even to 
determine the actual number of component radiations, 
in an apparent broad band with a structure, emitted 
from such a star—at least with any real certainty, A 
method which automatically sifts out such bands and 
gives peaks on a photograph at all the maxima of in- 
tensity in the band may well be expected to ute 
greatly to the elucidation of the phenomena te \ 
place, which must in any case be totally different from. 
anything known by our terrestrial experience. — oe 
The only other class of phenomenon depending for 
its elucidation on precise measures of intensity in 
trum lines, to which I shall refer with further illustra. 
tive slides, is the variation which takes place in the 
spectrum from a helium tube as we recede from the 
cathode. The slides serve to show the considerable dif- _ 
ferences which take place in the distribution of the 
various series, which are all emitted most > at 
unequal distances from the cathode. One very e 1 
ordinary result, shown clearly on the last slide, is the 
fact that there exists a narrow region of the tube in 
which the characteristic spark line \ 4686 is emitted 
simultaneously with the helium band spectrum—a cir- 
cumstance which necessitates some ee of 


UNIVERSITY AND eDucaTIONAL . 
INTELLIGENCE. a 


Campripce.—Mr. S. Lees, who was vecsillies eet 
pointed University lecturer in thermodynamics, hs 


been re-elected a fellow’ of St. John’s College. 


Lonpon.—The following appointments have ee 
made in connection with the newly instituted school 


already stated, Dr. Baker is the director:— 
Bibliography, Mr. A. Esdaile; Cataloguing and ay 
Library Routine, Mr. W. R. B. Prideaux ; Classifica-_ 
tion, Mr. W. C. B. Sayers; Public Library Law, 
Mr. H. W. Fovargue; Library Organisation, ‘Mr. 
B. ‘M. Headicar; Literary History, Dr. Ae i 
Chambers; Literary History and Book Selection, — 
Dr. E. A. Baker; Palwography and Archives, Mr. Ta 
Jenkinson ; assistant to the director, Mr. L. F . New-. 
combe. ‘The work of the school is to a in on 
October 1, but the formal opening will take place on. ‘a 
October 8, at 5 o'clock, at the hands of Sir F. 
Kenyon, the director and principal - ‘librarian “of the 
British Museum. 


Dr. S. W. PATTERSON has been sppelane director of gy 
the Eliza Hall Institute of Research, in connection with 
the Melbourne Hospital. 


Mr. W. H. N. James has been appointed head of 


Municipal Technical College. 


Mr. J. A. R. Marriorr has intimated to the 
chancellor of the University of Oxford his intention 
resign the secretaryship to the University sae 
Delegacy in March REM: 


_ Avcust 21, 1919] 


NATURE 


499 


' Mr. M. H. Happock, of the Doncaster Technical 
Dollege, has been appointed county mining organiser 
or Leicestershire, and to have charge of the new 
‘Mining institute and technical school at Coalville. 


Iris Le Beat to erect a geological building in con- 
nection with the University of Wisconsin as a memorial 
to Dr. C. R. Van Hise, late president of the Univer- 
ity, thus bringing together under one roof the depart. 
nents of geology and mining engineering, and the 
State and Federal geological surveys. 
_ Ty connection with the New York Botanical Garden, 
which has well-equipped laboratories and an extensive 
horticultural library, a two-year course in practical 
gardening has been inaugurated for the purpose of 
sroviding careers for convalescent soldiers and sailors 
ind to meet the increasing demand for trained gar- 


-11@€Irs 


_ Tue total number of higher education grants for 

ice officers and men awarded by the Board of 
ation now amounts to 5400. The courses in 
*t of which grants have been awarded include 
than ist for engineering and technological sub- 
Ss, between 600 and 700 for classics, philosophy, 
| literature, and about an equal number for pure 
ence and mathematics. 


N association has been formed in New York, called 
_“* The York Association for the Advancement of 
Medical Education and Medical Science,’’ the main 
- objects of which are: To improve and amplify the 
3 of undergraduate teaching; to perfect plans 
utilising the clinical material of the city for teach- 
purposes and to make use of teaching talent now 
employed; to bring about a working affiliation of 
medical schools, hospitals, and laboratories, and 


P rods 
for 
: 


‘the establishment of a medical foundation in the city 
hereby funds may be secured to meet the financial 
ments of all forms of medical education and 
tion. 
p ectus of the evening courses in technology 
niversity for the session 1919-20 is now 
The arrangements announced are sub- 
ec m in consequence of the special circum- 
stan 


ces of the present time. Technological courses 
“ae be held, it is hoped, in the following departments 
of the University :—Civil, mechanical, and electrical 
engineering; coal-mining; textile and leather indus- 
tries; colour chemistry and dyeing; and geology 
applied to sanitary and civil engineering. The 
ering courses in the department of textile industries, 
to refer in more detail to one department, are 
primarily designed to meet the requirements of 
_ persons who, having already passed through approved 
rses of study, wish to take up some particular 
line of research work, or to conduct trade investiga- 
tions necessitating the use of special equipment. 
Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries announces 
_ that,. as part of the Government schemes of higher 
education and training of ex-Service officers, provision 
_ is made by the Board for financial assistance for agri- 
_ cultural training by means of (a) grants for residential 
training with selected farmers in England and Wales, 
and (b) agricultural scholarships at approved universi- 
_ ties or agricultural colleges in England or Wales. More 
_ than 1300 officers have now been approved for grants 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


- be. ascertained at any post office. 


the public health facilities of the city; and to initiate: 


under (a), of whom more than tooo are actually in 
training on farms, whilst 65 out of the 100 scholar- 
ships available under (b) have been awarded. In view 
of the numerous applications which are still being 
received, the Board has decided that no application 
either for a grant for training on a farm or for a 
scholarship can be entertained by them (1) from any 
officer who has been demobilised by July 31, 1919, 
unless the application has been lodged at the appro- 
priate district directorate of the Ministry of Labour 
on or before August 31, 1919; and (2) from any officer 
who has not been demobilised by July 31, 1919, unless 
it is received by December 31, 1919, except in any 
case’ in which it can be shown that for . military 
reasons the application could not have been made by 
that date. All applications from mnon-demobilised 
officers should be made as soon as possible. Par- 
ticulars of these farm-training grants and agricultural 
scholarships and of the manner of making application 
are given in the Board’s booklet, ‘‘ Land Settlement in 
the Mother Country ’’ (L.S.9), which can be obtained 
either from the Board’s offices at 72 Victoria Street, 
London, S.W.1, or from any district directorate of 
the Appointments Department, Ministry of Labour. 
The address of the appropriate district directorate can 
Non-demobilised 
officers should make their applications on Army form 
Z15 or Navy form S1299. Warrant officers, non-com- 
missioned officers, and men in the ranks of suitable 
educational promise are also eligible for these grants. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


Paris. 

Academy of Sciences, July 28.—M. Léon Guignard 
in the chair—A. Laveran and G. Franchini: Some 
flagella of insects obtained in a pure culture, and in 
particular Crithidia melophagi. Details of the 
technique for obtaining pure cultures are given, and 
proof of the pathogenic action on mice.—A. Rateau: 
The theory of aeroplanes: application to an example. 
—R. de Forcrand and F, Taboury: The stability of 
the sulphones formed by the iodides of sodium, 
rubidium, and cesium. These compounds have the 
composition MI+3SO,; their dissociation pressures 
have been measured at —22-5° C., 0° C., +9-65° C., 
and at 15° C., and the results are given in the form 
of curves.—N. E, Nérlund: The polynomials of 
Euler.—Ch. Platrier: The elastic equilibrium of a 
homogeneous isotropi¢ body of revolution submitted 
to radial forces either br gah ae or inversely pro- 
portional to the radius.—H. Abraham and E. Bloch: 
Recording galvanometers with movable needle.—E. 
Brylinski: The induction reaction of alternators.— 
E. Poirson: A method of secret. telephony. The tele- 
phonic currents are deformed by periodic interruptions 
by mechanical means, and the message cannot then 
be understood. The distorted currents can be rectified 
at the receiving end by a synchronised apparatus. 
Experiments have been carried out by this method 
with success over distances up to 600 km.—J. 
Lavaux: Electrolytic luminescence phenomena pre- 
sented by certain metallic anodes.—Jh. Martinet: The 
indirubins.—Ch. Chavanne and L. J. Simon: The 
critical solution temperatures in aniline of mixtures 
of hydrocarbons. Application to the analyses of 
petrols—H. Colin and O. Liévin: The spontaneous 
oxidation of complex organic compounds of cobalt. 
Alkaline solutions of glycerol or lactic acid containing 
cobalt absorb oxygen up to a maximum! of one atom 
of oxygen for one atom of cobalt. Other substances, 
such» as mannitol, erythritol, and glucose, under 
similar conditions absorb oxygen continuously beyond 
this limit—P. Russo: The Eocene containing phos- 


500 NATURE 


[AuGuST 21, 1919 


phate at Oued Zem (western Morocco).—G. Reboul 
and L, Dunoyer; The utilisation of temperature for 
the prediction of barometric —variations:—L. 
Blaringhem: [Floral variations in the large mar- 
guerite, Leucanthemum vulgare-—Mme. E, Bloch; 
Anatomical modifications of roots by mechanical 
action. Compression causes important local modi- 
fications, but the general development, of the plant is 
uninfluenced, flowers and fruit remaining normal.— 
H. Bierry: Food ration. The minimum requirements 
of sugar and of fat.—L, Vialleton: The epiphyses and 
cartilage of conjugation in mammals,—A. Paillot ; 
The cytology of the blood of the caterpillars of the 
Macrolepidoptera, 
CALCUTTA, 


Asiatic Society of Bengal, July 2.—G. R. Kaye: 
Hindu astronomical deities. This paper deals primarily 
with the navagraha or nine planets and the planetary 
cult as it obtains in India. It also refers to a separate 
solar worship which is traced back to Vedic influences, 


_ while it is indicated that the planetary cult proper is 


possibly of exotic origin. Details of planetary icono- 
graphy are given which are traced to Pauranic teach- 
‘ing, and are illustrated by photographs of ancient 
sculptures of the navagraha, and extracts from early 
texts and inscriptions; and these details are con- 
trasted with the modern practice as exhibited in 
paddhatis and pafichagas.—H. B. Hannay: Note on 
ancient Romic chronology. The paper indicates the 
nature of the sothic cycle, starting from zero at the 
autumnal equinox as understood by ‘the ancient 
Egyptians; also the nature, length,. and practical 
significance of the Sed and Hunti Hebs, or festivals, 
as based on that cycle; it shows -that all official and 
other data from monuments, .etc., regarding sothic 
risings, hebs, etc., are placeable in the cycle. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. — 


Board of Agriculture .and Fisheries: Guides to 
Smallholders. No. 2: Dairy Farming under Small- 
holding Conditions. (London: Board of Agriculture 
and Fisheries, 1919.) 2d, 

Experimental Researches © carried 
Department. of Glass Technology, 
Sheffield. (Reprinted from the Journal of the Society 
of Glass Technology.) Pp. iii+178. (Sheffield: The 
University, n.d.) ° ee . 

The Stars Night by Night: “Being the Journal of 
a Star Gazer. By J. H. Elgie, First published as 
‘Night Skies of a Year,’’ ro1o. Pp. xiv+247. 
(London: ‘C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd., 1919.) 1s. 6d. 
net. 

Problems of Fertilisation. By Prof. F. R. Lillie. 
(University of Chicago Science Series.) Pp. xii+278. 
(Chicago :. University of Chicago Press; London: 
Cambridge University Press.) 1.75 dollars. - 

A Source Book of Biological Nature-Study. By 
E. R. Downing. (University of Chicago Nature- 
Study Series.): Pp. xxi+503. (Chicago: University 
of Chicago. Press; . London: Cambridge University 
Press, 1919:) 3 dollars. 

Mining and Manufacture of Fertilising Materials 
and. their Relation to Soils. By E. Lloyd. 
Pp. vit+153. (New York: ID. Van Nostrand Co.; 
London: .Crosby Lockwood and Son, 19¥9.) gs. net. 
‘ Mathematics for Collegiate Students of Agriculture 
and ‘General Science. By ‘Profs. A. M. Kenyon and 
W. V. Lovitt. Revised edition. Pp. vii+337. (New 
York: The Macmillan Co.; London : Macmillan: and 
Co., Ltd., 1918.) -10s. 6d. net. 


NO. 2599, VOL. 103] 


out in «the 


University of |. 


Industrial Fatigue 


The Whole Truth about Alcohol. By G. E. Flint. 
With an introduction by Dr. A. Jacobi. Pp. xii+294. 
(New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan 
and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 6s. net. Be 

Lectures on the Principle of Symmetry and its 
Applications in all Natural Sciences. By Prof. F. M.. 
Jaeger. Pp. xii+333. (Amsterdam: ‘‘ Elsevier” Pub- 
lishing Co.; London: Cambridge University Press, 
1917.) 20s, net. | 


1914. Pp. clxxxii+1140+13. Vol. i., 1915. Pp. 
Ixxxix+996+8. Vol. i., 1916. Pp. -Ixxxvii+827+7. 
Vol. i.,. 1917. -Pp.. xc+1183+8. Ariens Published 
by the University, 1915-18.) | 
House of Representatives: Library of Congress. 
Report of the Librarian of Congress and Report of 
the Superintendent of the Library Building and 
Grounds for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1918. 
Pp. 191. (Washingtcn : Government Printing Office, 
1918.) 45 cents. as Ee 


CONTENTS. 9 


PAGE 

Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, By H, B. G. 481 
_ Beverages. By C. Simmonds. . ... ..... 482 
Our: Bookshelf. ...).¢.- 345 0 Wis eee «2 a 482 


Letters to the Editor:— meri ek 
The Magnetic Storm of August 11-12, 1919.—Rev. | 


A. L, Cortie;S. Jie 320 ee ee he Se 483 
Wild Birds and Distasteful “Insect Larvee.—Dr. if 
Walter E. Collinge . 2)... 433) see ns 483 


Notes on Stellar Classification. (With Curves.) By Hi: 
Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S....... 484 
The Supply of Drugs during the War .... .. 486 


Ernst Haeckel -. .. .:. : LL gee 487. 
oter:) 6. Nn 6 aks OL Ve, ee asian 483. 
Our Astronomical Column :— as ‘ 
Kopff’s Comet 1906 IV.=1919@ . . . . . sss - 492 
Occultation of Small Stars by Jupiter... ... + 492 
A Magnetic Storm ceive © DiREwoe ey > 8c a ns 
The Recent Solar Eclipse = cgay at mie Fal ci no oh 492 


Mean Sea-Level. (With Maps.) By Prof. D’Arcy =a 


W. Thompson, C.B., F.R.S.... . : es 493- 
Energy Distribution in Spectra. By Prof. J. W. ry 
Nicholson, F.R.S,. 0-0. 3s Sunes . 495. 
University and Educational Intelligence. ... 498 
Societies and Academies. ..... = aR AOD 
Books Received) i) snir + wit eS - + 500 
a. 
Editorial and Publishing Offices: a 
MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltp., . 


ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 


Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 
Publishers. see 


Editorial Communications to the Editor. ee 
Telegraphic Address: Puusts, LONDON. oat 
Telephone’ Number: GERRARD 8830. 


501 


THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1919. 


WAR WOUNDS. 


1) Traité Clinique de Neurologie de Guerre. Par 
_. Paul Soflier, Chartier, Félix Rose, Villandre. 
' Préface de M. le Médecin-Inspecteur Baratte. 
_. Pp. viii+830. (Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 
_ 1918.) Price 32 francs. 
42) Annales de la Clinique Chirurgicale du Prof. 
Pierre Delbet. No. 6. Biologie de la Plaie de 
_ Guerre. Par Prof. Pierre Delbet et Noél Fies- 
' singer. Pp. v+460+4 pls. (Paris: Librairie 
_. Félix Alcan, 1918.) Price 30 francs. 
‘{t) Sf Be publication of the work carried out in 
PS the Neurological Centre of the Four- 
teenth Region (Lyons) during the period Decem- 
ber, 1914, to March, 1918, is a welcome addition 
to the neurological records of the war. More 
“than 18,000 patients were examined during this 
time, and nearly half of these were actually in 
hospital under the care of the staff of the Centre. 
_ More than 11,000 cases were followed up, and 
‘the statistics of these are available. — 
_ The organisation of the Centre, with its many 
_ special departments, under one administrative 
head, has ensured a unity of purpose during the 
whole time of the patients’ treatment. The co- 
_ ordination of special medical and surgical depart- 
_ ments with those of radiology, electro-therapeutics, 
_ ©e-education, etc., is especially insisted upon. In 
_ this country the chief attempt at such co-ordina- 
_ tion has come through the establishment of special 
_ hospitals for orthopedic cases, and such units 
_ have been an unqualified success. 
_ M. Chartier discusses head wounds, and notes 
_ that the use of the steel helmet not only reduced 
the incidence of such wounds, but also diminished 
_-the proportion of severe penetrating wounds of 
‘the skull. It is emphasised that foreign bodies 
_ after lying latent in the brain for months may at 
| give rise to serious cerebral conditions, 
_ such as abscess or apoplexy. 
_ The ordinary facts of cerebral anatomy and 
_ physiology are shortly described in relation to 
lesions of the brain. Reference to the work of 
_ Head and Holmes is omitted in the description of 
_ the cerebral sensory functions. The classification 
-of aphasia according to Marie and Foix is 
adopted, although no new facts are mentioned. 
_ Traumatic diabetes and polyuria are shortly dealt 
with, although the influence of the sympathetic 
_ fiervous system and adrenal glands receives no 
_ fecognition as playing an important part in the 
production of this form of glycosuria. 
M. Villandre ably deals with the surgical treat- 
ment of head wounds, including late repair of the 
_ skull by bone and cartilage grafts. A feature of 
_ this section is the full description of X-ray diag- 
_ nosis. This author also gives an account of the 
| surgery of the spinal cord, with details as to 
» technique. ; 
__ The chief diseases and injuries of the spinal 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


we NATURE 


cord and plexuses are described by Dr. Félix 
Rose. The diagnosis is not very fully discussed, 
a notable omission being the bulbo-cavernosus 
reflex in the diagnosis of injuries to the cauda 
equina. The paragraphs on polyneuritis do not 
describe cases with symptoms similar to those 
recently published as “infective polyneuritis ’’ by 
British observers. 

M. Chartier gives an account of the lesions 
of the cranial nerves and those of — the 
upper extremity. The anatomical arrangement 
of nerve-fibres in peripheral nerves is men- 
tioned in connection with the work of Dejerine 
and Mouzon and that of Marie and Meige; no 
personal experiences are given. Most observers 
in this country would dispute the statement that 
in complete lesions of the median nerve the nail 
pulp of the middle finger remains sensitive to 
pressure pain. The periarterial sympathetic fibres 
are suggested as the pathway for this sensation, 
although no proof of this view is attempted. 

_In the section on “Causalgia ’’ singularly little 
personal experience is quoted, and the sym- 
pathetic system is again called in to explain the 
important features of this syndrome. The original 
suggestions of Weir Mitchell are much more in 
line with the clinical findings in these cases, and 
the treatment by removal of the sympathetic 
nerves as advocated by Leriche has not been a 
success in this country. The author does not 
mention the frequent innervation of muscles such 
as the first dorsal interosseous in the hand by 
other nerves than those usually described, a fact 
which may complicate both diagnosis and prog- 
nosis. 

All observers in this country are much struck 
with the manner in which the function of para- 
lysed muscles can be takefY on by alternative 
muscles not usually associated with the chief 
movements of joints. M. Chartier does not em- 
phasise these phenomena in connection with . 
diagnosis and prognosis. 

MM. Villandre and Sollier deal with the 
surgical and medical treatment of nerve injuries 
respectively. Before operation they insist upon 
neurological, electrical, and, if necessary, X-ray 
reports. An interval of two and a half to three 
months is allowed to elapse after the healing of 
the wound before nerve suture is undertaken. 
There is no insistence upon re-examination at 
regular intervals for signs of regeneration, 
although this routine is essential to accurate 
treatment. The section on electro-diagnosis is 
complete. The ordinary tests by faradism and 
galvanism have been most used, although the con- 
denser and chronaxie methods are mentioned. 

The chapters by P. Sollier on the functional 
disorders are the most interesting in the whole 
work. Personal experience is freely quoted in 
the text, which is also well illustrated by original 
photographs. The writer objects to the view that 
the basis of all ‘“functional’’ disorder is 
“psychic.’? The physiological basis of hysteria is 
stated in full. In common with Roussy, 


DD 


502 


NATURE 


[AucusT 28, 1919 


L’hermitte, and others in France, and Hurst in 
this country, Sollier declares. that the ‘“‘ re- 
flex’’ or .“physiopathic’’ cases described by 
Babinski and Froment are easily curable by 
mobilisation and psychotherapy. The muscular 
and vaso-motor changes, etc., are believed to be 
entirely due to immobility, and clear up as soon 
as the use of the affected limb is restored. A 
return to Charcot’s conception of hysteria is pre- 
dicted by Sollier as the result of war experiences. 
Careful distinction is made between true reflex 
contractures associated with pain, and those 
called “reflex’’ by Babinski and Froment. All 
varieties of functional disorder, including those 
of the special senses, are described. Treatment 
by mobilisation and isolation is recommended, 
while the exclusion of splints, massage, electro- 
therapy, etc., is urged. 

The. section which deals with re-education is 
instructive. The organisation of the re-education 
treatment seems to have been excellent. The 
early individual treatment by the physician is suc- 
ceeded by exercises under a masseur, who is him- 
self carefully supervised by the physician. The 
next stage is that of gymnastic drill under 
medical supervision, in which chosen N.C.O.’s 
and patients assist. Finally, uncontrolled military 
drill completes the “hardening process ”’ to fit the 
soldier for military duty. The use of carefully 
supervised physical work, as in our own “cura- 
tive workshops,’’ and of games, also forms part 
of the routine. 

The value of mechano-therapy is . contrasted 
with that of motor re-education, to the great 
advantage of the latter, which is found to be an 
active, living mode of treatment when erowned by 
curative work. ; 

(2) The authors publish in this volume the 
results of their careful studies of tissues damaged 
by war wounds. They have been able to make 
parallel observations upon the tissue cells and the 
bacterial flora of wounds, so that much useful 
information is available. The deductions that 
they have drawn from the various changes found. 


are clearly expressed, and a fearless criticism of, 


the recent antiseptic methods of wound treatment 
is made. 

The opening section is devoted to a description 
of the lesions, emphasis being laid upon the 
important part played by damaged muscle as a 
culture medium for bacteria. The process of 
myolysis by ferments is described, and stress is 
laid upon the fact that the simple protein bodies 
resulting from the process, viz. peptones and 
amino-acids, favour bacterial growth to a greater 
degree than do the albumins. During the first 
four to twelve hours after the trauma the infection 
is little marked, and at this period such a 
wound might be capable of transformation into 
a surgical wound with union by first intention. 

In the nature of the infection an important 
place is given to the anaerobes. The bacillus of 
malignant cedema (vibrion septique), bacillus 
aerogenes capsulatus (B. welchii), with the whole 


NOs 2600, VOL. 103] 


series of anaerobes, obtain the expected recogni~ 
tion in the description of the infection. The 
aerobic organisms appear in wounds after the 
anaerobic series has been observed for some 
hours previously. The streptococcus is found to 
be the most dangerous of the aerobic series, espe+ 
cially in the usual state of mixed infection, when 
proteolytic changes greatly favour its growth. 
The defence in all its aspects is fully and clearly 
discussed. _ 

Leucocytic changes as seen by vital stain 
ing methods, serum reactions, antitoxins, and 
ferment actions are all included in the study of 
the defence mechanism. The changes which 
result in the breakdown of the defence, and the 
production of gas gangrene, are fully dealt with, 
and emphasis is laid upon the fact that the nature 
of the infection rather than bacterial quantity is 
the importaat factor with which the tissue cells 
have to deal. ; Sr es 

The: section on therapeutics mentions every 
known means of meeting infection, and each 
measure is fully criticised. As a result of their 
wide researches, especially those directed to the 
study of infécted excised tissues, the authors urge 
that the best treatment for war wounds is the 
early excision of all damaged tissue, followed by 
primary suture. The authors insist upon the early 
work of Gaudier in October, 1915, in connection 
with wound incision, and they claim that, as 85, 
per cent. of the wounds can be safely excised 
and sutured, other treatment, such as irrigation 
with antiseptics, is superfluous. ribs i 

The action of chemical agents is carefully 
analysed until their futility is obvious. The 
Carrel-Dakin technique is severely handled by the 
authors, the solution itself being characterised as 
a “chemical bistoury which acts by proteolysis of 
mortified tissue.’’ The general therapeutic con- 
clusions are that damaged tissues and their in-. 
fection play the most important part in war 
wounds. Excision of lacerated muscle, ete., and 
the conversion of the wound into an ordinary 
surgical wound, ‘are the greatest advances in 
wound treatment. Local treatment is most im- 
portant, although general measures, such as vac- 
cines and sera, may help in selected cases. 

J. Le FLeminc Burrow. 


THE FACE OF THE EARTH. 


La Face de la Terre (Das Antlitg der Erde). Par 
Prof. Ed. Suess. Traduit de 1’Allemand avec 
l’Autorisation de l’Auteur et Annoté sous la 
Direction de Emm. de Margerie. Tome iii., 
4¢ Partie. (Fin.) Avec un Epilogue par P. 
Termier. Pp. xvi+1361-1724. Tables 
Générales de l’Ouvrage. Tomes i., ii., iil. 
(1Te, 2¢, 3¢ et 4¢ Parties.) (Paris: Librairie 
Armand Colin, 1918.) Price 25 francs. rim 

ats is a noble ending to a noble work. On 

the merits of the original it is scarcely 
necessary to enlarge; since they were first recog- 
nised in these pages they have become familiar 


4 _ ‘Aucust 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


593 


ial English geologists, and the fame of “Das 
ntlitz’’ has spread over the whole world. Yet 
im has increased, rather than diminished, our 
PP reciation of its great qualities, and we take 
ac antage of this opportunity to express our 
d: niration for its superb mastery over detail and 
le acute vision which have combined to give us 
s tue: perspective so many faithful pictures of 
ial structure; for its power of synthesis, 
seve ing in the midst of the most diverse 
henomena an underlying unity; for its freshness 
i explanation, always surprising us with novel 
theories and hypotheses; and for many bold con- 
feptions, which, whether we accept them or not, 
are always valuable for what they suggest if for 
nothing else. The delight with which we follow 
he author through the most complicated descrip- 
q ons or discussions is increased by the vigour of 
pe langeage, with its occasional ascent into spon- 
taneous eloquence under the inspiration of great 
As we read, we are conscious of a new 
spirit which has broken loose from ancient 
the mas and leads us forth to fresh conquests of 
he unknown... | 

_ It was the French geologists who were the 
irst | to welcome the appearance of the new 
reology and undertook the translation of 
ED Antlitz’’ into their language under the 
direction of M. Emmanuel de Margerie. The first 
volume of “La Face de la Terre’’ appeared in 


itdas. 


; 3 it opens with a thoughtful and appreciative 
preface by Marcel Bertrand. The last part was 
published last year (1918). It fitly concludes with 
an eloquent eulogy by M. Pierre Termier. 
__ “La Face de la Terre ’’ is an improvement on 
the original. As a translation it is absolutely 
‘faithful, and in the hands of masters of French 
ose like M. de Margerie and his colleagues, 
gains by the added grace and lucidity which 
inseparable from the French language. But 
X is much more than a translation; by the addi- 
tion of numerous footnotes and illustrations it 
becomes a new edition. 
~The added illustrations are particularly wel- 
| ome, those of the original work being wholly 
nadequate. Suess, when he wrote his masterly 
me ides ptions, had a mass ot material, maps, 
‘sections, and drawings before his eyes, but, 
J mited probably by considerations of expense, he 
ntroduced only 168 figures into the text. The 
‘French have given us more than thrice this 
‘number (in all 552 figures), and yet without 
i. eatly increasing the price. Even with this 
wealth of illustration we are not content, and still 
_ask for more, especially for a few simple diagrams 
‘which would enable us to grasp with greater 
"facility some of the new conceptions with which 
J , the work abounds. 
The added notes, which are distinguished from 
Pihose in the original by square brackets, are of 
great value; they bring the bibliographical refer- 
ences up to date, and when necessary point out 
how far the author’s conclusions must be modified 
in the light of later knowledge. 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


a 


The English translation, which was com- 
menced (in 1904) much later than the French, and 
completed, so far as the body of the work is con- 
cerned, much earlier (in 1908), contains no new 
matter. We may hope that it will be supple- 
mented by an atlas at some future date; mean- 
while the student must have recourse to the 
French edition. That the English translation does 
not yet possess an index is a consequence of the 
war; the MS. has been in the hands of the printers 
for many years past. 

The last part of the third volume of “La Face de 
la Terre,’’ which is the immediate subject of this 
review, fully maintains the high standard of its 
predecessors. The first chapter, entitled 
‘““Analysis,’’? presents us with an admirable 
survey of the structural features of mountain 
chains as revealed by a long’ series. of brilliant 
investigations, which, begun long ago by Lap- 
worth, were continued by Peach and Horne at 
home, and by numerous observers abroad, among 
whom. Bertrand and Lugeon are pre-eminent. 
What .a surprising revolution has been accom- 
gee in our knowledge will be understood at 

a glance if we turn to the section across the Alps 
represented in Fig. 340 on p. 1448, where we 
are shown how the accumulated sediments of 
ancient seas have been transported in successive 
flows which have carried them many miles from 
their source and repeatedly doubled them one over 
the other in long, flat-lying folds. A satisfactory 
explanation of this phenomenon is still to seek; 
theory is completely outdistanced by observation. 

The next chapter, entitled ‘‘The Depths,’’ casts 
a penetrating glance into the interior of the earth 
and throws light on the various forms of igneous 
activity within the crust. A chapter on “The 
Origin and Distribution of Volcanoes ’’ follows; 
it includes a brief account of the diamond pipes 
of South Africa. Then comes a chapter on 
“The Moon: Various Hypotheses and a Retro- 
spect.’’ In this we meet with some valuable 
suggestions on the question of isostasy. The 
illustrations added in the French edition are no- 
where more welcome than in this place. The dis- 
cussion of isostasy involves, however, mathe- 
matical treatment with which Suess does not seem . 
to have been familiar, otherwise he would have 
scarcely proposed to neglect that factor in the 
reduction of observations which is commonl 
known as the Bourgeur correction, for, as C 
Lenox Conyngham has remarked, such a proposal 
is equivalent to asserting that it makes no differ-. 
ence whether the pendulum observations were 
made on a lofty tableland or in a balloon epee 
at the same altitude over a plain at, sea-level. 

The last chapter, ‘ ‘La Vie,’’ is devoted to 
many interesting reflections on sundry problems 
concerned with the history of life on the globe, 
the migrations. of faunas, and the preservation, 
amidst the revolutions of land and sea, of living 
beings in. places of refuge or “ asylums,”” the 
situation of which and their geological characters 
afford interesting material for. discussion. -. 


504 


NATURE 


[AucustT 28, 1919 


In concluding, we would ally ourselves with 
M. Termier in his admiration for this monumental 
treatise and, adopting as nearly as possible his 
own words, we may say: “Such a work is destined 
to endure, not for an age, but for all time. If it 
grows old it does so only very slowly, and pre- 
serves in its old age the majesty and beauty of 
things imperishable.’’ W. J. Soitas. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 


(1) Fats and Fatty Degeneration: A Physico- 
Chemical Study of Emulsions and the Normal 
and Abnormal Distribution of Fat in Proto- 
‘plasm. By Prof. Martin H. Fischer and Dr. 
Marian O. Hooker. Pp. ix+155- (New York: 
John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman 
and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) Price gs. 6d. net. 

(2) Practical Physiological Chemistry. By 
Sydney W. Cole. Fifth. edition. With an 
introduction by Prof. F. G. Hopkins. Pp. xvi+ 
4o1. (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd. ; 
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 
and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price 15s. net. 


(1) Lee Prof. Fischer’s earlier studies on 
cedema and nephritis, this work on 
fatty degeneration and allied topics is suggestive 
and stimulating, but unsatisfactory. As before, 
we have, in the first place, a study of phenomena 
produced in vitro, in this case on the formation 
of various types of emulsion and. on the factors 
leading to their stabilisation or ‘‘ breaking.’’ The 
observations are of no _ particular novelty, 
but they are well arranged from the point 
of view of popular demonstration. Pass- 
ing to the. condition in which fat is held 
in the. protoplasm of the normal cell, and of 
that which has become the subject of fatty de- 
generation, the authors emphasise, with justice, 
the fact that the latter may contain actually no 
more fat than the former. This consideration 
gives an opening to Prof. Fischer’s predilection 
for facile analogy. The comparison between the 
appearance in obvious droplets of fat previously 
invisible, and the “breaking ’’ of a fine emulsion, 
is obvious and suggestive. But the recognition 
' of a superficial similarity is a long way from a 
scientific demonstration. of identity. On the 
authors’ own showing, it is difficult to see why 
the post-mortem development of acidity, which is 
far in excess of any which can occur during life, 
does not produce the appearance of extreme fatty 
infiltration in every cell submitted to histological 
examination. a 
The mimicry of mucous secretion, by the effect 
of water on.an emulsion of powdered gum in-oil, 
has about the same scientific value. But the 
method surely leads the authors beyond all per- 
missible limits in. the chapter on “The Mimicry 


of Some Anatomical Structures.’’ The suggestion - 


that a soap solution beaten to fine foam with-air 
looks, under the microscope, “not unlike a micro- 
scopic section of lung,’’. or that the figures pro- 
duced in the drying of an oil-in-soap emulsion 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


compilation so unsatisfactory. The directions for 


‘Bravetta, who is probably Italy’s most distin- 


‘‘ remind one of the rods and cones of the retina,’” 
seems to be much on the same level as a child’s 
discovery of trees in a frosted window-pane, or of 
animal forms in the clouds. Are the authors 
trying to play Hamlet to the reader’s Polonius, or 
do they wish to be taken seriously ?- : 

(2) Mr. Cole’s valuable book, after being out of — 
print for more than a year, now reappears in a 
fifth edition, with extensive revision and additions. — 
The new chapter on the properties of solutions 
contains a full account of the method of deter-— 
mining hydrogen-ion concentrations by means of 
standard solutions and the range of indicators now — 
available. This, like many other items in the — 
book, will be of value to workers in many depart-— 
ments of biological science in which quantitative — 
chemical methods are required. The instructions 
for preparing collodion sacs for dialysis, in the 
same chapter, could be improved by including 
some of the technical advances made in recent 
years by Walpole and by Brown. A properly 
made membrane of this kind surely becomes im- 
permeable rather than porous on drying. 7 

A large part of the book is still devoted to 
quantitative methods, and these are described with 
admirable clarity of detail. While the range of 
alternative methods in some instances might be 
thought to overburden a_ student’s course, it 
greatly enhances the value of the book to the 
worker in a clinical or research laboratory. 
There is internal evidence, in almost every 
description of a method, that the working has 
been confirmed by personal experience; the book 
abounds in those valuable hints and practical 
details which come only from actual trial, and 
the absence of which renders many a laborious 


eal 


preparing certain amino-acids may be mentioned © 
as remarkably good in this way; and, since this | 
chapter is admittedly beyond the scope of ordinary 
class-work, it may be hoped that Mr. Cole, in 
a future edition, will increase the obligation of — 
those needing pure amino-acids for bacteriological — 
and other work, by extending the list of prepara- 
tions. . H.: Hy D.% 


OUR BOOKSHELF. q 

L*Insidia Sottomarina e Come fu Debellata, com 
Notizie sul Recupero delle Navi affondate. By 
Rear-Admiral E. Bravetta. Pp. vii+46r. 
(Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1919.) . — 
Or the hundreds of war-books published purport- 
ing to explain in a popular manner the work of 
the Allied Navies in tracking down and destroying: 
U-boats, there are few, if any, which tell the 
public of the means adopted. Most books of the 
kind are merely suggestive, and much is left to 
the imagination. The present volume, by Admiral 


guished writer on naval affairs, is far in advance 
of existing works of a similar kind. Se 

So far as is permitted by reasons of military 
secrecy, Admiral Bravetta explains first of all the 
functions of the submarine, how this type of craft 


Aveusr 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


595 


is built, the kind. of engines used to propel it 
when cruising on the surface and when submerged, 
the armament, and many other details. All his 
explanations are well illustrated. After a brief 
discussion of the tactics of the submarine, the 
book goes on to describe and illustrate a great 
number of devices employed—not all successfully 
—to track and destroy the U-boat. There are 
many American devices the value of which has 
probably been exaggerated—indeed, some of them 
are merely fantastical suggestions—and these, 
with others, are given to render the work com- 
plete. The concluding portion of the book deals 
with the many plans that have been put forward 
from time to time for salving sunken ships or 
their cargoes. Here, again, it remains for ex- 
perience to show whether any of them are of 
value. It is not claimed that Admiral Bravetta’s 
work can be of practical technical value, but 
as a well written and illustrated record of the 
achievements of human ingenuity in combating 
a menace to the world’s safety it is well worth 
perusal by all who are able to follow semi-technical 
talian. In fact, an English translation might 
well fill a want until some similar work is com- 
piled in our own language. CR. 8 


| Birdland’s Little People: Twelve Nature Studies 
_ for Children. By Capt. Oliver G. Pike. 
_ Pp. 123. (London: The Religious Tract 
_ Society, 1919.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 
Tue author of this volume is well known as a 
_ popular writer on natural history, and presents in 
the work before us an excellent series of essays, 
written in an interesting style, on the habits 
‘and haunts of several of the most attrac- 
tive members of the British avifauna. The 
subjects are well chosen, and include cer- 
| tain feathered denizens of our gardens, lanes 
and copses, the reedy lake and the breezy 
‘moorland. In each case the love-making, 
 nest-building, and subsequent care of eggs and 
| young nestlings are described graphically from 
‘personal observation, so that the book is not a 
‘mere compilation, but a vivid account of bird-life 
‘written with the enthusiasm of a true lover of 
feathered creatures and their entrancing ways. 
‘The book will interest any boy or girl possessing 
a fondness for animal life (and this, we fancy, 
_ includes the majority of young people), while at 
the same.time the various phenomena are so 
_ accurately and carefully described that persons of 
_maturer years may read its pages with advantage. 
' The birds selected include two species of grebe, 
two of warbler, the kingfisher, dipper, brown owl, 
_ lapwing, wren, cuckoo, whitethroat, great tit, and 
_ buzzard. The parasitic habits of the cuckoo, the 
' cannibalistic propensities of a young buzzard, 
and the mysteries of migration are among the 
"more interesting phenomena touched upon in a 
' book which is well printed and ‘illustrated by a 
' series of twenty-four excellent reproductions of 


_ photographs taken from Nature by the author | 


himself. 2 ; 
NO. 2600, WoL. 103] 


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. | 


Velocity of Electric Currents. 


WHILE the velocity of electric waves is well known, 
as Maxwell and Heaviside have pointed out, we 
know absolutely nothing of the velocity with which 
electricity travels in a wire. As Heaviside says 


(‘‘ Papers,” vol. ii., p. 3, line 4) :—‘It may be an inch 
an hour or it may be immensely great.’’ 
Mr. Aston’s extremely interesting discovery 


(NaturRE, June 5, p. 275), that the striz in capillary 
tubes containing neon or helium travel with approxi- 
mately the same velocity as that of sound in the gas, 
is of interest in connection with the fact pointed out 
by the writer in Science for July 22, 1892, and more 
fully in the Physical Review for March, 1900, that 
‘resistances of equi-molecular wires of pure metals 
are proportional to their transmission times for sound- 
waves’? (to an accuracy of about 3 per cent.), and 
is in line with the suggestion made in the Physical 
Review paper referred to (March, 1900), that the 
time of travel of electricity in wires is the same as 
that of sound. 

The double coincidence for metals and gases is at 
least suggestive, and further work along these lines 
might give results of interest. 

If cohesion depends on the electrons in the outer 
rings, the tensile strength of the lead isotopes should 
be the same; but might not their electrical resistance 
and sound velocities (easily determined for small 
quantities of material by resonance methods) afford a 
means of distinguishing them? 

REGINALD A, FESSENDEN, 

185 Franklin Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., 

August 5. 


The Magnetic Storm of August 11-12, 1919. 


Tue earlier months of 1919 showed a great deal of 
magnetic disturbance, but for some two months past 
conditions have been unusually quiet. On_ the 
morning of August 11, at about 7h. G.M.T., there 
was a ‘‘sudden commencement,’’ followed by the 
largest magnetic storm experienced for some years at 
Kew Observatory. Conditions remained highly dis- 
turbed until near toh. on August 12, when the photo- 
graphic sheets were changed. The range in declina- 
tion was 2° 5’, and that in vertical force 935y. The 
horizontal-force trace was twice beyond the limits of 
registration, on each occasion for more than ten 
minutes; thus the range shown, 8407, may have: 
been considerably exceeded. Many of the movements 
were too rapid to be shown clearly in the trace. 
Rapid oscillations were especially in evidence between 
7h. and toh., and again between 14h. and 18h., on 
August 11. The declination curve also showed smaller 
but very rapid oscillations from midnight to gh. of 
August 12. The extreme easterly reading, 13° 44’ W., 


was recorded at about 8h. of August 11, and the 
‘extreme westerly reading, 


15° 49 W., at about 
16h, 32m. 
The commencing movements near 7h, of August 11 


506 


NATURE 


[AucustT 28, 1919 


were of an unusual character. In declination swings 
of 10’ to west, 20’ to east, and again 62’ to west 
followed in immediate succession.. In horizontal force 
there .was, as usual at the start, a rapid rise, 
amounting to 75y; but in less than a minute the 
movement was reversed, and a fall exceeding 4507 in 
less than twelve minutes took the trace off the sheet. 
Horizontal force remained depressed for nearly 
13 hours, but then for a few minutes it was above 
the normal value, Another large fall then ensued, 
which carried the trace off the sheet from oh. 15m. 
to gh. 25m. Between 14h. and 17h. of August 11 
horizontal force was usually above the normal. The 
maximum, which appeared synchronously with that 
in vertical force at about 16h. 2m., exceeded the value 
prior to the sudden commencement by 460y. The 
disturbance in vertical force, though exceptionally 
large, was of the usual type. During the afternoon 
of August 11, from 14h. to 18h., the curve was of a 
pyramidal shape, the value of the element being much 
enhanced. By 23h. the curve had resumed its normal 
level, and a depression then set in, the minimum 
being reached just after 2h. on August 12. 

The ranges recorded during this storm have seldom 
been approached at Kew Observatory. In fact, it is 
unlikely that so large a range has ever been recorded 
there before in vertical force.. But for the great 
reduction in sensitiveness made of late years to meet 
the conditions caused by electric trains and trams, the 
maximum would have been far beyond the limits of 
registration. C. CHREE. 
Kew Observatory, Richmond, Surrey, 


August 13. 


- THE magnetic storm which began on the morning 
of August 11 was one of the largest recorded in recent 
years, and was probably of world-wide ‘distribution. 
It .attracted public attention chiefly through the 
notable—though not unusual—extent to which it 
interfered with telegraphic work. On account of its 
somewhat exceptional features, the following state- 
ment of results of observations at Eskdalemuir 
Observatory may be of some interest, and is com- 
municated by permission of the Director, Meteoro- 
logical Office. 

The times given below are Greenwich mean times. 
The unit of 1y is o-ooo001 C.G.S. It should also be 
mentioned that the principal magnetographs at Esk- 
dalemuir are so arranged as to give directly the 
vertical (V), north (N), and west (W) components of 
terrestrial’ force; a declination magnetograph is also 
in operation. 

The conditions prior to the advent of the storm 
were those of a magnetically quiet day. Very slight 
disturbance was recorded between 20h. and 21h. on. 
August 10, and pulsations of about three minutes’ 
period were observed on N about an hour after mid- 
night. The beginning of the storm as observed at 
Eskdalemuir may be taken as -having occurred . at 
6h. 58m. on August. 11. But this beginning differed 
very considerably in.its character from the usual type 
of what is known as a “sudden commencement.”’ 
Ordinarily, this phenomenon exhibits a rise in the 
value of the horizontal force; a rise also, though 
usually smaller, in declination; and in some instances 
a fallin the value of the downward directed vertical 
force. .So.far as is known, these abrupt changes 
take place simultaneously at any one place, and (in 
spite of attempts to prove the contrary) there is no 
trustworthy evidence to show that they are not syn- 
chronous at all observatories. _In the case of the- 
storm now considered, however, a minor disturbance 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


‘though irregular. 


of somewhat unusual type began on the north com- 
ponent thirty-two minutes before the other com- 
ponents experienced the sudden commencement of thé 
storm. There is nothing to show that this minor 
disturbance had any relation to subsequent events 
or was other than ‘‘accidental,’’ but it is men- 
tioned for what it may be worth, and as being the 
cause of a doubtful estimate as to the time a the | 
sudden commencement on the north component. At 
all events, the disturbance began at 6h. 58m. so. 
suddenly as to send the light spot completely off the 
recording sheet, and did so with such rapidity that it 
is impossible to state whether the change was one of 
increase or decrease in force. But while there is no 
photographic trace immediately after 6h. 58m. on the 
+ side of the undisturbed value, there is distinct 
evidence of its being below that value within a minute 
after that time. In another respect, the beginning 
of the storm was altogether exceptional in that the 
sudden commencement on the vertical-force magneto- 
graph showed but the faintest trace of any decrease: 
in value, and in reality was followed by a large 
increase. On the west component record there is 
shown a sudden rise and fall, the difference between 
the extremes being 172 y. ne 
After the rapid changes associated with the sudden . 
commencement of the storm, the first minimum 
value of N occurred at some time between 7h. and — 
7h. 30m., the trace being off the sheet in that interval. 
The first maximum value of W after the sudden 
commencement was at 7h. tom., when it reached 
188 y above the undisturbed value. The declination 
at this time was 1° 18’ to westward of its amount — 
before the storm began. The vertical force rose to a 
maximum at 7h, 13m., it being then 44y,. above its 
undisturbed value. Then followed a fall, on which 
were superposed numerous pulsations, to a minimum. | 
at 7h. 39m., and a recovery to a maximum 66y above 
the undisturbed value at 7h. 58m. Such changes in’ 
V during the early part of the storm are entirely — 
unusual, both in character and amount. . 
During a magnetic storm the value of the vertical’ — 
force usually rises to a maximum about 17h., the © 
rise occupying about four hours, and being gradual 
In the present instance, after the — 
first few hours of the storm had passed, during which — 
time the oscillations in V were unusually rapid, the © 
value rose suddenly at 14h. 28m., the trace leaving 
the sheet at 14h. 55m., having risen 250y in this 
interval of twenty-seven minutes. her) a rece 
Other unusual features of the storm may be referred 
to, and one of these is the early hour at which the 
fall, after the maximum, in V took place. Usually 
this occurs about midnight, and includes two sudden. 
drops in value. In the present case both occurred at 
unusually early hours, the first beginning at 19h. 22m., 
the second at 23h. 9m. The graduali recovery of the 
vertical force to its normal value is occasionally 
accompanied by pulsations. ‘These were prominent 
on the morning of August 12. For example, during 
half an hour after 5h. thirteen oscillations were — 
recorded with a mean amplitude of 4. Another note- — 
worthy feature of the storm was the intense agitation — 
(‘internal activity”) in the horizontal components, ~ 
especially after 2h. on August 12. As a rule, this is’ 
more prominent during the daylight hours of a — 
storm; here it occurred during the night hours. — 
Lastly, the disturbance. was peculiar in the sudden- — 
ness with which it ended about: 19h. on August 12, 
and in the magnetically quiet conditions which suc-. a 
ceeded it. 


+h 


A. CRICHTON MITCHELL, 
Eskdalemuir Observatory, August 14. eu ie 


 Avcust 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


597 


JAMES WATT CENTENARY COM 
MEMORATION AT BIRMINGHAM. 


: Pee arrangements for the James Watt cen- 
_ +4  tenary commemoration are now practically 
complete, the general scheme being set forth in a 
_ pamphlet issued by the Centenary Committee. The 
form which the memorial is to take is threefold :— 
_ (1) To endow a professorship of engineering, to 
_ be known as the James Watt chair, at the Univer- 
_ sity of Birmingham, for the promotion of research 
_ in the fundamental principles underlying the pro- 
_ duction of power, and the study of the conserva- 
_ tion of the natural. sources of energy; (2) to erect 
a James Watt memorial building to serve as a 
- museum for collecting together examples of the 
_ work of James Watt and his contemporaries, 
_ Boulton and Murdock, as a meeting place and 
library for scientific and technical societies, and as 
_ a centre from which engineers could co-operate in 
_ spreading scientific knowledge ; and (3) to publish 
a memorial volume. 

_. The success of the memorial will depend upon 
_ the response to the appeal for funds, and we are 
_ glad to note that assurances of support have come 
_ not only from all parts of the British Isles, but also 
_ from France and America. As indicated in our 


“THE 


_ the foundation of the James Watt chair of 
_ engineering, and we can imagine no_ better 
memorial to the great engineer than the creation 
_ of a school of research so endowed as to attract 
_ both a professor of exceptional ability and also the 
most brilliant students, of whatever class. Such 
_ a scheme would require an endowment on a scale 
_ altogether greater than that which is usually asso- 
_ ciated with chairs in universities, but it should 
be possible. to raise the necessary money— 
_ €specially with the sympathetic help of America, 
_ which of recent years has shown not only a ready 
. oo of the value of scientific research, but 
; 30 a generosity in its endowment which has been 
_ more admired than imitated in this country. It 
_ must always be remembered that the vitai factor 
in research is the man, and every possible induce- 
ment should be offered to secure the best men, 
_ both as directors and students. ‘ 

_ The commemoration ceremonies are to extend 
_ ever the three days, September 16-18, and the 
_ official programme includes a garden-party at 
_ Watt’s house (where his workshop can _ be 
seen in the state in which he left it in 1819), 
and visits to Soho Foundry and to two of his 
_ engines (one of which, the first pumping engine 
' built for sale by Boulton and Watt in 1776, will 
be seen at work). A degree congregation is to be 
held by the University at which honorary degrees 
will be conferred on distinguished engineers and 
men of science. 


_ Prof. F. W. Burstall) in which an appreciation is 
_ given of the salient facts in the life of Watt, and 
of his epoch-making association with his colleagues 
Boulton and Murdock. 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] » 


issue of May 15, we attach special importance to 


committee has issued a short pamphlet (by 


All who desire to attend the commemoration are 
asked to communicate not later than August 31 
with the Hon. Sec., James Watt Centenary Com- 
mittee, Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham. 


ANDREW CARNEGIE. 


R. ANDREW CARNEGIE, the munificent 
benefactor of popular education in this’ 
country and in America, died on August 11, at 
Lenox, Massachusetts, in his eighty-fourth year. 
The son of a Chartist weaver in Dunfermline, Mr. 
Carnegie emigrated to the United States in 1848. 
From the humblest beginnings he rose during the 
Civil War to an important charge in the depart- 
ment of military transport and telegraphs. Then, 
by way of subserving his railroad and bridge- 
building. plans, he created vast iron ‘and steel works 
at Pittsburgh, carried on by means of a company 
the capital of which reached 25 millions, and which 
employed 40,000 men. He was bought out for 
some 50,000,000l. by the Steel Trust in the early; 
‘nineties. : 
Mr. Carnegie thenceforward retired from bust- 
ness, and gave himself up to the wise disposal for 
public objects of his immense fortune. He was a 
convinced democrat; he proclaimed his conviction 
that “‘to die rich is to die disgraced’’; and he 
consistently set himself to discover ways of apply- 
ing his wealth for the uplifting of the people. In’ 
Pittsburgh he founded institutions for higher 
education; art and music, and popular culture, on 
a princely scale. To his native Dunfermline he 
gave libraries, parks, baths, and schools of 
hygiene and domestic science. For the Univer- 
sities of Scotland he founded a Trust with a capital 
of two millions, the income, in equal shares, being 
assigned respectively to their better equipment 
in all modern subjects (he characteristically ex- 
cluded classics, theology, and law), and to the 
payment of class-fees for all Scottish students of 
any faculty who asked for this help and were 
qualified to profit by it. The fund has provided 
not only ‘for great extensions in the university 
staffs and buildings, but also for an endowment 
of advanced study and research in_ science, 
economics, modern languages, and history, which 
has largely transformed Scottish university activi- 
ties. The well-meant fee-fund has doubtless been 
of great benefit to individual students, ‘but as 
Scottish fees are not high, and never really deter- 
rent, the direct effect in increasing the student 
population has not been striking. The indirect 
effect on the schools, due to the requirement that 
beneficiaries shall have completed a sound 
secondary education before entering the uni- 
versity, has been wholly advantagecus. 
Shortly before the war Mr. Carnegie established 
a United Kingdom Trust with an endowment of 
two millions, the income to be expended in pro- 
viding public libraries, encouraging popular music, 
and generally in aiding or initiating schemes for 
the welfare of the “masses of the people.’’? The 
Trustees took over the numerous promises pro- 


508 


NATURE 


[Aucust 28. 1919 


visionally made by the founder as regards library 
buildings and church organs; but while they are 
fulfilling these they are starting on their own 
initiative inquiries and operations in other direc- 
tions that are likely to bear good fruit. The 
elaborate investigations and reports they have 
subsidised and published on the library system, 
urban and rural, on plans for the physical well- 
being of mothers and children, on public play- 
centres and playgrounds, on municipal baths and 


wash-houses, etc., have been real contributions 


to knowledge. During this time of reconstruction 
a Trust that is thus accurately informed as to 
public needs, and able to aid in meeting them, is 
bound to render valuable service to the com- 
munity. - In this country already something like 
700 Carnegie libraries, costing some 24 millions, 
have been provided. 

In the United States and Canada Mr. Carnegie’s 
benefactions have been even more generous and 
more wide-reaching. Altogether they are more 
than 60,000,000l. One endowment provides pen- 
sions and retiring allowances for professors in 
approved American colleges and universities. ‘Here 
again the indirect effect has been more important 
than the direct. To be “approved,’’ an institution 
has to fulfil conditions as to government, efficiency, 
and standing laid down by the Trustees, with the 
result that many radical reforms in organisation 
have been induced, and a general raising of the 
educational standard has taken place. Another 
endowment—that of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington—is professedly for the encourage- 
ment of scientific research in the widest sense of 
the term. Elaborate institutions in'‘all parts of the 
United States, and for all branches of scientific 
inquiry, have grown up under its fosterage. 
peditions have been subsidised, equipment of a 
costly kind has been supplied for observatories, 
laboratories, and biological and other experimental 
stations, and also for individual workers’ every- 
where who prove their competence ¢o use ‘it fruit- 
fully. The Mount Wilson Observatory, of which 
Dr. G. E. Hale is director, is one of the most 
notable of these institutions. The grant to this 
observatory last year exceeded 30,000l., and the 
total amount expended upon the observatory since 
its foundation is more than 250,000l. There is 
also in New York a central Carnegie Trust, 
charged to assist the others as need arises, and 
generally to do for America what the United 
Kingdom Trust does for this country. 

The difficulty of so applying his wealth as 
to avoid doing harm was always present to 
Mr. Carnegie’s mind. Critics of his schemes 
did not let him forget it. In establishing 
here, and in other countries, Hero Funds for 
the recognition of individual deeds of  self- 
sacrifice in the saving of life, and in. founding 
a wealthy organisation for the express purpose 
of propagating peace and international goodwill, 
he thought that he had ‘succeeded in safeguarding 
the principle of nil noceve. The war caused him 
to forgo some of his most cherished preposses- 
sions, particularly as regards Germany and the 

NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


Ex-: 


ex-German Emperor, and the prospect of building 4 


up a world-wide peace based upon democratic 
solidarity. 
the spirit associated with it, he came to see 
that only by the military victory of the Allies 


could the future of true civilisation be assured,’ 


and he willingly assented to a large grant from 
the Peace Fund for the relief of Belgian distress. 
In general, it may truly ‘be said that Mr. 
Carnegie’s ideas were based on sane visions of 
human progress, that he backed them lavishly, and 
that he enlisted the best men of his time in their 
working out. 
tardilv than in his eagerness he hoped, will come 
surely in some fashion, even if it be’ other than 
he pictured. He “builded better than he knew.”’ 


WALTER GOULD DAVIS, > 
M®: WALTER GOULD DAVIS, director 
of the Meteorological Bureau of Argentina 
for many years, died at his birthplace, Danville, 
Vermont, U.S.A., on April 30 in his sixty-eighth 
year. His early training was that of a 


civil engineer, especially in railroad surveying 


through the White Mountains. When in his early 
twenties, he went to Argentina as assistant to his 
uncle, Dr. B. A. Gould, founder of the Cordoba 


Astronomical Observatory. On the resignation of — 


Dr. Gould in 1885, the National Meteorological 
Service, which was then a branch of the Cordoba 


Observatory, was reconstituted and Mr. Davis 


appointed director at the early age of thirty-four. 
The organisation of such a ‘service in a new 

country where voluntary observers are few was a 

matter calling for great energy, tact, and perse- 


verance, but so successful was Mr. Davis in his. 


efforts that by 1901 the seventeen meteorological 
stations to which he fell heir in 1885 had increased 


to eighty-eight, and 240 extra rainfall stations had 


been established. Thereafter the service developed 
with ever increasing rapidity, and on his retirement 
in 1915 there were forty-two stations of the first 
order, 152 of the second order, while rainfall was 
being observed at 1930 other places. 
removal of the central office from Cordoba to 
Buenos .Aires in 1901 enabled the long-cherished 
scheme of a daily weather map to be realised, and 


effective co-operation with other South American 


Republics resulted in the production of a daily 
weather map which covers 53° of latitude from 
Para, near the Equator, to Punta Arenas, in 
Magellan Strait. Mr. Davis established the 


hydrometric branch of his service in 1902 and — 


was responsible for the dispatch of expeditions 
to investigate. conditions in the Rio Parana, 
Paraguay and Pilcomayo, and other rivers in Matto 
Grosso and near the eastern Bolivian boundary. 
In 1904 he established a magnetic section with a 


central observatory at Pilar, near Cordoba, from 


which magnetic surveys of the whole country 
were organised in 1908 and 1912. In the latter 


year the systematic measurement of the level of the. 


subterranean waters by means of gauges at 


twenty-three places was initiated. ‘In February, 


In spite of his hatred of warfare and 


Their fruition, 1f it comes more 


Pe ee eee ee eee 


The 3 


ee ge ORS Cam ea 


AucusT 28, 1919} . 


NATURE 


5c9 


1904, Mr. Davis took over, on behalf of his 
“service, from the Scotia Antarctic Expedition their 
sub-Antarctic station on Laurie Island, S. Ork- 
‘neys, where an unbroken series of hourly meteoro- 
logical and magnetical observations has since been 
“maintained and upper air research undertaken. 

'- The results of the labours of Mr. Davis are 
contained in thirteen large quarto volumes of the 
“* Anales ’’ of the Argentine Meteorological Office. 
Mr. Davis also wrote three works on the climate of 
the Republic, which appeared at intervals of about 
'ten years from 1889 to 1910, and in 1914 he 
published his “* History and Organisation,’’ which 
“gave a condensed summary of the work carried on 
Bing his thirty years of office. Whatever the 


changes of Government might be, Mr. Davis was 
always persona grata at Government House, and 
but for the economic crises that set in during 1912 
his schemes for the setting up of a solar physics 
‘observatory in N.W. Argentina and the establish- 
‘ment of another Antarctic station on the west 
‘coast of Graham Land would have materialised. 
_ Mr. Davis at the time of his death was the oldest 
member of the International Meteorological Com- 
mittee, to which he was elected in 1894. His last 
appearance at-an international meeting was at 
Berlin in 1910, when he brought forward a recom- 
-mendation for ‘the introduction of a standard 
_ evaporimeter, the subject of evaporation being one 
to which he had always given great attention. He 
was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal 


onours received many medals and diplomas from 
_ scientific institutions. 

_ In official life, as in private life, he commanded 
_ the personal respect and admiration of all with 
whom he came in contact, and those who had the 
privilege to work under him could not help being 
£€ ipressed with his untiring industry and the calm- 
~ ness with which he invariably met the exasperating 
situations that so often arose in a land where the 
conduct of a large up-to-date scientific organisa- 
tion is beset with many. diffictilties. .R. C. M. 


_ PROF. WILLIAM GILSON FARLOW. 

q A MONG the leading botanists of America the 
+ name of Prof. Farlow, whose death was an- 
_ nounced in Nature for June 26, stood out, by 
_ seniority, by personal influence, and by scientific 
attainment. Prof. Farlow died on June 3 after 
an illness of three weeks. He was born:in Boston, 
a ber 17, 1844, and graduated from Harvard 
College in the class of 1866, obtaining the degree 
’ of A.M. in 1869, and of M.D. in 1870. Doubtless 
__ he was one of those who followed the wise advice 
_ of Asa Gray: “Graduate in medicine; you never 
_ know how it will come in useful afterwards.’’ 

_ After graduation Farlow came to Europe and 
_ pursued his botanical studies in Strassburg. . The 
_ old French Académie had been replaced shortly 
_ after the conclusion of the peace of 1871 by'a 
_ ‘German university, staffed by professors carefully 
_ selected for their eminence. De Bary, an Alsatian 
NO. 2600, VOL, 103 | 


Meteorological Society in 1898, and among other 


by birth, was the professor of botany. The study 
of fungi was a speciality of his laboratory, which 
was carried on in the cramped rooms of the old 
Académie. There no doubt the foundations were 
securely laid for that special study of fungi which 
Farlow pursued throughout his life. His most. 
notable work at that time was, however, on the 
ferns; for he was the first to describe the direct. — 
origin of the sporophyte from the prothallus by 
vegetative outgrowth without the ordinary sexual 
fusion.. This.phenomenon of ‘“apogamy,’’ though 
familiar enough to all students now, was in 1874 
the first notable digression from the regular alter- 
nation described by Hofmeister. Ten years 
elapsed before the observation of ‘‘apospory ’’ by 
Druery. The discovery of these two cognate 
innovations has given a fresh impetus to inquiry 
into the nature of alternation, though alternation: 
itself still remains an unsolved enigma. 

After his return to America Farlow was for a 
time assistant to Prof. Asa Gray; but in 1874 he’ 
was appointed assistant professor in Harvard, and 
in 1879 he received the title of professor of crypto- 
gamic botany, an appointment which he held for a 
period of forty years. His position became gradu- 
ally stronger as years passed by, and there was 
probably among the botanists of America none 
whose opinion was held in greater esteem than his, 
while his published work touched a much wider 
circle than that in his own country. cs 

In America Farlow was a pioneer in crypto- 
gamic botany. His work was largely floristic and’ 
systematic. But experimental work was also con- 
ducted in his laboratory, and a school was 
founded, of which a brilliant example is seen in 


‘Prof. Roland Thaxter, the monographer of the 


Laboulbeniacee. 

Personally Farlow was of small build, active, 
and most vivacious, with a constant ripple of 
quiet humour, a capital raconteur, and a charm- 
ing host. In 1900 he married Miss Lilian Hors- 
ford. Together they made their house at Har- 
vard, and their country home at Chocorua in the 
White Mountains of New Hampshire, places of 
happy memory to those who were fortunate 
enough to be their guests. Keenly alive to the 
duties and aspirations of the Allies, they both 
worked hard for the cause during the war. 

Farlow was the recipient of many honours, 
being LL.D. of Harvard (1896), of Glasgow 
(1901), and of Wisconsin (1904), and Ph.D. of 


. Upsala (1907). He was a member of the National 


Academy of Sciences and of the American Philo- 
sophical Society, and was president of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of Science 
in 1906. He was Foreign Fellow of the Linnean 
Society of London (1892) and of the Academy 
of Sciences of Paris, as well as of many other 
scientific bodies in his own country and abroad. 
For the first twenty years of its existence he was 
co-editor of the Annals of Botany. Personally 
he was well known in this country by reason of 
repeated visits, and was heartily appreciated both 
for his social and his scientific qualities, 
. F. O. B. 


510 


NATURE 


Bet fAvcust 28, 1919 : 


sO 


NOTES. 


PARTICULARS respecting the Government competition 
for the construction of aeroplanes and seaplanes on 
the lines of increased safety, to which allusion was 
made in Nature of August 21, have now been pub- 
lished, and are obtainable from the Air Ministry. 
The following prizes are offered:—For aeroplanes of 
small type: First prize, 10,000l.; second prize, 4000l. ; 
and third prize, 20001. For large-type aeroplanes : 
First prize, 20,000l.; second prize, 8o00ol.; and third 
prize, 4oool.. For seaplanes: First prize, 10,0001. ; 
second prize, 4oool.; and third prize, 20001.. The 
latest date for entries is December 31 next. Sir 
H. H. Shephard has instituted a memorial to his 
son, the late Brig.-Gen. G. S. Shephard, in the 
shape of prizes for members of the Royal Air Force 
for essays relating to aviation. This year the prizes 
are to be awarded for essays on ‘‘Sea and Fleet 
Reconnaissance” and ‘Aerial Navigation and Pilot- 
age.”? The administration of the annual competitions 
is to be carried out by the Air Council. — 


An International Exhibition of Aeronautics is to 
be held in Paris from December 19 to January 4 
next. There will be eleven’ groups of exhibits as 
follow :—Aerostatics; heavier-than-air apparatus; 


motors and propellers; sciences; art; structural 
materials; transport and shelters; cartography and 
bibliography; commerce; motor navigation; and 


various industries. 


THE annual general meeting ‘of the Institution of 
Mining Engineers will be held at the University, 
. Birmingham, on September 10-12, when the follow- 
ing papers will be read, or taken as read :—*‘ Report 
of the Committee on the Control of Atmospheric 
Conditions in Hot and Deep Mines”; “Training of 
Officers and Men of the Tunnelling Companies of the 
Royal Engineers in Mine-rescue Work on Active Ser- 
vice in France,” G. F. F. Eagar; ‘“A New Method of | 
Working Thick Seams of Coal at Baggeridge Col- 
liery,’ D. S. Newey; ‘ Protractors,”’ T. G. Bocking;° 
and ‘‘Magnetic Meridian Observations: A Method 
of Utilising the Kew Observatory Records,” T. G. 
Bocking. The following papers will be open for dis- 
cussion :—‘The Difficulties and Dangers of Mine- 
rescue Work on the Western Front, and Mining 
Operations carried out by Mén wearing Rescue- 
apparatus,” Lt.-Col. D. Dale Logan; “ Accidents due 
to Structural Defects of Apparatus or Injury to 
Apparatus, and the Future of the Proto <Appara- 
tus,” Lt.-Col. D. Dale Logan; “The Examination 
of Coal in Relation to Coal-washing,’”? M. W. Blyth 
and L. T. O’Shea; and ‘‘The Education of Colliery 
Managers for Administrative and Social Responsibili- 
ties,” W. Maurice. 


Tue seventh congress of the Spanish Association 
for the Advancement of the Sciences is to be held at 
Bilbao on September 7-12. ; 


A SUMMER meeting of the Royal English Arbori- 
cultural Society is to be held at Bournemouth on 
September 16-18, 


We learn from the Museums Journal that it is 
proposed by the British Cotton Industry Research 
Association, Manchester, to establish a Cotton Indus- 
tries Museum, having for its object the illustration 
of the production of cotton and its utilisation ‘in 
industry. : 


WE much regret to have to announce the death on 
' August 23, in his eighty-fifth year, of Dr. A. G. 
Vernon Harcourt, F.R.S., lately. Lee’s reader in. 


‘ished (price 2d.). There is a marked increase over 


of national health and efficiency shall be advanced | 


removed from the register. 


chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford. 
NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


WE announce with regret the death on August 20, 
in his fiftieth year, of Dr. L. W. King, assistant 
keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the | 
British’ Museum, and professor of Assyrian and — 
Babylonian archeology in the University of London. — 


By the death at the age of sixty-five of Sir W. H. 
St.John Hope has been lost one of the greatest — 
authorities on British archaeology the present genera- — 
tion has known. When in 1885 he was appointed 
assistant secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, © 
a post which he held for twenty-five years, — 
his life-work as an archeologist began. Soon after 
leaving Cambridge Sir W. St. John Hope took up 
the study of ecclesiastical architecture, monumen 
brasses, and heraldry, and he communicated numerous ~ 
papers on these subjects to Archaeologia, the | 
Archaeological Journal, and the Proceedings of local 
societies. His monograph on Fountains Abbey and 
those on the cathedral church and monastic buildings — 
of Rochester are noteworthy examples of research — 
and exposition.. His chief work, however, was the — 
description of Windsor Castle, undertaken under © 
royal patronage, which was published in 1912. He ~ 
was closely associated with the leat 
of his time, to whom his loss is irreparable, and he — 
many fields — 


leaves no successor so well equipped in 
of learning. 


Tue gold medal of the Hyderabad Archzeologicat — 
Society, which was instituted as a memorial to Sir 
A. Fleetwood Pinhey, the founder and first president 
of the society, has. been awarded to Mr. H. Cousens 
for his work, ‘ Bijapur and its Architectural Remains.” 


ACCORDING to Science, Mr. D. B. MacMillan, the 
leader of the Crocker Land Expedition, is to leave 
next summer on an exploring expedition to the Arctic | 
regions, and will be provided with a small schooner, 
to be named the Bowdoin, with auxiliary power, 
built to withstand the pressure of ice-floes. The 
expedition party will probably number ten, and be 
absent for two or three yéars, engaged in work for 
the National Geographic Society. © hrs 


AN expedition to Africa under the auspices of the 
Smithsonian Institution is in progress. Its main 
object is to supplement the collections of African 
animals and plants: and ethnographical specimens 
already possessed by the U.S. National Museum, ~ 
particularly the collections made by Col. Roosevelt. — 
Although the museum has. considerable collections — 
from various parts of the West Coast of Africa, it — 
is very’ deficient in specimens from the interior and — 
South Africa, and these it is hoped to supply by the © 
present expedition, which is under the re of © 
Mr. E. Heller, and will be abroad for at least — 
a year. It is proposed to utilise the kinematagraph — 
for taking pictures of the animals and primitive 
peoples met with. raat 


Tue report for 1918 on experiments on animals 
in Great Britain and Ireland has just been pub- 


a ne ny 


ee ee Ne 


in the total number of experiments; this 
increase is due partly to the great development. of. 
Army hospitals and Army laboratories, and partly 
to the ever-growing demand that the whole study 


1917 


and maintained by all the resources of science. — 
Twenty-three new places, mostly for Army work — 
or for municipal work, were registered in 1918; and — 
eight places, having served their purpose, were — 
The vast majority of — 
the experiments were inoculations, or of that class — 
of experiments, made on behalf of Government a 


oy tT 


= 


Sie 


: /AucusT 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


511 


_ Departments and public health authorities, and for 
_ the preparation, testing, and standardising of sera, 
' vaccines, and drugs. Much of this bacteriological 
_ and pharmaceutical work has been done by women; 
_ there was great need of their help, so many of the 
men being away on active service. In the 
_ administration of the Act relating to experiments 
on animals (39 & 40 Vic. c. 77) the Home Secretary 
is assisted by a permanent advisory body—Lord 
“Moulton, Sir Anthony Bowlby, Sir John Rose 
_ Bradford, Sir Horatio Donkin, Sir Alfred Pearce 
Gould, Sir Seymour Sharkey, and Sir Charters 
Symonds 


_ A British munition dump exploded near Bailleul 
- on August 8, causing the destruction of the recently 
built part of the town, and being, perhaps, responsible 
_ for the series of air-waves the effects of which were 
widely ed in the south-east of England on that 
day. Mr. R. B. Marston, writing to us from 
160 Denmark Hill, S.E., noticéd a sudden and pro- 
longed shaking of an open window at about 1.10 p.m. 
G.M T., followed after a minute or two by another 
and less pronounced shaking. At Caterham windows 
were shaken shortly after 1 p.m. At Norwich unfas- 
tened windows rattled violently at 1.10, 1.11}, 1.12, 
1.123, and again at 7.5 p.m.; and similar effects were 


3 observed at Wymondham, Attleborough, and other 
Bailleul is 11 miles, 


places in the neighbourhood. 
‘south-west of Ypres, and about 135 
London and 140 miles from Norwich. 


In the Museum Journal (vol. ix., Nos. 3-4) for Sep- 
_ tember—December, 1918, Mr. ‘Theodoor De Booy gives 
an interesting account of explorations in Venezuela. 
He shows that the tribes known as Tucucus, Irapenos, 
Pariris, Macoas, Rio Negro and Rio Yasa Indians all 
belong to the great Motilone family, deriving their 
names from the rivers to the south of Machiques, the 
head-waters of which they frequent. Up to the 
present little has been known of the Motilones, who 
are to this day regarded with great dread by the 
Venezuelans, who are unwilling to penetrate into their 
forest retreats. Their nomadic habits are due to 
the fact that they are constantly at war with neigh- 
__ bouring tribes, but they received Mr. De Booy with 
great hospitality. They differ from the majority of 
South American aborigines in possessing a strong 
sense of humour, and they have attained a higher 
standard of culture than might have been expected, 
as is shown by his full account of their customs, arts, 
and industries. 
Dr. A. M. Meerwarrn, assistant curator of the 
Ethnographical Museum, Petrograd, has compiled for 
the Government of India a useful guide-book to the 


collections in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, ‘of objects 


collected from the Andamanese, Nicobarese, and hill 


miles from 


tribes of Assam. Though the museum contains much 


valuable material, this was collected only in a casual 


way, and there are many gaps in the series of the 
- Mishmis, Manipuris, and Kukis, while those of the 
_ Nicobarese, Abor, Mikir, Khasi, and Garo are far 
from complete. It is a matter of regret that in the 


course of the Ethnographical Survey now in progress 


arrangements were not made to supplement the mono- 
graphs by a representative collection of illustrative 
objects. Dr. Meerwarth gives lists of desiderata 
under the catalogue of each tribe, and now that 
attention has been directed to the matter the Indian 
Government should take active measures, before it is 
too late, to fill up the gaps in the museum collections. 
Dr. H. J. Hansen has published, in Mono- 
graph xxxviii. (June, 1919) of the Siboga Expedition, 
a systematic account, with analytical keys to the 
species, of the rich collection made during the expedi- 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


tion of Decapod Crustacea belonging to the family 
Sergestida. Four genera are represented—Sergestes 
by eight species (three of which are new) Sicyonella 
by two species (one new), Acetes, and Lucifer. In 
his account of the hitherto imperfectly known genus. 
Acetes, seven new species of which are described, the 
author has included descriptions and figures of other 
examples, chiefly from Indo-Chinese- seas, not col- 
lected by the expedition. The Siboga gathered 
enormous quantities of sub-adult and adult specimens 
of the genus Lucifer, so that with these and the good 
collection at his disposal in the Zoological Museum 
in Copenhagen, the author has had ample material 
on which to carry out a revision of the genus. He 
concludes that of the twelve species previously 
described only three can be accepted as valid. Details 
of these three and descriptions of three new species 
are given. 


Ir is well known that the various species of Euglena 
are very sensitive to external influences, such as light, 
gravity, oxygen, and a-supply of organic food 
material. Euglena deses is a sluggish form which is 
often found on the surface of mud containing a large 
percentage of organic matter, and Miss Rose Bracher 
has given in the Annals of Botany for January last, 
an excerpt from which has just been received, an 
account of the behaviour of this organism as it occurs 
on the mud along the banks of the River Avon within 
its tidal region. The .Euglene are visible on the 
surface of the mud during the daytime as green 
patches, but they burrow under the surface during the 
night, or when placed at any time in the darkness. 
When covered by the tide they also disappear, but 
reappear again when the tide goes down if the light’ 
is strong enough. This tidal periodicity persists even 
when the organisms are removed from the tidal 
influence, for it was found that when placed in a 
dish in the laboratory they still continued to burrow 
into the mud at the time of high tide, and this power: 
of response was maintained under these conditions for 
about three days. 


Tue Medical Research Committee has issued a 
report (Special Report Series, No. 34) by Dr. H. M. 
Vernon, with contributions from Dr. W. C. Sullivan, 
Capt. M. Greenwood, and N. B. Dreyer, on the 
influence of alcoho! on manual work and _ neuro- 
muscular co-ordination. | Accuracy and speed in type- 
writing and in using an adding machine, and accuracy 
in hitting spots on a target, were used as tests, and 
both pure alcohol and alcohol in the form of wine and 
spirit were employed. There was no distinct differ- 
ence between the two forms of alcohol, and. when very 
dilute (5 per cent.) the effect was about three-fourths 
as great as when taken strong (37-40 per cent.) for 
the same amount of alcohol. Alcohol produced some 
effect in all individuals tested. The degree of effect 
depended largely on whether the alcohol was taken 
on an empty stomach or with food; on an average it 
was twice as toxic under the former condition. In 
the foodless experiments two subjects respectively 
made 88 per cent. and 156 per cent. more mistakes 
after consuming claret (19-4 c.c. of alcohol) and sherry 
(22 c.c. of alcohol). In the same subjects a similar 
amount of alcoholic liquid, taken with food, produced 
no measurable effect, but when the amount was. in-: 
creased to 35 c.c. of alcohol and more, deterioration in. 
results obtained with the tests became apparent. 


A stronG plea for the establishment of a national 
institute of industrial biology was put forward by 
Mr. A. Chaston Chapman at a recent conference held. 
under the auspices of the Society of Chemical 
Industry. There is very inadequate provision. made: 
in this country for systematic instruction in industrial 


512 


NATURE 


[Aucust 28, 1919 


microbiology and for the study of the innumerable 
problems on which it bears. ‘The first object of such 
an institute would be to provide for the systematic 
prosecution of research in connection with any 
industry in which micro-organisms or enzymes play 
an important part. Such industries—not to mention 
brewing and distilling—are, for example, the dairy 
industry, particularly cheese-making; the bread- 
making and pressed-yeast industry; tanning; lactic 
acid making; the treatment of sewage; wine- and 
vinegar-making, and agriculture generally. Another 
function would be the specialised training of teachers 
of microbiology and biochemistry, and the practical 
instruction of technical employees. A further object 
would be the provision of organisms in pure ‘culture 
for use in industry and the housing of, as complete 
a collection of technical micro-organisms as could be 
‘got together. No such collection exists in the United 
Kingdom} scientific and other workers in want of a 
particular organism are compelled to apply to their 
friends un the chance that someone may happen to 
have a specimen, or else must send abroad for its 
Whilst much valuable work in microbiology is done 
in this country, the institutions are scattered and 
there is lack of co-ordination. Far better results would 
be obtained if the many Closely related problems con- 
nected with the activity of micro-organisms and 
enzymes could be studied in a single institution, 
adequately provided with all the necessary appliances 
and specimens, where the various workers would have 
the opportunity of discussing their problems with one 
another. 


IN a paper on the growth of crystals under con- 
trolled conditions (Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., 
vol, ix., p. 85, 1919), Mr. J. C. Hostetter shows how 
the faces developed on a crystal may result from a 
cessation of growth, incipient solution, and then re- 
newed deposition of crystalline material. An octahedral 
crystal of alum may thus have its edges rounded by 
solutiun, and planes of the rhombic dodecahedron 
appear in place of these edges during renewed growth. 
These planes maintain themselves, and the original 
edge never becomes restored. . 


A COMMITTEE appointed by the council of the Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers to consider the question 
of patent law amendment has recently presented a 
report to that body containing the outline of a scheme 
relating to a proposed Empire patent law; the inten- 
tion of the scheme is that inventors shall, by means 
of a single application, be put in a position to secure 
a patent which shall possess validity in as many 
parts of the Empire, where patent protection receives 
recognition, as they may select in each particular 
case. Adhesion to this scheme should, it is sug- 
gested, be left optional to the various parts of the 
Empire, as also the decision on the question whether 
changes shall immediately be made in the existing 
patent laws having force therein. The undesirability 
of there being two classes of patents in force simul- 
taneously in the same region is appreciated in the 
report, and it is, in consequence, suggested that the 
local Act or Ordinance, which it would be necessary 
to pass to give validity to the Empire patents in any 
particular region, should provide for such patents 
being treated in every respect as though they had 
been granted under the territorial patent law. It is 
proposed that the. Empire patents should, in the first 
place, be issued in the same way as an English patent, 
the examination being made at, and the grant sealed 
in, the Patent Office in London. However, thereafter 
the Empire patents should, it is suggested, be assimi- 
lated with the domestic patents severally in each part 
of the Empire ‘covered by the grant, questions of 
validity, infringement, revocation, etc., in relation 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


thereto being dealt with and determined under the 
local patent laws. 
the Empire patents should rest in each 
own foundation—that is to say; 
in an infringement. or revocation 


region on their 
any judgment given 
action or like pro- 


ceedings in the United Kingdom, or in any Dominion, 


etc., should alone operate in that part of the Empire 
in which the legal proceedings were. taken giving rise 


to such judgment, and should in no way affect the . 


patent in any other 
grant extended. 


READERS interested in the decimal system of weights 
and measures will remember that, in addition to his 
pioneer work in steam engineering, James Watt has 
another claim to the gratitude of posterity in having 
originated, towards the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, that demand for decimalisation and for co- 
ordination between the units of measure and weight 
which led in a few years to the conception of the 
metric system. ° 


Symons’s Meteorological Magazine for July shows 
the exceptionally dry character of the weather over 
England during the early part of June, and it was 
not until June 19 or 20 that the prevailing drought 
was brought to an end. In London the partial 
drought, which had lasted seven weeks, broke up on 
June 19, and was followed by cool and showery 
weather. The map giving the Thames Valley rain- 
fall for June shows that the driest weather occurred 
in Hampshire and Sussex in the south, and in the 
central Midlands, where the total rainfall for the 
month was less than 1 in. At Tenterden, in Kent, 
the rain measurement was only 0-47 in., and at 
Hailsham 0-48 in. The August issue of the maga- 
zine gives an account of the transfer of the British 
Rainfall Organisation to the Meteorological Office. 
The rainfall work will, however, still be carried on 
at Camden Square by Mr. Salter, who, acting under 


part of the Empire to which the 


the Meteorological Office, will be superintendent in 


charge of the rainfall work. As stated in NaTuRE of 
July 24 (p. 409), Dr. H. R. Mill has retired from the 
directorship of the British Rainfall Organisation and 
from the editorship of Symons’s Meteorological Maga- 
zine. The Thames Valley rainfall map for July 
shows that the rainfall over the area was smallest in 
parts of Berkshire and Hampshire, where the total 
measurement for the menth was less than 1-5 in. 


Tue Monthly Meteorological Chart of East Indian 
Seas for September contains, as usual, the winds and 
ocean currents and other meteorological information 
for the guidance of seamen, which are now of great 
value for airmen. At the back a chart is given showing 


the drift of ocean current-papers, issued under the 
authority of Mr. H. A. Hunt, Commonwealth Meteoro- — 


logist. The tracks followed by the several bottle- 
papers are entered on the chart, and some details of 
each current-paper are given in a tabular form. Fifty 
bottle-papers are thus dealt with during the years 
1908-14, and they show a general drift to the north- 
eastward from the Southern Indian Ocean towards 
South Australia and New Zealand. A current is also 
shown from Western Australia to North-East Africa. 
These drifts give the resultant direction in the special 
cases dealt with, but the rate of flow is, for various 
reasons, untrustworthy. The current-papers secured 


are only a small fraction of those thrown overboard, 


To obtain the fifty drifts, without doubt many 
hundreds of bottles would have been thrown over- 
board. Some captains make it a system to throw 
overboard at least one bottle a day. 


drifts were given at start and finish, and if month 
and year were noted along the track. 


It is further recommended that” i 


The tracks | 
charted would be more valuable if the numbers of the | 


es 


ee Se, Oe 


_ reclamation. 


_ been 


the original burning, 


-Aucust 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


513 


In the Times of August 15 there is an account 
of an excursion to the forests of Belgium under the 
guidance of M. H. Vendelmans, an expert in land 
The historic forest of Soignes has not 
been seriously injured by the Germans, who were 
induced by M. Crahay, Director of Forests, to accept 
double the normal output, about 650,000 cubic ft. of 
‘timber in all annually. Promiscuous felling was 
thus avoided, and the forest retains its former 
aspect, to all appearances unimpaired. During the 
war some valuable researches were carried out by 
the Belgian foresters. The ravages of the fungus 
(Peridermium strobi) which had stopped the planting 
‘of the valuable white pine have been arrested by 
the spraying of the seedlings. Ash seed gathered 
early and sown immediately, e.g. on August 16, has 
found to germinate freely in the following 
season, while seed gathered in October and sown 
in spring does not come up until the second year. 
This discovery of hastening the germination of ash, 
hawthorn, etc., which “lie over”? ordinarily for a 
season, is not new, but has seldom been acted upon, 
as foresters feared that early gathered seed, being 
immature, would produce feeble seedlings. Worth- 
less sandy tracks in the Campine are successfully 
afforested after preliminary cultivation, mainly with 
esse lupine, “which adds humus to the soil. 
apanese larch and Sitka spruce have proved very 
successful in such soil, being as valuable species in 
Belgium as they are in England. 


Tue fundamental importance of a knowledge of 
the rties of the refractory materials used in 


high-temperature furnaces has been for some time 


recognised by the United States Government, and 
the Bureau of Standards has for the last two or 
three years been engaged in researches on the sub- 
ject. The quartz or ganister bricks used for furnace 
work in the States are made mainly in Pennsylvania 
from crushed and ground quartzite rock. About 
2-5 per cent. of lime is added, and the mixture 


- moulded in steel moulds, dried and burnt in kilns 
at’ 2500°3000° © 


. The best procedure to be fol- 
lowed in these processes, and the effects of varia- 
tions of the procedure, are discussed in Technologic 
P No. 116 of the Bureau by Mr. D. W. Ross, 
pas igh the effects of repeated burnings on the con- 
stitution and microstructure of the bricks by Messrs. 
H. Insley and A. A. Klein in No. 124. It appears 
that the quartz is converted on heating into cristo- 
halite and tridymite, which are both of lower 
density. Unless this conversion is completed during 
the resulting brick will expand 
on. further heating, with serious results to the 
structures of which they form a part. 


‘Tur June issue of the Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences of the United States contains a 
aper on the temperature of the human skin by 
eel F. G. Benedict and W. R. Miles and Miss 
A. Johnson which throws a considerable amount of 
light on the conduction of heat from the interior of 
the human body to the skin. One of the most 
instructive of the observations made is that of the 
temperature of different points on the skin of a nude 
person exposed for 23 hours to a temperature of 
146° C. While the internal temperature remained 
36-7° C., the temperature of the skin became high up 
on the chest 29:5°, at the nipple 22°, at the waist 30°, 
roin 24°, knee 22°, ankle 21°, shoulder 29°, and 
uttock 21°. A person clothed in the usual way has 
skin temperatures which differ from each other by 
5° C. only, the chest and waist being hottest (34° C.), 
the buttock and calf coldest (29° C.). The skin tem- 
peratures were taken by means of a copper constantan 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


couple in series with a string galvanometer giving a 


photographic record as the junction was moved slowly 


over the skin. 


Messrs. Itrorp, Ltp., have recently introduced 
what they call ‘‘ photographic vision’’ (or P.V.) colour- 


‘filters for use in connection with their various plates. 


Each transmits just that light to which the plate that 
it matches is sensitive, so that by looking at any 
object through either’ of them the colours of the object 
will appear of the same relative tone-values as they 
will be represented if photographed by the plate with 
which the filter corresponds. The improvement that 
will be effected by the use of colour-sensitive or pan- 
chromatic plates can thus be easily investigated. By 
adding to the ‘P.V.” filter any colour-filter available 
for use in conjunction with the plate, the effect of 
photographing on the given plate and using the given 
colour-filter is seen at once, so that by trying one after 
another it is possible to find the’ colour-filter as well as 
the plate that will best give the desired result. The 
convenience of such a method of selecting plates and 
colour-filters is obvious, especially, perhaps, with . 
artificially coloured objects, such as pictures and 
stained sections in photomicrography, though this 
method of trial must be of advantage in all photo- 
graphy except where pure black-and-white is con- 
cerned. An account of these with ‘“ micro-filters,” 
other colour-filters, and the nature and use of their 
colour-sensitised, ani especially panchromatic, plates 
will be found in a pamphlet entitled ‘‘ Panchromatism ” 
that has just been issued by Messrs. Ilford, Ltd. The : 
pamphlet is illustrated with many examples that show 
the advantages of panchromatic plates in scientific, 
commercial, and pictorial photography, and gives 
technical details as to exposure and development that 
will very much facilitate the use of them and of the 
colour-filters. 


A RECENT issue of the Organiser contains a special 
section dealing with industrial lighting. An article 
by Mr. Leon Gaster summarises the advantages of 
good illumination from the point of view of health, 
freedom from accidents, and efficiency of work, and 
quotations are made from the report of the Depart- 
mental Committee on Lighting in Factories and 
Workshops in order to indicate the main principles 
to be: complied with. Artificial, lighting is also dealt 
with in an article by Mr. C. Wheat on ‘tthe 
lighting of machine-shops. The author attaches 
importance to the use of gas-filled lamps on_ the 
overhead system of lighting, and some effective illus- 
trations of this method are shown. The modern 
tendency is strongly towards general lighting of this 
type, which leaves the room clear, enables lights to 
be well out of the range of vision, and permits re- 
arrangement of machinery without the necessity of 
disturbing the lighting system. Mr. at WW: 
Souster deals with natural lighting in factories. It 
is not too much ito say that the shape of a modern 
factory is determined mainly by access of daylight. 
Expenditure in this direction is fully justified, both 
by its direct influence on work and by the fact of its 
enabling an economy to be made in the use of 
artificial light. 


Messrs. H. K. Lewis anp Co., Ltp., 136 Gower 
Street, W.C.1, have sent us their July list of 
additions to their medical and scientific library during 
the months April-June. The catalogue is one that 
should be of interest and service to all readers of 
Nature desirous of keeping abreast of scientific 
literature, giving, as it does, particulars of all 
important books dealing with the sciences published 
recently in this country and the United States. The 
list will be sent free to any address’ upon application. 


© 


514 


. 


[Aucust 28, 1919 


OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
Koprr’s Comet 1906 I1V.=1919a.—Observations of 


this comet made at Nice and elsewhere early in the’ 


month have been published in the Comptes rendus, 
which show the correction of —7’ to M. Ebell’s 
ephemeris already noted. This correction is included 
in the following positions of the comet :— 


For Greenwich Midnight. 


2 RA S. Decl. 

August 29 ... 19 33 45 8 7-3 
September 2 19 36 38 8 4:5 
GB rthahsat! 19 39.58 8 2:5 

10 i 2043 42 8 08 

14 19 47 49 7 59:0 


A New Comet.—A telegram received from Harvard 
through Paris, which is now the channel for astro- 
nomical information, states that a comet of the 
8th magnitude was discovered in the constellation 
Pegasus by Mr. Metcalf on the night of August 20. 
- A second message gives particulars of an observation 
made by M. Giacobini at Nice on August 22 at 
1th. 45m., Paris time. The observed right ascension 
was then 22h. 46m. ‘49°5s., declination 28° 22’ 53” N. 
Comparison of this with the approximate place given 
in the first message shows that the R.A. is decreasing 
39s., and that the comet is going northward at the 
rate of rio’, per day. M. Giacobini considers the 
comet to be of 9th magnitude. 


DISTRIBUTION OF GLOBULAR CLUSTERS AND SPIRAL 
NEeBUL#.—Dr. Harlow Shapley continues his in- 
genious researches into the structure of the universe 
in Contributions from the Mount Wilson * Observa- 
ttory Nos. 160 and 161. He here concerns himself 
largely with the distance of the clusters, and makes 
the point that if there is obscuring matter in the 
equatorial segment of our system which blocks out 
these clusters, all the clusters within a conical space 
should be so blocked out. But his diagram of the 
positions of these clusters drawn to scale shows that 
many of them are seen which are within this cone, 
so that the argument for the obscuring matter fails. 


A PLANET BEYOND Neprune.—Prof. W. H. Pickering 
points out (Harvard Circular, No. 215) that, accord- 
ing to measures of Harvard plates made by Prof. 
Russell, Neptune has recently begun to deviate from 
its computed position, as it would if perturbed by 
an unknown outer body, as shown by him in Harvard 
Annals (vol. Ixi.) in 1909. The deviation is slight, 
being at present only 2”, and this, according to the 
investigation cited, was not expected until 1924. At 
its next opposition, December 30, 1919, this hypo- 
thetical planet should be located in R.A. 6h. 35m., 
dec. 23° N., and it is suggested that not only should 
search be made for this—though it will be difficult, 
for the place is in the Milky Way, where there are 
countless stars brighter than the object looked for— 
‘but rather that the position of Neptune should be 
observed as completely as possible. Pes 


PHOTOPHORESIS. 


HE ratio of the surface area to the volume of a 
spherical body varies inversely as its radius. 
This fact led F. Ehrenhaft (Ann. d. Phys., lvi.,'81, 1918; 
cf. Phys. Zeit., xv., 608, 1914; and xviii., 352, 1917) 
to use small spherical particles of various substances, 
produced either by volatilisation or by burning an 
electric arc between electrodes of the substance in an 
inert atmosphere, in his examination. of the forces 
exerted by stationary light radiation on matter. 
Such particles, suspended in argon or nitrogen, were 


NO, 2600, VOL. 103 | 


NATURE 


Sb, Se, and Te is noteworthy. 
volatilised in pure, dry, inert gases, two kinds of | 


introduced’ into a small ‘Observation chamber, which 
was strongly illuminated from the side, the observa — 


tions being. made .with a microscope placed 


pendicular to the illuminating pencil of light. Ehren- : 
light’ from an are—with — 


haft concentrated the 
exclusion of the ultra-violet and infra-red rays—to a 
small conical pencil, with a diameter of ‘only 
1/10 mm. at its narrowest part. The behaviour of 
the small spherical particles in and near the region 
of most intense illumination was studied. ; 
Outside the illuminating pencil all particles fall 
under gravity, but within it some travel in the direc- 
tion of the light (‘‘light-positive’’), and others 
in the opposite (‘‘light-negative ”’) direction. To this 
phenomenon of the movement of material particles 
produced by light radiation Ehrenhaft has the 
name ‘‘ photophoresis.’’ Particles of some substances 
(e.g. water) remain practically uninfluenced by the 
light; they are ‘‘light-neutral.” a ee 


By the use of an electric field between the plates 


of the condenser in which a charged particle is 
observed, it can be kept suspended, and a second 
symmetrical illuminating system enables one to pro- 
ject light into the chamber from the opposite side. 
In this way, and with suitable light stops, long-con- 
tinued observations of a single particle can be made, 


The movement of any one particle is quite uniform | 
in a homogeneous field of light; the force exerted on © 


it is thus proportional to its velocity, and inversely 
proportional to its mobility. Since the velocity of the 
particle can be determined experimentally, and the 
mobility by use of the law of Stokes-Cunningham, 
it is a simple matter to calculate the force of photo- 
phoresis on the particle. In Ehrenhaft’s experiments 
these forces were of the order of magnitude to—™ to 
to-* dyne ee 


The force of photophoresis on particles of the 


same colour’ and hence of the same size is inde- 


pendent of the pressure of the gas in which they are 


suspended, even when the mean free-path of the gas 
molecules is large compared with the size of the 
particles. Irene Parankiewicz (Ann. d. Phys., Ivii., 
489, 1918) made observations on a single particle in 
an inert gas at different pressures, and found the force 
exerted on the particle to be independent of the 
pressure. 

Particles of any one substance (e.g. selenium) of 
the same size attain different velocities in the gases 
hydrogen, nitrogen, and argon, but the photo- 
__ velocity \. 

mobility is found to be completely 
independent of the nature of the gas, though it 
increases with the intensity of the incident radiation. 
Photophoresis thus depends solely on the nature of 
the substance of which the particles are composed. — 

Of the elements so far examined, Na, K, Cu, Ag, 
Au, Mg, Zn, Cd, and Hg have been found f 
light-positive, whilst Tl, Sn, Pb, P, Bi, S, and I are 
light-negative. The. behaviour of the elements As, 


phoretical force 


particles result, one kind moving in the direction of 
the light and the other in the opposite direction. 
They are thus separable by light in exactly the same 


way as a mixture of light-negative sulphur and 


light-positive silver particles would be 


The photophoresis of light-negative * selenium par- 
Light- _ 


ticles is constant and independent of time. ) 
positive selenium particles are remarkable, however, in 


1 When the dimensions of the particle are less than the average wave-_ . 
length of visible light, the natural colour of the substance examined is — 
replaced by the colour of the light scattered -by the particle. Particles ofa 


blue colour are smaller than those of a colour corresponding with the less 


refrangible rays of the spectrom, and Ehrenhaft has been able to use the=—a 


colour of such particles as a means of estimiating their size.  ~ 


to be 


When they are — 


a 


3 


: 


fe 


: 


with time. 


Schwarzschild 


energy 


Peron radius pains 26.10-° cm. for sulphur and 
t- 


Z 
& 


AucusT 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


515 


that the force exerted on them appears to diminish 
Now the electrical conductivity of grey, 
crystalline selenium, cooled suddenly from above 
200° C., rises to a maximum and then steadily 
decreases with time. In the condition of maximum 


_ conductivity ‘the selenium has pronounced metallic 


jes, and this suggests that the strongly light- 
positive selenium is. of this kind, and becomes 
adv transformed into a more stable and less 
t-positive modification as time proceeds. ‘Tel- 
lurium appears to behave similarly. 
In continuation of Arrhenius’s work on comets’ tails, 
[ a ge the theory of light pressure to 
objects of the order of magnitude of the wave-length 
of light, and showed that a scattering of the incident 
n ‘occurs on such particles. For any one kind of 
matter there is, as a consequence, a definite size of 
particle for which the ratio of the impressed force to the 
incident energy is a maximum. It is interesting to note 
that Ehrenhaft found a maximum velocity for particles 
of a substance of a particular size, the critical radius 
for silver (light-positive) being in accord with the 
of theory, viz. 98.10-* cm. But a maximum 
exists also for light-negative particles, the 


15: to-* cm. for light-negative selenium particles. In 
¢ interpretation of light-negative photophoresis, for 


- which no theory at present exists, it must not be over- 


looked, however, that spherical particles, say, of sul- 
gin or selenium are apparently attracted by the 
light, even when their dimensions correspond with 
several wave-lengths of light. 


__ An interesting astronomical application of the pheno- 


menon of photophoresis has been suggested by F. 
Zerner (Phys. Zeit., xx., 93, 1919) to explain those ano- 
malous comets’ tails, which are directed towards the 


' sun. He refers to the observations by I. Schmidt 


(Athens) of the 1882 comet, and suggests that whereas 
normal comets’ tails may be composed of light- 
positive matter, it seems equally probable that ano- 
malous comets’ tails are made up of light-negative 
material. Ehrenhaft’s laboratory separation of ele- 


_ ments by photophoresis would thus seem to have an 


‘on in astronomy, and doubtless this point will 
form the subject of much interesting research in the 
future. Rosert W. Lawson. 


. _ STANDARDS OF MASS. 


: A CIRCULAR recently issued by the United States 
-% Bureau of Standards' furnishes information 


concerning the verification of standards of mass and . 


the most suitable forms of such standards for different 
_ An account is first given of the funda- 
rg and national standards of mass of the United 

tates. The standard is the kilogram, from which 
the pound is derived by the relation 1 lb. avoir- 
dupois=0-4535924277 kilogram, a relation which 
shows that the avoirdupois pound of the United States 
is the same as the British pound. The distinction 
between mass and weight. is then considered, and it 
is explained that weight is measured in units of force, 
and that, as it is not feasible for the purposes of 
metrology to base the unit of force on some concrete 
stand force, the unit is. derived from the estab- 
lished units of mass and acceleration. 

The ‘next section of the Circular is a convenient 


classification of weights, describing the forms. recom- 


mended for particular classes of work. Weights 
intended to be of high. precision, such as the primary 
standards of the various States of the Union or 


a “Design and Test of Standards of Mass.”’ Circular of the Bureau of 
Standards. No. 3, 3rd edition, pp. 89. (Washington, rgr8.) 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103 | 


reference standards used by first-class manufacturers, 
are only accepted for verification at the Bureau if 
they comply with a certain specification as to material, 
form, and structure. Unless they are made of 
platinum or a metal which resists atmospheric corro- 
sion, they must be protected by a plating of gold or 
platinum. Nickel-plating is not allowed. The 
material and plating must be such that no discolora- 
tion appears on the surface of the weights when they 
are placed in boiling water or when dried at a tem- 
perature of 110° C., as is done in preparing them for 
test. Manufacturers are advised that in machining 
such weights the knob, top, and sides should be 
finished first, next the outer rim of the bottom, and 
then the central portion of the bottom hollowed out 
by an amount approximately equal to the volume of 
the knob. The preliminary adjustment should be com- 
pleted in the last operation. 

As regards the adjustment of commercial test- 
weights, it is of great practical importance that the. 
means of closing the adjusting hole shall be such 
that the weights can be readily readjusted, but that 
the operation shall necessarily involve the defacement 
of the stamp. Various forms of adjusting plugs suit- 
able for such weights are illustrated and described. 

The second haif of the Circular is devoted to the 
verification of weights and the reduction of observa- 
tions. The different methods of weighing are described 
and the particular purposes are indicated for which 
each method is most appropriately applicable. Tllus- 
trations are given of the various weighing forms in 
use at the Bureau, and examples of the methods of 
comparison, as well as of the computations, are set 
out in a very explicit manner. The important question 
of the correction for the buoyancy of the air is very 
fully treated. As regards the determination of 
humidity, it is pointed out that the hair hygrometer 
is almost the only form of instrument that can be 
used inside a closed balance-case. Such hygrometers 
should not be verified by placing them in saturated 
vapour, as this leaves them almost worthless for some 
time. Brief tables for use in the reduction of ob- 
servations are appended, and the work is concluded by 
two very convenient tables giving the equivalents of 
avoirdupois pounds in kilograms, and vice versa, from 
1 to 999 in each case. 

In its present extended form this Circular is a 
typical example of the useful publications issued by 
the Bureau, the aim of which is not only to aid 
scientific investigation, but also to encourage and 
facilitate the employment of scientific methods in the 
commercial world. 


THE FOLK-SONGS OF THE TETON 
SIOUX. 


6 Bie tribe of American Indians selected by Dr. 
Densmore for the researches now published is 
the Teton division of the Dakota Sioux tribe, to which 
the United States Government in 1868 assigned the 
portion of territory known as the Standing Rock 
Reservation, comprising some twenty million acres 
of the provinces of North and South Dakota. Strictly 
speaking, ‘‘Dakota” is the name applicable to the 
natives rather than to the region, and the largest 
division of the’ tribe, or nation was known as 
Ti’tonwayn, whence the contraction Teton. 
The author, who had previously published two 
volumes’ on Chippewa music,’ has now transcribed, 
with the help of the phonograph, more than -six 
1 “Teton Sioux Music.” By Frances Densmore. Pp. xxviii +561+82 
plates. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 
61. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 1918.) 


516 


NATURE 


[Aucusr 28, 191g 


hundred songs, which are recorded and analysed in 
the present volume. It will thus be seen that the 
tribe possesses a very elaborate system of folk-songs, 
mostly associated each with a particular object, and 
it is to be noted with interest that, with the advent 
of civilising influences, phonographs have become 
much sought after by the Sioux themselves. 

The distinctly tribal life of the Teton Sioux prac- 
tically ceased with the suppression of the Sun Dance, 
the last of which was held in 1881, the final buffalo 
hunts occurring in the two following years. The sun 
dance was.a most elaborate religious ceremony, in 
which the sun symbolised the Divine Power. It lasted 
several days, and, besides the complex ritual involved 
in the raising of the Sacred Pole and other ob- 
servances, the leading feature was the self-infliction 
of bodily torture by the participants as a sacrifice to 
their deity. In the most severe forms this involved 
suspending the bodies of the willing victims by 
skewers and thongs driven through their flesh in the 
fierce heat of the sun until the victims tore them- 
selves down, lacerating their flesh in the process. In 
addition, the whole of the assembly would go without 
food and drink for several days during this period. 
Each phase of the ritual had its special song. The 
natives even now deplore the substitution of the white 
man’s religion and education for what they regarded 
as a discipline in heroism and bravery. It is stated 
' that boys used to go through a miniature copy of the 
ritual in which they aspired to participate when of 
adult age: 

Another group of songs is associated with certain 
societies existing in the tribe. Some of these, called 
Dream Societies, are constituted of individuals who 
are distinguished by the particular animals which 
appeared to them in dreams, such as the badger, 
buffalo, or elk; others were of.a military character. 

The only musical instrument which figures in most 
of these songs was the drum, which was of the usual 
type, but in the sun dance a stiff rawhide was also 
beaten. The author also refers very briefly to two 
whistles, one of bone used in the sun dance, the other 
of wood used in grass dances, which latter is capable 
of emitting a series of harmonics: 

The tone-scale of the songs approximates to the 
well-known five-tone scale represented by the black 


keys of the piano, but the intervals are in reality a’ 


little different. A noticeable feature is a more or less 
marked resemblance to some of our present ‘‘modern” 
music, both in the absence of well-defined melody and 
in the irregularity of the rhythm. A few of the songs, 
indeed, do appear to possess something in the nature 
of a tune in them; in others the sequence of notes is 
very much of the same chaotic character that is so 
conspicuous at modern recitals. Again, in the rhythm 
one bar is often in three-time and the next in four—an 
artifice which Brahms knew how to use with good 
effect, but which is now commonly employed in order 
to render music unlovely, and therefore what, is de- 
scribed as ‘‘ thrilling.’? Again, the voice part is fre- 
quently independent of the drum rhythm, the latter 
being usually in more regular time. It might thus 
be possible that if suitable harmonics, or rather dis- 
cords, were added, these songs might appeal to the 
class of present-day concert-goers who appreciate the 
attempts of modern pianists to represent ‘‘ Le Raid 
des Zéppelins.” 

What, however. is much more important is the 
glimpse which this unique collection affords of the 
highlv complex system of primitive poetic and musical 
art that this tribe of American Indians had built up, 
which is fast becoming obsolete under the social 
and educational influences brought into force by the 
white races. G. H. Bryan. 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103 | 


impurities to settle out of the suspension, and an — 


ELECTRICAL PURIFICATION OF CLAYS. 4 


‘THE phenomena known as electrical endosmose _ 
~ and cataphoresis, whereby matter in a ver finely 
divided or colloidal state is capable of being influenced — 
by an electrical potential, have been extensively | 
investigated. For instance, when a colloidal solution — 
of arsenious sulphide is placed in a cell and a direct 
current at a potential of 100 volts passed from 
suitable electrodes through the solution, the colloidal 
particles tend after a time to collect round the positive 
pole, leaving a clear. zone round the negative pole. 

It is found that nearly all substances, if in a 
sufficiently fine state of division, are attracted either 
to one pole or the other. It has also been observed 


that aggregates of certain fine particles can be dis- 


persed and separated by adding to the fluid in which 
they are suspended minute quantities of alkali in — 
the case of those particles attracted to the positive — 
pole, and of acid to those which are attracted to the — 
negative pole.- Moreover, if the particles are not 
sufficiently susceptible to the dispersive effect of the — 
added electrolyte, they can be made so by being 
cena to adsorb some colloid, such as colloidal silicic 
acid. 
This latter discovery has a most important bearing 
on the clay industry. China clay and ball clay are 
examples of such aggregates of fine particles, and if 
a thick slip is made up of the clay and water the 
addition of small amounts of alkali causes the clay 
particles to disperse, and the slip, as a consequence, 
to become much thinner and more mobile, the clay _ 
particles remaining in suspension a considerable time 
and exhibiting vigorous Brownian movement. On 
passing a current of electricity through such a sus- 
pension, the clay particles collect and adhere closely 
to the anode plate, the water collecting in a zone, 
substantially free from clay, round the cathode. Im-_ 
purities in the original clay, such as mica, quartz, 
felspar, and iron compounds, are either unaffected by 
the electrical potential and settle out, or attracted 
to the cathode. A means of purifying clay on a com- 
mercial scale can thus be evolved from a consideration 
of the above phenomena, as was shown by the exhibit 
of raw and purified clays of the Osmosis Co., Ltd., 
at the recent British Scientific Products Exhibition. 
The commercial equipment for such a process con- — 
sists of a blunger, settling tanks to allow the coarse — 


Osmosis machine composed of a rectangular trough 
in which is arranged horizontally a cylindrical metal 
anode surrounded beneath the surface of the slip 
and at a short distance away from it by a cathode 
through which, by paddles or other means of cir- — 
culation, the clay slip is driven. The cylinder is made — 
to revolve slowly, and by means of a scraper the dried 
purified clay, containing 20-30 per cent. of water, is — 
collected. 

The machine not merely collects the suspended clay — 
and frees it from water. but subjects the suspen- — 
sion to an electrical purification as well, for should — 
there still be in suspension with the clay minute par- — 
ticles of mica, iron, and silica that have not had time — 
to settle out in the tank, these are not attracted to the © 
anode, but for the most part remain in the effluent — 
leaving the trough. Consequently, electrically osmosed 
clav is a purer product than can be obtained by any — 
method of settling or centrifuging. | ee 

The improvements effected by the process are:— — 
(1) Pyritic and other forms of uncombined iron are 
removed. (2) The sintering temperature of the clay — 
is lowered so that a lower kiln-temperature can be © 
emploved, with consequent saving of fuel. (3) Clay — 
can be. graded into different degrees of fineness. 


Een 


AvcustT 28, 1919] 


NATURE 


517 


refractory by this treatment. | 

Another very important application of cataphoresis 
is the electrical filter-press. In this press the elec- 
trical potential is utilised as a means of driving out 
the water from suspensions of fine particles; thus, 
instead of needing pressures running up to 20 atmo- 
‘spheres in some cases where ordinary filtration is used, 
a head of 14 ft. is ample for the purpose in the elec- 
trical filter-press. As an instance of the efficiency and 
speed with which filtering can be accomplished by 
‘such a press, a cake of china clay 43 in. thick con- 
taining 25 per cent. of water can be made in less than 

- two hours. : 

The applications of electrical endosmose or electrical 
dialysis in various industries is of importance. Gela- 
tine can be freed from all inorganic mineral matter, 
so that an ashless gelatine can be obtained of a purity 
which should be suitable for photographic purposes. 
There is clear experimental evidence that pure col- 
_loidal silicic acid can be prepared from sodium silicate 
and alumina from sodium aluminate by subjecting 

_ their solutions to an electrical potential in cells with 
suitable diaphragms through which the alkali can 

igrate. These are a few examples of useful develop- 
‘ments, but it is evident that an increasing number of 
‘important commercial processes may be expected to 
‘arise out of the application of the principles under- 
lying the above phenomena. 


EVOLUTION IN POFATO-BEETLES.1 


R. W. L. TOWER has continued his attack on 
*' the “evolution problem ”’ by a further study of 
_ Chrysomelid beetles of the genus Leptinotarsa. He 

first gives an account of the material as it occurs in 
natural conditions; he then describes the emergence 
of new attributes and qualities, discovering the rela- 
tion of these to old characters and their interaction 
-when brought into combination or into competition 
with existing characters; and, thirdly, he has experi- 
mented in Nature, chiefly in the Arizona deserts, with 
the new forms to see how newly arisen characters, 
‘or their combination into specific forms, behave as 
; they meet the conditions of the environment into 
which they are thrust by the processes of their 
‘or ion. His most general result is the demon- 
_ Stration that the methods of evolution are hetero- 
geneous, even in these beetles, but ‘“‘the basis of all 
of change is found to be directly the product 
of the nature of the genetic factors of composition and 
their capacity for diverse modes of reaction, especially 
with factors of the environing complex. Purpose, 
‘utility, and kindred concepts have found no support, 
every change appearing as the chance mechanistic pro- 
duct of the reacting agents; while the product of the 
reaction either was able or not able to operate under 
__. the conditions of origination, so that survival is decided 
at once, and not after long and faltering trials.”’ 
The characters of organisms are usefully grouped 
under three chief categories :—(1) The specific proper- 
ties or qualities which cannot be alteréd without 
_ change in the identity of the kind; (2) attributes 
belonging to and distinguishing members of the same 
species or kind from one another; and (3) conditions 
or “states of being or activity which can be changed 
or removed without altering the identity of the body 
_or its kind in any way.’’ The central problem of 
evolution is the origin of diversity or heterogeneity, 
and Dr. Tower distinguishes two main possibilities : 
“first, transmutation in the qualities with subsequent 
adjustments in the attributes and conditions of 
_1 “The Mechanism of Evolution in Leptinotarsa."’ By William Lawrence 


- Tower. (Publication No. 263.) Pp. 340+19 pls.+156 figs. (Carnegie 
» Institution of Washington, 1918. Jdeating 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103 | 


(4) Fireclays can be rendered more plastic and more | 


organisms; and, second, diversity resulting from re- 
combinations (metathesis)... The gametic constitu- 
tion or hereditary make-up of the organism consists 
of a number of factors (neither ‘‘carriers’’ of any- 
thing, nor fixed units, nor necessarily substances, but 
agents or centres of activity which make certain 
results possible) and of a number of determiners 
which settle which of several possible reactions will 
come off. ‘In Nature there is constant and un- 
limited mixing of these factors and determiners in all 
kinds of combinations; but out of this complex of 
interacting agencies certain definite patterns always 
come, so that the net result is a rather stable popula- 
tion as far as the patterns presented in any given 
location. The heterogeneity presented, however, is 
not one of quantity nor of directions of departure, but 
is at least analogous to the diversity found in many 


- chemical operations where nearly related compounds 


are easily transmuted into some other through the 
presence or absence of. something whose presence 
determines a different configuration of the system, 
and whose absence permits of another and diverse 
arrangement.’? The pattern on the beetle’s pronotum 
is, in its way, an intricate system, and the presence 
of certain form-determiners decides the type. Thus, 
if we generalise from. the beetles, variation is not so 
much the origin of something distinctively new as a 
shuffling of the pre-existing cards. It is recombination 
or metathesis. ‘‘The phenomena must be viewed as 
purely physical in character and of chance occurrence, 
dependent upon chance gametic agents, combinations, 
and conditions present, as far as their appearance and 
frequency in Nature are concerned.”? But the system 
in question (or any analogous set of characters), 
‘although complex and the product of many inter- 
acting agents, nevertheless acts as a unit in many 
reactions, passing through the operations of repro- . 
duction and crossing in its entirety, or at other times 
emerging from the reactions changed in relations and 
arrangements of the elemental simplest characters, 


indicating altered relations between the conditioning 


agents.’’ But when the further question is asked 
how the populations of beetles in different locations 
have become different, Dr. Tower confesses his in- 
ability. to give any answer. “I have most earnestly, 
in this investigation, in numerous instances made 
effort to certainly discover the productive agents of 
conditions found in Nature... but in no instance 
thus far have I been able to attain to the desired end 
of a proof of the actual cause of the conditions 
observed.”’ 

We have not found the memoir very. easy to read 
(and our quotations will in part show why). We 
think that the author might have focused more clearly 
the new conclusions he has arrived at. But the 
volume is the outcome of laborious investigations and 
careful critical analysis; it is a fine example of the 
modern transition from plausible speculations to the 
verifiable experiments. We are not so sure as the 
author is that science ‘is shut up to mechanistic 
formulation; and we should like to know how he 
comes to be so sure that his beetles have no purposes. 
We notice a few misprints like ‘“*Cuérrot,”’? but they 
have, no doubt, arisen mechanically. 


‘UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. | 


Mme. Curte has been appointed professor of 
radiology in the Warsaw University. 

A scuocarsuirp of the value of 1200 rupees has been 
given to ‘the Madras Medical College by Lt.-Col. 
W. D. Smith for the benefit of students in chemistry 
and drugs. 


518 


NATURE 


[Aucust 28, 1919 


Capt. F. Downig; of the South Wales School of 
Mines, has been appointed head of the new electrical 
engineering department of Rutherford Technical 
College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 


Dr. J. K. Woop, principal assistant in the 
chemistry department of University College, Dundee, 
has been appointed lecturer in physical chemistry at 
the Manchester Municipal College of Technology. 


A DEPARTMENT of Italian studies has been established 
in the University of Manchester, and Dr. E. G. 
Gardner, of the University of London, has’ been 
appointed to the newly instituted chair of Italian. 


An Agricultural History Society has been estab- 
lished in Washington, having for its object the 
stimulation of interest, the promotion of study, and 
the facilitation of publication of researches in agri- 
cultural history. The president is Dr.-R. H. True, 
and the secretary-treasurer Mr. L. Carrier, both of 
the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington. 


THE new prospectus of the Merchant Venturers’ 
Technical College, which provides and maintains the 
faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol, 
has been received. We note that the courses include 
schemes of study for persons intending to engage in 
civil, mechanical, electrical, or automobile engineer- 
ing. These schemes comprise not only the usual 
engineering subjects, but also instruction in French 
and German for scientific purposes, as well as in book- 
keeping, ‘accountancy, works administration and 
organisation, commercial law, and estimating and 
writing specifications. 


An interesting and useful piece of work has been 
inaugurated by the Staffordshire Education Com- 
mittee, viz. the placing of an exhibit in flower-shows 
throughout the county embodying the life-histories 
of some of the most troublesome insect pests. which 
infest gardens and orchards; a prepared collection of 
potato diseases which are prevalent in the county, 
‘with instructions how to control them; varieties of 
potatoes grown on the county demonstration plots, 
all of which varieties are resistant to black scab or 
wart disease; early varieties of culinary. and dessert 
apples; samples of bottled fruit and vegetables, fowl 
and rabbit; bees, with model hives and full com- 
plement of apparatus; and diagrams and_ charts 
demonstrating the best methods of planting, pruning, 
and training fruit-trees. Pamphlets on the subjects 
are also distributed. An expert pruner and propaga- 
tor of fruit-trees is to be appointed for the purpose 
of furthering fruit-growing in the county. 


Tue London County Council has issued its ‘‘ Hand- 
book of Classes and Lectures for Teachers’’ for the 
.session 1919-20. The lectures are available to all 
teachers actually employed in teaching within the 
administrative County’ of London, irrespective of the 
particular institution at which they may be engaged. 
Teachers employed in teaching elsewhere than within 
the administrative county may be admitted where 
accommodation permits. Among the courses of lec- 
tures in science the following may. be mentioned :— 
Five lectures on practical astronomy for schools, by 
Prof. T. Percy Nunn, at the London Day Training 
College, on Wednesdays at 6 p.m., beginning on 
September.24; ten lectures on the history of the 
development of fundamental principles of physics, by 
Prof. Bragg and Mr. Orson Wood, at University 
College, on Tuesdays at 5.30 p.m., beginning on 
March 16, 1920; ten lectures on modern views of 
electricity and matter, by Prof. O. W. Richardson, at 
King’s College, on Saturdays at 10.30 a.m., beginning 
-on October 4. There will also be courses of lectures 
on experimental psychology, the experimental study of 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


- fundamental 


_gularities of linear differential equations.—E. Ko 


children, psycho-analysis, and psychological problems _ 
in special schools. Copies of the handbook can be — 
obtained on application to the Education Officer, 
ae Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, 
N.C.2. 
AN interesting address delivered at Manchester fo 
the newly formed Association for the Scientific De- — 
velopment of Industry by Mr. E. C. Reed, of London, 
on ‘‘ Education for Genius,’’? has been published in — 
pamphlet form (The Abbey Press, Westminster, 31 pp., 
price 6d.). Mr. Reed propounds the theory that it 
is possible, given the necessary facilities, to educate 
for genius, and thereby increase largely the world’s — 
supply of geniuses in every department of uctive — 
life. It is argued that by developing natural aptitude, — 
by training and deepening the intuitive and allied — 
faculties of the superconscious mind, ihe: er of 7 
genius can be much enlarged. Talent is defined by 
the author as labour plus aptitude, and genius as 
labour plus natural aptitude plus intuition, and the — 
latter, it is contended, can equally be made the sub- 
ject of training. But this is surely to beg the whole 
question. - Speaking of the genius which produces 
great art, Ruskin truly and forcibly says in ‘‘ Modern 
Painters" that every system of teaching is false which 
holds forth ‘great art" as in any wise to be taught 
to students. Great art is precisely that which never 
was, and never will be, taught; it is pre-eminently and . 
finally the expression of the spirits of great men. And 
in his ‘‘ Joy for Ever ” he further remarks :—‘* You have 
always to find your artist (your man of genius), not — 
to make him; you can’t manufacture him, any more ~ 
than you can manufacture gold. You can find him 
and refine him; you dig him out as he lies nugget- | 
fashion in the mountain stream; you bring him 


| home, and you make him into current coin or house- 


hold plate, but not one grain of him can you originally | 
produce.’’ That ‘genius must frequently waste its 
years and dissipate its efforts in trying to make head- 
way against an indifferent or hostile atmosphere” may 
be freely admitted, and it must therefore be the busi- 
ness of the nation to create for its nurture a sym- 
pathetic and appreciative environment, ‘in which all — 
phases,’ as the author of the address observes, ‘‘of — 
intellectual and cultural activity, mechanical, literary, — 
zesthetic, are each highly developed and equally — 
honoured.” The address is well worthy of thoughtful — 
study. ae 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 


Academy of Sciences, August 4.—M. Léon Guignard — 
in the chair.—G. Humbert: The formation of a — 
domain of an automorph Lap ees A 

P. Marchal: The evolutive cycle of the woolly Aphi 
of the apple-tree (Eriosoma lanigera). It has been — 
proved that in America the American elm harbours — 
the sexual generation of American blight, whilst the 
apple and some other trees of the same group act as — 
intermediate hosts. In Europe the cycle would appear | 
to be different; the sexual generation does not occur, — 

and. the species is continued during the winter b 
hibernation on the apple-tree, the reproduction being 
parthenogenetic.—E. Ariés: The density of the 
saturated vapour of propyl acetate and the den 
of the liquid emitting this vapour.—A. Denjo 
Riemannian integration.—N. E. Nérlund; The po 
nomials of Euler,—R. Garnier: The irregular s 


“) 


liantz: The integral of Angelesco.—C. Trémont; } EN 
methods for the mechanical testing of metal 
Description and diagrams of two simple pieces 


mew fluorescent screens for use in radioscopy. 
substitute for platinocyanides in radioscopic screens, 


_ thesis of ketimines by 
ture of ammonia an 


type R.C(NH).R’. 


rings 


AucustT 28, 1919| 


NATURE 


319 


apparatus for measuring the tensile strength and 


resistance to shock of metal test-pieces of very small 
dimensions.—E. Esclangon: The mechanical trans- 
formation of sidereal time into mean time. Calcula- 


tions of simple gears show that with four wheels 


shaving 119, 330, 317, and 314 teeth the conversion 
can be made with the loss of only one second in eight 


| years; with wheels having 188, 465, 563, and 227 
teeth the error can be reduced ‘to one second in 


249 years.—P. Roubertie and A. Nemirovsky: Some 


Asa 
‘cadmium tungstate has given good results. This 
‘material forms screens which are stable in air, 
and unaffected by prolonged exposure to X-rays. 
—R, Levaillant and L. J. Simon: The action of chloro- 
sulphonic acid on methyl sulphate. The preparation 
of methyl chlorosulphonate.—G. Mignonac: The syn- 
the catalytic method. A mix- 
the vapour of a ketone passed 
300°-400° gives a ketimine of the 
The method fails with fatty 
Ketones, condensation products of the ketimines 
oe produced. The preparation and properties of 
methylphenyl_, ethylphenyl-, cyclohexyl-, and diphenyl- 
ketimines are described.—L. Daniel and M. Thoulet : 


over thoria at 


¢ 
* 


Fe ft in the neighbourhood of Erquy (Cétes- 
-du-Nord). 


—H. Coupin: The absorption of mineral 


_ Salts by the root-tip. The root-tip.can absorb mineral 
salts in solution, and these are freely utilised by the 


owing plant.—P. Vayssiére: Some methods for the 


estru 


on of crickets and their application. Trials 


_ were made of flame projectors, poison gas, and 
_ arsenical pastes, and all of these can be used with 


success under certain conditions. Sprays of chloro- 


) can be used where a flame is 


 -pierin (50 per cent. 
F dilate and arsenical pastes in places where there 


are no animals at pasture. Special organisations 
under direct State control will be necessary if these 
measures are to be carried out effectively.—H. Violle : 
‘The peroxydases in milk. The peroxydase reaction 
cannot be used to judge the quality of a milk; normal 
r from a healthy cow may contain very little 

eroxydase, whilst mill from a diseased udder may 
contain peroxydase in quantity.—W. Kopaczevski and 
A. Vahram: The suppression of anaphylactic shock. 
The injection of solutions of sodium oleate, sodium 
taurocholate, sodium glycocholate, or of saponin five 
minutes before the second injection of serum com- 
esses the anaphylactic shock in guinea- 
ope Amar: The elastic force of diseased lungs.— 

. Galippe: New researches on the presence of living 
organisms in the cells of the male genital glands 


f (microbiosis, norma! or accidental parasitism). 


August 11.—M. Léon Guignard in the chair.— 
ay. ete E 


3 poorer constituting a 
_ -Bigourdan : 


ix: A scapolite from the Madagascar 
precious stone.—G. 
The observatory of the Mazarin College. 


—M. Portevin: Certain defective fractures of test 


pieces taken across the steel bar.—A. Cornu-Thénard : 


ests of flexure by shock on notched bars.—A. 
‘Schaumasse : Observations of the periodic Kopff ‘comet 
made with the bent equatorial at Nice Observatory. 
Positions for August 4, 6, and 7 are given, together 
with positions of the comparison stars. On August 4 
the comet was of the roth magnitude, the nebulosity 
being about 3’, showing a diffuse central condensa- 
-tion.—J. ume: Observation of the periodic 
Kopff comet (tg19a) made with the bent equatorial 
at Lyons Observatory. Position given for August 7. 
—D. Faucher: Contribution to the study of the 
lacustrial levels and fluviatile levels of the lower 
valley of the Vardar—F. R du Cailland: The 
Baixo da Judia.—M. Marti: A measurement of the 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103] 


‘Newcastle, New South Wales. 


velocity of sound-waves in sea-water. Direct-measure- 
ments in Cherbourg harbour gave the velocity of 
sound in sea-water at 14:5° & (density 1-024) as 
15035 metres per second, a figure notably higher than 
those obtained by other experimenters.—H. Abraham 
and E. Bloch: The application of amplifiers to the 
mechanical recording of wireless telegraphy signals. 
—G. Chavanne and L. J. Simon: The composition of 
some Asiatic petrols. ‘The method of critical solution 
temperatures in aniline described in earlier com- 
munications has been applied to various fractions of 
petrol arising from Persian, Sumatran, and Borneo 
petroleums.—P. Bonnet: The relations between the 
Otoceras layers of Armenia and those of the Hima- 
layas. The Armenian Otoceras-bearing strata have 
been usually considered as being older than the Hima- 
layan deposits. Fresh observations are given con- 
troverting this view, and tending to prove that the 
strata are of the same age.—L. Gentil: The origin 
and morphological characters of the rideaux in 
chalk districts —J. Rouch: The diurnal variation of 
the wind velocity in the atmosphere. Tabulation, of 
the results of a series of experiments with balloons.— 
G. Guilbert : The scientific prediction of the weather. 
—L. Blaringhem: The heredity of the facies of 
Capsella viguieri—A. Guilliermond: The chondriome 
and. the ergastoplasmic formations of the embryonic 
sac of the Liliacee.—F. Vlés: Remarks on the 
absorption spectra of the hamoglobins from Annelids. 
The spectra of the hemoglobins of certain inverte- 


‘brates and those of mammals present small, but dis- 


tinct, differences.—_L. Vialleton: The epiphyses and 
cartilage of conjugation of the Sauropside. 


SYDNEY. 
Linnean Society of New South Wales, May 28.—Mr. 
J. J. Fletcher, president, in the chair.—Dr. R. J. 
Tillyard: A fossil insect wing belonging to the new 
order Paramecoptera, ancestral to the Trichoptera 
and Lepidoptera, from the Upper Coal. Measures. of 
This wing, which is 
perfect except for a small piece missing at the 


‘apex and a very small area of the base covered .over 


by rock, was discovered in February, 1919, by Mr. 
John Mitchell at Belmont, N.S.W., and is named 
Belmontia mitchelli, n.g. et sp. It is clearly related 
to both the Mecoptera and Protomecoptera, but. is 
definitely of the type found in the most archaic 
Lepidoptera and Trichoptera, though with a greater 
number of branches to both the radial sector (seven) 
and the media (five). The posterior arculus ‘is 
remarkably well developed, and is shown to be a 
true branch of M, which should: be denoted by M5. 
The wing can be easily restored, the only points in 
doubt being the shape of the jugal lobe and the 
position of vein 3A. In discussing its affinities the 
author compares it very fully with the forewing of 
the genus Rhyacophila, and shows that the latter is 
derivable from it in every single detail by reduction. 
The same is true of the Micropterygide within the 
order Lepidoptera. Reasons are also given why the 
Megaloptera and Planipennia may also, very prob- 
ably, be derived from this type of wing; but its rela- 
tionships. with the Diptera are doubtful, and with 
the Mecoptera they are definitely collateral, not 
ancestral. The wing shows that at least two Holo- 
metabolous orders were present in Upper Permian 
times, the Mecoptera having been already discovered 
in the same localitvy.—Prof. T. H. Johnston and 
O. W. Tiegs: Pseudobonellia, a new Echiuroid genus 
from the Great Barrier Reef. The outstanding features 
of the animal are :—(1) The Bonellia-like form of the 
body of the female; (2) the presence of two ‘uteri;. 
(3) numerous simple anal glands opening directly into 


520 


NATURE 


[AucusT 28, 1919 


the rectum instead of into anal vesicles; (4) the ovary 
is restricted to the extreme posterior end, and is 
transversely situated; (5) presence of a_ well-defined 
siphon associated with the anterior part of the intes- 
tine, with which it communicates by means of a 
greatly folded region; (6) the presence of a distinct 


invagination of the body-wall between uterine open- 


ings (in this invagination, which the authors call the 
male tube or androecium, a tiny degenerate male is 
lodged); (7) ai the female possesses from two to 
four ventral ho the male is devoid of them; 
(8) the presence of two vesicule seminales ; and 
(9) the partial fusion of the male with the female, its 
posterior end being more or less enveloped. by the 
tissues of the androecium, so that there is a very 
pronounced parasitism. The differences between ithe 
species under review and those belonging to other 
genera of Echiuroidea have led the authors to propose 
a new genus, Pseudobonellia (P. biuterina, n.sp.), 
for this remarkable worm. Various stages in para- 
sitism in sex relationship are referred to in the paper. 
—Dr. R. J. Tillyard ; Mesozoic. insects of Queensland. 
Part v. Mecoptera, the new order Paratrichoptera, 
and additions to the Planipennia. This part deals 
with six specimens, of which four are named. A new 
family, genus, and. species of Mecoptera are described 
from the Upper Trias of Ipswich, having a_ six- 
branched media, but with the first. cubitus cut’ off 
short in a peculiar manner. Two very fine wings 
from the same horizon belong to Trichopterous-like 
insects, but have certain important differences in the 
venation, viz. the anal veins primitive and separate 
and the first cubitus. without any apical fork. 
Together with the two allied genera already described, 
these are removed to a new order Paratrichoptera. In 
the Planipennia the same horizon yields a portion of 
a fine wing closely resembling that of the recent 
Megapsychops illidgei; this is placed in a new genus 
within. the family Prohemerobiide. The recent 
-Psychopsidz are shown to be the direct descendants 


of these. Some interesting evidence is forthcoming 


as to the nature of the vein called by Comstock the 
‘posterior arculus,” which is shown almost certainly 
to be a true posterior dichotomic branch of M, and 
should, therefore, merit the notation M5. 

Royal Society of New South Wales, July 2.—Prof. 
C. E. Fawsitt, _Ppresident, in the chair.—Miss Mar- 
guerite Henry: Some Australian fresh-water Copepoda 
and Ostracoda. The present paper arose out of an 
investigation of the transmission of worm-nodules in 
cattle. In this investigation it was necessary to 
examine all the Crustacea that might have acted as 
intermediate hosts... Besides material collected at 
Kendall, where the work was principally carried on, 
some was collected: at Lett River, Blue Mountains, 
Waterfall, Botany, Dorrigo, Byron Bay, Casino, 
Bangalow, Orange, Cumbalum, .and Corowa. 
Amongst the sixteen species collected, four were found 
to be new.—Rev. W. W. Watts: Some notes on 
Neurosoria pteroides. Results of an investigation into 
‘the structure and systematic position of a very rare 
fern from tropical Queensland. It was first published 
by Robert Brown as an Acrostichum, but Mettenius 
had created for it the new genus Neurosoria. The 
paper reviewed the work of. previous students, and 
submitted careful notes of an independent examina- 
tion of the material available in Australia. —J. H. 
Maiden; Notes on Eucalyptus, No. vii., with descrip- 
tions of new species: Four species are proposed as 
new,*viz. the ‘“‘Morrel’’ of the eastern goldfields of 
Western Australia, which has hitherto been looked 
upon. as a. large-growing form of the red. mallee 
(Eucalyptus oleosa); 


NO. 2600, VOL. 103 | 


a narrow-leaved . mallee from. 


Comet: Vale, in the same State; a tree from Bathu: st 
Island, Northern Territory ; and a mallee-like specie 
from the summit of the Barren Mountain, Bellinger- — 
Clarence district. Discovery of E. bakeri in Queens- 
land, together with additional notes of a technica i 
character in regard to other eucalypts occurring in 
some of the other States. 


BOOKS RECEIVED. 


The Occlusion of Gases by Metals: A General 
Discussion held by the Faraday Society, November, | 
dae oe ed from the Transactions of the Fara-— 
ay Society, vol. xiv., parts 2 and 3, 191 P i 
(London: The Faraday Society, nb) 8 ? a ie 

Fevers in the Tropics. By Sir Tohaee Rogers. 4 ; 
Third edition. (Oxford “Medical Publications.) — 
Pp. xii+40q. (London: Henry Frowde and Hodder — 
and Stoughton, 1919.) 30s. net. 

Menders of the Maimed: The Anatomical and — 
Physiological Principles Underlying the Treatment of — 
Injuries to Muscles, Nerves, Bones, and Joints. By 
Prof. A. Keith.. (Oxford ‘Medical Publications.) 
Pp. xii+335. (London: Henry Frowde and Hodder 
and Stoughton, 1919.) 16s. net, 

Fossil Plants: A Text-book for Students of Botany 


and Geology. By Prof. A. C. Seward. Vol. iv.: — 
Ginkgoales, Coniferales, Gnetales. Pp. xvit+543. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1919.) 1. Is. 
net. 
CONTENTS. PAGE | 
War Wounds. By Dr. J. le Fleming Burrow . . 5or 
The Face of the Earth. By Prof. W. J. Sollas, 
BROS a oO cae Maer ke” 502 
Physiological Chemistry. Biba H. ‘D. oF eee ae 504 
Our Bookshelf . at) git oe er bite vais 504 
Letters to the Editor :— ‘riaee | 
Velocity of Electric Currents. —Prof. hints A. 
Fessenden . 505 
The Magnetic Storm of August 11 “12, 1919. '—Dr. Fie 
Chree, F.R.S.; Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell . 505 


The James Watt Centenary Commemoration at 


Birmiogham: 07). 0. 0) ee ge 507 
Andrew Carnegie’... . 3. 6). a 507 
Walter Gould Davis. By R. C. M. Fran Vie 508 
Prof. William Gilson Farlow. By F. Oo. B. : : 509 
Notes 6 eh SACS eka: Vea ee aA 510 
Our pacrouviaieal, Column: — ' 

Kopff’s Comet 1906 1V.= 19194 et ee ected ae 514 

A> New-Comet-4. .* (5 ie eee ee 514° 

Distribution of Globular Clusters and Spiral Nebo. 514 

A Planet beyond Neptune: 9.0.2.4 %.. « (eases 514-8 
Photophoresis. By Robert W. Lawton .), ) Gs 514 
Standards of Mass 515 
The Folk-songs of the Teton Sioux. Bye ‘Prof. G. H. 

Bryan, F.R.8 203g ee: oc 2 51 
Electrical Purification of Clays: .. <. naeeee avis uae 
Evolution in Potato-Beetles . . te es Sj 
University and Educational Intelligence . oo ae 7 
Societies and Academies ;’.‘. 2.) 2s wae + 518 
Books Received: 5 50 os 6 ee eee 520 


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